As 2012 comes quickly to a close I can see Mr. Adams seething in frustration with all that occurred in 2012. Having been known for his strong opinions I’m sure that he would open the floodgates of commentary in his eloquent manner condemning the acts of usurpation and tyranny being perpetrated on the Citizenry. Sadly, as seen by the November election results, the majority does not understand the tyranny closing the noose of modern feudalism around their lives. Mr Adams was making efforts to effect a moral reform in Boston & Massachusetts and was not meeting with much success, though public meetings at which Mr. Adams presided were held on the subject (Boston Town Records, 1780, 1781) and he attempted to effect something by uniting families. Writing to a friend on the increasing lacking and moral degradation of public manners, he says:
“It was asked in the of Charles the Second of England, ‘How shall we turn the minds of the people from an attention to their liberties?’ The answer was, ‘By making them extravagant, luxurious, and effeminate.’ Hutchinson advised the curtailment of what are called English liberties by the same means. ‘We shall never subdue them’, said Bernard, ‘but by eradicating their manners and the principles of their education.’ Will the judicious citizens of Boston be now caught in the snare which their artful, insidious enemies, a few years ago, laid for them in vain? Shall we ruin ourselves by the very means which they pointed out in their confidential letters, though even they did not dare to openly confess them? … Our Bradfords, Winslows, and Winthrops would have revolted at the idea of opening scenes of (squandering of money, energy, and resources) and folly (lack of good sense; foolishness), knowing them to be inconsistent with their great design in transplanting themselves into what they called this outside of the world. But I fear I shall say too much. I love the people of Boston. I once thought that city would be the Christian Sparta. But alas! will men never be free? They will be free no longer than while they remain virtuous. Sydney tells us, there are times when people are not worth saving; meaning, when they have lost their virtue. I pray this may never be truly said of my beloved town”
So in this closing of 2012, Mr. Adams would be praying for God’s mercy on Boston and these United States for losing our virtue and our freedom follows down the gutter of moral degradation.
It is important that we step back a moment and take the time to understand that this “Father of the Revolution” always approached every aspect of life and the fight for Liberty from his devout Puritan Christian perspective. Let’s look at the character sketch summarized in the Three Volumes of the “Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams”:
“Thomas Jefferson, then just elected President of the United States, wrote to his (Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams, Feb. 26, 1801) “ever respected and venerable friend: “Your principles have been tested in the crucible of time, and have come out pure. You have proved that it was monarchy, and not merely British monarchy, you opposed. A government by representatives, elected by the people at short periods, was our object, and our maxim at that day was, ‘Where annual election ends, tyranny begins.’” Jefferson’s remarks were applicable, not only to the period of the Revolution, but to the whole lifetime of Samuel Adams. The spirit which, in his boyhood, dictated the college thesis advocating the lawfulness of resistance to tyranny was the same that spoke in the Independent Advertiser five years later for the right of remonstrating public grievances and against the exercise of lawless power.
Adams would be again, in 2012, raising the awareness of not only the international tyranny of the United Nations being imposed on the Citizenry through treaty, executive commitment and executive order, but by a direct assault on Founders Intent for self-governance by congressional actions that foster over-reaching bureaucratic regulation and executive usurpation’s. If one looks with seeing eyes, the actions of congress over the last 50 years and Parliament during Adams time, have uncanny parallels of attacking Liberty, Property, Life and Religious Freedom. But again, even the churches in America no longer understand the Liberty Principles as Adams understood them.
It was said of Adams,
“If he preferred the mode of divine worship in which he was born and educated to other religious institutions of antiquity (being of Puritan heritage), or to other forms in which Christianity has appeared, it was not from the prejudices of education, or mere mechanical habit; but because he conceived our churches, when confined to their original design, were excellent schools of morality; that they were adapted to promote the future happiness of mankind; and because by experience he had known them a powerful auxiliary in defending the civil as well as religious privileges of America. In this mode of thinking he was instituted. The purity of his life witnessed the sincerity of his profession, and with the same faith he expired. The last printed production of which he was the author has given unquestionable proofs of his belief in, and respect for, our holy religion.
“Much may be collected from the religious and moral character of this great man whom we have attempted to describe which will assist us in the same laudable design. Such an example of piety and purity is better than a system of ethics to instruct us in our duty to Almighty God, and in the practice of those moral and social virtues which embellish and dignify human life. We have had presented before us a man struggling with adverse fortune, yet elevated by his mind above every external evil; never discouraged by the numerous obstacles opposing his progress; performing with fortitude every dangerous duty; equally uniform, open, and consistent in his opinion and conduct, under the cruel coldness and negligence of his friend, as under the malignant obloquy and rancor of his enemy; and finally, under the darkest scenes of his existence, refreshing the native energy of his soul by sublime contemplation on the wisdom and goodness of the eternal Providence. And now let me ask whether the portrait thus exhibited doth not warrant us in borrowing the eulogium of the son of Sirah on King Josiah, and applying it to our departed friend. “His remembrance is like the composition of a perfume made by the art of the apothecary. It is sweet as honey in all mouths, and as music at a banquet of wine.”
