Founding Myths (47 page)

26
.
  
Maier,
Old Revolutionaries
, 21–26. Maier's entry for Samuel Adams in the updated (1999)
American National Biography
serves as a corrective for many of the traditional myths.

27
.
  
Adams to Reverend G.W., November 11, 1765, and Adams to John Smith, December 19, 1765, Cushing,
Writings
, 1: 28, 45. These sentiments are echoed in all his writings from 1765.

28
.
  
Adams, under the name of “Vindex,”
Boston Gazette
, December 5, 1768, in Cushing,
Writings
, 1: 259.

29
.
  
Adams to Dennys De Berdt, October 3, 1768, in Cushing,
Writings
, 1: 249. Emphasis in original.

30
.
  
Adams, under the name of “Valerius Poplicola,”
Boston Gazette
, October 28, 1771, in Cushing,
Writings
, 2: 262. By this time it was true that Samuel Adams was beginning to wonder: Will the rights of colonists ever be granted? In despair, he envisaged that “in some hereafter,” when all appeals to reason had failed, “America herself under God must finally work out her own Salvations.” (Adams to Arthur Lee, October 31, 1771, and Adams to Henry Merchant, January 7, 1772, in Cushing,
Writings
, 2: 267 and 309.) But in the words of historian Pauline Maier, this apocalyptic prediction, born of frustration, “fell short of advocacy.” (Maier,
Old Revolutionaries
, 23.)

31
.
  
Adams to Arthur Lee, June 21, 1773, in Cushing,
Writings
, 3: 44.

32
.
  
Adams to Joseph Warren, September 25, 1774, in Cushing,
Writings
, 3: 158–159.

33
.
  
Adams to Samuel Cooper, April 3 and April 30, 1776; Adams to Joseph Hawley, April 15, 1776; in Cushing,
Writings
, 3: 276–285.

34
.
  
Adams to John Smith, December 20, 1765, in Cushing,
Writings
, 1: 60.

35
.
  
Adams, under the name “Determinatus,”
Boston Gazette
, August 8, 1768, in Cushing,
Writings
, 1: 240. Emphasis in original.

36
.
  
Adams, under the name “Vindex,”
Boston Gazette
, December 5, 1768, in Cushing,
Writings
, 1: 259. Emphasis in original.

37
.
  
Adams to Darius Sessions, January 2, 1773, in Cushing,
Writings
, 2: 398.

38
.
  
Adams to James Warren, May 21, 1774,
The Warren-Adams Letters
(Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1917–1925), 1: 26. Pauline Maier states that this letter is misdated. (Maier,
Old Revolutionaries
, 28.)

39
.
  
Adams to Benjamin Kent, July 27, 1776, in Cushing,
Writings
, 3: 304.

40
.
  
Quoted in Alexander,
Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician
, 185.

41
.
  
For the less revolutionary meaning of “revolution” which prevailed before the turmoil of the French Revolution, see Garry Wills,
Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence
(New York: Doubleday, 1978), 51–52.

42
.
  
David Ramsay,
The History of the American Revolution
(Philadelphia: R. Aitken & Son, 1789), 186, 321, 634. Here is Ramsay's list, along with a mention of clergy and printers who played prominent roles: “John Adams, and Samuel Adams, of Boston; Bland, of Virginia; John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania; Daniel Dulany, of Annapolis; William Henry Drayton, of South-Carolina; Dr. Franklin, of Philadelphia; John Jay, and
Alexander Hamilton, of New-York; Thomas Jefferson, and Arthur Lee of Virginia; Jonathan Hyman, of Connecticut; Governor Livingston, of New-Jersey; Dr. Mayhew, and James Otis, of Boston; Thomas Paine, Dr. Rush, Charles Thompson, and James Wilson, of Philadelphia; William Tennant, of South-Carolina; Josiah Quincy, and Dr. Warren, of Boston. These and many others laboured in enlightening their countrymen, on the subject of their political interests, and in animating them to a proper line of conduct, in defence of their liberties. To these individuals may be added, the great body of the clergy, especially in New-England. The printers of newspapers, had also much merit in the same way. Particularly Edes and Gill, of Boston; Holt, of New-York; Bradford, of Philadelphia; and Timothy, of South-Carolina.” William Gordon, who also wrote a history in the late 1780s, did feature Adams but in ways that do not correspond to contemporaneous evidence from the 1760s and 1770s. See note 24.

43
.
  
Adams was allegedly the “chief manager” of the Tea Party and “Father of the Revolution.” He was “the first to advocate independence” and therefore had to convince others, since “the people were slow to consider seriously that they must break from the mother country.” (John Fiske,
A History of the United States
[Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899], 201; D.H. Montgomery,
Leading Facts of American History
[Boston: Ginn & Company, 1899], 155, 157; Wilbur F. Gordy,
A History of the United States for Schools
[New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914], 139; William A. Mowry and Blanche S. Mowry,
Essentials of United States History
[Boston: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1914], 112.)

44
.
  
William A. Mowry and Arthur May Mowry,
First Steps in the History of Our Country
(Boston: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1899), 119–120.

45
.
  
Albert Bushnell Hart,
Essentials in American History
(New York: American Book Company, 1914), 156.

46
.
  
Thomas Rodney, “Characters of Some of the Members of Congress,” post–March 8, 1781; Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, January 31, 1819; John Adams to William Tudor, February 9, 1819, in John P. Kaminsiki, ed.,
The Founders on the Founders: Word Portraits from the American Revolutionary Era
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 71, 79, 80.

47
.
  
John C. Miller,
Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1936), 53, 136–138, 141, 144–145.

