Signing Their Lives Away: Samuel Adams of Massachusetts

Author’s Note:  This series of postings are taken from the book Signing Their Lives Away by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese.  The publishers at Quirk Books kindly gave me permission to judiciously quote from it on my blog.  While I dispense with quotation marks, the sentences are lifted directly from the book.  The purpose is to introduce you to those who signed the Declaration of Independence and who often remain in the shadows of history.  This book is a must for the home collection of any avid reader, historian, or patriot.

 

Massachusetts                  By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty

Samuel Adams.  Age at signing: 53, Profession: Merchant, brewer

Remember that kid in school who could always be found in the middle of every fight and behind every prank?  During the Revolutionary War, that kid was Samuel Adams – and his pranks included such famous stunts as the Boston Tea Party.

…He served in the Massachusetts legislature, and his voice was heard in print and at the podiums.  He was dubbed a “patriarch of liberty” by Thomas Jefferson, and it’s easy to see why.  He had a gift for rhetoric that appealed to schooled and unschooled citizens alike.  “For if our trade is taxed, why not our lands?” Adams once asked.  “Why not the produce of our lands and everything we possess or make use of?”

…He refused to sign the new Constitution because it lacked a Bill of Rights.  Without it, he felt the Constitution would give the government too much power.  Finally convinced that such a bill would follow, he agreed to support the document.

…Late in his life, he served as lieutenant governor of Masssachusetts under his old pal John Hancock.  He assumed the post when Hancock died in 1793 and clung to it until 1797.  He died in 1803 at age eighty-one.

“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.” 
Samuel Adams

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” 
Samuel Adams