[349] as that equality, which ought ever to subsist amongall his majesty's subjects in this wide and extended empire; and, what is the worst of all evils, if his majesty's American subjects are not to be governed according to the known and stated rules of the constitution, their minds may, in time, become disaffected.
chap. XIX.} 1765. Oct.
In addition to this state paper, which was the imprint; of the mind of Samuel Adams,1 and had the vigor and polished elegance of his style, the house adopted ‘the best, and the best digested series of resolves,’ prepared by him, ‘to ascertain the just rights of the province,’ which the preamble said ‘had been lately drawn into question’ by the British parliament.
The answer of the house was regarded in England as the ravings of ‘a parcel of wild enthusiasts:’ in America, nothing was so much admired through the whole course of the controversy; and John Adams, who recorded at the time the applause which it won, said also, that of all the politicians of Boston, including Otis and Cushing, Samuel Adams had the most thorough understanding of liberty and her resources in the temper and character of the people, though not in the law and the constitution; as well as the most habitual radical love of it, and the “most correct, genteel, and artful pen.” ‘He is a man,’ he continued, ‘of refined policy, steadfast integrity, exquisite humanity, genteel erudition, obliging, engaging manners, real as well as professed piety, and a universal good ’
