FAITH OF THE FOUNDERS: Samuel Adams on the Solemn Obligation of Voting

(QUICK READ) — Despite sharing his last name with two future Presidents of the United States, Samuel Adams is known primarily for his key role in encouraging and help grow the movement that brought about the American Revolution.

He was a co-founder of the Sons of Liberty, was an organizer of the Boston Tea Party and helped draft the Massachusetts Circular Letter that was an influential voice on behalf of colonial unity in the face British threats and intimidation.

Adams was also a delegate to the Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration of Independence. Samuel often worked with his cousin, John Adams, but where the latter tended in the years prior to the conflict to favor a more moderate approach, Samuel was an enthusiastic radical on behalf of American independence.

Samuel’s Christian faith was a central fact of his life, as seen in the following quote from him that Mark Strand recently cited:

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” – Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, April 16, 1781. Cited by Mark Strand.