John Adams Before The Revolution

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.

- John Adams

Born October 30, 1735 in Massachusetts to John Adams, Sr. and Susanna Boylston Adams. His father was a farmer, a Puritan, a lieutenant in the military and town councilman, who supervised schools and roads. As a young boy Adams always felt the responsability to hold up to his family heritage: the founding generation of Puritans, who came and established colonial presence in America.

As a young adult he attended Harvard College. His father having hopes that he would become a minister, but John wasn't sure yet of what he wanted to be. After he graduated, he started teaching in Worcester giving him some time think about his careeer choice. He finally decided he wanted to be a lawyer and studied law in the office of James Putnam. Later on after becoming a prominent lawyer, he married his third cousin Abigail Smith whom with he had six children: Abigail, future president John Quincy, Susanna, Charles, Thomas, and Elizabeth.


Working Against the Stamp Act
Adams first rose to prominence as an opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765, which was imposed by the British parliament without consulting the American assemblies.
Adams drafted instuctions sent to the Massachusetts legisture. This served as model to other colonies to draw up instructionsn to their own representatives.
In September 1765, Adams delivered a speech before the govenor and council in which he claimed that the Stamp Act was invalid in Massachusetts' grounds, because they had no representation in the British Parliament.


Adams in the Boston Massacre
In 1770, a small confrontation between British soldier and inocent civilians resulted in the killing of five of those civilians. These killings later were known as The Boston Massacre. The involved soldiers were arrested for criminal charges and had a hard time finding legal counsil. So they decided to ask John Adams to defend them. Although he feared for his reputation, he accepted. Six soldiers were kind of safed while two of the ones whos fired directly at the crowd were charged with murder and convicted of manslaughter.
In the end all Adams got paid was 10 guineas by Captain Thomas Preston.

Against Parliament Authority
In 1772, Massachusetts Govenor Yhomas Hutchinson proclaimed that he and all his judges would no longer be paid by the Massachusetts legisture, becuase the Crown would pay them from the costums revenues.
The people of Boston protested and asked Adams to speak in their behalf. He argued that the colonists had never been under the sovereignty of Parliament. That since the beginning their allegiance was only to the king.
Adams said that "if a workable line could not be drawn between parliamentary sovereignty and the total independence of the colonies, he continued, the colonies would have no other choice but to choose independence."