and fortunately
there was at hand an instrument to induce him to become a Tory. Adams
was the close personal friend of Jonathan Sewall, the king's
attorney-general for the province, and an admirable character. The
chance of distinction, the certainty of prosperity, and the
importunities of such a friend, might in the end persuade Adams.

Of John Hancock it was often argued among the Tories that he might
almost be left to himself. If Adams was ambitious, Hancock was more so;
known to be vain, he was believed to be jealous by nature. With these
weaknesses, he was also instinctively an aristocrat. How long, asked the
Tories, would he continue to consort with men of low social position?
How soon would he rebel at being led by the nose by the wily Adams?
Position and influence were ready for him as soon as he chose to go
over to the king. The bait was always plain, and he might be counted on
eventually to take it.

Even Samuel Adams, so reasoned the advisers of Gage, might be bought.
For Adams was poor. In his devotion to public affairs he had let his
business go to ruin, had seen his money melt away, had even sold off
parts of his own house-lot. His sentiments were, no better known in
Boston than his threadbare clothes. His sole income was from his salary
as clerk of the house of representatives, only a hundred pounds a year.
To the new governor it was the most natural thing in the world to
suppose that the discontent of such a man could soon be removed. He
forgot Hutchinson's words: "Such is the obstinacy and inflexible
disposition of the man, that he never would be conciliated by any office
or gift whatever."[38]

Gage sent, therefore, Colonel Fenton to Adams with offers which would
tempt any man that had a price. No definite knowledge of the
inducements has come down to us: money, place, possibly even a patent of
nobility. We know, however, that they were coupled with a threat in the
form of advice to make his peace with the king. And we can imagine Adams
as, rising from his seat, and standing with the habitual nervous tremor
of head and hands which often led his adversaries to mistake his mettle,
he delivered his fearless reply.

"Sir, I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of kings. No
personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of
my country. Tell Governor Gage that it is the advice of Samuel Adams to
him no longer to insult the feelings of an exasperated people!"[39]

An