WEST,
SAMUEL

(March 3, 1730–September 24, 1807), was a Chaplain in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was noted for greatly assisting General George Washington by deciphering a letter of treason from Dr. Benjamin Church intended for the British Admiral at Newport, Rhode Island.

A graduate of Harvard, 1754, Samuel West was a member of the committee to frame the Constitution of Massachusetts, and a member of the Massachusetts Convention to adopt the U.S. Constitution. In July of 1776, as Dartmouth’s minister, Samuel West spoke in Boston concerning the War for Independence:

Our cause is so just and good that nothing can prevent our success but only our sins. Could I see a spirit of repentance and reformation prevail throughout the land, I should not have the least apprehension or fear of being brought under the iron rod combined against us.

And though I confess that the irreligion and profaneness which are so common among us gives something of a damp to my spirits yet I cannot help hoping and even believing, that Providence has designed this continent for to be the asylum of liberty and true religion.695