Samuel Adams
David C Kifer
overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common
enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once
they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties
to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge
are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be
their great security.
--Samuel Adams wrote to James Warren, February 12, 1779
The liberties of our Country, the freedom of our civil constitution are
worth defending at all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them
against all attacks. We have receiv'd them as a fair Inheritance from
our worthy Ancestors: They purchas'd them for us with toil and danger
and expence of treasure and blood; and transmitted them to us with care
and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the
present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be
wrested from us by violence without a struggle; or be cheated out of
them by the artifices of false and designing men. Of the latter we are
in most danger at present: Let us therefore be aware of it. Let us
contemplate our forefathers and posterity; and resolve to maintain the
rights bequeath'd to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. —
Instead of sitting down satisfied with the efforts we have already made,
which is the wish of our enemies, the necessity of the times, more than
ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and
perseverance. Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack
upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom." It
is a very serious consideration, which should deeply impress our minds,
that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event.
--Samuel Adams, Essay, written under the pseudonym "Candidus," in The
Boston Gazette (14 October 1771)
Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to
life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right
to support and defend them in the best manner they can.
--Samuel Adams, The Rights of Colonists, 1772
If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or
give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the
grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The
right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power
of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.
--Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the
authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the
applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.
--Samuel Adams, "Loyalty and Sedition," essay published in The
Advertiser (1748), printed in The Life and Public Service of Samuel
Adams, Volume 1, by William Vincent Wells; Little, Brown, and Company;
Boston, 1865
[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the
liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.
He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who
tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and
influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of
power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude
merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming
sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country.
It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we
may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it
but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint
of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves. It is not, I say,
unfrequent to see such instances, though at the same time I esteem it a
justice due to my country to say that it is not without shining examples
of the contrary kind; — examples of men of a distinguished attachment
to this same liberty I have been describing; whom no hopes could draw,
no terrors could drive, from steadily pursuing, in their sphere, the
true interests of their country; whose fidelity has been tried in the
nicest and tenderest manner, and has been ever firm and unshaken.
The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven,
let us become a virtuous people.
--Samuel Adams, Essay published in The Advertiser (1748) and later
reprinted in The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams, Volume 1, by
William Vincent Wells; Little, Brown, and Company; Boston, 1865
If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess
the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its
experienced Patriots to prevent its Ruin.
--Samuel Adams, Letter to James Warren (24 October 1780)
How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of
Words!
--Samuel Adams, Letter to John Pitts (21 January 1776)
If the liberties of America are ever completely ruined, of which in my
opinion there is now the utmost danger, it will in all probability be
the consequence of a mistaken notion of prudence, which leads men to
acquiesce in measures of the most destructive tendency for the sake of
present ease. When designs are formed to raze the very foundation of a
free government, those few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes
on the general ruin, will employ every art to soothe the devoted people
into a sense of indolence, inattention, and security, which is forever
the forerunner of slavery...They are alarmed at nothing so much as
attempts to awaken the people to jealousy and watchfulness...
--Samuel Adams, 1771 essay for the Boston Gazette under the pseudonym
of "Candidus"
And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress
to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience;
or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable
citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies,
unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or
more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable
and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of
grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and
seizures of their persons, papers or possessions.
--Samuel Adams As quoted in Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1850) edited by Peirce & Hale
--
Dave
"Tam multi libri, tam breve tempus!"
(Et brevis pecunia.) [Et breve spatium.]