WEBVTT - Episode 862: Founding Fathers – Samuel Adams 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:08.239 On this episode of This World. The lives of these 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:11.640 men are essential to understand the American form of government 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.240 and our ideals of liberty. The founding fathers all played 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.120 key roles in securing American independence from Great Britain and 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.200 in the creation of the government of the United States 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:39.960 of America. And now the life of Samuel Adams. When 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.280 you go back to the beginning, you realize that Samuel 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.000 Adams was almost born to be a rebel and a troublemaker. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.159 In college, he was reprimanded for missing morning prayer. His 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.360 senior year, he was caught drinking on campus, a much 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:58.000 more shocking event back then, although his father owned a brewery, 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.120 so maybe drinking on campus wasn't all that surprising. He 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.160 was born to a very wealthy and religious family on 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:09.559 September twenty seventh, seventeen twenty two. He was the tenth 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.440 of twelve children. We tend to forget sometimes both how 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:17.040 many children colonial family said, and also how many they 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:21.440 had lost. Only Sam ladamson. Two of his siblings made 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.560 it past childhood. That's three out of twelve. Nine did 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.640 not survive childhood. His father, Sam Ladams Senior, was a 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.160 deacon of the Congregational Church, ran a brewery and was 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.480 deeply involved in politics. Remember, by the way, that back 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.000 at a time when we did not have clean, drinkable water, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:43.240 beer really matters and its very significant fact. Guinness Stout 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.319 was one of my favorite beers. Was actually invented in 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.080 Ireland as a health drink because it was better for 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.800 you than either hard liquor or water. The founder of 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.800 Guinness Stout actually got an award for doing something involving 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.440 public health. So when you talk about people running brewers, 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:04.680 it's a much different world. In the eighteenth century, Sam 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.560 Adams is growing up and he loved politics. Now, I 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:10.760 think that's a key part of this. You know, this 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.400 is the guy who likes people, He's involved with people. 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:16.320 He's also pretty well educated. And when he was young 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.600 he attended the Boston Latin School, which has historically been 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.680 a remarkably good school. He learned Latin and Greek. He 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.280 attended Harvard College at the age of fourteen. He earned 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:31.359 his undergraduate degree in seventeen forty and a graduate degree 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.320 in seventeen forty three. This is this smart guy and 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:39.040 a pretty learned guy. Although unlike John Adams, his central 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.040 impact in history is not because of his calculated writing 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:47.119 and his calculated capacity as a literary person, but rather 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.480 because he could really organize and arouse people. Now, his 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.760 father attempted to establish a land bank in Boston. He 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.000 was popular in the colonies, but the British Parliament opposed 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.120 it and ruled the bank illegal in seventeen forty one, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.440 which led to the Adams family going bankrupt dealing with 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.080 the lawsuits that followed, and that may have been part 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.680 of why you begin to get the strong sense in 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.200 Sam Adams that the British Parliament is anti American. He 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.160 writes his Master's Thesis on quote whether it be lawful 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.600 to resist the Supreme Magistrate if the Commonwealth cannot otherwise 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.400 be preserved. Notice, he's intellectually laying the base for the 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:33.000 principle that in order to protect Americans' rights they may 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.280 have to, in fact, to use his language, resist the 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.200 Supreme Magistrate. Of course, the Supreme Magistrate automnly is the King, 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.160 and he's questioning in his Master's Thesis whether England really 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.080 legally has the right to impose taxes on the colonies. 