Statues: The People They Salute

Massachusetts- Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams, the subject of one of the two statues from Massachusetts in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol, was also one of the 56 signers of The Declaration of Independence.

Born on September 27, 1722, in Boston, Massachusetts, Samuel was one of twelve children. Sadly, as was all too common in the 1700s, he and two of his siblings were the only ones that would survive beyond age three.

He attended Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College at the age of 14. Attending college at age 14, if one had the family funding to do so, was not unusual. Samuel’s father was a businessman and involved in local politics. Samuel Adams attempted to follow his father’s footsteps, but wasn’t successful in commercial ventures, among them a brewery. He did like politics!

Samuel Adams was elected Tax Collector in 1756, but wasn’t very good at it. His interest was sparked by other things. He repeatedly expressed his opposition to certain taxes imposed on the colonists by Great Britain. Hmm…that does not quite comport with the job description of a tax collector…

He instead, wrote boldly about his opposition to the Stamp Act and other schemes set up by the British government to tax the Colonies, even suggesting a union of the Colonies to push back against British aggressions! These sentiments put in writing by Sam Adams are thought by many to have been the first put forth publicly.

In 1765, Sam Adams was chosen as a representative of Boston, in the General Assembly. He started the Massachusetts Circular, and in it proposed that a Colonial Congress be held in New York. As can be imagined, the Royal Governor did not appreciate Sam Adams’ “suggestions”.

Temperatures rose higher after the Boston Massacre, and raised upward to a boiling point after the Boston Tea Party, in which Tea was thrown into the sea by those who opposed British high-handed control. General Gage later put out a proclamation offering pardon to all who would return their allegiance to the British governance…John Hancock and Samuel Adams were not included in this deal.

In April 1775, when the British army advanced on Lexington, longtime British targets, Adams and John Hancock, luckily escaped, thanks to the famous warning that Paul Revere became renown for.

Samuel Adams, did not participate in military battles of the Revolutionary War. He fought in a different capacity. Among his valuable contributions were garnering popular support for the freedom cause, serving as one of the delegates at the First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia, and signing the Declaration of Independence. Samuel Adams was the Massachusetts delegate appointed to the committee to draft the Articles of Confederation. Adams also helped write the Massachusetts state constitution, and was part of the Massachusetts ratifying convention for the US Constitution.

After the Revolution, Adams served as a Massachusetts state senator, lieutenant governor, and then governor. He died on October 2, 1803, in Boston.

In 1873, sculptor Anne Whitney won a contest to create a statue of Samuel Adams for the National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol. Before being sent to Washington, D.C. the statue was exhibited at the Boston Athenæum where it proved to be so popular that the citizens of Boston commissioned a bronze version for the city. The bronze version of the statue was installed on Congress Street in Faneuil Hall Plaza in Boston in 1880, a location where Samuel Adams had courageously given speeches about the injustices of British rule and taxation.

Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page.  (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe to this Substack 😊🇺🇸🤓)