06 of 56 · Massachusetts Bay
ADAMS
A Lawyer's Guide
48 lessons. 6 chapters. In his own words.
He argued independence into being, then spent a life defending the argument from its friends.
John Adams · 1735–1826 · Advocate · diplomat · president
01
Make the Case
1 of 6
Put the question so it cannot be postponed.
“Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
July 2, not the fourth. He argued it into being in a hot room against men who wanted another petition. The case is not a mood. It is a question you force to a vote. Make them say aye or no. Then live there.
We are already in the revolution. Name it.
“Objects of the most Stupendous Magnitude, Measures in which the Lives and Liberties of Millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before Us. We are in the very midst of a Revolution, the most compleat, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the History of Nations.”
Letter to William Cushing · 1776
He wrote this in June, before the parchment. Naming is half the advocacy. Men will try to call it a dispute, a tax quarrel, a family argument. Call it a revolution while they can still flinch. Then they have to act like it.
Let the mind loose, then use it.
“Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. Let every order and degree among the people rouse their attention and animate their resolution.”
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law · 1765
Advocacy starts in the skull. He wanted the whole people armed with sentences. A lawyer who hoards the argument is a priest. Dare is the verb. Then file.
Nip arbitrary power in the bud.
“Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.”
Novanglus Essays, No. 3 · 1775
Do not wait for the tree. He made a career of early objections. Late argument is archaeology. The case for independence was the same muscle he used on small usurpations. Practice on the shoots.
In politics the middle way is none at all.
“In politics the middle way is none at all.”
He wrote this in March, while men still wanted a petition with better manners. Compromise is a tool for furniture, not for the question of whether you are a subject. Put the question so it cannot be postponed. Middle is how a revolution becomes a committee.
The revolution is in the minds first. Then the war can catch up.
“The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.”
Letter to Hezekiah Niles · 1818
He said it late, when the statues were already being ordered. Naming is half the advocacy. Men will try to call it a tax quarrel. Call it a revolution while they can still flinch. The minds have to move before the muskets do.
A lawyer who hoards the argument is a priest. File it.
“Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. Let every order and degree among the people rouse their attention and animate their resolution.”
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law · 1765
Advocacy starts in the skull. He wanted the whole people armed with sentences. Dare is the verb. Then file. A case that lives only in a professional mouth is a liturgy. Spread it.
Late argument is archaeology. Practice on the shoots.
“Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.”
Novanglus Essays, No. 3 · 1775
Do not wait for the tree. He made a career of early objections. The case for independence was the same muscle he used on small usurpations. Small noes train the large one. Start nipping.
02
The Unpopular Defense
2 of 6
Facts are stubborn things.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Argument for the defense, Rex v. Wemms, Boston Massacre trials · 1770
He took the soldiers' brief when the town wanted rope. Passion is not a witness. If you cannot defend the despised when the facts require it, you do not have law. You have a crowd with better stationery.
Innocence is the point of the machine.
“It is of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.”
Argument for the defense, Boston Massacre trials · 1770
The unpopular defense is not a brand. It is the test of whether the community is still a court. Guilt is easy to want. Innocence is the product. Protect it when it is wearing a red coat. That is the whole boast later.
The law does not bend to the weather in the street.
“The law, in all vicissitudes of government, fluctuations of the passions, or flights of enthusiasm, will preserve a steady undeviating course; it will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations, and wanton tempers of men.”
Argument for the defense, Boston Massacre trials · 1770
He said this in Boston, after Boston had been shot. That is the job. A lawyer who rides the flight of enthusiasm is a politician in a wig. Hold the undeviating course. Lose friends. Keep the machine.
Take the brief that costs you the room.
“I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
The massacre defense taught the town he would not be owned by it. That credit bought him the later argument for independence. Reputation is a bank. Sometimes you deposit by making them hate you first. Then they believe you when you are not performing.
Passion is not a witness. Do not put it on the stand.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
Argument for the defense, Rex v. Wemms, Boston Massacre trials · 1770
He took the soldiers' brief when the town wanted rope. If you cannot defend the despised when the facts require it, you do not have law. You have a crowd with better stationery. Stubborn is the compliment facts pay you for not lying.
Protect innocence when it is wearing a red coat.
“It is of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.”
Argument for the defense, Boston Massacre trials · 1770
The unpopular defense is not a brand. It is the test of whether the community is still a court. Guilt is easy to want. Innocence is the product. Do this when it costs you the street. That is the whole later boast.
A lawyer who rides the flight of enthusiasm is a politician in a wig.
“The law, in all vicissitudes of government, fluctuations of the passions, or flights of enthusiasm, will preserve a steady undeviating course; it will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations, and wanton tempers of men.”
Argument for the defense, Boston Massacre trials · 1770
He said this in Boston, after Boston had been shot. That is the job. Hold the undeviating course. Lose friends. Keep the machine. The weather in the street is not a statute. Do not let it write one.
