His reasons are hard to say. While he strongly believed that all men were entitled to a fair trial and that they deserved equal justice, he knew of the dangers to his practice and of the violence that the mob was capable of, therefore endangering his wife and young children. In the long term, however, he might be remembered as a man who put law above his personal beliefs. According to historian Hiller B. Zobel, Adams may have been encouraged to take the case in exchange for a seat in Boston’s legislature as he was the town’s first choice when a seat became available three months later.
