Samuel Adams

"Let us contemplate out forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."

- Samuel Adams

Thesis: Few people realize the effect Samuel Adams has had on our country, they know of him only that he was a politician at the time of the revolution, but he is indeed the father of American independence.

"Among those who signed the Declaration of Independence, and were conspicuous in the revolution, there existed, of course, a great diversity of intellectual endowments; nor did all render to their country, in those perilous days, the same important services. Like the luminaries of heavens each contributed his portion of influence; but, like them, they differed, as star differeth from star in glory. But in the constellation of great men, which adorned that era, few shone with more brilliancy, or exercised a more powerful influence than Samuel Adams." (Fradin 98)

People like to hear the story of Samuel Adams for two reasons. First it is a story of the greatest hero in American history full of much triumph and fighting for the common good. Also they like to hear of how he was a failure in every sense before he found exactly what his life’s calling was. Perhaps it gives people some hope for their own lives because he failed at every job he ever had and still became the greatest man in the history of this fine country.

Adams came from a fairly wealthy family that resided in Boston. The son of a merchant and maltster, Adams was a 1740 graduate of Harvard College. When at Harvard he publicly defended the thesis that it is "lawful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Common wealth cannot be otherwise preserved" (Morris 91) which meant that it was okay to protest against England if nothing else could help the situation. Adherence to this principle was ever afterward a central theme in his career.

After failing repeated times at every job he ever had some of which were a brewer and newspaper publi...

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...s exemplary in 1775, but became archaic by the 1790s. Uniformly respected, though not always liked, Samuel Adams was, in John Adams’s words, ‘born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot of lignum vitae’ that bound America to Britain."(Miller 95)

	The transition from England took a great leader and idealist in order to make it happen. Samuel Adams was that man. From founding the Son’s of Liberty to founding the first Continental Congress, Samuel Adams was there for the whole ordeal and played a major role until his death in 1803. Samuel Adams truly is the father of American independence.

Work Cited Page

"Adams, Samuel." Encyclopedia Americana, Inc. 1990 ed.

Carlson, Bill. "Samuel Adams." The Rhodes Family Genealogy Family Stories. Infotrac,

	1991.

Fradin, Dennis. Samuel Adams. New York City: Clarion Books, 1998.

Miller, Ann. "Samuel Adams." Lucidcafé Library, Inc.

	http://www.bena.com/lucidcafe/library/95sep/adams.html, 1995.

Morris, John. "Adams, Samuel." The Reader’s Companion to American History. Electric

	Library, 1991.