When John Adams was still a young attorney, the Boston Massacre took place. No lawyer wanted to defend the British soldiers that were accused of murder in the case. John Adams eventually learned that the whole matter would probably end with the British being found guilty. Because his cousin Sam Adams was there, John knew some of the facts. He also knew that no one would defend the soldiers.

John Adams then determined that he would take the case to insure that no injustice would be done. His friends all told him that would be the end of his career as a lawyer. He took it. He won. It wasn’t the end of his career. He gained the admiration of the city folk as a lawyer who was honest and fair.

John later stood with Thomas Jefferson defending the draft of the Declaration of Independence. Adams was later sent by Congress to join Benjamin Franklin as an ambassador to France to secure a treaty with the King to help support the colonists in the Revolutionary War. They did.

John Adams was then sent to Great Britain to secure a treaty of commerce with the British who had just been defeated by the United States in the Revolutionary War. As you can imagine, the British wanted nothing to do with John. John Adams wanted to be in America to take part in the Constitutional Convention. After all John had drawn up the Constitution of the State of Massachusetts. John couldn’t be there, as he wasn’t released from his position in England. So he wrote a book: “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America.” This book was one of the most quoted at the Constitutional Convention.

George Washington was elected the first President of the United States. John Adams was chosen as the Vice President. After George declined to serve a third term, John Adams was elected to become the second President of the United States. He served one term. He was defeated for a second term by his old friend, now enemy, Thomas Jefferson. If circumstances were a little different, Adams should have served a second term.

Adams retired and he was tired. He probably should have been elected to a second term, but the infighting was destructive. He and Jefferson didn’t speak to each other for a dozen years. In 1812 Adams, with the encouragement of their mutual friend, and co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, wrote to Jefferson and they began to recall how well they had worked together in securing the Declaration of Independence. Adams said: “I always loved Jefferson and still do.”

Jefferson and Adams carried on a correspondence for the next 14 years and touched on every subject known to man at that time. They both died on the 50th anniversary of that document they had worked together on. It was July 4th, 1826!