The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-20

blemished integrity. His means We're
so narrow that his frugal and devoted
wife was at times called upon to aid
in the support of the family and he
was indebted to friends for the clothes
he wore, yet no temptation to arnass
wealth touched him. He was above
bribery or influence by money. Adams
was a faithful son of Massachusetts
and Boston. Until he went to the con-
tinental congress, in IVA. he seems
never to have left his native state, nor
indeed to have ever gone any distance
from his residence. Except for his
journeys to attend the various con-
crosses of which he was a member,
he seems never to have gone from
home. Others might hold foreign en-
baSsies; for him Boston was all-suf-
ficient. In Boston his influence was
long supreme. The royalist governor
of Massachusetts rightly called him
the grand incendiary of the province, y
for the whole of Massachusetts, was set
ON fire by the Boston town meeting
and the moderator and master of that
meeting was Samuel Adams. He did
not enter into public life early. but
from 1855, when he was first elected as
representative from Boston to the
great and general court, to 1897, when
he resigned the governorship Of the
state, his whole time was devoted to
the service of the people. 1t was noted
that he cared not to discuss social,
scientific or religious matters with
friends; all his thoughts were on poll
tics and in old age his favorite theme
was the struggle with Great Britain. in
which he had borne so great a part.
Upright himself, he insisted OH civic
and able young men into public serv-
ice. His linsman, John Adams, and
John Hancock, whose wealth and
social position were of great value to
the colonists, were two of those he in
troduced into politics
Through a long career we find but
little to criticise in his actions from a
moral point of view. He was doubt
less somewhat disingenuOus in his
treatment of the letters of Governor
Hutchinson and in some of his argu-
mentS, but the wonder is rather that in
the heat of controversy he was swayed
90 little from the path of absolute
rectitude-
He cared not for personal advance
ment and seemed to feel little bitter
ness when the people set him aside for
a time. Adams trusted the people and
believed that their decisions as to men
were right. To influence their decisions
as to measures he applied himself
with the utmost vigor.
He was born in 1922, and educated at
Harvard college. where he took his
bachelors degree in 1740, and his
masters degree in 1743. 1t was after
ward remembered, as a presage of his
future, that his masters thesis was an
affirmative answer TO the question
Whether it be lawful to resist the
supreme magistrate, if the cclnnon-
wealth cannot be otherwise preserved"
When 20 years of age he began
furnishing to the newspapers the first
of that long series of articles ON gov
eminent which had so much effect. His
style of writing was clear and incisive.
his arguments were forcible and logical.
Adams used few metaphors and quota
tons. his writings were not graceful,
but they were never dull and they were
always convincing.
Adams always took a deep interest
in popular education, and his first
public Office was that of school visitor,
to which he was appointed in 1853. His
whole course of effort against Great
Britain was what we would call a.
Campaign of education" He appealed
chiefly to the intellects of his fellow
citizens, though he was too skilful to-
omit altogether the appeal TO emotions.
When the stamp act showed the policy
of Great Britain toward America he
drafted his first public paper, a series
of instructions to the peoples repre-
sentatives, adopted by the boston town
meeting May "a. 1764. He stood stead
tasty for the principle of no taxation
without representation, and. unlike.
Otis. discerned from the first that rep
resentation of any sort in the British
parliament was impracticable. In
these early resolutions he claims that
the STAMP tax 'anIsihilates orr charter