ress," by acts of
"association" which meant the stoppage of all commercial intercourse
with Great Britain. New England was the head and front of the whole
revolution, and Samuel Adams was its animating spirit. Even those famous
committees of correspondence between the towns of Massachusetts, which
gave expression to public opinion and stimulated united action when the
legislative authority was prevented by the royal governor from working,
were the inspiration of this astute political manager. Prominent
Virginians saw the importance of carrying out this idea on a wider field
of action, and Virginia accordingly inaugurated a system of
intercolonial correspondence which led to the meeting of a continental
congress, and was the first practical step towards political
independence of the parent state. Adams's decision to work for
independence was made, or confirmed, as early as 1767, when Charles
Townshend succeeded in passing the measures which were so obnoxious to
the colonists, and finally led to civil war.

At a most critical moment, when the feelings of a large body of people
were aroused to a violent pitch, when ideas of independence were
ripening in the minds of others besides Samuel Adams, General Gage, then
in command of the British regular troops in Boston, sent a military
force to make prisoners of Adams and Hancock at Lexington, and seize
some stores at Concord. Then the "embattled farmers" fired the shot
"which was heard around the world." Then followed the capture of
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the battle of Bunker's Hill, on the
same day that Washington was appointed by congress to command the
continental army. At this critical juncture, John Adams and other
prominent colonists--not excepting Washington--were actually disavowing
all desire to sever their relations with the parent state in the face of
the warlike attitude of congress--an attitude justified by the
declaration that it was intended to force a redress of grievances. Tom
Paine, a mere adventurer, who had not been long in the country, now
issued his pamphlet, "Common Sense," which was conceived in a spirit
and written in a style admirably calculated to give strength and
cohesion to the arguments of the people, who had been for some time
coming to the conclusion that to aim at independence was the only
consistent and logical course in the actual state of controversy between
England and the colonies. On March 14th, 1776, the town of Boston, then
t