Of course, much has been written of John Adams and you can easily find out all you want to know from other sources.  Nonetheless, following are a few key historical points about John Adams, and the origin of our favorite quote - "facts are stubborn things."

• Born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735
• Served in the Massachusetts legislature from 1770 to 1774
• Member of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777
• Served abroad as a diplomat from 1778 to 1788, including the first United States Ambassador to Great Britain
• Helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris in 1882, which ended the Revolutionary War
• Served as a two-term Vice President to George Washington from 1789 to 1797 (famous John Adams quote about the Vice Presidency: "My country has, in its wisdom, contrived for me the most insignificant office ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.")
• Elected as 2nd President of the United States in 1796 - Thomas Jefferson was his Vice President
• First President to reside in the White House (then referred to as the Executive Mansion)
• Presided over the creation of the U.S. Navy in 1798
• Lost presidency to Thomas Jefferson in 1800
• After his presidency, Adams became life-long friends with his political rival, Thomas Jefferson.  Both died on July 4th, 1826 - the 50th anniversary of US independence.

Origin of "facts are stubborn things" John Adams quote
(get a cup of coffee)

The story begins in 1768, when British customs officials seized a ship belonging to John Hancock on charges of smuggling wine into the colonies without paying the required taxes.  After Bostonian mobs attacked the custom officials, the British sent two regiments (about 700 soldiers) to occupy the city.  The troops, wearing the distinctive red coats that gave them their  hated nickname, guarded government offices throughout the city, including the Customs House.

Over the next year, the redcoats traded insults, threats, and skirmishes with the Bostonians, who deeply despised the military occupation.  On March 2nd, 1770 a fight broke out between an off-duty redcoat looking for extra work and a rope maker, followed later by a brawl.  Involved in the brawl were a soldier named Matthew Killroy, and a rope maker named Samuel Gray.

Three days later on March 5th, a lone British sentry was guarding the Customs House when ge got into an argument with a barber's apprentice and hit the apprentice in the head with his musket.  Other apprentices gathered and began taunting the sentry, calling him, among other things, "bloody lobster back" in reference to his red coat.  By 9:00 pm, the crowd had grown to about 100 and they began throwing snowballs and ice at the sentry, daring him to fire his musket.

Soon after, a group of about 25 American sailors arrived, led by a man name Crispus Attucks who headed to the front of the crowd, armed with a club.  At this point, the sentry called for help.  In response, Captain Thomas Preston, the officer of the guard, deployed with a detachment of six privates and a corporal.  One of the privates was Matthew Killroy, the soldier involved in the brawl three days earlier.  The soldiers marched to the Customs House, joined the lone sentry, and took up a position facing the crowd with their muskets loaded and Captain Preston standing behind them.

By this time the crowd had grown to over 300 strong and they were severely taunting the redcoats, shouting "Fire!", "Why don't you fire!"  and throwing all sorts of objects including snowballs, ice, oyster shells, and even coal.  Attucks was yelling "Kill them! Kill them! Knock them over!"  He and others began striking the redcoats' muskets with their sticks and clubs.

Suddenly, out of the crowd came a club that struck a Private Montgomery, knocking him down.  As the private stood back up, someone yelled "Damn you, fire!"  Enraged and frightened, he fired his musket, killing Crispus Attucks who was directly in front of him.  Immediately, the other soldiers began firing.  Matthew Killroy's bullet found and killed Samuel Gray, the rope maker involved in the brawl days earlier.  When the soldiers stopped to reload, Captain Preston commanded "Stop firing!"  When the shooting ceased, five men had been killed or critically injured.  The Boston Massacre had just occurred.

In the aftermath, the soldiers were moved to an isolated and protected island in Boston Harbor.  On March 13th, 13 indictments for murder were issued against Captain Preston, the eight soldiers, and four custom officials that were accused of shooting into the crowd from the Customs House windows.  (It turned out that the custom officials were wrongly accused and they were never tried.)

Captain Preston, who was accused of giving the order to fire into the crowd, was to be tried first, followed by a separate trial of the eight soldiers.  The trials were preceded by an onslaught of propaganda from both sides, including particularly effective pieces from Sam Adams and Paul Revere which exaggerated the actions of the British during the event.

