Not long after that, he had given up Justinian.  “You may get more by studying town-meetings and training-days,” he writes.  “Popularity is the way to gain and figure.”  These extracts give no indication of legal ambition.

But in 1761 the political horizon was overcast.  There were difficulties with Great Britain.  James Otis had made a great speech, which Adams heard, on what were called “writs of assistance,” giving power to the English officers of customs in the Colony to enter houses and stores to search for smuggled goods.  This remarkable speech made a deep impression on the young lawyer, and kindled fires which were never extinguished.  He saw injustice, and a violation of the rights of English subjects, as all the Colonists acknowledged themselves to be, and he revolted from injustice and tyranny.  This was the turning-point of his life; he became a patriot and politician.  This, however, was without neglecting his law business, which soon grew upon his hands, for he could make a speech and address juries.  Eloquence was his gift.  He was a born orator, like Patrick Henry.

In 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which produced great agitation in New England, and Adams was fired with the prevailing indignation.  His whole soul went forth in angry protest.  He argued its injustice before Governor Bernard, who, however, was resolved to execute it as the law.  Adams was equally resolved to prevent its execution, and appealed to the people in burning words of wrath.  Chief-Justice Hutchinson sided with the Governor, and prevented the opening of the courts and all business transactions without stamps.  This decision crippled business, and there was great distress on account of it; but Adams cared less for the injury to people’s pockets than for the violation of rights,—­taxation without representation; and in his voice and that of other impassioned orators this phrase became the key-note of the Revolution.

English taxation of the Colonies was not oppressive, but was felt to be unjust and unconstitutional,—­an entering-wedge to future exactions, to which the people were resolved not to submit.  They had no idea of separation from England, but, like John Hampden, they would resist an unlawful tax, no matter what the consequences.  Fortunately, these consequences were not then foreseen.  The opposition of the Colonies to taxation without their own consent was a pure outburst of that spirit of liberty which was born in German forests, and in England grew into Magna Charta, and ripened into the English Revolution.  It was a turbulent popular protest.  That was all, at first, and John Adams fanned the discontent, with his cousin, Samuel Adams, a greater agitator even than he, resembling Wendell Phillips in his acrimony, boldness, and power of denunciation.  The country was aroused from end to end.  The “Sons of Liberty” societies of Massachusetts spread to Maryland; the Virginians boldly passed declarations of rights; the merchants of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston resolved to import no English goods; and nine of the Colonies sent delegates to a protesting Convention in New York.  In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed because it could not be enforced; but Parliament refused to concede its right of taxation, and there was a prospect of more trouble.