But he entered with his customary energy upon his new office, becoming the chief legal adviser of the patriot party, and now for the first time an active and conspicuous leader among them. Partly perhaps to escape this leadership, and the loss of time, the labor, and responsibilities which it imposed, as well as to regain his health, which began to suffer, Mr. Adams removed his residence back to Braintree, resigning his seat in the legislature, but still retaining his law office in Boston. A comparative lull in politics for two or three years made his presence in the legislature less indispensable, but still as to all the most important matters of controversy with Governor Hutchinson he was consulted and gave his aid.

Indeed, it was not long before he again moved back to Boston, though still resolving to avoid politics and to devote himself to his profession. He wrote soon after a series of letters in a newspaper (republished in his collected works, vol. iii.) on the then mooted question of the independence of the judiciary, and the payment by the crown of the salaries of the judges. Soon afterward he was elected by the general court to the provincial council, but was negatived by Governor Hutchinson. The destruction of the tea and the Boston port bill, that followed, soon brought matters to a crisis. These events produced the congress of 1774. Mr. Adams was chosen one of the five delegates from Massachusetts, and his visit to Philadelphia on this business was the first occasion of his going beyond the limits of New England.

In the discussions in the committee on the decaration of colonial rights, he took an active part in favor of resting those rights upon the law of; nature as well as the law of England; and after the substance of the resolutions had been agreed upon, he was appointed to put them into shape. In his diary, published in the; second volume of his collected works, and his contemporaneous letters written to his wife and published by his grandson, the most trustworthy and graphic descriptions are to be found of the members and doings of that famous but little known body. The session concluded, Mr. Adams left Philadelphia with no expec- tation, as he said at the time, of ever seeing it again. Immediately on his return to Mas- sachusetts he was chosen by the town of Braintree a member of the provincial con- gress then in session. That congress had already appointed a committee of safety, vested with general executive powers; had seized the provincial revenues; had appointed general officers, collected military stores, and taken steps toward organizing an army of volunteer minutemen. Governor Gage had issued a proclamation denouncing these proceedings, but no attention was paid to it.

Gage had no support except in the live or six regiments which formed the garrison of Boston, a few trembling officials, and a small minority of timid adherents; while the recommendations of the provincial congress had, by the common consent of the people, all the force of law. Shortly after the adjournment of this congress, Adams applied himself to answering through the newspapers a champion of the mother country's claim, who, under the nom de plume of "Massachusettensis," had commenced a series of able and effective papers in a Boston journal, and to whom Adams replied under the signature of "Novanglus." These essays ap- peared weekly during the winter of 1774-'5, but were cut short by the battle of Lexington. An abridgment of them was published in Almon's "Remembrancer" for 1775, under the title of "A History of the Dispute with America,1' and afterward in a separate pamphlet. They have also been twice reprinted entire in America, and are given in the 4th volume of Adams's collected works. Their value consists in the strong contemporaneous view which they present of the origin of the struggle between the colonies and the mother country, and of the policy of Bernard and Hutchinson as. governors of Massachusetts, which did so much to bring that struggle on.

Like all Mr. Adams's writings, they are distinguished by a bold tone of investigation, a resort to first principles, and a pointed style; but, like all his other writings, having been produced piecemeal and on the spur of the moment, they lack order, system, polish, and precision. . In the midst of the excitement produced by the battle of Lexington - which at once brought up the spirit even of the most hesitating patriots to the fighting pitch, and which was speedily followed by the seizure of the fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and by other similar seizures in other colonies - Adams set out for Philadelphia to attend the ccntinental congress of 1775, of which he had been appointed a member. This second congress, though made up for the most part of the same men, was a wholly different body from its predecessor. That was a mere consulting convention. The new congress speedily assumed, or rather had thrust upon it by the unanimous consent of the patriots, the exercise of a comprehensive authority, in which supreme executive, legislative, and in some cases judicial functions were united.

In this busy scene the active and untiring Adams, one of whose distinguishing characteristics was his capacity and fondness for business, found ample employment, while his bold and pugnacious spirit was not a little excited by the hazards and dignity of the great game in which he had come to hold so deep a stake. Adams had made up his mind that any reconciliation with the mother country was hopeless. The majority of congress were not yet of that opinion. Under the lead of John Dickinson, though against the strenuous resistance of Adams and others, that body voted still another and final petition to the king. Adams succeeded, however, in joining with this vote one to put the colonies into a state of defence, though with protestations that the war on their part was defensive only, and without any intention to throw off' their allegiance. Not long alter, congress was brought up to the point of assuming the responsibility and control of the military operations which New England had commenced by laying siege to Boston, in which town Gage and his troops were shut up, and before which lay encamped an impromptu New England army of 15,000 men, drawn together immediately after the battle of Lexington. Urged by the New England delegates, congress agreed to assume the expense and control of this army.