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.760 Part of what's happened, of course, is when the English 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.320 win the French and Indian War, or the Sevent Years 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.000 Wars it's called in Europe, and the French are driven 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.000 out of Canada all of a sudden, the Americans aren't 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.880 faced with any kind of significant threat, and at the 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.400 same time, the British have this huge debt they've run 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.160 up in fighting the Seven Years War, which was a 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:15.280 genuinely worldwide war started by the way by George Washington 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.719 as a very young man in western Pennsylvania. They want 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.880 to raise taxes at the very moment that the Americans think, hey, 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.680 everything's worked out fine, we don't need your protection and 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.440 we don't need to give you money. So Sam Adams, 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.760 in that sense, coming off the grievance of the British Parliament, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.279 having destroyed his father's family wealth, decided that he would 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:39.240 in fact become more and more militant in favor of freedom. Now, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.560 when he did graduate, he was going to practice law, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:46.000 which his cousin John Adams does do brilliantly. But his 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.520 mother was against Sam Adams becoming a lawyer, so she 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.240 convinced him to become a clerk at accounting house Centsia Bank. 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:55.760 His father tried to get his son into business by 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.279 giving him a thousand pounds to start his own business, 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.359 but Adams wasn't the businessman. He lost the money because 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.960 that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to focus on politics, 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.919 and while he's working at the brewery, Adams, at the 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.279 age of twenty six, and a group of his friends 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:17.120 started Quote The Independent Advertisers, a newspaper where anonymously they 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.680 questioned England's rule and demanded more rights for the colonies. 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.040 Paper lasted about a year. The first edition of the 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.400 paper was published in Boston on January fourth, seventeen forty eight. 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.560 The first edition started with the following quote, upon the 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.480 encouragement we've already received and agreeable to our printed proposals, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:41.120 the Independent Advertiser now makes its entrance into the world, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.880 And as it will doubtless be expected upon its first appearance, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.080 that we should more fully explain our design and show 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.040 what the public may expect of it, we would accordingly 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.200 observe that we shall be no means endeavor to recommend 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.320 this out paper by depreciating the merit of other performances 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.520 of the same kind. Neither would we flatter the expectations 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.920 of the public by any pompous promises which we may 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.040 not be likely to fulfill. But this our reader may 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.880 depend upon. That we shall take the utmost care to 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.520 procure the freshest and best intelligence, and publish it in 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.919 such an order as that every reader may have the 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.080 cleanest and most perfect understanding of it. And for the 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.480 benefit of those who are unacquainted with the geography of 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.560 foreigner parts, we may insert such descriptions as may enlighten them. 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:28.560 Therein now part, what they're saying is Boston is a 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.480 great port. People are showing up in Boston. Ships are 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.920 coming into Boston from all over the Atlantic, and what 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:36.240 they want to do is they want to get the 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.200 news before anybody else print it, so you can learn 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.320 what's happening around the world because of that. Now, he 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.240 also makes a political commitment in this very first newspaper. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.279 He says, quote, as our present political state matter for 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.400 a variety of thoughts of peculiar importance to the people 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.279 of New England, we propose to insert everything of that 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:02.040 nature that may be pertinently and wrote for ourselves. We 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.000 declare we are no party, neither shall we promote the 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.520 private and narrow designs of any such. We are ourselves free, 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.680 and our papers shall be free, free as the Constitution 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.679 we enjoy, free to truth, good manners, and good sense, 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:20.520 and at the same time free from all licentsious reflections, 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.760 insolence and abuse. Now notice here, becauseus will come up 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.000 again and again. And Sam Adams is one of the 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.280 people who is a great propagandist. The emphasis on free, 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:35.000 the word free. We are ourselves free, our paper will 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.640 be free, free as the Constitution we enjoy. I notice 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.120 he's already claiming that there's a constitution, and in British 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:47.080 tradition it's unwritten but understood. Free to truth, good manners, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.880 and good sense, and at the same time free from 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.560 all licentious reflections, insolence and abuse. So think about that. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.760 In this one paragraph that comes back to the word 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.400 free again and again, and he asserts, but there is 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.880 a constitution, which is why when the British Parliament begins 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:08.680 to impose taxes, they are violating an already existing constitution. 