-no unpleasant surprise could be
sprung on him--twenty-five years had he studied this one theme. He had
made himself familiar with the political history of every nation so far as
such history could be gathered; he was past master of his subject.

However, when he was forty years of age his followers were few and mostly
men of small influence. The Calkers' Club was the home of the sedition,
and many of the members were day-laborers. But the idea of independence
gradually grew, and, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, Adams was elected a
member of the Massachusetts Colonial Legislature. In honor of his writing
ability, he was chosen clerk of the Assembly, for in all public gatherings
orators are chosen as presidents and newspapermen for secretaries. Thus
are honors distributed, and thus, too, does the public show which talent
it values most.

On November Second, Seventeen Hundred Seventy-two, on motion of Adams, a
committee of several hundred citizens was appointed "to state the Rights
of the Colonies and to communicate and publish them to the World as the
sense of the Town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have
been or may be made from time to time; also requesting from each Town a
free communication of their sentiments on this Subject."

This was the Committee of Correspondence from which grew the union of the
Colonies and the Congress of the United States. It is a pretty well
attested fact that the first suggestion of the Philadelphia Congress came
from Samuel Adams, and the chief work of bringing it about was also his.

It was well known to the British Government who the chief agitator was,
and when General Gage arrived in Boston in May, Seventeen Hundred
Seventy-four, his first work was an attempt to buy off Samuel Adams. With
Adams out of the way, England might have adopted a policy of conciliation
and kept America for her very own--yes, to the point of moving the home
government here and saving the snug little island as a colony, for both in
wealth and in population America has now far surpassed England.

But Adams was not for sale. His reply to Gage sounds like a scrap from
Cromwell: "I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings.
No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the Righteous Cause
of my Country."

Gage having refused to recognize the thirteen Counselors appointed by the
people, the General Court of Massachusetts, in secret session, appointed
five delegates