charms for him. His father furnished him with ample capital to commence business as a merchant, but his distaste for the profession, and the diversion of his mind from its demands, by politics, soon caused him serious embarrassments, and he became almost a bankrupt. When Samuel was twenty-five years old, his father died, and the cares of the family and estate devolved on him, as the oldest son. Yet his mind was constantly active in watching the movements of the British government, and he spent a great deal of his time in talking and writing in favor of the resistance of the Colonies to the oppressions of the crown and its ministers. He took a firm and decided stand against the Stamp Act, and its antecedent kindred schemes to tax the Colonies. As early as 1763 he boldly expressed his sentiments relative to the rights and privileges of the Colonies; and in some instructions which he drew up for the guidance of the Boston members of the General Assembly in that year, he denied the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies without their consent-denied the supremacy of Parliament, and suggested a union of all the Colonies, as necessary for their protection against British aggressions. It is asserted that this was the first public expression of such sentiments in America, and that they were the spark that kindled the flame upon the altar of Freedom here.

In 1765 Mr. Adams was chosen a representative for Boston, in the General Assembly, and became early distinguished in that body for his intelligence and activity. He became a leader of the opposition to the royal Governor, and treated with disdain the efforts made to silence him, although the offers prof

fered would have placed him in affluent circumstances. When the Governor was asked why Mr. Adams had not been silenced by office, he replied that "such is the obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man that he can never be conciliated by any office or gift whatever." And when, in 1774, Governor Gage, by authority of ministers, sent Colonel Fenton to offer Adams a magnificent consideration if he would cease his hostility to government, or menace him with all the evils of attainder, that inflexible patriot gave this remarkable answer to Fenton: "I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of kings. No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my country. Tell Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him, no longer to insult the feelings of an exasperated people." He was chosen Clerk of the House of Representatives; and he originated the "Massachusetts Circular," which proposed a Colonial Congress to be held in New York, and which was held there in 1766. During the excitement of the Boston Massacre, he was among the most active; and chiefly through his influence, and the boldness with which he demanded the removal of the troops from Boston, was that object effected.

Mr. Adams, and Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, almost simultaneously proposed the system of Committees of Correspondence, which proved such a mighty engine in bringing about a union of sentiment among the several Colonies previous to the bursting out of the Revolution. This, and other bold movements on his part, caused him to be selected as an object of ministerial vengeance, and when Governor Gage issued his proclamation, offering pardon to all

who would return to their allegiance, Samuel Adams and John Hancock were alone excepted. This greatly increased their popularity, and fired the people with indignation. Adams was among those who secretly matured the plan of proposing a general Congress, and appointing delegates thereto, in spite of the opposition of Governor Gage. The governor hearing of the movement in the General Assembly, then sitting at Salem, sent his secretary to dissolve them, but he found the door locked, and the key was safely lodged in Samuel Adams's pocket. Mr. Adams was one of the five delegates appointed, and he took his seat in that body on the fifth of September, 1774. He continued an active member of Congress until 1781, and was among those who joyfully affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. The journals of Congress during that time show his name upon almost every important committee of that body. And probably no man did more toward bringing about the American Revolution, and in effecting the Independence of the Colonies, than did Samuel Adams. He was the first to assert boldly those political truths upon which rested the whole superstructure of our confederacy-he was the first to act in support of those truths-and when, in the General Council of States, Independence was proposed, and the timid faltered, and the over-prudent hesitated, the voice of Samuel Adams was ever loudest in denunciations of a temporizing policy, and also in the utterance of strong encouragement to the faint-hearted. "I should advise," said he, on one occasion, "persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to

perish, and only one of a thousand were to survive. and retain his liberty! One such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand slaves; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved."

Mr. Adams retired from Congress in 1781, but not from public life. He was a member of the Convention to form a Constitution for Massachusetts, and was on the committee who drafted it. He was successively a member of the Senate of that Commonwealth, its President, Lieutenant-Governor, and finally Governor. To the latter office he was annually elected, until the infirmities of age obliged him to retire from active life. He expired on the third day of October, 1803, in the eighty-second year of his age.

15

CHAPTER XVI.

WILLIAM WHIPPLE.

"Bold, fearless, undaunted, and brave,
In the hour of trial and gloom,
He swore e'er he'd yield as a slave

His body should sink in the tomb."

THIS distinguished signer of the Declaration of Independence, although, like many of his heroic compatriots, his portrait is not to be found in Independence Hall, was born in Kittery, in New Hampshire -that portion which now comprises the State of Maine-in the year 1730. His early education, says what little biography we have of him, was received at a common school in his native town. When, however, he was quite a lad, he embarked in the occupation of a sailor, and followed the sea for several years. But when he was about thirty years of age, he left the sea, and engaged in the mercantile business, with his brother, Joseph Whipple, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. When the difficulties arose between this and the mother country, William early espoused the cause of the Colonies, and soon became a leader among the opposition to British authority. In 1775 he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, and was chosen by that body one of the Committee of Safety. These committees were organized in several of the States. Their business was to