The Freedom Files
columnist: RS Davis

Topic: Economics
Is Samuel Adams Spinning in His Grave?

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The descendents of our most inspired patriot sell out. I guess integrity isn't hereditary.

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by RS Davis
(Libertarian)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Samuel Adams has been rightly called the "father of the Revolution" by historian Mark Puls. His influence was much larger than his reputation would indicate, having been one of our nation's earliest and most articulate advocates for independence and freedom. In fact, Thomas Jeffersom called him "the patriarch of liberty," and his cousin John Adams said of him, "Without the character of Samuel Adams, the true history of the American Revolution can never be written. For fifty years his pen, his tongue, his activity, were constantly exerted for his country without fee or reward."

And he did, starting with his paper The Public Advertiser and with numerous pamphlets advocating freedom and self-determination.  Puls wrote that "of the major founding fathers, only...Adams advocated independence before [the battle of] Lexington. In the critical prewar years, it was Adams who mapped out what became known as American values about liberty, self-government and natural human rights."  

When British Parliament passed the Sugar Act, Adams cried out against it, saying, "For if our trade is taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands and everything we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which as we have never forfeited them."

In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed, taxing essentially every document written in the colonies.  It was Adams' Committees of Correspondence, which was the way around British rules against organizing colonial government, that was able to call the Stamp Act Congress, which sent a letter of grievance to the king.  It also galvanized the colonists in civil disobedience that made it impossible to collect the tax.  All thirteen colonies adopted these Committees of Correspondence, which ultimately became The Continental Congress that gave us the Declaration of Independence.

Even worse, though, was the Tea Act, a mercantilist scheme by Brittain to give East India Tea an unfair advantage by putting a tax on all tea except theirs.  Adams wrote a pamphlet against this, saying it would "destroy the trade of the colonies."

He didn't stop there, though.  He formed The Sons of Liberty and they snuck aboard the East India Tea ships, dressed as Mohawk Indians and dumped all 342 chests of East India tea into Boston Harbor.

It is with that in mind that I laugh in bemused irony at the story out of yesterday morning's Boston Globe:

Boston Beer Co. has long made television commercials in Boston to promote its Samuel Adams ales and lagers. But when a production company finishes a new round of Sam Adams advertisements this year, Massachusetts taxpayers could wind up paying as much as 25 percent of the tab.

In its high-profile bid to compete with Hollywood and New York as a film production hub, the state is doing more than subsidizing TV series and feature movies through tax credits and sales tax exemptions. It is also underwriting the cost of producing TV commercials in Massachusetts. The Department of Revenue said it has issued more than $2.1 million of tax credits for 37 ad-related productions - with eight more applications pending - since the state started offering incentives two years ago. 

Adams fought against a tea tax that gave a two shilling advantage to East India Tea over their competitors?  What do you think he'd think of giving his beer company a 25% advertising advantage? 

I think he'd be giving the old British two-finger salute.

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2008 RS Davis, all rights reserved.
Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, May 28, 2008

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