John Adams Under Fire Quotes

“They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.”
― Dan Abrams, John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial

“Faced with having to explain away the threats uttered by the prisoners, the young lawyer made a claim that hence became a staple of lawyers faced with foul words uttered by their client: “Words are often misrepresented, whether through ignorance, inattention or malice...for the tone of voice, the gesture, all that proceeds, accompanies and follows the different ideas which men annex to the same word, may so alter or modify a man’s discourse that it is almost impossible to repeat them precisely in the manner in which they were spoken. Besides, violent and uncommon actions...leave a trace in the multitude of circumstances that attend them, but words remain only in the memory of the hearers, who are commonly negligent or prejudiced.”
― Dan Abrams, John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial

“In his diligence he had developed an almost unrestrained passion for the law, now feeling its power, and its potential. “To what higher object, to what greater character,” he told the lawyer Jonathan Sewall, “can any mortal aspire than to be possessed of all this knowledge, well digested and ready to command, to”
― Dan Abrams, John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial

“these criminals, charged with murder, are not yet legally proved guilty, and therefore, however criminal, are entitled, by the laws of God and man, to all legal counsel and aid; that my duty as a man obliged me to undertake; that my duty as a lawyer strengthened the obligation;”
― Dan Abrams, John Adams Under Fire: The Founding Father's Fight for Justice in the Boston Massacre Murder Trial