Samuel Adams

“ They have made a mock even of reason itself, by endeavoring to prove that the liberty and happiness of America could safely be intrusted to those who have sold their own, unawed by the sense of virtue or of shame.
Treated with the contempt which such conduct deserved, they have applied to individuals. They have solicited them to break the bonds of allegiance and imbue their souls with the blackest crimes. But fearing that none could be found through these United States equal to the wickedness of their purpose, to influence weak minds they have threatened more wide devastation. ”

“ Is not Government designed for the Welfare and happiness of all the People? and is it not the uncontroulable essential right of the People to amend, and alter, or annul their Constitution, and frame a new one, whenever they shall think it will better promote their own welfare, and happiness to do it? That the Sovereignty resides in the People is a political doctrine which I have never heard an American Politician seriously deny. ”

“ Now, if you will take the poor advice of one who is really a friend to England and Englishmen, and who hath even some Scotch blood in his veins,—away with your fleets and your armies, acknowledge the independence of America; and as ambassadors, and not commissioners, solicit a treaty of peace, amity, commerce, and alliance with the rising States of this Western world. Your nation totters on the brink of a stupendous precipice, and even delay will ruin her. ”

“ We have had for several years past a well-appointed Army.—An Army of which both Officers and Privates are daily increasing in discipline—An Army inferior perhaps to none at this time on the face of the earth and headed by a COMMANDER, who feels the Rights of the Citizens in his own breast, and experience has taught us, he knows full well how to defend them.—May Heaven inspire that Army yet more and more with Military Virtues, and teach their hands to war and their fingers to fight! ”

“ I therefore esteemed you as a warm friend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human race. But when I heard you had turned your mind to a defence of infidelity, I felt myself much astonished and more grieved, that you had attempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repugnant to the true interest of so great a part of the citizens of the United States. The people of New England, if you will allow me to use a Scripture phrase, are fast returning to their first love. Will you excite among them the spirit of angry controversy at a time when they are hastening to amity and peace? ”

“ It is, in the Opinion of this Assembly, highly criminal for a Citizen to be an indifferent Spectator of the Miseries of his Country — much more so, to desert her while struggling for her Liberty — and still more, to seek Refuge in the very Time of her Conflict in the Arms of her cruel & inveterate Enemies. It cannot then be thought strange, that those who love and reverence their Country, feel an Indignation against the Men, who have held her Safety, her Liberty & her Honor at so cheap a Rate. ”

“ Fellow Citizens, we have a regular exercise of our Federal and State Governments; and we owe our unceasing gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, who safely carried us through our arduous struggle for freedom, for which other nations are now contending, at the expence of their blood and treasure. We cannot but rejoice that the principles for which we contended, and which are constitutionally established in United America, are irresistibly spreading themselves through two mighty nations in Europe. ”

“ We ardently wish that the nations of the earth may sheath the sword of war, and we as ardently pray, that the equal rights of men may go hand in hand with peace. If our Federal Government shall with magnanimity and firmness, support the principles of a free elective Representative Government, and our honour and faith with our allies, and yet maintain peace with all nations upon the principles of sound policy, and terms honourable and safe to our country, it will be an acknowledged approximation to that perfection in practical politics, which all people should most earnestly covet. ”

“ Remember the awful abuse of words like those by General Burgoyne, and remember his fate. There is One above us who will take exemplary vengeance for every insult upon His majesty. You know that the cause of America is just. You know that she contends for that freedom to which all men are entitled,—that she contends against oppression, rapine, and more than savage barbarity. The blood of the innocent is upon your hands, and all the waters of the ocean will not wash it away. ”

“ CONGRESS has called upon the several States to make ready for this great crisis, and the several States have seconded the call of Congress. The PEOPLE, the PEOPLE must, under GOD, give energy to this all important call, and enable the combined Forces at once to put an end to the War. If the PEOPLE NOW exert themselves, one struggle more, by the blessing of Heaven, will rid us of all our Enemies. The Expectations at VERSAILLES from this joint effort are even sanguine— CONGRESS is impatient to answer their just expectation—The eyes of EUROPE are upon us anxiously waiting for the great event. ”

“ The Citizens of this Part of America will say, and judge, my dear Sir, whether it would not be just, that the fishing Banks are at least as important as Tobacco yards, or Rice Swamps, or the flourishing Wheat Fields of Pennsylvania. The Name only of Independence is not worth the Blood of a single Citizen. We have not been so long contending for Trifles. A Navy must support our Independence; and Britain will tell you, that the Fishery is a grand Nursery of Seamen. ”

“ Let us, Fellow Citizens, cultivate a due observance of the Laws which are constitutionally made by the authority of this Government, as well as those of the Federal Government, agreeable to the Constitution of the United States. Let us transmit our Liberties, our Equal Rights, our Laws and our free Republican Constitutions, with their various concomitant blessings, to those who are coming upon the stage of action, and hope in God, that they will be handed down, in purity and energy, to the latest posterity. ”

“ You know, how ardently I have wishd for the Sweets of Retirement. I am like to have my Wish.—You are Witness that I have not raisd a Fortune in the Service of my Country. I glory in being what the World calls, a poor Man. If my Mind has ever been tinctured with Envy, the Rich and the Great have not been its objects. If I have been vain, Popularity, tho' I had as much of it as any Man ought to have, is not the Phantome I have pursued. He who gains the Approbation of the Virtuous Citizens. ”

“ I was sorry to hear, that the Number of Votes returned, the last Time, did not amount to a Quarter of the Number of qualified Electors in the Commonwealth. The Choice of Legislators, Magistrates and Governors, is surely a Business of the greatest Moment, and claims the Attention of every Citizen. The Framers of our Constitution, while they gave due Attention to Political were not forgetful of Civil Liberty—that personal Freedom and those Rights of Property, which the meanest Citizen is intitled to, and the Security of which is the great End of political Society. ”

