This Day in History: Samuel Adams
On this day in 1803, Samuel Adams passes away. Much could be said about this fiery Patriot, of course. “[He] has the most thourough Understanding,” his cousin John Adams once said, “of Liberty . . . as well as the most habitual, radical Love of it, of any of them.”
That “radical love” of liberty shone especially bright in one incident, years before shots rang out at Lexington Green. Indeed, Sam Adams went toe-to-toe with the British that day—and won.
Parliament had then enacted the controversial Townshend Acts, which left colonists furious. Why were they being taxed when they had no representation in Parliament? British soldiers soon arrived in Boston, allegedly to keep the peace, but their presence caused constant friction.
Matters finally came to a head with the Boston Massacre in March 1770.
A wigmaker’s apprentice had gotten into a scuffle with a British sentry. An angry crowd formed and was soon taunting eight British soldiers who’d arrived on the scene. Chaos ensued, and shots were fired. Three colonists fell, dead. Others were wounded. (Two died later.)
Bostonians were livid. The next morning, the town’s selectmen approached Thomas Hutchinson, the acting Royal Governor. They wanted the British soldiers to leave, but Hutchinson declined.
In the meantime, angry citizens piled into Faneuil Hall. Eyewitnesses told the assembled crowd what they’d seen. A committee, led by Samuel Adams, was appointed to approach Hutchinson again.
That meeting didn’t go well. Hutchinson claimed his hands were tied because the soldiers were under military orders from a general in New York. But then Lt. Col. William Dalrymple, the senior British officer in Boston, offered a compromise: He could move a regiment to a fort in Boston Harbor. Only one regiment would remain in the city.
The Adams committee carried this information back to the town meeting, but the crowd had only grown bigger while they were gone. Needless to say, Dalrymple’s offer was angrily rejected.
Bostonians were done. They wanted the British soldiers out—NOW! Word had already been spreading outside the city, and it seemed that armed militia could soon descend on the area.
The committee returned to Hutchinson.
This second meeting was one for the history books, as John Adams later wrote, noting that “upon great occasions, when [Samuel Adams’s] deeper feelings were excited, he erected himself or rather nature seem’d to erect him . . . into an upright dignity of figure & gesture.”
Sam Adams cited the colony’s charter, asserting that it gave Hutchinson authority to act.
“[If Hutchinson or Dalrymple] have authority to remove one regiment,” he demanded, “they have authority to remove two,—& nothing short of the total evacuation of the town by all the regular troops, will satisfy the public mind or preserve the peace.”
“These few words thrilled through the veins of every man,” John Adams later wrote. It was the beginning of the end, and Hutchinson would soon capitulate. “It was then,” Sam Adams later described, “if Fancy deceived me not, I observ’d his Knees to tremble. I thought I saw his face grow pale (and I enjoyd the Sight).”
The larger struggle was far from over, of course. But Sam Adams had won the day through sheer determination and an insistence on defending liberty.
“[T]he Man who is not resolvd to encounter and overcome Difficulties when the Liberty of his Country is threatend,” he concluded, “no more deserves the Character of Patriot.”
As for John Adams, he later cited the day as a great moment, worthy of an artist’s tribute: “It will be as difficult to do him justice as to paint an Apollo, & the transaction deserves to be painted as much as the Surrender of Burgoine.”
A note for those who are interested: Some of you might know I am running an experiment in history reels. If you are so inclined, check out my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to those HERE. Don’t miss the reel I created about one of John Paul Jones's legendary victories, posted over the weekend.
Primary Sources:
Ellen Chase, The Beginnings of the American Revolution, Based on Contemporary Letters Diaries and Other Documents (1910) (Vol. 1)
John Adams, Diary entry (Dec. 23, 1765)
Letter from John Adams to William Tudor, Sr. (April 15, 1817)
Letter from Samuel Adams to James Warren (March 25, 1771)
Letter from Thomas Hutchinson to Thomas Gage (March 6, 1770)
Stacy Schiff, The Noble Fury of Samuel Adams (Smithsonian Mag., Oct. 2022)
Comments