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On Sept. 3, 2021, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) posted a meme on Twitter that supposedly contained a quote, For true patriots to be silent, is dangerous, from America's second president, John Adams. The quote went viral after another Twitter user chimed in to say that the quote was actually from Samuel Adams. Ron Filipkowski shared a screenshot of Boebert's tweet (which has since been deleted) with the following message: This was a genuine tweet from Boebert — it was archived by Propublica — and in sharing the meme she truly did misattribute this quote from Samuel Adams to President John Adams. However, describing Samuel Adams as a guy who owned a tavern in Boston is inaccurate, and does not even begin to sum up Samuel Adams' impact on American history. Samuel Adams was a revolutionary, the governor of Massachusetts, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Oh, and he had practically nothing to do with the Samuel Adams beer brand. The above-displayed quote comes from a speech Samuel Adams wrote in June 1776. The speech is included in a collection of Samuel Adams' writings that was published in 1904, and History of Massachusetts from 1835. Below is a passage from the biography Samuel Adams: A Life by Ira Stoll that was published in 2008: This quote was truly written by Samuel Adams, not John Adams. However, as noted above, Samuel Adams had practically nothing to do with the Samuel Adams beer brand and is far more important to American history than some guy who owned a tavern. In fact, Adams inherited a malting business from his father, not a tavern. While Adams' family made and sold malt to brewers, Adams likely never brewed beer himself. Stoll told us in an email that Adams was never a tavern owner. Samuel Adams beer was founded in 1984, about two hundred years after Adams' death. The company stated that they chose to name their beer after Adams because he was a Boston patriot, a revolutionary thinker who fought for American independence, and because he had a connection to the beer industry. Adams' father made and sold malt that was used to brew beer, a business that Adams would later inherit. While Adams was probably the most famous maltster in history, according to the New England Historical Society, there remains debate about whether he ever engaged in actual brewing of beer.
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