Samuel Adams
Boston organizer of resistance to Parliament, Committee of Correspondence leader, signer, governor of Massachusetts.
Ask Samuel Adams a question
Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.
Who he was
Samuel Adams organized Boston's resistance to Parliament, led its Committee of Correspondence, signed the Declaration of Independence and later served as governor of Massachusetts.
His writings include The Rights of the Colonists (November 1772) and Boston's instructions against taxation without representation.
Why he is at the Seat
Samuel Adams speaks for the years before independence, when the argument was about consent, taxation and the rights of British subjects.
What we hold
- Editions
- Cushing, The Writings of Samuel Adams (4 vols., 1904-08)
- The Warren-Adams Letters (1917-25); only his own letters are counted
- Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 (Library of Congress, 1976-2000)
- Size
- About 590,000 words classed as his own text. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
- Coverage
- 32.1% of the 56 documents Founders Online catalogues as his. That catalogue is small, so this figure says little.
Known limits
- Cushing's edition is a selection. Many unsigned newspaper essays are uncollected or of uncertain authorship.
Questions he answers well
The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.
- Could Parliament rightfully tax the colonists without their consent?
Published answers
- Should the Constitution of 1787 be ratified as written?
- Why must religion be free from government control?
- Is a standing army in a free country dangerous?
- How should committees of correspondence organize resistance?
- Why must a free people keep public virtue?
- What are the natural rights of the colonists?
- Could Parliament rightfully tax the colonists without their consent?
- Could Parliament rightfully tax the colonists without their consent?
More in Prior Questions.