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Brandeis University Law Journal            2024-2025, Volume 12 

Second to One: Walking in the Shoes of a Giant 
Noah Levy1 

This book review of John Adams by David McCullough situates 
the reader in President Adams’ tumultuous position during the 
American Revolution. In the spirit of the law, the article utilizes 
his legal milestones to reveal the inherent risk in his actions 
and the rewards of living by a cause. 
 
The Time 

Boston is crumbling, and you are fleeing your home as 
a penniless refugee. Rewind: what just happened? While it may 
be out of fashion in the twenty-first century, imagine being a 
proud colonial British farmer in the 18th century. The sunrise is 
a signal to pick up a plow or force someone else to, depending 
on local values. When the yield is plentiful, mighty British 
trade routes are convenient to export surpluses. Most goods are 
English and support “the good life.” There is a scuffle in 
Boston, and the royal taxes become increasingly pervasive. The 
situation escalates, and suddenly, your fellow countrymen are 
declaring independence. Which side do you choose? 

In retrospect, it is easy to declare allegiance to the 
winners, but it would have been a dangerous decision in the 
historical milieu. Britain was the world’s major superpower, 
with the most powerful army, navy, and commerce network. 
Rebelling would put one’s life and livelihood at catastrophic 
risk. Playing it safe by remaining loyal to the Crown would 
result in being among the thousands who fled in haste.2 
Through riveting storytelling, David McCollough, the author of 
John Adams, illustrates that those who risked treason for liberty 
were the unlikely victors. 

2 David McCullough, John Adams 76 (2001). 

1 Brandeis University, Class of 2025, Brandeis University Law Journal, 
Editor-in-Chief. 

 
 

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The Man 

John Adams faced a far more arduous decision than 
many of his countrymen. Put yourself in his shoes, coming 
from a patrilineage of New England farmers with a prestigious 
maternal heritage.3 The family works hard to put food on the 
table, taking advantage of vast land holdings.4 Your father is a 
deacon who recognizes your potential to follow in his 
footsteps.5 Breaking the family’s long-standing maxim against 
selling land, he parts with ten of his seventy-five acres to send 
you to Harvard.6 You toil in books while others labor in the 
soil. While not exceedingly rich, the harvest provides a life of 
relative comfort. 

Thinking you “would make a better lawyer than 
preacher” leads to employment as a schoolmaster after 
graduation to save up for a legal apprenticeship.7 The work is 
exhausting and builds on a preexisting yearning for more 
prestige. Sociological research shows that periods of major 
societal upheaval lend to excellence.8 Later on, arguing as Vice 
President that President Washington should be referred to as 
“his excellency” may be a tacit early recognition of the time’s 
significance. There lies a desire to seal the prestige of the 
position in perpetuity. While ambition is externally viewed as 
vain, a fire burns within. 

Two years of legal training culminates in admission to 
the Massachusetts Bar. A cascade of success emerges, 
including moving your law office from Braintree to Boston, 
beginning to acquire land, and becoming “Boston’s busiest 
attorney.”9 Many newly minted law school graduates say 
they’ll put in their time with “white shoe” law and move on to 

9 McCullough, supra note 2 at 63. 
8 Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, 60 (2008).  
7 Id. at 37. 
6 Id. at 35. 
5 Id. at 34. 
4 Id. at 32. 
3 Id. at 30. 

 
 

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Brandeis University Law Journal            2024-2025, Volume 12 

other work. You embody this modern ideal, yet you refuse to 
forgo the time’s iconic metal-clasped, black colonial shoes, 
appearing before the “superior court… in more than two 
hundred… cases” in a single year. 

