about the sentinel. Here they were assailed by abusive language and by missiles, - by oyster-shells, snow-balls (for a light snow lay on the ground), and billets of wood. One of the soldiers was knocked down, and, recovering himself, discharged his musket with fatal effect. Then followed at short intervals the firing of five guns. Four persons were fatally wounded, dying on the spot, besides Patrick Carr, who lingered for some days. Samuel Gray, one of them, was a Boston lad, who had been conspicuous in the fight at the rope-walk. Crispus Attucks was a stout young mulatto, who had just strayed down from the inland town of Framingham, and had been conspicuous in the earlier movements of the evening.1 Patrick Carr was an Irish sailor. Samuel Maverick, a Boston boy, seventeen years old, and James Caldwell, a stranger in the town, are spoken of by Mr. Adams, in his argument for the prisoners, as having "had no concern in the riotous proceedings of that night." They were probably present rather by accident or from curiosity than with any intent of participation in the disturbance.2 This took place a little after nine o'clock in the evening. Drums beat, and the church bells were rung. While the soldiers were drawn off by their officers, and the dead bodies were conveyed away, the LieutenantGovernor, summoned from his house at the North End, repaired in all haste to the scene of the conflict. From the balcony at the east end of the town-house he addressed the throng below. They clamored to him to send the troops away. He said that he had no authority to do so, but promised to be at the Council Chamber early the next morning to consider what should be done. The soldiers who composed the firing party were produced by their officers and committed to prison. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Captain Preston, who 1 "Trial," &c., 116; Chandler, Criminal Trials, 394, 395. surrendered himself in the course of the night and was also sent to jail. The selectmen of the town and the magistrates of the county went to the Lieutenant-Governor at the Council Chamber the next morning to urge him to remove the troops, a measure which he still persisted in saying was beyond his authority. At noon a town meeting was held, which sent a large Committee to him, with Samuel Adams at its head, to repeat the demand. Hutchinson repeated his refusal. When this was reported to the town meeting, which came together again in the afternoon, another Committee was raised to make the demand again, and insist upon a favorable answer. They found Hutchinson and his Council in conference with the two Colonels, and with the naval officer commanding on the station. Adams, for the Committee, addressed the Lieutenant-Governor, representing the rashness of posting soldiers in the midst. of populous communities, urging that the horrors of the night before had satisfied the people that the troops must be immediately removed out of the town, and arguing, from the charter of the Province, that "the Governor, and in his absence the Lieutenant-Governor, was Commander-in-Chief of all the military and naval power within the jurisdiction." Hutchinson, after some words with Dalrymple, suggested the removal of one regiment, that which had furnished the soldiers engaged in the recent slaughter. But Adams replied: "If the Lieutenant-Governor or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove two, and nothing short of the total evacuation of the town by all the regular troops will satisfy the public mind, or preserve the peace of the Province." The temper of the people, as indicated by the deportment of their Committee, was formidable. The peril of the situation was manifest. After a little further hesitation, Hutchinson promised for the Colonel that both regiments should be sent to the Castle without delay. The townspeople dissolved their meeting after hearing the Report of their Committee to this effect, and after making arrangements for a strong night-watch to secure the quiet of their homes till the transfer of the troops should be completed. The town authorities collected sworn statements from spectators of the bloody scene and others, and chartered a vessel to convey them to England for the use of their friends and for publication. A session of the Superior Court began in the next week, and the grand jury found bills for wilful murder against Captain Preston and his men, and four persons charged with having fired upon the crowd from the windows of the custom-house. In consideration of the excited state of the public mind, the court put off the trials for several months, till the next term. Robert Treat Paine and Samuel Quincy conducted the prosecutions. John Adams, Josiah Quincy, Jr., and Sampson Blowers were of counsel for the prisoners. This relation of John Adams and the younger Quincy, favorite and prominent Sons of Liberty, was much canvassed, and occasioned much chagrin to some of their friends. But those patriots justly held that every man 1 Life and Works of John Adams, X. 250, 252. 