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.800 The Americans, in their view, do not have to fight 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.360 for liberty. They are born into liberty. They are born 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.080 into a constitution. Now, as an activist and somebody who 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.640 was very good at working with people in seventeen forty seven, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.200 Adams is elected to his first political position as one 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.880 of the clerks of the Boston Market, where he served 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.720 for nine years. A year later, seventeen forty eight, both 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.480 his parents died, leaving him with their estate and in 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.600 charge of the family's brewery business. He was also left 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.760 with the numerous lawsuits connected to the land bank that 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.280 his father had tried to establish. Adams just not a 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.800 good businessman. He's unable to make ends meet. He loses 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.000 the brewery business. The government foreclosed in his family's estate, 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.800 but Adams used his ability in writing to threaten potential 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.320 buyers and was able to keep the estate while the 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.400 government was trying to sell it. People this wouldn't buy it. 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:04.440 In seventeen forty nine, Samuel Adams married Elizabeth Checkley. According 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.560 to adams quote, she was a rare example of virtue 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.160 and piety, blended with a retiring and modest demeanor and 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.560 the charms of elegant womanhood. Three years of junior. Elizabeth 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.520 was the daughter of Samuel Checkley, his pastor at the 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.240 Old South Meetinghouse. The couple had six children, only two 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:26.000 of which reached maturity before Elizabeth Adams passed in seventeen 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.360 fifty seven due to complications of childbirth. After her death, 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.400 Adams immersed himself in politics. He worked briefly as a 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.360 tax collector in seventeen fifty six, but since he often 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.840 failed to collect the required taxes and was leaning with 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.360 many who could not pay higher rates, he was fired 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.480 and held liable for the lost income. Once again he's 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.680 angry at the government. However, this gave him the change 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.400 to establish connections which served him in the future. He 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.920 went his second wife, Elizabeth Wells, in seventeen sixty four. 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.000 Wells was the daughter of his good friend Francis Wells, 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.720 a successful Boston merchant. The couple had no children together, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.160 but she embraced her chip children as her own and 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.560 supported her husband throughout his political career. In seventeen sixty four, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.719 the British government, trying to pay for the debts that 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.840 had build up, passed the Sugar Act. As a member 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.240 of the town Meeting, Adams was vocal against the Act. 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.960 On May twenty fourth, seventeen sixty four, he wrote to 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.600 the representatives of Boston, quote, for if our trade may 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:30.480 be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.040 of our lands and everything we possess or make use 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.440 of this, we apprehend, annihilates our charter right to govern 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:41.400 and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.520 as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.720 with our fellow subjects who are natives of Britain. If 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.240 taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.400 having a legal representation where they are laid, are we 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.160 not reduced from the character of free subjects to the 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.840 miserable state of tributary slaves. So here you have already 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.240 seventeen sixty four. The core argument. The argument is we 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.760 are British by definition, we are part of the British Constitution. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.280 The British Constitution, of course, goes all the way back 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:15.000 to the signing of the Great Charter the Magna Carta, 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.880 and therefore people are not allowed to be taxed unless 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.600 they give their approval. And so they see this as 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:26.120 an assault on existing rights. They're not claiming new rights. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.320 They're claiming that their rights go back in history for 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:32.240 hundreds and hundreds of years, and it is the government 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:51.559 which is assaulting them. A year later, got worse. The 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.400 British government passed the Stamp Act again an effort to 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.920 get money to pay off all these various debts. Adams 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:02.160 at that point took the streetsited political party, the Country Party, 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:06.520 with two opposing parties, North Boston and South Boston, led 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.360 by John Hancock and James Otis, to form the Sons 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.199 of Liberty. Noticed again the language the Sons of Liberty. 