This great Patriot understood that all government and those governing are under the rule of the King of the Universe and that to violate the Liberties of the Citizenry is evil. To burden the future generations with debt as is being implemented in 2012 would be considered by Adams the enslavement of the future generations. Adams would decry the enactment of laws and regulations that promote the taking of property, the killing of the innocent unborn and the acceptance of lewd and immoral behavior as homosexuality – all funded by Citizens taxation – he would consider this total deprivation, non-virtuous and an affront to God’s design of humanity. Yet all of this acceptance and enslavement is reaching a pinnacle in 2012.
As Governor of Massachusetts hear how Adams approached the time of legislative session:
“It having been the invariable practice, derived from the days of our renowned ancestors, at this season of the year to set apart a day of public fasting and prayer, and the practice appearing to be in itself productive, if well improved, of happy effects on the public mind,
“I have therefore thought fit, by and with the advice and consent of the Council, to appoint Thursday, the fourth day of May next ensuing, to be observed and improved throughout this Common wealth for the purpose of public fasting and prayer, earnestly recommending to the ministers of the Gospel, with their respective congregations, then to assemble together and seriously to consider, and with one united voice to confess, our past sins and transgressions, with holy resolutions, by the grace of God, to turn our feet into the path of His law, humbly beseeching Him to endue us with all the Christian spirit of piety, benevolence, and the love of our country; and that in all our public deliberations we may be possessed of a sacred regard to the fundamental principles of our free, elective, civil Constitutions; that we may be preserved from consuming fires and all other desolating judgments.
“And as at this season the general business of the year commences, it seems highly proper humbly to implore the Divine blessing on our husbandry, trade, and fishery, and all the labor of our hands; on our University and schools of education; on the administration of the government of the United States; and in a particular manner that all misunderstanding between them and a sister republic may be happily so adjusted as to prevent an open rupture and establish permanent peace.
“And as it is our duty to extend our wishes to the happiness of the great family of man, I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world that the rod of tyrants may be broken into pieces, and the oppressed made free; that wars may cease in all the earth, and that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing on that holy and happy period when the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and all the people willingly bow to the sceptre of Him who is the Prince of Peace.”
The actions of the various states and the federal governments would have Mr. Adams chastising every elected person for allowing this breath of government overreach and the insidiousness of statist central planners to openly institute a power seizure that would be repugnant to the Founders of this Nation. But, the moderns wanted and elected “guardians” as de Tocqueville predicted – those that would “fundamentally change America.” When you change fundamentals, you go away from the principles of “Original Intent.”
Finally, it seems that as Adams was eulogized there was a greater hope that he left; one that should have been the integral essence of 2012 instead of the deeper imposition of tyranny. Here are the closing comments about Samuel Adams by WILLIAM V. WELLS:
“Finally, if we wish to continue those copious blessings already enumerated, and to convey them for an inheritance to posterity, let us cultivate the memory and virtue of those illustrious men by whom they were obtained. Let their august image ever dwell be fore our eyes; that they may still live, not merely on marble or canvas, or yet in the historic page, but in the heart and morals of the survivor. Then may we expect from the tomb of the patriots, as the phoenix from its ashes, their exalted worth, their dignified qualities, will be newly delineated in the life and actions of posterity; and that our country will still produce characters so elevated and noble, that even those venerable shades will cheerfully hail them as kindred spirits. But if, which God forbid! we sink in luxury and licentiousness; if our hearts are cankered with avarice, and we become dead to every noble and generous principle; if the torch of civil discord is blown up, and is permitted to blaze with increasing fury; if unbridled faction and unprincipled ambition are elevated to dominion, while true patriotism and genuine worth are thrown into obscurity, then may we expect a total eclipse of our past and present glory. We shall be ripe for the avenging hand of Heaven. Every footstep of order and liberty will vanish, and the iron age of despotism most probably succeed. Then may it be said of this great and good man, whose memory and virtue we have celebrated, as well as other illustrious luminaries whose eyes are now closed in the slumbers of the grave “that Heaven hath not so much them deprived of the of life, as rewarded them with death.”
We now stand, at the end of 2012, at the open “iron age of despotism.” Will the Citizens of the United States be able to heartily look at this summation of our Patriot patriarchs and first go to that decree of Adams as governor to “repent” and return to God? Then will the Citizenry demand the fortitude of virtuous and moral leaders? Will the true Christian religion raise up moral and virtuous leaders who will stand in the gap having wisdom in economics, culture and the political understanding of Founders Intent? Or, is the judgment of God going to be so great that the words of Adams echo with, “Sydney tells us, there are times when people are not worth saving; meaning, when they have lost their virtue.” Instead of, “…I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world that the rod of tyrants may be broken into pieces, and the oppressed made free; that wars may cease in all the earth, and that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing on that holy and happy period when the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and all the people willingly bow to the sceptre of Him who is the Prince of Peace.”
Let 2013 be the time that true Patriots continue to rise “as the phoenix” to avert the despotism and tyranny being embellished in 2012. May God’s continued Grace be on those called according to His purpose for doing good, being virtuous leaders in fulfilling our callings!
**All quotes from William Wells volumes on the “Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams” Interpretation of how Adams would respond is based on the in depth study of his personal writings and other peers letters and writings.