SAMUEL ADAMS.

SAMUEL ADAMS was born in Boston, Massachusetts, from an ancient and respectable parentage of the first settlers of New England, on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1722. The record of his early days is lost. Having passed through the primary branches at Master Lovell's school, he entered as a student at Harvard College, in the autumn of the year 1736. The time there allowed to lay the foundation of a future usefulness, was not lost to him or to his country. In accordance with the wishes of his parents, he decided to prepare himself for the duties of the Christian ministry, and to that end he directed his energies. He obtained the honors of his Alma Mater, not because he had been under her guardianship the usual term, but for his assiduous attention to literary acquirements, that rendered him worthy of them. On receiving his second degree, in conformity with the usages of the college, which retained many forms of the English Universities, he proposed as his thesis, and defended the affirmative of the question, Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved? Thus early had his mind taken its bent, and formed that system of political opinions to which he uniformly and zealously adhered throughout life, and which he never for a moment hesitated to reduce to practice. Nor was this the only instance of his youthful devotion to the welfare of his fellow-men;-out of the stipulated sum allowed him by his father while in college, he saved a sufficiency to publish his masterly defence of "Englishmen's Rights."

Zealous in the support of religion-the church government and discipline of the early Independents of New England, and warmly attached to the doctrines they inculcated, be was led to a veneration of the champions of his peculiar creed, and predisposed to the adoption of their political as well as religious opinions. The quaint writings of Colman, of the elder John Adams, and of the younger Mather, charmed his senses. Of the latter, "upon whose childhood was heaped a mountain of learning and theology," and who went about "smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, those jerks of the imagination"-he expressed the highest admiration. In such an atmosphere, surrounded by such examples, he pursued with an affectionate ardor the study of theology, and only resigned that profession to enter into the service of Freedom. Thus he became filled with enthusiastic admiration of the sturdy republicanism, the uncompromising principle, and the severe simplicity of manners which characterized the English Puritans of the reigns of James and Charles the First. Of these, and of his ancestors who landed at Plymouth, he never spake, but with reverence and respect. Their sufferings awakened a generous sympathy in his breast, and his holy gratitude for the "goodly heritage" they had bequeathed him and his posterity, never abated.

The period at which Mr. Adams began to take an interest in the public affairs, the provincial governments were continually agitated by contests between their governors and other officers, who were appointed by the Crown, and the Assemblies, which were the immediate representatives of the colonists. There could be no question in his mind, as to the side which he should embrace. The situation of his country in the incipient stages of the Revolution, opened a wide and important field for the display of his singular genius and extensive capacity. The