No lawyer could be found who would represent Captain Preston and the soldiers until a young, 35-year old lawyer named John Adams was persuaded.  Although a staunch patriot, Adams believed that the basic tenants of self government, and ultimately the future of the Colonies, would be undermined unless a fair trial, based on facts was held.  If no one stepped up to defend the soldiers, justice might be little more than a lynch mob, and that was no way to lay a foundation for a new nation.

Adams found two others to assist him, Robert Auchmuty and a young Patriot lawyer named Josiah Quincy (who was the younger brother of the special prosecutor).  As mobs continued to gather and threaten to lynch Preston and the soldiers, the first trial began on October 24, 1770.

The key issue in Captain Preston's trial was whether or not he had issued the order to fire into the crowd.  Captain Preston denied giving the order, and did not testify.  Many testified that they heard the word "Fire" from the Captain, but many more testified that they did not.  What became apparent was that, in the chaos just before the shooting began, many people were yelling the word "Fire" and most of them were Bostonians doing the taunting.  After six days of testimony, Captain Preston was acquitted.

Sam Adams and his Sons of Liberty, and other patriot leaders, were upset about the verdict, but they were not surprised because of the chaos surrounding the event and the fact that Preston himself had not actually fired into the crowd.  Nonetheless, someone had to pay for the death of the five Bostonians, and they fully expected it to be the eight soldiers.

The trial of the eight solders started on November 27th and lasted eight days.  Prosecutors only had to demonstrate that any one of the soldiers fired into the crowd with intent to kill, and without fear for his own life.  If this was proven, all eight soldiers would be declared guilty and all would hang.  To prove this, the prosecution focused on revenge for the months of taunting and insults as the motive.  They maintained that the redcoats had taken advantage of an opportunity, using an unruly but harmless crowd as an excuse to take revenge and to kill.  They specifically maintained that Private Killroy had used the opportunity to exact revenge against Samuel Gray and to kill him.

John Adams and his defense team had a nearly impossible task - convincing a jury that was undoubtedly anti-British that the soldiers legitimately feared for their lives and fired in self defense.  After educating the jury on the law regarding self-defense, they used testimony after testimony to recount the physically threatening acts against the soldiers.  Particularly effective was the testimony of Dr. John Jeffries, who treated one of the victims, Patrick Carr, for 10 days before Mr. Carr died.  Dr. Jeffries testified that Mr. Carr stated from his deathbed that he believed the soldiers had fired in self defense and did not blame the man who shot him.

During the course of the trial, John Adams asked the jurors to place themselves in the soldiers' situation and ask themselves if they would not think their own lives in danger and would they not shoot to protect it.  He also asked them to note the volume of testimony regarding the physical danger in which the soldiers had been placed.  He stated to the jurors that "facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidences."

After three hours of deliberation, the jurors found all eight soldiers innocent of murder, although they found Privates Killroy and Montgomery guilty of manslaughter.  Although convicted of a capital offense, a special plea was allowed that reduced their penalty to branding on the thumb.

John Adams, relying on his belief that a fair and unbiased justice system, based on stubborn facts, was at the core of a true self-governing democracy, had succeeded in achieving what was thought impossible.  Until he came to their defense, the lynching of the eight soldiers was for most people a foregone conclusion.

It's safe to say that this story doesn't have a lot to do with fantasy football.  After all, John Adams and the rest of the patriots of the day were struggling with the mighty and deep issues of independence from a king, taxation without representation, military occupation, revolution, perseverance of a justice system, and the emergence of a true democracy, just to name a few.  The lives of our founding fathers and brothers, as well as the life of our country, was at stake.

We're just having fun playing games about other people playing games (or at least it's supposed to be fun).  But, as evidenced by its explosion and the time and money we dedicate to it, we certainly consider sports in general, and fantasy sports in particular, important on some level (that's another discussion), so it's important to get it right.  And to do that, we need those stubborn things - facts.

A little perspective sometimes helps.  Hope you enjoyed the story.