I think BMG can take some credit for bringing this to the fore.
GLOBE EDITORIAL
Adams everlasting
Sunday October 15, 2006
SOMETIMES, history pierces the mists of time like an arrow.
Words spoken by John Adams two centuries ago resonate now with striking clarity. Adams’s defense of the British soldiers who killed five unarmed colonials in the Boston Massacre deserves to be remembered by the candidates for governor, and also by those formulating US policy in Iraq.
On a cold March evening in 1770, a small argument escalated into an ugly confrontation between nine armed British soldiers and several hundred Bostonians hurling first taunts, then snowballs, rubbish, and rocks. The British fired at close range, killing five.
Boston was still rife with anger when the soldiers went on trial that fall, but Adams did not shirk when asked to defend them. And he did so effectively. The captain was acquitted because it was never proved that he gave an order to fire. Adams then emphasized the menacing nature of the mob, and said the soldiers could have been expected to defend themselves. Six of the eight were acquitted; two were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded.
Explaining his own actions, Adams stuck to the notion that every defendant deserves competent representation. Later, he said the case cost him half his law practice temporarily. But he added that his role was “one of the most gallant, generous, manly, and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.”
The relevant point here is obvious. Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey does her state a gross disservice — and looks pretty silly — by suggesting that the defense of an accused criminal renders Deval Patrick, or anyone, unsuitable for public office. Had Adams’s compatriots agreed, Massachusetts would be without a constitution, and America without its second president.
A second extraordinary lesson in the story is this: Adams’s successful defense was based on his portrayal of the crowd as a bloodthirsty mob so threatening that the soldiers were justified in firing in self-defense. But Adams suggested that the real villainwas King George III of Britain, who riled up the population by garrisoning his soldiers among the people. Adams offered a cautionary observation about the difficulty any occupying force has in carrying out the police function.
“Soldiers quartered in a populous town will always occasion two mobs where they prevent one,” he said. “They are wretched conservators of the peace.” Messrs. Bush and Rumsfeld, please copy.
