patriotic young men of to-day, but some excuse is found in the fact that
a popular, concise biography has, until lately, not been written. The
excellent three volume work of Mr. Wells, Adams' great grandson,
although admirable as an exhaustive biography, is too voluminous for the
common reader; but since the appearance of Prof. Hosmer's recent book[2]
there can be no reason why any schoolboy should not have a clear idea of
the life of the man who organized the Revolution.

It is only as a patriot that Samuel Adams claims our attention. Although
college bred he was a man of letters only so far as his pen could write
patriotic resolutions and scathing letters against the government of
King George. These letters were printed for the most part in the "Boston
Gazette," published by Edes & Gill in Court Street. As a business man he
was never a success. For years he kept the old malt house on Purchase
Street, but he gave the business little thought, for his mind was
constantly engrossed in public matters, and at last he made no pretext
of attending to any matter of private business, depending for support
only upon his small salary as clerk of the assembly. No one will ever
accuse Samuel Adams of any selfish ambition, and, although his every act
will not bear the closest application of the square and rule, yet he
never deceived nor used a doubtful method in the least degree for
personal gain.

Adams did not begin his public career early in life. In 1764 he was
chosen a member of the committee to instruct the representatives just
elected to the General Court, and the paper drafted on that occasion is
the first document from his pen of which we now have any trace, and is
memorable, moreover, because it contains the first public denial of the
authority of the Stamp Act. Adams was now forty-two, his hair was
already touched with gray, and "a peculiar tremulousness of the head and