Quote
By John Adams
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
- Source
- Adams' Argument for the Defense: 3–4 December 1770, December 1770 · Legal Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, Cases 63 and 64: The Boston Massacre Trials, pp. 242-270
- Read at
- Founders Online, National Archives (The Adams Papers, Legal Papers of John Adams, vol. 3)
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About this quote
From John Adams's closing argument for the British soldiers tried for the Boston Massacre, December 3–4, 1770, as printed in the published account of the trial. That account summarizes most of the speech in the third person and gives Adams's closing words as quoted here.