During the decade from 1765 to 1775, when Boston was at the center of the resistance movement (1764-75) against British rule, Samuel Adams was the town's most important political leader. By 1776 he had gained a transatlantic reputation as a mastermind of the rebellion. Born in Boston on September 27, 1722, Adams was the son of a merchant and brewer. He graduated from Harvard College in 1740 and endeavored, unsuccessfully, to establish himself as a brewer and newspaper publisher.

Between 1756 and 1765 Adams served as a tax collector in Boston. He proved no more successful at collecting taxes than he had at publishing or brewing as the Boston Town Meeting found him to be more than £10,000 in arrears in his collections, partially in sympathy for financially distressed townsmen. Despite, or perhaps because of, his laxness as a tax collector, he was elected to the Massachusetts assembly in 1765. He served as the assembly's clerk until 1780. In this capacity he played a prominent role in coordinating the assembly's opposition to British taxation from 1765 to 1775.

Adams was active in several organizations, including the Loyal Nine; the North End Caucus; and, most important, the Sons of Liberty. He also served as chair of the Boston Town Meeting. Through his participation in these groups, Adams emerged as the most important popular political leader in Boston prior to the Revolutionary War (1775-83). He was a vocal critic of British taxation and contended that Parliament, along with a few colonial Americans loyal to the king, was seeking to enslave the people of British North America and take away their liberties.

Adams was a very effective political leader, protest organizer, and propagandist, writing newspaper articles that were critical of the British taxation policies. He also organized numerous popular demonstrations and protests. For example, he led the successful movement to demand the removal of British troops from Boston after the Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770). In 1772 he created the Boston committee of correspondence, which helped to coordinate anti-British resistance throughout Massachusetts and, eventually, across the colonies. He also chaired the extralegal meetings that preceded the Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773). In 1774, through the committee of correspondence, he led the call for a continental congress to coordinate resistance to the Coercive Acts. During the decade between the Stamp Act (1765) and the outbreak of war at the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), Adams was at the forefront of the revolutionary movement in Massachusetts and North America. Throughout this time, he sought to balance reasoned principle with emotional crowd politics.

Adams made his greatest contribution to the revolutionary movement prior to the Revolutionary War. Nonetheless, he continued to be important in Massachusetts politics and the revolutionary movement. Between 1774 and 1781 he represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress. He was an early advocate of the break from Great Britain and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He proved to be a stalwart in Congress, serving on numerous committees to help organize the war effort. Back in Massachusetts, he was on the committee that drafted the state's new constitution in 1779 (largely the handiwork of his distant cousin, John Adams) and campaigned for the successful ratification of that document.

Although his political influence waned during the postwar period, Adams remained politically active during the 1780s and 1790s. He was elected to the Massachusetts senate and attended the Massachusetts convention that considered the state's ratification of the proposed U.S. Constitution. Always wary of centralized power, Adams was a moderate Anti-Federalist. A caucus of Boston artisans, a group that had long been Adams's base of political power, came out strongly in favor of the Constitution. These artisans, as well as an intense campaign within the convention that included the promise of amendments to protect the people's liberty, convinced Adams to give the document his reluctant support. This shift proved instrumental in the convention's decision to endorse the document.

Adams served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts under John Hancock from 1789 to 1793 and as governor from 1793 to 1797. Because of his populist inclinations and suspicion of centralized power, Adams was never really accepted by the Federalist Party, which came to dominate Massachusetts politics during the 1790s. In the election of 1800 he supported the Democratic-Republican Party candidate, Thomas Jefferson, against his Federalist kinsman, John Adams. Samuel Adams died on October 2, 1803.

Bibliography:

1)         Pauline Maier, The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams (New York: Knopf, 1980)

2)         John C. Miller, Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda (Boston: Little, Brown, 1936)

3)         Mark Puls, Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006).

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Founding Fathers at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Founding Fathers and other relevant topics.