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.720 Adams wrote Instructions of the Town of Boston to its 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.080 representatives in the General Court in September seventeen sixty four, 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:25.080 and he's really laying out their argument. They are alarmed 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.160 and astonished at the attack called the Stamp Act, by 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:32.960 which I very grievous and we apprehend unconstitutional tax is 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.160 to be laid upon the colony. So notice they are 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.199 literally arguing that they already have what they called are 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.800 invaluable rights and liberties, and so they see this as 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:49.120 an attack on existing rights. They're not arguing for new rights. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.000 They are defending what they see as old rights. That 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.480 rebellion led to the Stamp Act Congress, where all but 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.800 four of the colonies demanded that the King repeal the 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.720 tacks worked. The British gave up in seventeen sixty six 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.880 and never collected the taxes. Adam was elected that year 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.320 in seventeen sixty six to the House of Representatives as 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.600 a clerk. As clerk, he was responsible for basic record 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:16.080 keeping and communicating with the colony's agent in London and 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.959 with other legislative assemblies in other colonies. This is where 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.400 he met John Hancock for the first time. Although most 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.520 representatives did not receive a salary adam as clerk did 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.400 and had a steady income, this allowed him to focus 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.800 even more on politics. In seventeen sixty seven, Parliament approved 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.119 a series of taxes on items imported in the colonies, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.679 known as the Townshen Acts. This act also created an 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:45.319 American Board of Customs Commissioners to enforce collection, which established 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.040 their headquarters in Boston. It's almost as though the Parliament 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.880 is so desperate for money, and their reasoning is pretty simple. 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.000 They had fought a large war against France in part 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.600 to protect the Americans. They borrowed all this money in 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.640 order to wage the war to protect the Americans and 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.040 the Americans and other beneficiaries of having Canada to the 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.040 north be a British colony. So why weren't the Americans 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:12.200 grateful and generous? And apparently in Parliament they just couldn't 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.400 get through their head how much this was infuriating and 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:20.280 alienating the Americans. When news of the towns and Acts 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.600 reaches Massachusetts in the autumn of seventeen sixty seven, Adams 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:29.320 immediately employed the Boston Town Meeting to organize protests in Boycott's. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.240 In January seventeen sixty eight, he motioned the General Court 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.080 to draft a petition to the King urging that he 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:40.880 respects the charter rights of Massachusetts. Notice they're not creating rights. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.880 They want the King to respect existing rights. The motion 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.960 faced opposition from rural town representatives who aligned with the Parliament, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.680 so Adams waited until the end of the legislative session, 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:55.120 when many of those who opposed departed back home, before 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.960 putting the motion forth. It easily passed. So here you 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.960 see him maneuvering thinking, becoming a pretty effective politician. The 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.760 General Court sent the letter the petition with the letter 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.880 to other colonies. It was known as the Massachusetts Circular Letter, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.080 which Adams was one of the authors alongside James Otis. 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.600 The letter read, quote, the House of Representations of this 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:21.120 Province have taken into their serious consideration the great difficulties 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.200 the must accrue to themselves in their constituents by the 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.040 operation of several acts of Parliament imposing duty and taxes 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:32.560 on the American colonies. So they are really into this 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:36.520 issue of the Constitution, which they assert already exists, and 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.000 they are really into the concept that the British Parliament 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:45.000 is now usurping their powers and threatening them in very 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.440 very serious ways. And they assert, quote, in all free states, 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.800 the Constitution is fixed, and as the Supreme Legislative derives 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.080 its power and authority from the Constitution, it cannot overleap 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:01.080 the bounds of it without destroying its own foundation. That 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:05.600 the Constitution ascertains and limits both sovereignty and allegiance. And 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.840 therefore His Majesty's American subjects, who acknowledge themselves bound by 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.360 the ties of allegiance, have an equitable claim to the 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.200 full enjoyment of the fundamental rules of the British Constitution. 