1794 Gubernatorial Election: Adams vs Cushing
THE FOLLOWING CONTEST, SCHEDULED FOR ONE TERM IS FOR THE 1794 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION! INTRODUCING FIRST THE CHALLENGER. REPRESENTING THE FEDERALISTS, HE IS AN ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT, WILLIAM CUSHING!
AND HIS OPPONENT, HE IS THE ACTING GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS....SAMUEL ADAMS!
What's that you ask? Where is John Hancock? Yeah....about that. Hancock had been in bad health for a few years but never revealed what was bothering him. In those days medicine was in its infancy and life expectancy wasn't as expected as it is today. On October 8, 1793, Hancock passed away with his wife Dorothy Quincy by his side at the age of 56. To put that in perspective, our current governor Maura Healey is 54 years old and looks no worse for wear. Hancock's record as a patriot and politician is forever cemented. The Old State House where he was quartered in the 1780's still stands today and the John Hancock building towers over Boston as well. Pour one out for Johnny.
After Hancock passed, Lt. Governor Samuel Adams was named acting Governor. Who was Samuel Adams? Its finally time to find out. Samuel Adams born on September 27, 1722 and was the older cousin of future Vice President John Adams. During the Colonial era, he was a terrible businessman and lowly tax collector, but he was a master politician. His father Samuel Sr was a church deacon and the beginning of the crown opposition began in 1730's when he was a member of the "popular party". A rogue group of colonials that pointed at the Massachusetts charter of 1691 to show that the citizens had rights despite what the British said or did.
Sam Adams Jr graduated from Harvard in 1740 and his 1743 thesis laid the foundation as a future radical when he argued that rights belong to the people, not the crown. He worked for future Massachusetts Lt. Governor Thomas Cushing as a money counter then went into business for himself...failing miserably. His forte was politics though and got his first job as a Boston market clerk in 1747. He was appointed the city tax collector in 1757 and was so horrendous at his job, he was relieved of duty in 1768 to a massive wave of popularity since he refused to collect from delinquents. This popularity carried him over to the upcoming opposition to British rule. He initially got crossed up with the crown when the British started taxing civilians after the French & Indian War concluded. While his good buddy John Hancock told British customs agents to get the hell off his boat, Sam and his cousin John published articles in local newspapers calling for rebellion. Sam and John opposing the British taxation attempts prior to the War has been well documented but what turned Sam personally was ex-Governor Francis Bernard. Bernard knew tensions were mounting so he called home to beg for help. In 1768, troops of British soldiers occupied Boston and Adams had enough. During the war he took part in drafting the Massachusetts Constitution with James Bowdoin and John Adams. He served on the Continental Congress before retiring from it at age 59 in 1781.
Ironically, he and Hancock went at it because Adams felt Hancock was too extravagant. After all, how can you be for the people when you dress to the nines and flaunt your wealth? After the Shay's Rebellion gave the Federalists the inside track to establish a strong central government, Samuel denounced the Federalists and still held on to the beliefs that power was for the common man. Unfortunately Samuel's Revolutionary War hero son died in 1787, but the silver lining was he somehow left an inheritance to Samuel to live comfortably the rest of his life. He tried running for the House of Representatives in 1788 but lost to Fisher Ames, mostly because Ames was a supporter of a strong central government. When Benjamin Lincoln stepped down as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1789, Adams reunited with Governor John Hancock. When Hancock passed in October of 1793, Adams took the role of acting governor. Despite being "old" in 1781, the now 72 year old Adams agreed to take on William Cushing to remove the interim label.
"Yay constitution!" - Fisher Ames
Cushing's story has already been told but he was also a stout Federalist. After the deaths of Hancock and Bowdoin, the Governorship would now be party controlled. Would the state of Massachusetts back their Revolutionary War hero Samuel Adams, or would they go with the very qualified, by the book Federalist Judge Cushing? Let's find out.
The result? ITS A LANDSLIDE! William Cushing got 7,159 votes, good enough for 31% of the vote. Write-ins and dark horses got 1,830 votes combined for 8% of the vote. Adams won the election with 61% of the vote with 14,465 votes. Samuel Adams was now the official Governor of Massachusetts.
The next order of business was the Lt. Governor's position. With Adams taking the role, he needed a new one. Moses Gil was named the new Lt. Governor. Who was that? Moses Gil was born in 1733 in Charlestown and was the younger brother of Boston Gazette publisher John Gil. He was a simple merchant and when he was 26, he married the wealthy Sarah Prince who inherited a large tract of land that's now known as Princeton, Massachusetts. He retired from the merchant business in 1767 but unfortunately Sarah died in 1771. One year later he married Rebecca Boylston, a member of the wealthy Boylston family. Gil joined the Massachusetts Assembly in 1774 just as Thomas Gage shut it down as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. He then joined the rogue Massachusetts Provincial Congress and when the Revolutionary War broke out, he was the correspondent that escorted General George Washington across western Massachusetts. He later joined the Worcester County District Court and in 1781 voted in favor of Quoc Walker and pretty much ended slavery. 8 years later he was a member of the Massachusetts Senator and tried to run against Jonathan Grout for the national House of Representative seat. He lost, but still remained with the senate when John Hancock passed away. Gil essentially ran for Lt. Governor since it looked like it would be Adams or Cushing. The Massachusetts General Court decided that Gil would be the Lt. Governor. Congratulations Moe.
As mentioned earlier, the deaths of Bowdoin and Hancock 3 years apart represented a shift into party politics. Either you were a Democratic Republican fighting for the people (or so they claimed) or a Federalist that believed in a strong central government run by powerful, wealthy men (like today). Samuel Adams taking the Governor title pretty much showed that the state would run blue for now. With George Washington headed for retirement in a few years, it seemed like John Adams would be next in line to take the Presidency. The state of Massachusetts might be controlling the country in a few years, and Samuel would be a big part of it.
Comments
Post a Comment