From John Winthrop,
who was the first, an almost unbroken line of these redoubtable partisans
stretched down to the Revolution, where it ended with him who is perhaps
the most celebrated of all.
Samuel Adams has been called the last of the Puritans. He was indeed the
incarnation of those qualities which led to eminence under the theocracy.
A rigid Calvinist, reticent, cool, and brave, matchless in intrigue, and
tireless in purpose, his cause was always holy, and therefore sanctified
the means.
Professor Hosmer thus describes him: "It was, however, as a manager of men
that Samuel Adams was greatest. Such a master of the methods by which a
town-meeting may be swayed, the world has never seen. On the best of terms
with the people, the shipyard men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as
the merchants and ministers, he knew precisely what springs to touch. He
was the prince of canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which his
father was the inventor.... As to his tact, was it ever surpassed?"
[Footnote: Hosmer's _Samuel Adams_, p. 363.] A bigot in religion, he
had the flexibility of a Jesuit; and though he abhorred Episcopalians, he
proposed that Mr. Duche should make the opening prayer for Congress, in
the hope of soothing the southern members. Strict in all ceremonial
observances, he was loose in money matters; yet even here he stood within
the pale, for Dr.
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