The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 | Page 8

"Boston Gazette," published by Edes & Gill in Court Street. As a
business man he was never a success. For years he kept the old malt
house on Purchase Street, but he gave the business little thought, for his
mind was constantly engrossed in public matters, and at last he made
no pretext of attending to any matter of private business, depending for
support only upon his small salary as clerk of the assembly. No one
will ever accuse Samuel Adams of any selfish ambition, and, although
his every act will not bear the closest application of the square and rule,
yet he never deceived nor used a doubtful method in the least degree
for personal gain.
Adams did not begin his public career early in life. In 1764 he was
chosen a member of the committee to instruct the representatives just
elected to the General Court, and the paper drafted on that occasion is
the first document from his pen of which we now have any trace, and is
memorable, moreover, because it contains the first public denial of the
authority of the Stamp Act. Adams was now forty-two, his hair was
already touched with gray, and "a peculiar tremulousness of the head
and hands made it seem as if he were already on the threshold of old
age." He had, however, a remarkably sound constitution, a medium
sized, muscular frame, and clear, steel-gray eyes.
[Illustration: OLD STATE HOUSE IN 1793.]
Among those closely connected with Adams in the public service,
which, from this time on, became his only thought, were John Hancock

and James Otis. Adams contrasted strongly with both of these men.
Hancock was the richest man in the province and as liberal as he was
wealthy. In the general jubilation that followed the repeal of the Stamp
Act, he opened a pipe of Madeira wine before his elegant mansion
opposite the Common, and so long as it lasted it was freely dispensed
to the crowd. The dress of Hancock when at home is described as a
"red velvet cap, within which was one of fine linen, the edge of this
turned up over the velvet one, two or three inches. He wore a blue
damask gown lined with silk, a white plaited stock, a white silk
embroidered waistcoat, black silk small-clothes, white silk stockings
and red morocco slippers." Adams was in marked contrast with Otis in
temperament. The former, always cool and collected and his words
based on deliberate reason, was the extreme of the other who carried
his arguments in a flood of impetuous eloquence. "Otis was a flame of
fire," says Sewall. But although Otis was once almost the ideal of the
people, his erratic tendencies at last unfitted him for a leader.
One reason of Sam Adams' prestige with the masses was his common
and familiar intercourse with mechanics and artisans. Hancock, Otis,
Bowdoin and Curtis, on account of their wealth and ideas of aristocracy,
kept more or less aloof from the workmen; while Adams, plainly clad
and with familiar but dignified manner, was often found in the ship
yards or at the rope walks engaged in earnest conversation with the
homely craftsmen. Indeed, nothing pleased him more than to be talking
with a ship carpenter as they sat side by side on a block of oak, or with
some shopkeeper in a sheltered fence corner. Most of his writing was
done in a little room in his Purchase Street house where night after
night his busy mind and quill were kept at work on his trenchant letters
for the "Gazette," which were signed with significant nom de plumes in
Latin.
The year 1768 was made notable by the arrival in Boston from England
of the 14th and the 29th regiments. The main guard was quartered in
King (now State) Street, with the cannon pointed toward the State
House, and the troops occupied various houses in the vicinity. In the
next year the Governor, Bernard, was recalled, and Thomas Hutchinson,
although remaining nominally lieutenant governor, became acting chief

magistrate. He now appeared the most conspicuous figure among the
royalists, and Samuel Adams became more distinctly the leader of the
patriots. Neglecting all other affairs, he was content to live on a
pittance, which he was enabled to do by a frugal and helpful wife.
Affairs were now approaching a crisis. A consignment of goods from
England, sent in defiance of the non-importation agreements, was not
allowed to land and had to be returned. One importer, a Scotchman,
would not sign the agreements, so after much remonstrance, Samuel
Adams arose in town meeting and grimly moved that the number
present, about two thousand, should resolve itself into a committee of
the whole, wait upon the obstinate merchant and use such persuasion as
should be necessary to