Your public profile grows, serving as Braintree’s 
surveyor and selectman. Then, early in a soon-to-be storied 
career, a crossroads emerges. A dear friend, Jonathan Sewall, 
shares “an offer you cannot refuse” to lead the “office of 
advocate general in the Court of Admiralty,” a plush royal 
position and a massive career advancement.10 The thirst for 
prominence has never been closer to being satisfied. Yet, in the 
face of the Stamp Act, you begin a legal movement for national 
independence instead, halting the prospect of immediate 
ascendancy. You campaign with the historic phrase, “no 
taxation without representation,” building out ironclad 
revolutionary ideals.11 You have “no difficulty saying no” to 
Sewall.12 Having everything to lose, you inextricably tie your 
fate to a budding nation. Achieving the coveted societal status 
of a landowner warrants the conviction of expanding liberty to 
your countrymen through war. 

Soon after choosing a side, an opportunity arises to 
exercise your values. The people of Massachusetts are outraged 
at the events of the Boston Massacre. No lawyer will take the 
British soldier’s case until the one and only John Adams Esq. 
rises to the occasion. This choice leads to “public scorn… 
painful in the extreme.”13 Being extremely self-conscious and 
loathing criticism, the negative publicity scars your ego, which 
is a surprisingly grounding experience. Nevertheless, the 
“principle” that “no man in a free country should be denied the 
right to counsel” trumps all personal considerations. 
Unknowingly, this will aid political ambitions later.  

 

13 Id. at 66. 
12 Id. at 64. 
11 Id. at 61. 
10 Id. at 64. 

 
 

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Brandeis University Law Journal            2024-2025, Volume 12 

The Government 
While some have the initial instinct to take up arms or 

aimlessly bash the present circumstances, you take a more 
calculated path, detailed in various publications. The 
instrumental ideas you authored in Thoughts on Government 
recognize that the “form of government which 
communicates… happiness… to the greatest number of 
persons… is the best.”14 The subject is a government with three 
branches: the executive, legislative, and judiciary. Each should 
be independent to serve as a check on the others. In the face of 
war, there is a release valve called “militia law,” where the 
executive takes the reins of the state to straighten out conflict.15 
You pride yourself in solutions, so deride Thomas Paine’s 
Common Sense, which identifies a problem without proposing 
an adequate fix. These seminal works, endowed with legal 
prowess, will constantly inform your activism. 

Congress is indecisive when debating independence. 
Some prefer a semi-autonomous status, others sovereign 
freedom.16 You leverage your oratorical skills to keenly apply 
procedural rules and ensure the effectiveness of the debates.17 
The first attempt at a declaration failed, leaving two more 
weeks for negotiations. You draw on your lawyering days to 
whip together a unanimous final vote.18 

Authoring the Declaration of Independence’s preamble 
is an honor. Modern readers can see that it alone can serve the 
document’s purpose. The document explains that government 
legitimacy lies upon the consent of the governed to provide the 
“unalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness.”19 Since the British Crown was “destructive towards 

19 John Adams, Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, (1776). 
18 Id. at 129. 
17 Id. at 123. 
16 McCullough, supra note 2 at 126. 
15 Id. at 2. 

14 John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1 (1776), 
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0026-0004 (last 
visited Jan 2, 2025). 

 
 

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Brandeis University Law Journal            2024-2025, Volume 12 

these ends[,] it is the Right of the People… to abolish it… and 
to institute [a] new Government.” The circumstances in the 
colonies were “reduced[ed to] despotism,” and it was the 
“duty” of Americans to “throw off such government.” 

As if signing the document is not a sufficient mortal 
risk, you double down by championing it with vigor. Leading 
up to the vote, you defended it in a speech that Thomas 
Jefferson describes as having “a power of thought and 
expression that moved us from our seats.”20 While 
unbeknownst at the time, McCullough will say it was “the most 
powerful and important speech heard in the Congress since it 
convened, and the greatest of [your] life.” Later, the British 
will write a list of founding fathers to pardon in the case of 
reunification. “Adams” is absent, corroborating the risk 
inherent in these choices.21 

The Statesman 
The precarious global circumstances make it 

abundantly clear that America needs global support, so you 
become its top statesman, liaising between France, Britain, and 
the Netherlands.22 A vital duty is to negotiate terms for peace 
with Britain, defense from France, and financing from the 
Dutch. The Treaty of Paris cements American independence, 
defense from France provides naval armaments in the war, 
Dutch loans finance the War of Independence, and the 
correspondence you spearhead with France leads to the 
conditions necessary for Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.23 Your 
spoken legal eloquence serves your pursuit of liberating 
America. 

