the argument that the colonists should obey England, since they were her
children:--

[Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS]

"Who among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim authority to
make your child a slave because you had nourished him in his infancy?"

After he had signed the _Declaration of Independence,_ he spoke to the
Pennsylvanians like a Puritan of old:--

"We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have
bowed down to has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayer, and
a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the
Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven,
and with a propitious eye beholds His subjects assuming that freedom of
thought and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them."

These sentences plainly show the influence of biblical thought and diction.
A century before, this compound of patriot, politician, orator, and
statesman would also have been a clergyman.

An examination of these three typical orators of the Revolution will show
that they gained their power (1) from intense interest in their subject
matter, (2) from masterful knowledge of that matter, due either to
first-hand acquaintance with it or to liberal culture or to both, (3) from
the fact that the subject of their orations appealed forcibly to the
interest of that special time, (4) from their character and personality.
Most of what they said makes dry reading to-day, but we shall occasionally
find passages, like Patrick Henry's apotheosis of liberty, which speak to