ADAMS, SAMUEL (1722-1803), American statesman, born in Boston (Mass.), on Sept. 27, 1722, a second cousin to the elder John Adams. He graduated at Harvard college in 174o and began the study of law. Though he repeatedly failed in business and was sued because of his easy methods as tax-collector, he became so influential in local politics as to be called the "Man of the Town Meeting." He first came into wider prominence at the beginning of the Stamp Act episode, when as author of Boston's instructions to its representatives in the general court of Massachusetts he urged strenuous opposition to taxation by act of parliament. At about the same time he was elected to the lower house of the general court, in which he served until 1774, after 1766 as clerk. As James Otis's vigour and influ ence declined, Adams took a more prominent position in the revolutionary councils, in which he advised against any form of compromise. Many of the Massachusetts revolutionary documents, including the famous "Massachusetts Resolves" and the circular letter to the legisla tures of the other colonies, are from his pen. Indeed, there can be no question that he was one of the first American political leaders to deny the legislative power of parliament and to desire and advocate separation from the mother country.
To promote the ends he had in view Adams suggested non importation, instituted the Boston committees of correspondence, urged that a Continental Congress be called, and wrote a vast number of articles for the newspapers, especially the Boston Ga zette, over a multitude of signatures. He was, in fact, one of the most voluminous and influential political writers of his time. His style is clear, vigorous and epigrammatic ; his arguments are characterized by strength of logic and appeals to passion, and are based not so much on precedent and documentary authority as on "natural right." Although he lacked oratorical fluency, his short speeches, like his writings, were forceful; and he was an eminently successful manager of men, shrewd, wily, adroit, an adept in all the arts of the politician. He is considered to have done more than any other one man, in the years immediately preceding the War of Independence, to mould and direct public opinion in his community; and by his contemporaries he was credited with equally successful management of the delegates to the first Continental Congress.
During the intense excitement which followed the "Boston Massacre," Adams skilfully secured the removal of the soldiers from the town to a fort in the harbour. He also managed the proceedings of the "Boston Tea Party," and later he was leader in the opposition to the Boston Port bill. One of the objects of the expedition sent by the governor, Gen. Thomas Gage, to Lex ington (q.v.) and Concord on April 18-19, 1775, was the capture of Adams and John Hancock, temporarily staying in Lexington, and when Gage issued his proclamation of pardon on June 12 he excepted these two, whose offences, he said, were "of too flagi tious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment." As a delegate to the Continental Congress, from 1774 to 1781, Adams vigorously opposed any concession to the British Govern ment ; strove for harmony among the several Colonies in the common cause ; served on the committee to prepare a plan of con federation and signed the Declaration of Independence. His most important service was in organizing the forces of revolu tion before 1775. In 1779 he was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of Massachusetts adopted in 1780, and in 1788 a member of the Massachusetts convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States. From 1789 to 1794 Adams was lieutenant-governor of his State, and from 1794 to 1797 governor. After the formation of parties he became allied with the Democratic-Republicans rather than with the Federalists. He died in Boston on Oct. 2, 1803.