“Facts are stubborn things…”
When feelings are running over facts.
This line comes on
About this line
Adams said it defending the British soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre — as their lawyer. A committed patriot, he took the most unpopular case in Boston because he believed the facts outranked the mob’s wishes, and he won acquittals for six of the eight soldiers. It cost him socially. He considered it one of the best things he ever did.
Why we carry this line
My hubby and I have been watching Ken Burns documentaries on the founding fathers. Adams had quite the story. He handled a case for people he felt needed representation. The facts won. In an age where everyone brings their own facts, I knew this passage needed to be seen.
What happened next
“Facts are stubborn things” wasn’t Adams’s invention. The phrase was already in English print by 1717, and Tobias Smollett’s 1749 translation of the novel ‘Gil Blas’ helped spread it. Adams didn’t coin it. He made it famous.
Six of the eight soldiers were acquitted. The other two, Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy, were convicted of manslaughter. They escaped hanging by pleading “benefit of clergy,” an old legal loophole. Each was branded on the thumb with an M and set free.
Three years later, Adams wrote in his diary that the defense was “one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country.”
Documented source
Every quote here is traced to a documented source. How we verify →