Sam Adams
By Danny Kim Toby Ukoha and Ceno Pant
Biography
Sam Adams also had an important role organizing the Boston Tea Party. Samuel Adams served as a legislator of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1774. After his term as a legislator he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress until 1781. Adams became a Democratic-Republican when formal parties were created in the late 1790s. His political career came to an end by which he served as Massachusetts' governor from 1794 to 1791. One of the most profound accomplishments was signing the U.S constitution. The influence of his parents along with his family history is what shaped him and his political views. His cousin John Adams also influenced his decision and views against the British. After failing his brewery business, his love for politics had him involved in most freedom fights against the British.
By the end of his service to the people of Massachusetts and the new America, Samuel Adams had been a part of the repeal of the Stamp and Sugar act, organized political groups (the Sons of Liberty) and publications to write of the atrocities that the British were committing, pressure the British to pull their troops out of America after the Boston Massacre, and even served as Governor of Massachusetts at the end of his career. He helped shape the independence of the new America by fighting for its freedom and in the end, being one of the people to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Integrity
Sam Adams may have seemed like a noble man, but he committed some acts that questioned his integrity. Sam Adams helped gain Massachusetts their independence from British influence and so that it could be ruled completely by its own people. However, due his strong opposition to British ideals, he held no mercy to Massachusetts protesters. Instead of reasoning with them for the good of the nation, he would blindly suggest the leaders of the protesters be executed. His strong opposition towards the British rule clouded his judgement towards the opinion of others, causing him to act irrationally and make decisions that were not moral.
Sam Adams, in the perspective of the British, was a man without integrity. The British would consider every act that Sam Adams had committed an act of betrayal. Specifically, in the example of the Sugar Act. The Sugar Act would have been implemented with ease had it not been for Sam Adams. No one was disturbed by the implementation of the Sugar Act except for him, who saw it as an infringement to the people's rights. The audacity of Sam Adams to solely speak out against the British and gather followers to oppose the British was enough for the British to consider him an immoral man. A man thinking only for the good of himself. The British would consider the riots that he organized in opposition to these acts as completely immoral and give him the attributes of a traitor.
Citizenship
As Sam Adams was a main leader in the Boston Tea Party, he fought to fulfill the rights of him and his community, protesting the cartel of American tea importation by seizing 342 tea cartons that were shipped over night into the Boston Harbor. This act of "rebellion" was necessary for him and the citizens of Boston to get what they deserved, which was a right to taxation that wasn't taken to the extremes.
Strongly against British taxation, Sam Adams processed and helped create the resistance against the Stamp Act of 1765 after it was passed. Adams stepped up in his community, a community who needed a voice but didn't have one strong enough, people who had many things to say, but no one to listen, and Sam Adams is the one who brought them up out through deliberation. He exemplified citizenship because when there was no one to speak, he stood up first to take that job.