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As the State and the country emerged from the war, there was a strong tendency to depart from that piety, simplicity, and. frugality which had hitherto been dominant, and which such pure-minded patriots as Adams regarded as the basis of the whole structure of liberty. “At a time,”says Edward Everett, ” when the new order of things was inducing laxity of manners, and a departure from the ancient strictness, Samuel Adams clung with greater tenacity to the wholesome discipline of the fathers.” Even before the close of the war he raised his voice and used his pen against the insidious encroachments of extravagance and a lower tone of morals. Immediately after the inauguration of the State government, when Han cock was elected governor, Boston was gay with balls and glittering entertainments. Hancock had wealth, and loved display, and recklessly led the people in a dangerous path, and an era of moral and spiritual social degeneracy was initiated. Adams’s views on these points give a clear insight into the ruling principles of his life, and they are not inappropriate to our own times. He says:—

” Does it become us to lead the people to such public diversions as promote superfluity of dress and ornament, when it is as much as they can bear to support the expense of clothing a naked army ? Will vanity and levity ever be the stability of government either in states or in cities, or what let me hint to you is of the last importance, in families ? . . . . How fruitless is it to recommend the adapting the laws in the most perfect manner possible to the suppression of idleness, dissipation, and extravagancy, if such recommendations are counteracted by the example of men of religious influence and public station?”

And now the program:

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The Source to “The Congregational Quarterly vol XI“