“ When deep prejudices shall be removed in some, the self interestedness of others shall cease and many honest Men, whose minds for want of better information have been clouded, shall return to the use of their own understanding, the happy and wished for time will come. The Eyes of the people have too generally been fast closed from the view of their own happiness, such alass has been always the lot of Man! but Providence, who rules the World, seems now to be rapidly changing the sentiments of Mankind in Europe and America. ”

“ The Union of the States is not less important than that of the several departments of each of them. We have all of us recently laid ourselves under a sacred obligation to defend and support our Federal and State Constitutions: A principal object in the establishment of the former, as it is expressed in the preamble, was "to form a more perfect Union:" To preserve this Union entire, and transmit it unbroken to posterity, is the duty of the People of United America, and it is for their lasting interest, their public safety and welfare. ”

“ I do not think my Countrymen are ungrateful; but I am affraid there is a Faction among them, consisting of a few Men, who are under the Dominion of those Passions which have been the Bane of Society in all Ages—Ambition and Avarice. I wish their Number may not increase. They are congenial Spirits with Hutchinson and those who aimd at grasping Wealth and Power. America, when she was wise, was jealous of such Designs. She opposd them though they were backd with the Wealth and Power of Great Britain. Such Kind of Men do me great Honor as they ever have done in being my Enemies. ”

“ Education inures Men to thinking and reflection, to reasoning and demonstration. It discovers to them the moral and religious duties they owe to God, their Country and to all Mankind. Even Savages might, by the means of Education, be instructed to frame the best civil, and political Institutions with as much skill and ingenuity, as they now shape their Arrows. Education leads youth to "the Study of human nature, society, and universal History" from whence they may "draw all the Principles" of Political Architecture, which ought to be regarded. All Men are "interested in the truth." ”

“ Who has mixed the Grave and the Vain, the Whigs and the Tories in Scenes of Amusement totally incompatible with the present serious Times? Who among the Grave and Who among the Whigs, I mean such Whigs as have a feeling for their distressd Country and the Multitudes of distressd Individuals in it, are present at such Entertainmts? Is there a Man among them to whom our Country has entrusted her Independence, her Virtue, her Liberty? ”

“ Upon a supposition, however, that you have too much magnanimity to divert yourselves on an occasion of so much importance to America, and, perhaps, not very trivial in the eyes of those who sent you, permit me to assure you, on the sacred word of a gentleman, that if you shall transport your troops to England, where before long your Prince will certainly want their assistance, we shall never follow them thither. We are not so romantically fond of fighting, neither have we such regard for the city of London, as to commence a crusade for the possession of that holy land. ”

“ Those who wish to persuade the world to believe, that a free representative Republic cannot be supported, will no doubt make use of every art to injure, and by degrees to alter, and finally to eradicate the principles of our free Constitutions: But the virtuous and enlightened citizens of this Commonwealth, and of all united America, have understanding and firmness, sufficient to support those Constitutions of Civil Government which they have themselves formed, and which have done them so much honor in the estimation of the world. ”

“ I am far from being desirous that unnecessary alterations of our Constitution, should be proposed: but it is of great consequence to the liberties of a nation, to review its civil Constitution and compare the practice of its administrators with the essential principles upon which it is founded. We, fellow-citizens, are under the strongest obligations, from the solemnity of our mutual compacts, and even our sacred oaths, with a watchful eye at every point to defend and support our Constitutions ”

“ All elections ought to be free, and every qualified elector who feels his own independence as he ought, will act his part according to his best, and most enlightened judgment. Elections are the immediate acts of the people's sovereignty, in which no foreigners should be allowed to intermeddle. Upon free and unbiassed elections, the purity of the government, and consequently the safety and welfare of the citizens, may I not say altogether depend. ”

“ But my Friend, I fear the Time will come, when a Bribe shall remove the most excellent Man from Office for the Purpose of making Room for the worst. It will be called an Error in Judgment. The Bribe will be concealed. It may however be vehemently suspected & who, in Times of great Degeneracy will venture to search out and detect the corrupt Practices of great Men? Unless a sufficient Check is provided and clearly ascertained for every Power given, will not the Constitution and the Liberties of the Citizens for want of such Checks be finally subverted. ”

“ I hope the great Business of Elections will never be left by the Many, to be done by the Few; for before we are aware of it, that few may become the Engine of Corruption—the Tool of a Junto.—Heaven forbid! that our Countrymen should ever be byass'd in their Choice, by unreasonable Predilections for any man, or that an Attachment to the Constitution, as has been the Case in other Countries, should be lost in Devotion to Persons. ”

“ The great increase of our numbers & happiness, is a standing witness to the world, of the wisdom of their measures. Oppressed as they were by the supercilious haughtiness of royal prerogative, and considered as a contemptible people at a distance from the favors of the Crown, and the flattering smiles of courtiers, their perseverance has in effect raised us, by the blessing of Providence, to an exalted degree of prosperity and glory. ”

“ When Men begin to applaud themselves, they are not easily perswaded to believe they can take a greater Share of Honor than justly belongs to them. They will be pleasd with the Adulatory Addresses of other Men & flatter themselves that they are intitled to Power and Authority as well as the ostentatious Show of Superiority above their Equals. I confess I do not barely dislike the order. With you I think it dangerous & look upon it with the Eye of Jealousy. When the Pride of Family possesses the Minds of Men it is threatning to the Community in Proportion to the Good they have done. ”