On the cold, late, Boston winter evening of March 5th, 1770, British soldiers would fire into a crowd of Boston citizens, killing 5. This event would go on to be known as the Boston Massacre, and was the spring board that helped launch the American Revolutionary War. So, what happened to lead up to this massacre, and how would this event help set in motion John Adams rising to the Presidency? That’s what we will take a look at in this article.
In 1768, two years prior to the incident, the Townshend Acts were placed upon the colonies implementing outrageous import taxes on common goods. The people of Massachusetts were greatly affected, as Boston Harbor was the main harbor where imports would come into the country. The citizens created such an unstable environment in the colony, that Great Britain dispatched several regiments of British troops to secure Boston.
The townspeople were most outraged with the custom collectors, who put ends to the smuggling and collected the taxes. British troops were even assigned to guard the Boston Customs House. On March 2nd, 3 days before the Massacre, an off duty British soldier was seeking extra work. He asked a group of local rope makers if they had any work, and one of the rope makers jokingly replied that there was, that he could “Go clean out my outhouse”. A fist fight broke out as a result, and ended with the soldier fleeing, getting more soldiers, and leading to a larger brawl.
On the infamous night of the 5th, one lone guard stood in front of the Customs House. He got into an argument with a young local boy and ended up hitting him and knocking him to the ground with his gun. Several other young people came to the boy’s defense, and after while the crowd had grown to around 100 people. With the lone guard the only soldier protecting the Customs House.
When a group of 25 sailors showed up, led by a half Indian and half black man named Crispus Attucks, the soldier called for reinforcements. The reinforcements showed up, including Private Matthew Killroy who had been involved on behalf of the British in the rope makers brawl three days prior. By this point the crowd had grown to several hundred and had taken up throwing snow balls at the soldiers. Attucks further riled up the crowd, and they began throwing larger items. One item hit a soldier and knocked him down. He got back up, yelled for the soldiers to fire, and shot and killed Crispus Attucks. He would become the first casualty of the Revolutionary War. As more soldiers fired, 4 other citizens would end up being killed. Among the dead included Samuel Gray, a rope maker who was involved in the brawl earlier in the week.
This event instantly led to Paul Revere and Samuel Adams using it as propaganda in print media to spread the message of a revolution. The soldiers were quickly indicted for murder, but they could find no legal counsel. As no one wanted to represent and defend the men who had killed their fellow countrymen. A young lawyer named John Adams entered the scene and chose to put his name on the line to defend the British soldiers. Adams truly believed that everyone deserved the right to a fair trial, which is seen as common practice now, but was not at the time. He knew that the fate and reaction of this trial could determine his career path for better or worse going forward.
What is interesting, is John Adams actually won the case for the British soldiers! The officer was not convicted, because it couldn’t be proven that he ordered his men to fire. And the soldiers were found innocent of murder, as Adams argued they used self-defense. Only two were convicted of manslaughter, and had their sentences reduced to a branding on their thumb.
This case, and how eloquently John Adams presented himself and defended the soldiers, and his new-found notoriety, led to him being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives just three months later. While in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he would be instrumental in authoring the Massachusetts Constitution, which influenced the United States Constitution which we still use today.
Adams would go on to become our nation’s first Vice President and became our nation’s second President on March 4, 1797. Although, he later stated that his defense of the British Soldiers after the Boston Massacre was “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”. Coming from a man who helped write the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, that is quite the statement. In regard to the Boston Massacre itself, he would say that “the foundation of American Independence was laid” on March 5th, 1770.
In keeping with the Vice President becoming President theme, next week we will look at John Adams Vice President, and eventual bitter rival, who would reduce John Adams to one term and take over the Presidency as our 3rd President, double the size of the United States, and send the first U.S. troops to fight in the Middle East.