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.280 That it is an essential, on alterable right in nature, 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.520 and grafted into the British Constitution as a fundamental law, 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.160 and ever held sacred and irrevocable by the subjects within 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:32.160 the realm, that what a man has honestly acquired is 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.280 absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.680 be taken from him without his consent, That the American 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:44.000 subjects may, therefore, exclusive of any consideration of Charter rights, 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.680 with a decent firmness, adapted to the character of free 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:53.320 men and subjects, assert this natural and constitutional right. So 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.720 they're saying, we literally have under natural law, we have 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.280 achieved this. This is the forerunner of what Jeff Person 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.880 will write in the Declaration of Independence when he says 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.639 we are endowed by our Creator with certain honorable rights, 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.600 among which your life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Well, 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.399 that's exactly what Adams is beaten to drift towards. That 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.080 these rights existed outside of any kind of specific contract. 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.520 They are inherent their part of being British. And the 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:26.720 result was that they had put together a real opposition. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.520 There was a threat to the core of the British system. 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.600 Lord Hillsborough, who's the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.840 received the letter and then ordered that the letter be 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.600 taken back. Hillsborough threatened them said if they refused, he 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.920 would order Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard to dissolve the General Court. 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:49.400 Despite that threat, the legislative voted to refuse to rescind 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.600 the letter by ninety two to seventeen. Governor Bernard, in response, 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.480 dissolved them. They did not reconvene for another year. In 0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.920 other words, faced with a direct order from the British government, 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:04.439 by ninety two to seventeen, the legislatures are voting to 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:08.159 defy the British government. Now this is the beginning of 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:13.520 really moving towards a serious confrontation. Troops arrive in Boston 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.880 on October first, seventeen sixty eight, and while they're arriving, 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.840 Adams is authoring over twenty newspaper articles, usually under the 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:26.320 pen names Index and Candidas, using the pseudonym Index. In 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:31.240 the Boston Gazette in December seventeen sixty eight, he writes, quote, well, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.320 the spirits of the people is yet unsubdued by tyranny, 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.080 on awed by the menace of arbitrary power, submit to 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.119 be governed by military force. No let us rouse our 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.960 attention to the common law, which is our birthright, our 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.120 great security against all kinds of insult and oppression, the law, which, 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.639 when rightly used, is the curb in the terror of 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:58.040 the haughtiest tyrant. So he's really putting together the core 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.919 argument about the nature of freedom and the idea that 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.000 freedom belongs to you. It's not given to you by 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:08.200 the government. Freedom starts with you, and then you may 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.840 loan part of it to the government, but the center 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.880 of us always you, the individual citizen. And Adams advocate 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.680 that Boston merchants just refused to import all British goods 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.240 for a year. They didn't get one hundred percent support 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.000 for it, but they got enough that all of a sudden, 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.720 the British merchants are complaining to Parliament that the alienation 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.520 is getting to be expensive to them. And so where 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.719 the British Parliament had thought, oh, this would be pretty easy, 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.040 they'll obviously have to pay the taxes. What this discovering 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.560 is every time they take a step to oppress those 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.199 who are angry, there are more people angry, and so 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.080 there's a whole process underway here in which people are 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.639 gradually banding together to oppose what the British are doing. 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.040 Adams wanted to extend it beyond one year, but it 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.480 just wasn't possible. On February twenty second, seventeen seventy, when 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:04.679 harassed by a mob, a minor customs official named Ebenezer 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:09.320 Richardson accidentally shot and killed eleven year old Christopher Cedar. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.440 Although probably an accident, Adams used this as an opportunity 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.439 to call out the presence of British troops. Adams organized 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.600 a public funeral that was attended by over two thousand 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.119 people for this young eleven year old who'd been killed. 