Samuel Michael McKay (1793–1834), soldier, businessman, and public official, was born in Vermont. After relocating to Massachusetts, he served as an artillery lieutenant in the United States Army, 1813–19, and, later, as a colonel in the state militia. Having settled in Pittsfield by 1820, McKay was a member of the Berkshire Agricultural Society, a merchant and owner of a cotton mill, and one of the directors of a local female academy. He also received an honorary master’s degree from Williams College in 1823, was active in the state Republican Party by the following year, held a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1823–27, 1828–29, and 1833–34, and sat in the state Senate, 1829–31. McKay died of consumption in Pittsfield (Heitman, U.S. Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1903, repr. 1994, 2 vols. description ends , 1:670; DNA: RG 29, CS, Mass., Pittsfield, 1820, 1830; Pittsfield Sun, 25 Oct. 1820, 11 Sept. 1823, 19 Feb., 8 Apr. 1824, 1 Mar. 1827, 25 July 1833, 9 Oct. 1834; David D. Field, A History of the Town of Pittsfield, in Berkshire County, Mass. [1844], 77–8; Masssachusetts Register, and United States Calendar; For the Year of our Lord 1830 [(1830)], 17, 18; gravestone inscription in Pittsfield Cemetery, Pittsfield).

McKay’s oration of the 4th of july, An Address, delivered at the request of the Republican Committee of Arrangements, at Pittsfield, on the anniversary of American Independence, July 4, 1822 (Pittsfield, 1822), describes this “birth-day of their civil and religious liberties” as a sacred “political Sabbath” (p. 3), whose celebration is “hallowed and sanctified in the sight of Heaven” (p. 5); hails George Washington’s military and political accomplishments; quotes from TJ’s First Inaugural Address that “We are all Federalists, we are all Republicans” (p. 7); warns of the dangers posed by factions, unprincipled opposition, and political apathy, but posits that parties “organized on principles of truth, justice and good faith” are “vitally important to the preservation of the republic” (p. 9); criticizes the inordinate influence of property in choosing United States senators; reminds his listeners that it “is the constant fluctuation of wealth, which gives security to the republic” (p. 16); states that American institutions are both flexible and capable of improvement; and calls for an end to religious bigotry.