The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-05-02
can, or ever could. boast OF.
Advised to BE Prudent.

ADVISED 10 BE Pruoene.
1t was mere counsel of prudence
that they should play their part in the
congress with modesty and discretion.
Not Cushing and Paine, but the
Adamses. carried the strength of the
Massachusetts delegation; and it was
Samuel Adams. rather than John, who
was just now the effective master in
the great Bay Colony-"master of
puppets" his enemies called him.
Hale, bluff, adroit, plain, a man of
the people, he had grown old in the
business of agitation Fifty-two years
he had lived. planning always for
others, never for himself He had
never looked forward in his life h
frankly said: never planned, laid a
scheme, or framed a design Of laying
up anything for himself or others aft
er him." had let all his private bust
ness 90 neglected, and lived upon the
petty salary of a small public Office.
the indulgence of fortune, and the
good Offices of the friends and neigh
bors who loved him.
The Master of Puppets"
He was in Philadelphia now wear
ing the plain suit and spending the
modest purse with which his friends
and partisans had fitted him out-the
very impersonation of the revolution
men were beginning so 10 fear.
No man had ever daunted him;
neither could any corrupt him. He
was possessed with the instinct of agi-
tation; led the people, not the lead
ers; cared not for place, but only for
power; showed a mastery of means
a self-containment, a capacity for
timely and telling speech, that mark
ed him a statesman, though he loved
the rough ways of a peoples govern
ment. and preferred the fierce demo
cracy Of the town meeting to the
sober dignity of senates. Like an
eagle in his high building and strength
of audacious flight, but in instinct and
habit bird of the storm. Not over
nice what he did, not too scrupulous
what he devised he was yet not self
ish, loved the principles he had given
mis- life to, and spent himself without
limit to see them triumph.
Another Kind of Adams.
John Adams, his cousin, was Of a
very different mould; a younger man
by thirteen years; no man of the peo-
pie, but with taste rather for the ex-
elusive claims of education and breed
ing; self-regardful; thought too cal
culating; too quick-witted to be pa
tient with dull men. too self-conscious
to be at ease with great ones; and
yet philosophical withal. and gener-
Gus in action if not in judgment; Of
great powers. if only he could manage
to use them without jealousy.
Samuel Adams thought only of his
end. not of himself; seldom spoke Of
himself indeed; seemed sort OF
subtle engine for the peoples buei-
ness John Adams thought of himself
always and yet mastered himself to
play great part with the nobility OF
a man q genius. if not with the grace
Of a man OF modesty and self-forgetful
devotion. For the time he could even
hold back with his willy cousin. resign
leadership in the congress to Virginia,
and act in all things the wise part Of
those who follow.
A Situation Full of Peril
It was circumstance full of peril
that the delegates Of the several colo
MES should at such q juncture be
strangers to one another, and provin-
Gals all. nowhere bred to continental