Think you’ve got it bad?
Well, for this celebration of Uncle Sam’s birthday, I’d like to tell you
just a little of another Sam – a true story.
Sam was the 4th child of 12 that his mother,
Mary, bore; but he was one of the only 3
who survived past age 2. Mary yet
encouraged Sam’s faith in God; so he
married Elizabeth, a minister’s daughter who had more than just Christian faith
in common with Sam. She, too, was one of
only 3 who survived to adulthood out of the 12 children born to her own mother.
Soon Elizabeth
began bearing Sam’s children. Their 1st
was “a boy who lived for only 18 days. A
year later, she gave birth to a son, Samuel, who lived to adulthood. … She gave birth to a 3rd child, a
son, who lived only 37 hours. Her 1st
daughter … died after 3 months and 9 days. Her 2nd daughter, Hannah,
… lived to adulthood. Her 6th
delivery … was a stillborn son. For 19
days, [Elizabeth ]
lingered. Then, at 8 A.M. on Sunday,
July 25, 1757, she passed away.” Thus
were just some of the challenging circumstances in the life of a young Samuel
Adams.
“Samuel Adams was the archetype of the religiously
passionate American founder, the founder as biblical prophet, an apostle of
liberty. … He was the moral conscience of the American
Revolution, a man who never lost sight of the Revolution’s political and religious goals, which for him were
fundamentally intertwined.”
I’m looking forward to reading the “book about who Samuel Adams
was, why he is forgotten, why he should be remembered.” --
Samuel Adams: A Life, by Ira
Stoll. (Free Press, New York , NY