Reputation is a bank. Sometimes you deposit by making them hate you first.
“I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
The massacre defense taught the town he would not be owned by it. That credit bought him the later argument for independence. Then they believe you when you are not performing. Take the brief that costs the room. The room will need you later for something harder.
03
A Republic
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Happiness is the end. Design backward from it.
“Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all Divines and moral Philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or in one word happiness to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.”
He wrote this as colonies were becoming states and asking what to build. Start with the product, not the furniture. A pretty frame that makes men miserable is a failure, however classical. Design backward from the greatest number.
Do not found it on fear.
“Fear is the foundation of most governments; but is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men, in whose breasts it predominates, so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.”
Most of the world runs on fright. He wanted something else and was willing to say fear makes you stupid. If your institution requires a stupid people, it is not American. It is a farm of nerves. Build on law.
An empire of laws, not of men.
“There is no good government but what is Republican. The very definition of a Republic is an Empire of Laws, and not of men.”
He had already used the phrase in Novanglus. Repeat it until it is furniture. Men die, moods swing, a favorite becomes a tyrant. Law is the only empire worth the name. Staff it with mortals. Do not worship them.
The assembly should be a miniature of the people.
“The principal difficulty lies in constituting this Representative Assembly. It should be in miniature, an exact portrait of the people at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them.”
Not a gallery of the polished. A portrait. If the poor are not in the picture, the picture is a lie, and the lie will levy. Equal interest in, equal interest out. That is the whole art of the first branch.
A pretty frame that makes men miserable is a failure, however classical.
“Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all Divines and moral Philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or in one word happiness to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.”
He wrote this as colonies were becoming states and asking what to build. Start with the product, not the furniture. Design backward from the greatest number. If the frame is admired and the people are not, you built a museum. Tear up the drawing.
If your institution requires a stupid people, it is a farm of nerves.
“Fear is the foundation of most governments; but is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men, in whose breasts it predominates, so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.”
Most of the world runs on fright. He wanted something else and was willing to say fear makes you stupid. Build on law. A farm of nerves will always find a herdsman. Do not apply for the job. Do not build the farm.
Staff the empire of laws with mortals. Do not worship them.
“There is no good government but what is Republican. The very definition of a Republic is an Empire of Laws, and not of men.”
He had already used the phrase in Novanglus. Repeat it until it is furniture. Men die, moods swing, a favorite becomes a tyrant. Law is the only empire worth the name. The mortals are temporary. The empire is the rules. Keep it that way.
Educate the lower class or you do not have a republic. You have a warehouse.
“Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.”
If the poor are not in the picture, the picture is a lie, and the lie will levy. He ranked their schooling as a public expense, not a charity. Equal interest in, equal interest out. Pay the tuition of the lowest ranks. That is the first branch's raw material.
04
The Interior
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Know the ordinary man in the mirror.
“By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man. Yet some great events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocrisies, have at times thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a lion.”
He wrote this down. Most men of his voltage will not. The interior is an assemblage of sloth until the event lights it. Vanity that cannot admit the sloth becomes a tyrant in a small room. Name the ordinary. Then use the lion when the hour is real.
You will be written out. Work anyway.
“The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one End to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's electrical Rod smote the Earth and out sprang General Washington.”
Letter to Benjamin Rush · 1790
He saw the myth coming and hated it like a rival. He was not wrong, and he was not graceful. Do the work knowing the statue committee has other names. The interior that can survive being forgotten is the only one fit for a republic.
Trust no man with the public liberty. Including you.
“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
Notes for an oration at Braintree · 1772
He includes the writer of the note. Good. Vanity wants an exemption. The maxim does not write one. If your system requires your own virtue to remain intact, your system is a toast. Build as if you will go bad. You might.
Ambition is a tool. Do not marry it.
“I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure that it will cost Us. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
He admits the glory. He also lists the bill. The interior that can hold both is adult. Hunger for a monument will make you lie, cling, and hate Franklin. Hunger for the work will make you useful. Choose daily. The diary is the audit.
Name the sloth. Then use the lion when the hour is real.
“By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man. Yet some great events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocrisies, have at times thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a lion.”
He wrote this down. Most men of his voltage will not. Vanity that cannot admit the sloth becomes a tyrant in a small room. The interior is an assemblage until the event lights it. Know the ordinary man in the mirror. Then stop staring and work.
Do the work knowing the statue committee has other names.
“The History of our Revolution will be one continued Lye from one End to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's electrical Rod smote the Earth and out sprang General Washington.”
Letter to Benjamin Rush · 1790
He saw the myth coming and hated it like a rival. He was not wrong, and he was not graceful. The interior that can survive being forgotten is the only one fit for a republic. Work anyway. The rod-and-general story will still be told. Your stack can outlive it.
