The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-04
SEATTLE, sATURDAE JULY &.


The day we celebrate is associated chiefly
In the popular mind with the memory OF
Thomas Jefferson, whose remarkable gen.
ius for literary expression found its most
famous, IL not its finest, opportunity for
exhibition in the composition OF the Dec
laration Of Independence. To John
Adams. how ever. beyond Jefferson and be-
yond all men of his time, is due the credit
of the early adoption of the resolution Of
independence whose passage preceded the
acceptance of Jefferson's eloquent literary
justification Of this high and heroic re-
solve.
John Adams as early as 1765 placed the
opnosttion Of the American colonists to
the. Stamp Act upon the sound ground
that the act was invalid because the colo
nists had never consented TO it; they were
not rebellious because they were taxed,
but because they were taxed without rep
resentation. Adams granted that English
men were taxed more heavily at home in
Great Britain than in the colonies; he
granted that Great Britain acknowledged
and performed reasonably well the
duties which are part of the func-
ton of government. but to the
argument of Great Britain that a gov
eminent without power of taxation is an
impossible absurdity, he replied, "but tax
alton cannot be exercised without repre-
sentation." Great Britain refused to con-
cede representation, and so John Adams,
as a sound lawyer and a patriot of
exceptional and solitary courage, early
reasoned within himself: aft there could
be no government without taxation, and
no taxation without representation, and
Great Britain will not concede representa-
tion-what then7" The answer of Adams
to the question was, Independence"
Adams was the first Colonial statesman
whose courage instantly rose to level
the first session of the Continental Congress
in 1774 with the indomitable purpose fixed
in his heart to bring that very timid and
conservative body over to his own views
that Independence Of Great Britain was
the only sound solution Of the situation.
Save to few confidential friends at home
and to Richard Henry Lee, of vir-
ginia, Adams did not dare avow his
faith and purpose. When he came
to Congress he found independence
everywhere unpopular, in Pennsylvania,
New York, New Jersey and Maryland.
Only from the great colonial patriots of
Virginia did he get any strong sympathy
and hope of ultimate support. In the
first Congress of 1774 Adams strove in vain
a. -u al
an assertion of natural rights as general
basis, bat be was defeated by the influence
Of the conservatives and conciliationists,
who followed the lead of John Dickinson.
OF New Jersey. rich, popular, cultivated
gentleman; tardy but sincere patriot,
who was never weary of urging tina; a sec
ond petition, another olive branch" be
sent TO the king. Dickinson was handi-
capped by bis mother and his wife, who
warned him day and night that he would
be hanged your estate coniiscated, your
wife left a widow and your children made
orphans, beggars and infamous
The choleric Adams had scarcely more
patience with the trimmers than with the
open tories OF his time, and denounces
"nothing but a great fortune, mere pid-
ding genius" he describes Edward Rut-
ledge SIS one of "the Southern barons, a
bobolink, swallow, a sparrow, peacock,
exceedingly vain, weak, variable, IN
steady, iejune, inane and puerile," and
John Jay and Silas Deane were also hate
fnl to him as conciliationists. All that
- - ~ 1900
could be persuaded to do was to recon.
mend commercial non-intercourse with
England. This first Continental Congress
did not lack convivial spirits. for he re-
cords that ii sat from 8 a. m. to 3 p. m. and
then adjourned for dinner, where we sat
drinking Madeira, claret and Burgundy
from p. m. TO a. M. They had mighty
feasts of turbot and turtle, and Richard
Henry Lee. of Virginia, is recorded a:
drinking Burgundy all afternoon"
In May l575, Congress began its second
session. The fight of Lexington and Con.
cord was not yet month old, and yet Mr..
Adams found in Philadelphia indepen.
dence still spoken OF with awe and bated
breath. There was jealousy Of New Eng.
dependency, an American republic, Pres
byterian principles by Pennsylvania
Maryland, by all the Middle states and by
ell the Southern colonies save Virginia,
But the next year, on May Is, 1910, John
Adams. of Massachusetts; John Rutledge,
of South Carolina, and Richard Henry
Lee, reported and secured the adoption by
Congress of preamble which declared
that lit was necessary that every kind o;
authority under the crown of Great
Britain should be totally suppressed. and
that all the powers of government should
be executed under the authority of the
people of the colonies" This declaration
involved independence, though it was not
aformal and explicit declaration, but il wa.
the substance. the thing itself, and verbal
recognition of the fact vas of course
after this inevitable. The preamble was
usually described SIS piece of mechan-
lam 10 work out independence" This
great step was the work of John Adams,
who was from the first the leading sgitator,
architect, evangelist and organizer Of the