before a Virginian Convention of Delegates:--

"Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope.
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the
song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts....

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of
experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.
And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the
conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those
hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the
House? ...

"Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they
have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price
of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course
others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

It is hardly too much to say that these words have communicated to the
entire American nation an intenser desire for liberty, that their effect
has not yet passed away, and that they may during the coming centuries
serve to awaken Americans in many a crisis.

SAMUEL ADAMS (1722-1803), a Bostonian and graduate of Harvard, probably
gave his time in fuller measure to the cause of independence than any other
writer or speaker. For nine years he was a member of the Continental
Congress. When there was talk of peace between the colonies and the mother
country, he had the distinction of being one of two Americans for whom
England proclaimed in advance that there would be no amnesty granted. We
can seem to hear him in 1776 in the Philadelphia State House, replying to