John Adams: a Patriot's conscience

On March 5, 1770, a crowd of Bostonians confronted British soldiers quartered in the town. A soldier, Private Hugh White, was struck by a club. In the ensuing chaos, the British opened fire on the crowd, killing 5 civilians. The anti-British Boston press quickly framed the event as the "Boston Massacre." Passions ran hot. Public opinion called for the death penalty for the soldiers involved.

Thirty-four-year-old lawyer and Patriot-sympathizer John Adams was asked to defend the soldiers. Knowing that taking the case could jeopardize his standing among the Patriot community, and possibly put him and his family in physical danger, Adams accepted the case.

To justify his decision, he wrote:

I had no hesitation in answering that Council ought to be the very last thing that an accused Person should want [i.e., be without] in a free Country. That the Bar ought in my opinion to be independent and impartial at all Times And in every Circumstance. And that Persons whose Lives were at Stake ought to have the Council they preferred: But he must be sensible this would be as important a Cause as ever was tryed in any Court or Country of the World: and that every Lawyer must hold himself responsible not only to his Country, but to the highest and most infallible of all Trybunals for the Part he should Act.

Initial reaction to Adams's role in the case was hostile. His law practice dropped by over half.

In his diary, Adams noted that

The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country. Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right.

Here is America at its best - before the United States of America came into being: the rule of law trumps public passion; the right to counsel is maintained under the most adverse circumstances; a fair and impartial trial by jury is conducted even for those whom the mob would just as soon lynch... and the light of one man's courageous conscience shines down through history.

Herein lies a lesson for us all, today.