Speaking before a meeting of Boston people, Samuel Adams boldly declared that if England could tax the business of the colonies, then, "why not tax our lands and everything we possess or make use of?" Such taxes, he said, would make the colonists slaves. In a short time the people of Boston were reading in the papers the fiery resolutions and the still more fiery speech of Patrick Henry. Samuel Adams seized his pen and also began to pour hot shot into the Stamp Act. [Sidenote: =How he opposed the Stamp Act=] The Boston people elected him to be their representative in the Massachusetts Assembly. More and more he took the lead in the movement against the Stamp Act. He went about the shops, into the stores, wherever he found people to listen to him. He helped them form a society, called the Sons of Liberty, which destroyed the hated stamps as soon as they arrived. He talked with the merchants, and they signed a pledge not to buy any more goods from England until the Stamp Act was repealed. At this the British merchants felt the loss of trade and joined in the cry against the Stamp Act. =86. The Tea Tax.= We have seen that Parliament, after the Stamp Act was repealed, passed the famous Tea Act. The Americans were angry again, and the Sons of Liberty declared that no tea should be landed. The merchants took the pledge again to buy no more English goods, and patriotic women began to make tea out of the leaves of other plants. [Sidenote: =Samuel Adams writes the "Circular Letter"=] Samuel Adams again sharpened his pen, and wrote the famous old "Circular Letter," which urged all the colonies to unite and stand firm in opposing the tax on tea. This letter made King George very angry, but Samuel Adams only wrote the more. [Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS WRITING THE FAMOUS CIRCULAR LETTER] Night after night as the people passed his window they saw by his lamp that he was busy with his pen, and said to one another: "Samuel Adams is hard at work writing against the Tories." People in England and America who took the king's side in these disputes were called Tories. [Sidenote: =Conflicts between people and soldiers=] The king now sent two regiments of soldiers to Boston to force the people to pay the Tea Tax. There were frequent quarrels between the soldiers and the people. One evening in a street quarrel the soldiers killed three men and wounded eight others (1770). Immediately the fire bells rang and great crowds of angry people filled the streets. The next day they filled to overflowing Faneuil Hall, the "Cradle of Liberty." A still larger meeting in the Old South Church cried out that both regiments of soldiers must leave town. [Sidenote: =Samuel Adams and the people drive the soldiers out of Boston=]