Francis Bernard resigns as Governor of Massachusetts Province. He is replaced by Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson. One of the soldiers involved in the fighting is Matthew Killroy, later convicted of manslaughter in the Boston Massacre trial. A crowd of Bostonians begins throwing chunks of ice, oyster shells, piece of coal and other objects at a British guard near the Custom House.
Captain Thomas Preston orders the main guard out to protect the sentry and restore order. After a soldier is hit with a stick, he yells "fire! Other shots follow.
When the shooting stops, five civilians lay mortally wounded. The incident becomes known as "the Boston Massacre. Captain Preston is arrested, interrogated, and sent to jail.
Governor Hutchinson calls for calm. A group of angry citizens gather in Faneuil Hall, where they call for the immediate removal of all British troops. John Adams and Josiah Quincy agree to defend Preston and the soldiers. The first four victims of the massacre are buried in the Granary Burying Ground. The Part I took in Defence of Captn. Preston and the Soldiers, procured me Anxiety, and Obloquy enough. It was, however, one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested Actions of my whole Life, and one of the best Pieces of Service I ever rendered my Country.
Judgment of Death against those Soldiers would have been as foul a Stain upon this Country as the Executions of the Quakers or Witches, anciently. As the Evidence was, the Verdict of the Jury was exactly right. Facing a capital charge that carried a sentence of death, Captain Preston set out to find legal representation for himself and his men.
As expected, there was great difficulty in finding an attorney who would take on the case, but James Forrest, an Irish-born merchant in Boston eventually succeeded in getting Josiah Quincy to agree to take the case. It was also Forrest who engaged John Adams in the case. A decision was made to sever the trials of Captain Preston and that of his men, although several of his men argued against the severance.
However, the defense could not risk the cross-arguments for the various defendants. This fellow Adams—colonial though he was—was tenacious when it came to the truth, braver than most when it came to risking himself or his family, devoted beyond reason when it came to the law, and undeniably intelligent.
If anyone could help these hapless soldiers in a foreign land, Preston thought, Adams seemed the man. Yet there was something….
John Adams was in his element! Like a gladiator he loved the arena where great battles were fought! Following one of the first trials in American history to last for several days, even the frenetic crowd seemed exhausted. No malice was found. All eight men were found not guilty of murder. Two, Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy, were found guilty of manslaughter.
Browse or search the online version of the volume to locate and read Paine's trial notes. Although many of the courtroom proceedings of the trial of the eight soldiers were transcribed and published, Paine's closing argument as one of the prosecution lawyers for the Wemms trial was not recorded because the stenographer was fatigued.
The following documents are largely letters from different parties requesting that Paine write out his own closing arguments from his notes and from memory. Also included is a link to transcriptions of rough drafts notes from Paine's closing argument. No final version is known to have been written down. Thirty-five year old John Adams, a prominent lawyer in Boston who would go on to become the second president of the United States, was asked to take on the unpopular assignment of defending Capt.
Preston and the eight British soldiers. Boston merchant Harbottle Dorr, Jr. Dorr's newspaper collection includes many articles written about the Boston Massacre and the trials. See, for example, this article by Samuel Adams , or this anonymous article printed after the Wemms verdict.
Dorr's collection also includes a pamphlet with the complete proceedings of Rex v.
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