Think About IT: Samuel Adams, the Declaration before the Declaration of Independence

Samuel Adams was known by his contemporaries as the father of the Revolution. With reference to inalienable rights and equality for all as opposed to the idea of superior rights for some and the idea that royalty alone was to be privileged with the richest blessings of God, Adams said in a speech on American Independence in 1776, “Having been a slave to the influence of opinion early acquired, and distinctions generally received, I am ever inclined not to despise but pity those who are yet in darkness. But to the eye of reason what can be more clear than that all men have equal right to happiness? Nature made no other distinction than that of higher and lower degrees of power of mind and body. But what mysterious distribution of character has the craft of statesmen, more fatal than priestcraft, introduced? …were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed … that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?”[1]

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”