<P> After leaving Harvard in 1743, Adams was unsure about his future . He considered becoming a lawyer, but instead decided to go into business . He worked at Thomas Cushing's counting house, but the job only lasted a few months because Cushing felt that Adams was too preoccupied with politics to become a good merchant . Adams's father then lent him £ 1,000 to go into business for himself, a substantial amount for that time . Adams's lack of business instincts were confirmed; he lent half of this money to a friend who never repaid, and frittered away the other half . Adams always remained, in the words of historian Pauline Maier, "a man utterly uninterested in either making or possessing money". </P> <P> After Adams had lost his money, his father made him a partner in the family's malthouse, which was next to the family home on Purchase Street . Several generations of Adamses were maltsters, who produced the malt necessary for brewing beer . Years later, a poet poked fun at Adams by calling him "Sam the maltster". Adams has often been described as a brewer, but the extant evidence suggests that he worked as a maltster and not a brewer . </P> <P> In January 1748, Adams and some friends were inflamed by British impressment and launched The Independent Advertiser, a weekly newspaper that printed many political essays written by Adams . His essays drew heavily upon English political theorist John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, and they emphasized many of the themes that characterized his subsequent career . He argued that the people must resist any encroachment on their constitutional rights . He cited the decline of the Roman Empire as an example of what could happen to New England if it were to abandon its Puritan values . </P> <P> When Deacon Adams died in 1748, Adams was given the responsibility of managing the family's affairs . In October 1749, he married Elizabeth Checkley, his pastor's daughter . Elizabeth gave birth to six children over the next seven years, but only two lived to adulthood: Samuel (born 1751) and Hannah (born 1756). In July 1757, Elizabeth died soon after giving birth to a stillborn son . Adams remarried in 1764 to Elizabeth Wells, but had no other children . </P>

Delegate with the same name as a major historical figure