If your system requires your own virtue to remain intact, your system is a toast.
“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
Notes for an oration at Braintree · 1772
He includes the writer of the note. Good. Vanity wants an exemption. The maxim does not write one. Build as if you will go bad. You might. Trust no man with the public liberty. Least of all the man who is sure he is the exception.
The vice presidency will teach you insignificance. Sit it anyway.
“My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1793
He admits the sting. Good. Hunger for a monument will make you lie, cling, and hate Franklin. Hunger for the work will make you useful even in a chair designed to waste you. Choose daily. The diary is the audit. Insignificance is also a public service if you do not sulk it into sabotage.
05
The Other Counsel
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Keep a counsel who is not in the hall.
“I cannot but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government every where. That Children and Apprentices were disobedient, that schools and Colledges were grown turbulent, that Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to their Masters. But your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerfull than all the rest were grown discontented.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
She told him to remember the ladies. He laughed and then kept the letter. The other counsel will not always flatter. That is the assignment. A statesman with only admirers in the room is unrepresented. Marry a critic with a stake.
Study war so they can study something else.
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, Natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1780
He sent the career ladder of a civilization through his wife. The other counsel is also the other future. You do the ugly study so the house can do the beautiful one. If both generations do war, you failed the assignment.
Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. Tell her that too.
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1775
He did not keep the dark sentences for the floor. He mailed them to Braintree. A partnership that only gets the tender news is a decoration. Send the stakes. She is already paying them.
Write her as if posterity were reading. She is.
“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1777
The other counsel is also the archive. He put posterity in a letter to his wife, not in a statue proposal. That is the right address. The house that keeps the letters keeps the country. You must remember her. The books do.
Remember the ladies. Do not laugh last.
“I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”
Letter from Abigail Adams · 1776
She told him. He laughed and then kept the letter. The other counsel will not always flatter. That is the assignment. A statesman with only admirers in the room is unrepresented. Marry a critic with a stake. Then read her twice.
You do the ugly study so the house can do the beautiful one.
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, Natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1780
He sent the career ladder of a civilization through his wife. If both generations do war, you failed the assignment. The other counsel is also the other future. Study the ugly so they are not obliged to. That is the whole point of winning.
A partnership that only gets the tender news is a decoration.
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1775
He did not keep the dark sentences for the floor. He mailed them to Braintree. Send the stakes. She is already paying them. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. Tell her that too. She is not a rest from the republic. She is in it.
May none but honest and wise men rule under this roof. Mail that home.
“I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1800
He put a blessing on a house and sent it to his wife, not to a stonecutter. The other counsel is also the archive. Honest and wise is a personnel rule. Write it where the household can hold you to it. Posterity reads the letters. Start there.
06
Write It Down
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The second day of July is the day. Write that down too.
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
He got the date wrong for the party and right for the act. Write it anyway. Posterity will correct the calendar and keep the sentence. A festival without the file is amnesia with fireworks.
Tell them the cost while you still have the bill.
“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1777
He scolds the unborn. Good. Soft founders breed soft heirs. The letter is a lien. Pay it forward as use, not as a weekend. Heaven, in this sentence, is a collection agency.
Liberty requires a people who can read.
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people. The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.”
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law · 1765
Write it down, then teach them to read it. Property without schools is a warehouse. He ranked the lowest ranks' knowledge above the rich men's goods. That is not charity. That is how a republic stays armed.
The jaws of power are always open. Keep a record anyway.
“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.”
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law · 1765
He knew the file would be hunted. He kept one: diaries, letters, essays, a life in carbon. Posterity is not a mood. It is a stack. Write as if a devourer is coming, because one is. Then leave the stack where they can find it.
He got the date wrong for the party and right for the act. Write it anyway.
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1776
Posterity will correct the calendar and keep the sentence. A festival without the file is amnesia with fireworks. The second day is the day the question died and the country began. Write that down too. Then let them picnic on the fourth if they must.
Heaven, in this sentence, is a collection agency.
“Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
Letter to Abigail Adams · 1777
He scolds the unborn. Good. Soft founders breed soft heirs. The letter is a lien. Pay it forward as use, not as a weekend. Tell them the cost while you still have the bill. Repentance is what you promise them if they waste it.
Property without schools is a warehouse.
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people. The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.”
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law · 1765
Write it down, then teach them to read it. He ranked the lowest ranks' knowledge above the rich men's goods. That is not charity. That is how a republic stays armed. Liberty requires a people who can read. Fund that before the warehouse.
Dread two parties with two leaders. Write that down before they arrive.
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.”
Letter to Jonathan Jackson · 1780
He knew the file would be hunted and the people would still split. Keep a record anyway. The jaws of power are always open. So is the appetite for a captain. Write the dread while you can still see it as a dread, not as a team. Posterity is a stack. Leave one.