Samuel adams revolutionary war from new hampshire

Samuel Adams of ArlingtonNew Hampshire Grants now Vermontthe Rangers made their most significant contribution to the British war effort by serving with the ill-fated Burgoyne Expedition in the Saratoga campaign of The soldiers of Adams's Rangers were recruited primarily from the region of the New Hampshire Grants also known by the Patriots as the Republic of Vermontwith the largest number of recruits coming from Arlington under heavy opposition from the majority Patriot population and their old enemies, the Patriot Green Mountain Boys.

Adams later stated that he had raised 70 men for the company. Either late in the Burgoyne campaign or in earlythe Rangers absorbed a body of soldiers from the Bateaux Service, under Jeptha Hawleywho was also from Arlington. InAdams' Rangers were a part of the scouting service during the Saratoga Campaign.

Samuel adams revolutionary war from new hampshire

Very little has been recorded concerning the activities of the unit during the disastrous campaign, but Loyalist claims made by men of the Ranger company described piloting the army, running dispatches between British commanders, raiding cattle from Rebel farms, and defending Loyalist farms from Patriot foraging parties. For the next three years Adams' men, like most other Loyalist troops in Canada, were occupied with garrison duty and employed in work parties improving the defences of the Province.

In earlythe company numbered 37 all-ranks — by mid, their number had been reduced to Captains Dr. Frustrated by lack of prospects and dispersement of his men around the Province, Captain Adams demanded to be allowed to join his company to Robert Rogers' King's Rangers or go to New York to serve in the Central department. Adams urged colonists to keep up the boycott of British goods, arguing that paying even one small tax allowed Parliament to establish the precedent of taxing the colonies, but the boycott faltered.

A struggle over the power of the purse brought Adams back into the political limelight. Traditionally, the Massachusetts House of Representatives paid the salaries of the governor, lieutenant governor, and superior court judges. From the Whig perspective, this arrangement was an important check on executive powerkeeping royally appointed officials accountable to democratically elected representatives.

Governor Hutchinson became concerned that the committees of correspondence were growing into an independence movement, so he convened the General Court in January The quiet period in Massachusetts was over. Adams was easily re-elected to the Massachusetts House in Mayand was also elected as moderator of the Boston Town Meeting. In one letter, Hutchinson recommended to London that there should be "an abridgement of what are called English liberties" in Massachusetts.

Hutchinson denied that this is what he meant, but his career was effectively over in Massachusetts, and the House sent a petition asking the king to recall him. Adams took a leading role in the events that led up to the famous Boston Tea Party of December 16,although the precise nature of his involvement has been disputed. Britons could buy smuggled Dutch tea more cheaply than the East India Company's tea because of the heavy taxes imposed on tea imported into Great Britain, and so the company amassed a huge surplus of tea that it could not sell.

The Tea Act permitted the East India Company to export tea directly to the colonies for the first time, bypassing most of the merchants who had previously acted as middlemen. The act also reduced the taxes on tea paid by the company in Britain, but kept the controversial Townshend duty on tea imported in the colonies. A few merchants in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charlestown were selected to receive the company's tea for resale.

News of the Tea Act set off a firestorm of protest in the colonies. Protesters were instead concerned with a variety of other issues. The familiar " no taxation without representation " argument remained prominent, along with the question of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies. The tea tax revenues were to be used to pay the salaries of certain royal officials, making them independent of the people.

Adams and the correspondence committees promoted opposition to the Tea Act. He convinced the tea consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down. The tea ship Dartmouth [ clarification needed ] arrived in the Boston Harbor in late November, and Adams wrote a circular letter calling for a mass meeting to be held at Faneuil Hall on November Thousands of people arrived, so many that the meeting was moved to the larger Old South Meeting House.

The mass meeting passed a resolution introduced by Adams urging the captain of the Dartmouth to send the ship back without paying the import duty. Governor Hutchinson refused to grant permission for the Dartmouth to leave without paying the duty. Two more tea ships arrived in Boston Harbor, the Eleanor and the Beaver. The fourth ship, the Williamwas stranded near Cape Cod and never arrived in Boston.

December 16 was the last day of the Dartmouth's deadline, and about 7, people gathered around the Old South Meeting House. However, this claim did not appear in print until nearly a century after the event, in a biography of Adams written by his great-grandson, who apparently misinterpreted the evidence. That evening, a group of 30 to men boarded the three vessels, some of them thinly disguised as Mohawk Indiansand dumped all chests of tea into the water over the course of three hours.