48
.
  
Thomas A. Bailey,
The American Pageant
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956), 94, 981.

49
.
  
For the genesis of the Massachusetts committees of correspondence, see Ray Raphael,
Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation
(New York: The New Press, 2009), 106–10.

50
.
  
Bailey,
The American Pageant
, 109, 147.

51
.
  
David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen,
The American Pageant
, Fifteenth Edition (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014), 135, 170.

52
.
  
As cited in note 2, this quote comes not from the works of Hutchinson or Oliver but from the volume accompanying the PBS series
Liberty!

53
.
  
George Bancroft, for all his professed belief in democracy, certainly followed this way
of thinking. “ ‘Make way for the committee!' was the shout of the multitude, as Adams came out from the council chamber and, baring his head, which was already becoming gray, moved through their ranks, inspiring confidence. . . . On ordinary occasions he seemed like ordinary men; but in moments of crisis, he rose naturally and unaffectedly to the highest dignity, and spoke as if the hopes of humanity hung on his words.” (Bancroft,
History of the United States
, 4: 192.)

54
.
  
Matt Doeden,
The Boston Tea Party
, Charles Barnett III, ill. (Mankato, MN: Capstone, 2005), 5, 25.

55
.
  
John W. Tyler,
Smugglers and Patriots: Boston Merchants and the Advent of the American Revolution
(Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986), 17.

56
.
  
Tyler,
Smugglers and Patriots
, 138–69.

57
.
  
Gordon,
Rise, Progress, and Establishment of Independence
, 1: 178.

58
.
  
There are two meanings attached to “Sons of Liberty” in Boston. The label can refer to the group meeting in John Marston's tavern in the late 1760s (and possibly earlier or later as well), or in a generic sense to all of Boston's most active patriots. Generally, in common usage, the latter sense is intended. We do not have any membership list for the Marston's tavern group, although we do know from extant letters written by active participants that they had “members” and “committees.” Samuel Adams is not among the handful of known members, but that in no way establishes that he was not active in that group. Since at least forty-five people were, it seems likely that he was among them. See the correspondence between the “Sons of Liberty from the Town of Boston” and John Wilkes, Massachusetts Historical Society,
Proceedings
, 47: 190–211.

59
.
  
Wills,
Inventing America
, 20–24.

60
.
  
See Richard D. Brown,
Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts: The Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Towns, 1772–1774
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1970), 48, 62–64; Raphael,
Founders
, 106–10.

61
.
  
Alfred F. Young,
Liberty Tree: Ordinary People and the American Revolution
(New York, New York University Press, 2006), 27–99.

62
.
  
For town meeting instructions, see Ray Raphael, “Instructions: The People's Voice in Revolutionary America,”
Common-Place
9:1 (October 2008):
http://www.common-place.org/vol-09/no-01/raphael/

63
.
  
For the politicized population, see Ray Raphael, “The Democratic Moment: The Revolution in Popular Politics,” in
The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution
, Edward G. Gray and Jane Kamensky, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 121–28.

64
.
  
For a recent treatment that places Adams's effectiveness within this political rubric, see Alexander,
Samuel Adams: America's Revolutionary Politician.

65
.
  
Mercy Otis Warren,
History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations
(Boston: E. Larkin, 1805; reprinted by Liberty Classics in 1988), 1: 211.

3: Molly Pitcher's Cannon

  
1
.
  
See Karin Wolf's entry for Betsy Ross in
American National Biography
, John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 18: 900–901; and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “How Betsy Ross Became Famous,” in
Common-Place
8:1 (October 2007):
http://www.common-place.org/vol-08/no-01/ulrich/
.

  
2
.
  
Thomas Fleming—in his companion volume to the PBS program
Liberty!—
includes Abigail Adams's image as one of five key “portraits” of the American Revolution (Thomas Fleming,
Liberty! The American Revolution
[New York: Viking, 1997], 1–7). Joseph Ellis features Abigail Adams as one of his eight “Founding Brothers,” despite the obvious gender incongruity. She was “one of the eight most prominent political leaders of the early republic,” he claims. (Joseph Ellis,
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
[New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001], 17, 162–205.)

  
3
.
  
Holly A. Mayer,
Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 20. For the most recent and thorough treatment of Deborah Sampson, see Alfred Young,
Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004).

  
4
.
  
Sterling Stuckey and Linda Kerrigan Salvucci,
Call to Freedom
(Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003), 168.

  
5
.
  
Gerald A. Danzer et al.,
The Americans
(Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2003), 117.

  
6
.
  
Joyce Appleby et al.,
The American Republic to 1877
(New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003), 164.

  
7
.
  
The six elementary and middle-school texts surveyed were all displayed at the annual convention of the National Council for Social Studies at Phoenix in November 2002. Those containing the Molly Pitcher story are Stuckey and Salvucci,
Call to Freedom
; Appleby,
The American Republic to 1877
; Michael J. Berson, ed.,
United States History: Beginnings
(Orlando: Harcourt, 2003); James West Davidson,
The American Nation: Beginnings through 1877
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); and Joy Hakim,
A History of US
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). The one that made no mention of Molly Pitcher is Jesus Garcia et al.,
Creating America: A History of the United States, Beginnings through Reconstruction
(Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2002). Four secondary texts displayed at the NCSS conference also include the Molly Pitcher story: Joyce Appleby et al.,
The American Vision
(New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Danzer,
The Americans
; Daniel J. Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley,
A History of the United States
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002); and David Goldfield, et al.,
The American Journey: A History of the United States
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001). Only
The American Journey
refers to Molly Pitcher as a legend; the others portray her as flesh and blood.