Shortly after his entrance into the practice of the law, the attempt at parliamentary taxation diverted his attention from his profession to politics. He was a most active oppositionist. He promoted the call of the town of Braintree to instruct the representatives of the town on the subject of the Stamp Act. The resolutions which he presented at this meeting were not only voted by the town, but attracted great attention throughout the province, and were adopted verbatim by more than forty different towns. Thus it is seen that Adams had not studied hard all these years for nothing; the price of success is honest, faithful WORK.
Of course his towns-people would reward him. Men who have ability, unless some bolt is loose, will invariably gain success. Soon after this Mr. Adams was appointed on the part of the town of Boston to be one of their counsel, along with the King's attorney, and head of the bar, and James Otis, the celebrated orator, to support a memorial addressed to the Governor and Council, that the courts might proceed with business though no stamps were to be had. Although junior counsel, it fell to Adams to open the case for the petitioners, as his seniors could not join; the one owing to his position as King's attorney, the other could not as he had recently published a book entitled the 'Rights of the Colonies.' This was a grand opportunity for Adams and he made the most of it,—boldly taking the ground that the stamp act was null and void, Parliament having no right to tax the colonies. Nothing, however, came of this application; the Governor and Council declining to act, on the ground that it belonged to the Judges, not to them, to decide.
But Adams had put himself on record, and this record established his reputation. "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." The time came to Adams to distinguish himself, and he was not found wanting. It was at this same period that Mr. Adams first appeared as a writer in the Boston Gazette. He never allowed his opportunities to pass unheeded; in fact, he made his opportunities. Among other papers which appeared at this time from his pen, was a series of four articles which were republished in a London newspaper, and subsequently published in a collection of documents relating to the taxation controversy, printed in a large volume. At first the papers had no title in the printed volume, being known as "Essays on the Canon and Feudal Law." Well they might have been called so, but, it seems to us, that it would have been much more consistent to have entitled them "Essays on the Government and Rights of New England." His style was formed from the first, as is evident from the articles.
His law business continued to increase and in 1768 he removed to Boston where he would have a larger field in which to develop his intellect. He served on various committees during the next two years, and in 1770 was chosen a Representative to the general Court, notwithstanding he had just before accepted a retainer to defend Captain Preston and his soldiers for their share in what had passed into history as the Boston massacre. His ability as a practitioner at the bar can be judged from the successful result of their case, as managed by him, against great public prejudice. Adams' duties as a Representative interfered much with his business as a lawyer, on which he depended for support, and which had grown to be larger than that of any other practitioner at the provincial bar.
He entered upon the duties of his new office with his customary energy, becoming the chief legal advisor of the Patriot party, and now for the first time an active and conspicuous leader of the same. Mr. Adams' keen foresight enabled him to wisely judge that it would be a good policy not to push too vigorously to the front as a politician until his private wealth would justify his necessarily great loss of time. Hence, he moved back to Braintree, resigning his seat in the Legislature, but still retaining his law office in Boston. A comparative lull in politics made his presence in that body less needed, but still he was consulted as to all the more difficult points in the controversy with Governor Hutchinson, and freely gave his aid. Indeed, it was not long before he moved back to Boston, but thoroughly resolved to avoid politics, and to devote his undivided attention to his professional work. Soon after his return to Boston he wrote a series of letters on the then mooted question of the independence of the judiciary, and the payment by the Crown of the salaries of the Judges. Soon after this he was elected by the general Court to the Provincial Council, but was rejected by Governor Hutchinson.
The destruction of tea, and the Boston port bill that followed, soon brought matters to a crisis. These events produced the congress of 1774. Mr. Adams was one of the five delegates sent from Massachusetts, and his visit to Philadelphia at this time was the first occasion of his going beyond the limits of New England. In the discussions in the committee on the declaration of colonial rights, he took an active part in resting those rights on the law of nature as well as the law of England; and when the substance of those resolutions had been agreed upon he was chosen to put the matter in shape. In his diary the most trustworthy and graphic descriptions are to be found of the members and doings of that famous but little known body. The session concluded, Mr. Adams left the city of brotherly love with little expectation, at that time, of ever again seeing it.
Immediately after his return home he was chosen by his native town a member of the provincial congress then in session. That congress had already appointed a committee of safety vested with general executive powers; had seized the provincial revenues; had appointed general officers, collected military stores, and had taken steps toward organizing a volunteer army of minute-men. The governor—Gage—had issued a proclamation denouncing these proceedings, but no attention was ever paid to it. Gage had no support except in the five or six regiments that guarded Boston, a few trembling officials and a small following from the people.
Shortly after the adjournment of this congress Adams occupied himself in answering through the press a champion of the mother-country's claim. This party, under the head of 'Massachusettensis,' had commenced a series of able and effective arguments in behalf of the mother-country, which were being published in a Boston journal. To these Adams replied over the signature of 'Novanglus.' These were papers displaying unusual ability on either part. They were afterwards published as "A History of the Dispute with America," and later yet in pamphlet form. Their value consists in the strong, contemporaneous views which they present of the origin of the struggle between the colonies and the mother-country, and the policy of Bernard and Hutchinson as governors of Massachusetts, which did so much to bring on the struggle. Like all the writings of Mr. Adams, they are distinguished by a bold tone of investigation, a resort to first principles, and a pointed style; but, like all his other writings, being produced by piecemeal, and on the spur of the moment, they lack order, system, polish and precision.
In the midst of the excitement produced by the battle of Lexington—which at once brought up the spirit of even the most hesitating patriots to the fighting pitch, and which was speedily followed by the seizure of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and by other similar seizures in other colonies throughout the fast uniting provinces—John Adams once more set out for Philadelphia to attend the Continental Congress of 1775, of which he had been appointed a member. This congress, though made up for the most part of the same men who constituted that of the previous year, was a wholly different body from its predecessor. The congress of 1774 was merely a suggestive convention. The present congress speedily assumed, or rather had thrust upon it by unanimous consent of the patriots, the exercise of a comprehensive authority in which supreme executive, legislative and, in some cases, judicial functions, were united. In this busy scene the active and untiring Adams, one of whose distinguishing characteristics was his capacity and fondness for business, found ample employment; while his bold and pugnacious spirit was not a little excited by the hazards and dignity of the great game in which he had come to hold so deep a stake. Unlike many of that body, Adams had made up his mind that any attempt tending toward reconciliation was hopeless.
Under the lead of Dickinson, though against the strenuous opposition of Adams and others, that body voted still another and final petition to the king. However, Adams succeeded in joining with this vote one to put the colonies into a state of defence, though with protestations that the war on their part was for defence only, and without revolutionary intent. Not long after this congress was brought up to the point of assuming the responsibility and control of the military operations which New England had commenced by laying siege to Boston, in which town General Gage and his troops were caged, and before which lay an impromptu New England army of 15,000 men which the battle of Lexington had immediately brought together. Urged by the New England delegates, congress agreed to assume the expense of maintaining this army. John Adams was the first to propose the name of George Washington for the chief commander; his desire being to secure the good-will and co-operation of the southern colonies. The southern colonies also urged General Lee for the second place, but Adams insisted on giving that to Artemas Ward, he, however, supported Lee for the third place. Having assumed the direction of this army, provided for its reorganization, and issued letters of credit for its maintenance, this congress took a recess. Adams returned home, but was not allowed any rest.