Whether or not he helped plan the event is unknown, but Adams immediately worked to publicize and defend it. The first of these acts was the Boston Port Actwhich closed Boston's commerce until the East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. The Massachusetts Government Act rewrote the Massachusetts Charter, making many officials royally appointed rather than elected, and severely restricting the activities of town meetings.

The Administration of Justice Act allowed colonists charged with crimes to be transported to another colony or to Great Britain for trial. A new royal governor was appointed to enforce the acts: General Thomas Gagewho was also commander of British military forces in North America. Adams worked to coordinate resistance to the Coercive Acts. He was one of five delegates chosen to attend the First Continental Congress.

In Philadelphia, Adams promoted colonial unity while using his political skills to lobby other delegates. Adams returned to Massachusetts in Novemberwhere he served in the Massachusetts Provincial Congressan extralegal legislative body independent of British control. The Provincial Congress created the first minutemen companies, consisting of militiamen who were to be ready for action on a moment's notice.

John Hancock had been added to the delegation, and he and Adams attended the Provincial Congress in Concord, Massachusettsbefore Adams's journey to the second Congress. The two men decided that it was not safe to return to Boston before leaving for Philadelphia, so they stayed at Hancock's childhood home in Lexington. The purpose of the British expedition was to seize and destroy military supplies that the colonists had stored in Concord.

According to many historical accounts, Gage also instructed his men to arrest Hancock and Adams, but the written orders issued by Gage made no mention of arresting the Patriot leaders. Soon after the battle, Gage issued a proclamation granting a general pardon to all who would "lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects"—with the exceptions of Hancock and Samuel Adams.

The Continental Congress worked under a secrecy rule, so Adams's precise role in congressional deliberations is not fully documented. He appears to have had a major influence, working behind the scenes as a sort of " parliamentary whip " [ ] and Thomas Jefferson credits Samuel Adams—the lesser-remembered Adams—with steering the Congress toward independence, saying, "If there was any Palinurus to the Revolution, Samuel Adams was the man.

Adams was a cautious advocate for a declaration of independence, urging eager correspondents back in Massachusetts to wait for more moderate colonists to come around to supporting separation from Great Britain. After a delay to rally support, Congress approved the language of the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4,which Adams signed.

When he returned to Congress, they continued to manage the war effort. Adams served on military committees, including an appointment to the Board of War in Adams was the Massachusetts delegate appointed to the committee to draft the Articles of Confederationthe plan for the colonial confederation. With its emphasis on state sovereignty, the Articles reflected Congress's wariness of a strong central government, a concern shared by Adams.

Like others at the time, Adams considered himself a citizen of the United States while continuing to refer to Massachusetts as his "country". From Philadelphia, Adams urged Massachusetts to ratify, which it did. Adams signed the Articles of Confederation with the other Massachusetts delegates inbut they were not ratified by all the states until Adams returned to Boston in to attend a state constitutional convention.

The Massachusetts General Court had proposed a new constitution the previous year, but voters rejected it, and so a convention was held to try again. Adams was appointed to a three-man drafting committee with his cousin John Adams and James Bowdoin. The new constitution established a republican form of government, with annual elections and a separation of powers.

It reflected Adams's belief that "a state is never free except when each citizen is bound by no law whatever that he has not approved of, either directly, or through his representatives". InAdams retired from the Continental Congress. His health was one reason; he was approaching his sixtieth birthday and suffered from tremors that made writing difficult.

During the Revolution, Adams returned to Massachusetts from the Continental Congress for a two-month break. Adams remained active in politics upon his return to Massachusetts. He lived in a run down house on Winter Street in Boston that had been confiscated from its Loyalist owner. Adams focused his political agenda on promoting virtue, which he considered essential in a republican government.

If republican leaders lacked virtue, he believed, liberty was endangered. Adams disapproved of what he viewed as Hancock's vanity and extravagance, which Adams believed were inappropriate in a republican leader. When Hancock left Congress inAdams and the other Massachusetts delegates voted against thanking him for his service as president of Congress.

Adams thought that Hancock was not acting the part of a virtuous republican leader by acting like an aristocrat and courting popularity. Adams's promotion of public virtue took several forms. He played a major role in getting Boston to provide a free public education for children, even for girls, which was controversial. Adams worried that the Society was "a stride towards an hereditary military nobility", and thus a threat to republicanism.

