This was hardly sufficient to pay for the
food needed in his household. But his wife was so thrifty and cheerful,
and his friends so glad to help him out because of the time he gave to
public affairs, that his home life, though plain, was comfortable, and his
children were well brought up.
Poor as he was, no man could be more upright. The British, fearing his
influence, tried at different times to bribe him with office under the
King and to buy him with gold. But he scorned any such attempts to turn
him aside from the path of duty.
The great purpose of his life seemed to be to encourage the colonists to
stand up for their rights as freemen, and to defeat the plans of King
George and Parliament in trying to force the colonists to pay taxes. In
this he was busy night and day. In the assembly and in the town meeting
all looked to him as an able leader; and in the workshops, on the streets,
or in the shipyards men listened eagerly while he made clear the aims of
the English King, and urged them to defend their rights as free-born
Englishmen.
Even at the close of a busy day, this earnest, liberty-loving man gave
himself little rest. Sometimes he was writing articles for the newspapers,
and sometimes urgent letters to the various leaders in Massachusetts and
in the other colonies.
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