Beschreibung:

ADAMS, Samuel (1722-1803), Signer , Massachusetts. Document signed ("Sam l Adams"), as Collector of Taxes, Boston, 22 January 1763. 1 page, oblong (3x 7 1/8in.), docketed on verso, tipped to another sheet, later pencil notation next to Adams's signature .
ADAMS, Samuel (1722-1803), Signer , Massachusetts. Document signed ("Sam l Adams"), as Collector of Taxes, Boston, 22 January 1763. 1 page, oblong (3x 7 1/8in.), docketed on verso, tipped to another sheet, later pencil notation next to Adams's signature . A RELUCTANT TAX COLLECTOR Writing in the fateful year of 1763--when the British government turned to its American colonies to raise badly needed revenue in the aftermath of the French and Indian War--Samuel Adams belatedly collects some local taxes from a fellow Colonist. "Received from Anthony Stoddard two pounds Nineteen shillings & six pence in full for his Taxes for 1761, his street tax included." Adams held this post from 1756 to 1765, and according to historian Pauline Maier, it was "an office he seems to have executed irresponsibly. By 1765, when he declined reelection, Adams's accounts were about £8,000 in arrears. In his defense, he argued that smallpox and other obstructions, including no doubt the town's depressed economy, had impeded his diligent efforts to fulfill his duties; but the noncollection of taxes seems to have been a perennial problem in Boston and a means by which members of the caucus consolidated support among Boston voters" ( Dictionary of National Biography ). Noncollection was about to get a lot more popular over the next decade, with former Collector Sam Adams leading the resistance.