Samuel Adams, Promoter of the American Revolution: A Study in Psychology and Politics |
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Popular passages
Page 36 - Britain. If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves...
Page 62 - Adams, I believe, has the most thorough understanding of liberty and her resources in the temper and character of the people, though not in the law and Constitution; as well as the most habitual, radical love of it of any of them, as well as the most correct, genteel, and artful pen.
Page 238 - We have had numberless prejudices to remove here. We have been obliged to act with great delicacy and caution. We have been obliged to keep ourselves out of sight, and to feel pulses and sound the depths; to insinuate our sentiments, designs, and desires by means of other persons; sometimes of one province and sometimes of another.
Page 36 - ... if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands and everything we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our fellow-subjects who are natives of Britain.
Page 84 - That all Acts made, by any Power whatever, other than the General Assembly of this Province, imposing Taxes on the Inhabitants, are Infringements of our inherent and unalienable Rights as Men and British subjects: and render void the most valuable Declarations of our Charter.
Page 238 - Adams — a man, who though by no means remarkable for brilliant abilities, yet is equal to most men in popular intrigue. and the management of a faction. He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, thinks much, and is most decisive and indefatigable in the pursuit of his objects. It was this man, who by his superior application managed at once the faction in Congress at Philadelphia, and the factions in New England.
Page 232 - That a meeting of committees from the several colonies on this continent is highly expedient and necessary, to consult upon the present state of the colonies, and the miseries to which they are and must be reduced by the operation of certain acts of Parliament respecting America, and to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration...
Page 140 - Americans," said the American Whig, " liberty, religion, and sciences are on the wing to these shores. The finger of God points out a mighty empire to your sons. The savages of the wilderness were never expelled to make room for IDOLATERS and SLAVES. The land we possess is the gift of Heaven to our fathers, and Divine Providence seems to have decreed it to our latest posterity.
Page 238 - though by no means remarkable for brilliant abilities, is equal to most men in popular intrigue and the management of a faction. He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, and thinks much, and is most decisive and indefatigable in the pursuit of his objects.
Page 70 - This consists of the rabble of the town of Boston, headed by one Mackintosh, who, I imagine, you never heard of. He is a bold fellow, and as likely for a Masaniello as you can well conceive. When there is occasion to burn or hang effigies or pull down houses, these are employed; but since government has been brought to a system, they are somewhat controlled by a superior set consisting of the master-masons, and carpenters, &c., of the town of Boston.