I live in a big city and it’s interesting what you hear when people walk around town speaking on their phones. A few days ago on my way to the gym (best trainer EVER!) a lawyer was telling his partner that they really should take a case, even though it was going to make a lot of people very angry, and might even lose a few clients. “. . . Look, is it more important that we do what’s right, or virtue signal? Hell, everyone’s entitled to a solid defense even if he’s an @%*# !” I don’t know who they were talking about, but the first thing that popped into my head was”I know what John would do.” That is, John Adams, who even before the American Revolution, believed that in a democratic society even the most despised people were entitled to a vigorous defense.

In 1768, British troops landed in Boston and the surrounding area to deal with the Townshend Acts, passed by Parliament to try to pay for the French and Indian War (1755-1763). The colonists felt that it was up to Great Britain to pay for it, and as the months when on, tensions between the soldiers and colonists were on a hair trigger. Around 9 pm on a very snowy night of March 5, 1770, a sentry was standing near the Boston Customs House, when a boy came over and started harassing him. We have no idea what was said, but the boy ran home to his father who, with at least 50 colonists returned and attacked the sentry with snow and ice balls, sticks, clubs and stones.

At that point the Redcoat called for help, and Captain Thomas Preston and a squad of eight soldiers arrived double quick with muskets and bayonets. More colonists arrived when a church bell started ringing. In short order several hundred colonists, many of them members of the Sons of Liberty, surrounding the soldiers. The scene was turning into a melee. It’s still unknown which of the soldiers fired. In the end, five men, including Crispus Attuck, were dead, and six were wounded.

British law took over, and the colonists were fine with that because they still considered themselves members of the British Empire. Three weeks later, a Grand Jury indicted Captain Preston and all eight soldiers for murder. The Sons of Liberty provided broadsheets and pamphlets, and spoke to everyone they could to put the colonial “spin” on the trial. It didn’t seem that anyone wanted to take the mens’ case, and while the British were good soldiers but they were not JAGs (Judge Advocate General in the military). Who would take their case?

At that time, John Adams was a 34-year-old lawyer who happened to be working near the Customs House. He was already very involved in the patriot cause, but had been following the case closely. Whoever took the case could have become extremely unpopular, could have lost his livelihood, and possibly put his family , including his pregnant wive, Abigail, in danger. The problem was that he fervently believed that anyone living in a free country should have a solid defense. He also hoped that defending the men would show the British that the colonies were equal to those in the Mother Country, not a bunch of country bumpkins from the backwater. Besides, as he really looked at the evidence, he wasn’t convinced that it was as clear as the colonists thought it was.

Preston’s trial took place on October 24th and 30th. He had been accused of telling his men “Fire.” However, while there was a number of witnesses, everyone had a different understanding of what happened. There was no way to know if he had, in fact, told his men to fire. Adams was not a wonderful public speaker, be he was a brilliant jurist. This was the first time a lawyer had discussed the term “reasonable doubt,” but the jury believed him, and acquitted Captain Preston.

The soldiers’ trial took place in late November, ending on December 3. Adams maintained that they shot in self defense. Again, there were numerous different accounts of what happened. The one which was the most compelling came from Dr. John Jeffries who had cared for one of the victims. Before the man died, he told the doctor that the soldiers had shot in self-defense. The fact that the man gave that as his “dying utterance” gave significant gravity to what was said. Ultimately, six of the soldiers were acquitted, and the last two were convicted of manslaughter, not murder. For that, they were branded on their thumps.

It’s very interesting that, despite the rage of so many colonists, they accepted both of the verdicts. They didn’t harass Adams’s family, or Adams himself, who had defended the soldiers. There were some angry editorials in the Boston Gazette, and he did loose some of his practice, but even the Sons of Liberty moved on with a degree of calm which is so difference from what frequently happens when people disagree with some verdicts today.

Long after the Boston Massacre, the American Revolution and his presidency, Adams commented that he believed his defense of the British soldiers “was one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinteresting action of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.” Following the law, and making sure that everyone in a free society receives a vigorous defense ultimately made him one of the most respected men in Massachusetts—ultimately in the US. Something to think about—I hope the men I heard during my walk came to the same conclusion.

If you’re interesting in finding more about Adams or the Boston Massacre see two great books. David McCullough, John Adams, and Dan Abrams, John Adams Under Fire.