to send troops to Boston. The crisis in
Massachusetts was now serious. Against the governor and the expected
troops stood only the council, with slight powers. Some machinery must
be devised to meet the emergency, and the solution of the difficulty was
found by Samuel Adams. His mind first leaped to the ultimate remedy for
all troubles, and then found the way out of the present difficulty.

The ultimate solution was independence. Though in moments of despondency
and exasperation the word had been used by both parties, until now no
one had considered independence possible except Samuel Adams. From this
period he worked for it, in secret preparing men's minds for the grand
change. According to a Tory accusation made in a later year, Adams
"confessed that the independence of the colonies had been the great
object of his life; that whenever he met a youth of parts he had
endeavored to instil such notions into his mind, and had neglected no
opportunity, either in public or in private, of preparing the way for
independence."[22]

Another Tory source, a deposition gathered when the Tories were
preparing an accusation against Adams, shows the agitator at work.
During the affair of the sloop _Liberty_, "the informant observed
several parties of men gathered in the street at the south end of the
town of Boston, in the forenoon of the day. The informant went up to one
of the parties, and Mr. Samuel Adams, then one of the representatives of
Boston, happened to join the same party near about the same time,
trembling and in great agitation.... The informant heard the said Samuel
Adams then say to the same party, 'If you are men, behave like men. Let
us take up arms immediately, and be free, and seize all the king's
officers. We shall have thirty thousand freemen to join us from the
country.'"

The statement of the deposition is crude and overdone, yet there can be
no doubt that from this time Adams did work for the one great end. At
first he was alone, yet he recognized the temper of the continent, and
saw the way that the political sentiments of the country were tending.
The methods which he followed were not always open; for never did he
avow his true sentiments, while often protesting, on behalf of the town
or the province, loyalty to the crown. Doubtless he did train the young
men up as he saw them inclined. In one case we know that he failed.
"Samuel Adams used to tell me," said John Coffin, a Boston Tory,
"'Coffin, you must