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Remembering one of our Founding Father on Constitution Day

 

Polk County’s Charters of Freedom were dedicated last year on Constitution Day, September 17, 2019, in Veteran’s Memorial Park on Gibson Street next to the House of Flags Museum in Columbus. These are full size replicas of the original Charters of Freedom on permanent display in the National Archives, Washington, DC. The Charters of Freedom consists of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Our history comes alive when we begin to know more about our Founding Fathers and the documents they prepared to charter a new form of government for a new nation – the United States of America.

The following is the first in a series introducing our Nation’s Founding Fathers prepared for us by David W. Streater, Educational Director at Foundation Forward, the organization that made the Polk County Charters of Freedom possible.

Samuel Adams was born in 1722 and graduated from Harvard in 1740. Adams was a remarkable statesman and politician, but an inferior business person. As a banker, Adams was fired due to excessive time talking about politics. His father then gave him a large sum of money to start a business, but Adams gave half to a needy friend and squandered the remainder. He then worked in his family’s brewery, ultimately sending it into bankruptcy.

Hired as the tax collector for Boston, Adams did a poor job by relieving many skivers of their taxes. With his faults however, Adams was a true American patriot. He and Patrick Henry spoke forcefully in favor of separation from Britain. Using numerous pseudonyms, Adams wrote countless editorial letters opposing British control to as many colony newspapers.

Paul Revere, John Hancock, and others were tutored by Adams to be rebels, and they recognized him to be their “political father”. Adams avoided capture due to Paul Revere’s famed nighttime ride, announcing the “British are coming”. Adams also crafted the Boston Tea Party ploy and formed the Sons of Liberty–who destroyed and ruined British properties. Among other monikers, the British referred to Samuel Adams as the “most dangerous man in Massachusetts”).

Among other honors, Adams was hailed as the “Father of American Independence”, and the “Father of the Revolution”. If the British had won the Revolutionary War, Adams would have been executed as a war criminal!

Plan a visit to the Polk County Charters of Freedom setting in Columbus at the corner of Gibson and Ward Streets beside the House of Flags Museum. Please visit the Foundation’s website (ChartersofFreedom.com) to learn more. Our appreciation goes out to Vance and Mary Jo Patterson, the founders of Foundation Forward, a 501(c)3 education nonprofit organization, who made the Polk County Charters of Freedom setting possible.

 

Submitted by Robert M. Williamson