Desperate Sons by Les Standiford

Author:Les Standiford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

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Trial of the Century

Until the case of Captain Preston and his men went to trial in Boston in late 1770, the successful defense of the New York publisher John Peter Zenger on charges of libel had stood as the most significant legal triumph of the colonies over the Crown. But the precedent to be set in this case involved more than principles. Blood and bodies had been strewn about the streets of Boston by the hands of British troops, and the decision of the courts in this case would have a huge impact in the land.

From the outset, Samuel Adams pressed for a speedy trial, in part to ensure that the frustrated public did not erupt in violence while waiting for justice to be done. Of course, he was also motivated by his own desire to see the villainy of the troops exposed for the wider world. In turn, though Hutchinson cited a number of “unavoidable circumstances” as reasons for delay, the governor would surely have understood the wisdom of putting off the trial for as long as possible, until the public pulse calmed.

In any case, the first trial did not begin until October 24, with a Whig attorney, Robert Treat Paine, appointed as prosecutor in the case of Captain Preston. Acting in Preston’s defense were Josiah Quincy and John Adams, who, though no zealot, was by then well known as a sympathizer of the Sons of Liberty.

Years later, Adams would write in his Autobiography in explanation of his decision to aid in the defense of the soldiers, “Endeavours had been systematically pursued for many Months, by certain busy Characters, to excite Quarrells, Rencounters and Combats single or compound in the night between the Inhabitants of the lower Class and the Soldiers, and at all risks to enkindle an immortal hatred between them.”

Of the events of the night of March 5, he continued, “I suspected that this was the Explosion, which had been intentionally wrought up by designing Men, who knew what they were aiming at better than the Instrument employed.” Adams left it open to interpretation who these “designing men” who had manipulated the masses and the soldiers were, but whether he meant Hutchinson and his supporters or Samuel Adams and his men, it was the principle of law that dictated the right of the latter to a fair trial.

Adams wrote that he had been at the home of a friend the night of the shootings. When he and his friends heard the ringing of the bells, they ran into the street, thinking at first that there was a fire. When passersby recounted the events, Adams hurried to King Street to find the rioters dispersed and the troops arrayed near the barracks and the church on Brattle Square. “I had no other way to proceed,” he said, “but along the whole front in a very narrow Space which they had left for foot passengers. Pursuing my Way, without taking the least notice of them or they of me, any more than if they had been marble Statues, I went directly home to Cold Lane.

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