66 2 "A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston," &c.; Appendix, containing the Several Depositions," &c. The news arrived in England, April 21. (Chatham Correspondence, III. 444; comp. Walpole's George the Third, IV. 119.) 3 Robert Treat Paine was afterwards a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of American Independence, and for many years, till his death in 1814, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Blowers and Samuel Quincy took the Tory side, and were refugees in 1776. The latter ob tained a place under government in the island of Antigua. He died on a voyage to England in 1789. The former, made Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, died in Halifax in 1842, having lived to be the oldest graduate of Harvard College. (Sabine, American Loyalists, ad voces.) 4 The venerable father of the Quincys was greatly distressed by the course of his younger son on this occasion. For their correspondence upon it, expressing sentiments so natural on the one part and so highly honorable on the other, see the Memoir of Josiah Quincy, Jr., by his son, 26-28; Chandler, Criminal Trials, 424-426. 1770. was entitled to the protection of the law, and had a right to any services which he might desire to secure it. Captain Preston was first arraigned alone. No full minutes of his trial are known to exist. The Oct. government failed to prove that he ordered his men to fire; and the court instructed the jury that, even if they should so construe the evidence as to conclude that he did give that order, they must further consider whether the assault upon his men was not such as to make the killing by them to be justifiable homicide. After six days' hearing, and a short deliberation, they pronounced him not guilty; and he went down to the Castle, whence he presently sailed for England.1 Dec. The trial before a different jury of four persons charged with firing from the custom-house took still less time, and is also without a particular record. The evidence of a French boy, relied upon for the prosecution, was contradicted and broke down, and the jury returned a verdict of acquittal without leaving their seats. Of the trial of the soldiers before another jury Nov. we have a full report, printed from the notes of a stenographer.2 All the jurors drawn from Boston were challenged for cause, and the panel was constituted of 1 "Before this unfortunate event, he [Captain Preston] always behaved himself unexceptionably, and had the character of a sober honest man, and a good officer." (Palfrey to Wilkes, March 13.) The letter is long, and contains an account of what the writer saw, and of the testimony given to the jury of inquest of which he was a member. (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1863, pp. 480-483.) 2 The Trial of the British Soldiers," a closely printed volume of 146 pages in 12mo, contains the testimony of the witnesses, the arguments of Samuel Quincy for the prosecution, and of his brother and John Adams for the prisoners, "the substance" (rather the first part) of the argument of Paine, and the charges of Justices Trowbridge and Peter Oliver. "The rest," says the Editor, "of the papers which have been preserved relating to this trial are so torn, and the notes therein so imperfect and disconnected, that it is impossible to determine the concluding remarks of Mr. Paine. It appears, however, from his very copious minutes, that he commented largely on the testimony, with much ingenuity and wit," &c. ("Trial," &c., 121.) twelve citizens from neighboring towns. The fact that five persons had been put to death by all or some of the soldiers indicted, was not denied in the defence. The questions in issue were, whether any of them had had no concern in the killing either as principals or as abettors, and whether in the cases of those to whom responsibility could be brought home, the act was justifiable homicide, or manslaughter, or murder. Numerous witnesses were produced upon both sides. When they had been heard, the party of soldiers was readily identified, and it was argued for the prosecution that the firing had been without justifiable provocation, and that any who had not discharged their guns were, as accessories, equally guilty with the rest. The prisoners' counsel took the ground that they had acted in justifiable self-defence, their lives being endangered by the mob of assailants; and that, if the jury were not satisfied of this, they could, at all events, render no other verdict than that of manslaughter against such as they should judge to have been concerned in the killing, their act having been done in the heat of blood and under strong provocation. There was credible evidence that Gray was shot by one of the soldiers named Kilroy, and that Montgomery killed Attucks, who had first knocked him down. Besides their two shots, there had been but four others, while six other soldiers were indicted. The counsel argued, and the court instructed the jury, that they must acquit these six; for only four of them had fired, and which four these were, the testimony had afforded no means of ascertaining. The jury were two hours and a |