I firmly believe that the benevolent Creator designed the republican Form of Government for Man. Postwar economic troubles in western Massachusetts led to an uprising known as Shays' Rebellionwhich began in Small farmers, angered by high taxes and debts, armed themselves and shut down debtor courts in Worcester and Hampshire Counties, prompting Governor James Bowdoin to consult Adams first.

Adams at a Boston town meeting oversaw the drafting of a circular letter that denounced these actions as unconstitutional and as acts treason. He approved of rebellion against an unrepresentative government, as had happened during the American Revolution, but he opposed taking up arms against a republican government, composed of fellow American citizens, where problems should be remedied through elections.

He thought that the leaders of Shays's Rebellion should be hanged, reportedly saying that "the man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death", and urged Governor Bowdoin to use military force, who obliged and sent four thousand militiamen to put down the uprising. Shays's Rebellion contributed to the belief that the Articles of Confederation needed to be revised.

Indelegates to the Philadelphia Conventioninstead of revising the Articles, created a new United States Constitution with a much stronger national government. The Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, when Adams expressed his displeasure. Despite his reservations, Adams rarely spoke at the convention, and listened carefully to the arguments rather than raising objections.

While Adams was attending the ratifying convention, his only son Samuel Adams Jr. The younger Adams had served as surgeon in the Revolutionary War, but had fallen ill and never fully recovered. The death was a stunning blow to the elder Adams. Investments in land made them relatively wealthy by the mids, but this did not alter their frugal lifestyle.

Adams was concerned about the new Constitution and made an attempt to re-enter national politics. He allowed his name to be put forth as a candidate for the House of Representatives in the December election, but lost to Fisher Amesapparently because Ames was a stronger supporter of the Constitution, a more popular position. By the late s Adams appeared to be an aging politician whose glory days were obscured by present-day constitutional issues.

During this time the newspapers outlined the stark contrast in politics between Adams and Ames in their pages. InAdams was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and served in that samuel adams revolutionary war from new hampshire until Governor Hancock's death inwhen he became acting governor. The next year, Adams was elected as governor in his own right, the first of four annual terms.

He was generally regarded as the leader of his state's Jeffersonian Republicanswho were opposed to the Federalist Party. Unlike some other Republicans, Adams supported the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in for the same reasons that he had opposed Shays's Rebellion. The Adams cousins remained friends, but Samuel was pleased when Jefferson defeated John Adams in the presidential election.

Samuel Adams took a cue from President Washington, who declined to run for reelection in he retired from politics at the end of his term as governor in Samuel Adams is a controversial figure in American history. Disagreement about his significance and reputation began before his death and continues to the present. Adams's contemporaries, both friends and foes, regarded him as one of the foremost leaders of the American Revolution.

Thomas Jefferson, for example, characterized Adams as "truly the Man of the Revolution. Supporters of the Revolution praised Adams, but Loyalists viewed him as a sinister samuel adams revolutionary war from new hampshire. Peter Oliverthe exiled chief justice of Massachusetts, characterized him as a devious Machiavellian with a "cloven Foot".

This hostile "Tory interpretation" of Adams was revived in the 20th century by historian Clifford K. Shipton in the Sibley's Harvard Graduates reference series. Whig historians challenged the "Tory interpretation" of Adams. William Gordon and Mercy Otis Warrentwo historians who knew Adams, wrote of him as a man selflessly dedicated to the American Revolution.

He wrote scores of newspaper articles under pen names, attacking the British. He also pressured Boston merchants to boycott British goods. After the British Parliament passed the Tea Act inwhich sought to force the colonists to buy their tea from the British East India Company, Adams helped organize Bostonians to hinder the tea shipments. One group of resisters took matters even further, dressing up as Indian warriors and boarding several British ships to dump their tea, in what became known as the Boston Tea Party.

Eventually, British authorities had enough of Adams and his agitation. But American spies got wind of the plan, and American militiamen confronted the British on Lexington Common. The ensuing Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening armed confrontations that sparked the Revolutionary War. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Adams signed the Declaration of Independence and continued his inflammatory rhetoric.

In a speech in Philadelphia, he castigated Americans who sided with the Crown. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. As a member of the Continental Congress, Adams also helped draft the Articles of Confederationthe predecessor to the U. After leaving the Continental Congress inAdams went back to Boston and eventually got back into state politics.

Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. British loyalist of the American Revolution — For the Patriot, see Samuel Adams. A woodcut of the public humiliation of Dr. Adams was tied to a chair and hung from the sign of the Catamount Tavern in ArlingtonNew Hampshire Grantsin present-day Vermontfor falling out of favor with his enemies, the Green Mountain Boysover land dealings in early Vermont.