Revolutionary-era lawyers led both sides of the political divide

Evidence

The bar has always had an image problem. During the Revolution, lawyers became (it is said) even more unpopular. This was not for lack of heroes. Many lawyers were loyalists, to be sure; more than two hundred of these, perhaps, eventually left the country. About 40 percent of the lawyers in Massachusetts were loyalists. But, on the other side, lawyers were a key element of the Revolutionary generation. They made up almost half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and more than half of the members of the federal Constitutional Convention. Jefferson, Hamilton, and John Adams were lawyers. Even some leaders, who were technically not lawyers, made it their business to know something about the law: James Madison, for example. Mary Sarah Bilder has called him a “demi-​lawyer.” Madison never joined the bar, never “had a client or a case.” But he had a rich, deep knowledge of the law. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1808

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Eighteenth-century lawyers drew attack from both classes and crown alike — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 515