city and pungent common sense. His ideas were plain, pertinent, and forcible; comprehended by all with ease, and long remembered for their pith and point.* He moved much among the masses of mankind, and knew how to sway their thoughts. This apostle of liberty, like the heralds of salvation, began first to preach to the common people, and ultimately attained an influence that made despots tremble on their thrones.

One great secret of the power of his popular address, probably, lay in the unity of his purpose and the energy of his pursuit. He passionately loved freedom, and subordinated every thing to its attainment. This kind of inspiration is a necessary pre-requisite to eminent

success.

Samuel Adams had more logic in his composition than rhetoric, and was accustomed to convince the judgment rather than inflame the passions; and, yet, when the occasion demanded, he could give vent to the ardent and patriotic indignation of which his heart was often full.

His education was substantial and thorough; his reading and observation comprehensive and exact. The principal decorative element in his mental culture was music, of which he was a proficient and devoted admirer. Like Milton, whom he resembled in many points, stern and rugged in general character, he could

feel music's pulse in all his arteries," and was accustomed to turn away from exhausting struggles for human weal and seek solace in the luxury of sweet sounds. In him there was a happy blending of strength and beauty of the highest kind. He was not eloquent

in the ordinary sense of the term, as his speech had more of substance than show. His deductions were clear, cogent, and to the purpose; his language was chaste, luminous, and pointed; his fluency seldom impeded, and his action always impressive; so that, in their energetic union, his great mental and moral qualities possessed a charm which never failed to win upon the confidence and captivate the judgment of his audience.x He had little of those coruscations of fancy, transient gleams such as "live in the rainbow and play in the plighted clouds;" but was richly endowed with those more exalted qualities which enabled him to speak in "the large utterance of the early gods." He always steered in the dignified medium between tameness and ferocity. There was a mingling of heroical and Christian graces in him, which showed, that the ambition of his soul, and the symmetry of his thoughts, were fashioned after the sublimest models, and for a better world.

One who knew him intimately has described him as being one of the most ardent of the patriots, before and during the Revolution; a popular writer and energetic speaker. "He was of common size, of muscular form, light blue eyes, light complexion, and erect in person, He wore a tie wig, cocked hat, and red cloak. His manner was very serious." His enunciation is said to have been remarkably slow, distinct, and harmonious. Whenever he arose to address a popular assembly, every murmur was hushed at the first flash of that "sparkling eye beneath a veteran brow." Expectation was on tiptoe for something weighty from his lips, and was seldom disappointed. "Eloquence," said Boling

broke, "must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy water on some gaudy day, and remain dry the rest of the year."

The encomium which Ben Jonson pronounced on Lord Bacon's speaking may be justly applied to Samuel Adams. "There happened in my time one noble speaker who was full of gravity in his speech. His language was nobly censorious. No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end."

ter.

The patriotism of Samuel Adams was undoubted, and his personal worth was of the most exalted characThe influence he exerted on the destinies of the country was probably more potent and salutary than that of any other man. He might not cope with some others in the ability to convulse or console an audience in tumultuous debate, but he could privately lead the leaders. Plain, quiet, indigent, sagacious, patriotic old Puritan, as he was, now melting his stern soul into unwonted tears of joy, and pacing the "Common" with exulting step, because that morning he had "won that chivalrous young aristocrat, John Hancock," to the defence of the popular cause; and now glancing, with

a sly twinkle in his eye, at fiery resolutions pendant from the "Tree of Liberty," purporting to have been produced nocturnally by the serene goddess herself, but which, he well knows, first saw the light by his solitary lamp; and, anon, ensconced behind the "deacon's seat" in "Old South," with an immense throng crowding the double galleries to the very ceiling, he stealthily passes up a pungent resolution, which kindles some more excitable mouth-piece, and, finally, inflames the heaving and swelling mass with spontaneous cries of "Boston harbor a tea-pot to night!"-why, he was, indeed, a power behind the throne greater than the throne, he ruled the winds that moved the waves.

Our third general point relates to the service which Samuel Adams rendered to his country and the world by the force of his example. A few words on this topic.

The

The character of a man, viewed at large, is the aggregate of his passions, and his passions are developed and toned by the circumstances of his situation. most striking personages in history are produced by a great variety of little incidents; as from an infinity of minute threads of hemp the mightiest cables are formed.

We have seen that Mr. Adams early became interested in the welfare of his country; to promote her weal he devoted all the wealth he inherited and all the talents he possessed. From a humble position in life, he rose through successive gradations of rank until, in 1795, he became governor of his native commonwealth. The respect paid him at home and abroad was such

as his extraordinary merits were calculated to command.

George Clymer, of Philadelphia, writing from England to Josiah Quincy, Jr., directed his friend as follows:

"I beg you will make my particular compliments to Mr. Hancock and Mr. S. Adams. There are no men more worthy of general esteem; the latter I cannot sufficiently respect for his integrity and abilities. All good Americans should erect a statue to him in their hearts."

Josiah Quincy, in turn, writing to his wife from London, in a letter dated Dec. 7, 1774, remarks:

"The character of Mr. Samuel Adams stands very high here. I find many who consider him the first politician in the world. I have found more reason every day to convince me that he has been right when others supposed him wrong."

General Joseph Read, of Pennsylvania, on being offered a heavy bribe by Governor Johnson in 1778 returned this pithy answer to the corrupt attempt on his republican loyalty. "I am not worth purchasing, but such as I am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it." Such integrity was not uncommon, during our Revolution, but in Samuel Adams it was proverbial. He might have declared at any time, without fear of contradiction, with Cardinal de Retz, "In the most difficult times of the Republic, I never deserted the State; in her most prosperous fortune, I never never tasted of her sweets; in her most desperate circumstances, I knew not fear." During the most