The U.S. Constitution is modeled after the values you 
enshrined in authoring Massachusetts’, which will become “the 

23 Id. at 586. 
22 Id. at 384. 
21 Id. at 158. 
20 McCullough, supra note 2 at 127. 

 
 

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Brandeis University Law Journal            2024-2025, Volume 12 

oldest functioning written constitution in the world.”24 The 
constitutional role of the vice president comes easily.25 You 
dutifully undertake your job and go above and beyond to 
preside over all the Senate’s sessions. 

As president, the law holds the fledgling republic 
together. With the nearing prospect of war with France, your 
long-term ambition of establishing a Navy to maintain the 
borders and reactionary measures of the Alien and Sedition 
Acts attempt to maintain unity in tumultuous times.26 The Navy 
is one of the most vital institutions for America’s 
independence. It critically aids Madison’s defense of the shore 
during the War of 1812. Though initially a critic of the branch, 
Jefferson will come to admit his mistake in judgment in 
personal correspondence.27 The Alien and Sedition Acts 
neglect the First Amendment, acutely policing speech. The 
administration does not prosecute anyone under the Alien Act 
but does police the Sedition Act by imprisoning Republicans 
who have slandered you. You judge these actions to be 
necessary as a temporary measure during times of war.28 While 
your heart may be in the right place to promote unity in a 
divided time, history will prove this measure wrong. The 
legacy of this mistake will perpetually cast a dark shadow over 
the period in the history books. 

As the nation’s second presidency is coming to a close 
and the government is becoming increasingly partisan, it seems 
a fruitful time to bolster the courts. You nominate justices that 
will be called the “midnight judges” despite being confirmed 
more than a week before leaving office.29 If you lived until the 
twenty-first century, you could take this historical inaccuracy 
up with its chief propagator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yet, among 

29 Id. at 563. 
28 Id. at 505–506. 
27 Id. at 606. 
26 Id. at 499, 504. 
25 Id. at 434. 
24 Id. at 225. 

 
 

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Brandeis University Law Journal            2024-2025, Volume 12 

the judges is Justice John Marshall, who will become the most 
celebrated justice to have served on the Supreme Court.30 
Along with these appointments, you create six more circuit 
courts to protect against the despotism of unfettered power, as 
strengthening the courts by any means is among your central 
values. Nonetheless, these courts will not survive Jefferson’s 
impending presidency.31  

You believe parties are destructive to the government’s 
functioning, as factions definitionally cause more, not less, 
disagreement.32 This leads to the maintenance of Washington’s 
cabinet and the consideration of appointments void of partisan 
loyalties.33 At the cost of mental well-being, you endure the 
slander and subversion of the cabinet to sustain the people’s 
best interests. 

 
The Legacy 
 You question your self-worth on account of criticism 
from all angles yet stay wedded to your ideals. You are 
open-minded but remain resolute to acknowledge when you are 
right. When the odds are stacked against you, you double 
down. Time will count billions who ride the tide, but you break 
the current. Your project will become a force for good that lifts 
billions from poverty, serves as a model for governance, and 
flourishes for 248 years and counting. You could have been on 
that boat to London and reconstituted a law practice abroad. 
Watching your city recede into the horizon would have hurt, 
but the feelings would have been temporary. Instead, you will 
not give up on your freedom without a fight and will secure a 
seat in the annals of history for taking the road never traveled. 

33 Id. at 518. 
32 Id. at 422. 
31 Id. at 577. 
30 Id. at 560. 

 
 

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	Second to One: Walking in the Shoes of a Giant 
	The Time 
	 
	The Man 
	The Government 
	The Statesman 
	The Legacy 


