1976 Press Photo Samuel Adams while thinking how to fight a war against England

While trying to figure out how to fight a war against England, Samuel Adams, shown in a detail of a portrait by John Singelton Copley, and other members of Congress waged a kind of war of words among themselves. In a letter to a friend, Adams attributed to certain members of Congress "the vanity of the ape, the tameness of the ox, or the stupid servility of the ass," Thomas Fleming writes in "1776: Year of Illusions." Many fellow delegates returned such compliments by privately referring to him as "Judas Iscariot." Of New Englanders such as Adams, South Carolina's Edward Rutledge noted: "I dread their overruling influence in Council. I dread their low cunning, and those leveling principles which men without character and fortune in general possess, which are so captivating to the lower class of mankind."

Photo is dated 1976.

Photo measures 8 x 10.25 inches.