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:27.440 By March fifth, seventeen seventy nine, British soldiers faced off 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.840 a mob of several hundred angry citizens. They fired into 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:35.080 the crowd, killing five and wounding six citizens. That began 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:39.000 to be the Boston massacre. On March sixth, Adams led 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.240 a committee to demand the removal of British troops in 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:46.560 an emergency session. After Adams addressed the assembly, they unanimously 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:50.000 voted for removal of the troops. Now this is a real, 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.240 I think significant repudiation of the British ability to extend power. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.879 Governor Hutcheson understands how big a threat this is. On 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.359 the same day, writes to William Dalrymple, the commander of 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.800 the military, quote, I am sensible. I have no power 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:07.960 to order the troops to the castle, but under the 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.080 present circumstance of the town and the province I cannot 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.080 avoid in consequence of this unanimous advice to the Council 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.679 designing you to order them there, which I must submit 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.080 to you. Lieutenant Colonel Dalrymple agreed to this and ordered 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.600 the troops to Castle Island in the Harbor. So the 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:28.240 American citizens feel like they're winning. The soldiers involved in 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:32.040 the shooting were arrested and waited trial. But it's fascinating. 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:37.200 This is a great story in American history because they 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.919 wanted a fair trial. Even Samuel Adams, who was one 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:45.600 of the hottest and most aggressive of the Americans, knew 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:47.879 that it had to be a fair trial. And of 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:50.440 course most attorneys did not want to defend the British, 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.640 so Adams got his cousin John Adams and Josiah Quincy 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.960 to defend them. It's a brilliant move. John Adams is 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.800 a great lawyer. At the time, I think hurts him 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.160 sum in terms of the people of Boston. But they 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.399 made the argument that the soldiers were only firing out 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:11.399 of self defense and there wasn't their fault that they 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:13.719 were there. They'd been ordered to go there. So of 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.760 the soldiers only two were found guilty of manslaughter. Adams 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:22.520 actually opposed the court decision and really was on the 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:44.720 side of the American revolutionaries. In April seventeen seventy, in 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:48.400 an effort to find a middle ground, Parliament repeals all 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:52.040 the towns and taxes except one, the tax on tea. 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:55.880 In the late spring of seventeen seventy one, news came 0:22:55.960 --> 0:23:01.480 that Parliament would no longer allow the legislature to pay 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:04.920 the governor's salary, but instead the governor's salary will be 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:08.240 paid with revenue from the t tax. At that point 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:11.800 people begin to get really upset. By the autumn seventeen 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:15.200 seventy two, the news broke the judges the Supreme Court 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:17.920 would like the governor not be paid by the legislature. 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:21.720 Now what's happening is the British Parliament is gradually creating 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:25.040 a class of people whose loyalty is to London, and 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.320 who are prepared to impose on the people of Massachusetts. 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:32.920 Now Adams when they learned that the judges as well 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.040 as the governor are going to be paid directly from 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.760 the tax, writes an article on the Boston Gazette under 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:44.960 the name Valerius Publicola. He writes this quote to what 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:48.679 a state of infamy, wretchedness, and misery. Shall we be 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.520 reduced if our judges shall be prevailed upon to be 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.600 thus degraded to hirelings, and the body of the people 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:58.440 shall suffer their free constitution to be overturned and ruined. 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:02.520 Let not the iron hand of tyranny ravish our laws 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:05.520 and seize the badge of freedom, and the murderous rage 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:08.760 of lawless power be ever seen on the sacred seat 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:11.560 of justice. Now, by the way, it's interesting, I want 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:16.600 to the paper in which I realized that reforming judges 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:21.040 was the number two demand of the colonists, after the 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:24.040 right of taxation. They were so angry at the way 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.680 that the judges had become creatures of the state against 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:31.800 the people that much of what we see in the 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:36.240 Constitution in limiting the judges is a function of what 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:40.240 they had experienced under the British where the judges became 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:44.520 the tools of the king against the people. By late 0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:47.639 seventeen seventy two, Adams is writing a pamphlet The Rights 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:51.240 of the Colonists, and again this really is a precursor 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:54.720 to Jefferson. Listen to it. Quote, Among the natural rights 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.360 of the colonists are these first a right to life, 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:02.159 second to liberty, third property, together with the right to 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:04.400