Like many another statesman, John Adams entered the political arena
by way of the legal profession. Here, gathered together in three
volumes, is an inclusive presentation of the important legal cases
in which he was involved. Student notes and Commonplace Book, which
show the influences on the young law student in 1758 and 1759 are
followed by Adams' Pleadings Book, a collection of forms providing
a cross-section of the law in eighteenth-century Massachusetts and
showing his work as teacher as well as student.
The sixty-four cases documented are divided into sixteen legal
categories such as Torts, Property, Domestic Relations, Town
Government, Conservation, Religion, Slavery, and Admiralty. They
are preceded by editorial headnotes which discuss the background,
significance, and importance of each category and case. Careful and
thorough footnotes explain textual and legal problems; a register
of John Adams' contemporaries furnishes sketches of his colleagues
on the bench and bar; and an exhaustive chronology records his
growing practice. But the bulk of the material consists of Adams'
own notes and minutes, supplemented by court records, letters,
depositions of witnesses, and the minutes of other lawyers, as well
as extracts from Adams' correspondence and diary to make the record
of each case as full as possible. Many of the cases concern events,
personalities, and legal struggles directly related to the American
Revolution.
The entire third volume of this imposing collection is devoted
to the so-called "Boston Massacre." Confronted by a fascinating
mass of conflicting evidence, charges and countercharges, and
confused and confusing witnesses, many Americans will be
surprisedto discover that they must revise their notions about what
actually happened on that March evening in 1770, why it did, and
what ensued.
These three books comprise the first segment of Series III of
The Adams Papers. The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation has made
possible the editing of these volumes by means of a generous grant
to the Harvard Law School.
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