Description:

Boston Massacre


Days before Boston Massacre in 1770 Massachusetts Patriots Denounce British Oppression in a Boston Paper

 

[BOSTON MASSACRE]. The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, February 26, 1770. Boston: Edes & Gill. 4 pp., 9.5" x 15.5"  Tears on folds and some edge tears, waterstaining; some text loss affecting nine lines on p3/4.

 

This issue chronicles the rising tensions in Boston that led to the confrontation between civilians and soldiers in front of the Customs House a week later.

 

Excerpts

Alex McDougall “To the Freeholders, Freemen, and Inhabitants of the Colony of New York; and to all the Friends of Liberty in North-America,” February 7, 1770:

“Five years are now elapsed since the American Press has been boldly imployed in asserting the Right of this Country, to an Exemption from British Taxation: Nor can a single Instance be assigned in any of the Colonies, of an Attempt to restrain it, or imprison any of its numerous Writers in this glorious Cause, till Mr. Colden and his Council, thought fit to take up Mr. Parker, the Printer of the New-York Gazette, and to commit me to the common Gaol; from whence I beg Leave, by the Advice of many of the Friends of Liberty, to address you.” (p1/c1)

McDougall (1732-1786) was a Sons of Liberty leader in New York arrested by order of Acting Governor Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776) on February 7, 1770 for an anonymous broadside entitled To the Betrayed Inhabitants that he wrote and printed. He was released in 1771 and later became a general in the Continental Army.

 

“We had besides been Spectators of unusual Severity to our Boston Neighbours, and felt a loud Call to Animation, by the Miseries of a People, suffering for the common Cause: And how could we avoid joining our Friends in Parliament, in testifying an Abhorrence of the ministerial Despotism, in ordering Troops to awe that Colony into Compliances unfriendly to Liberty and destructive of their Charter Privileges?” (p1/c1)

 

Letter by “AN INDEPENDANT” [Josiah Quincy Jr. (1744-1775)]:

“We determine to repel the stroke of adversity: we are animated in the trial, by the example of our persecuted, suffering and triumphant ancestors. Fired by their virtues, we will fight the good fight of faith, and protected by that ARM, which wrought their salvation, we, yet, hope to do valiantly for this goodly heritage of our fathers.” (p2/c2)

 

Closes by paraphrasing John Milton (1641): “What stirs the Englishmen sooner to rebellion, than violent and heavy hands upon their properties and persons? yet there are those, who...have not ceased to set at naught and trample under foot all the most sacred, life-blood laws, statutes and acts of parliament, that are the holy covenant of union and marriage, between the king and his realm, by proscribing and confiscating, from us, all the right we have to our bodies, goods and liberties. What is this, but to blow a trumpet and proclaim a fire-cross, to an hereditary and perpetual CIVIL WAR?” (p2/c3)

 

 “The Watch-Man. No. 1” by “P.” [William Livingston (1723-1790)]:

“The dangerous unconstitutional innovations and infringements, made by the General Assembly of the province of New-York in their last two sessions on the liberties of their constituents, have greatly alarmed the impartial friends of liberty and the colony in this city and other parts of the province. In a day when the American pulse beats very high for liberty; when it is the theme of almost every tongue and the subject of every public paper; it might justly be expected, that no American Assembly would be so hardy as to violate the rights of their constituents.” (p3/c1)

Livingston went on to serve as one of New Jersey’s delegates to the Continental Congress (1774-1776), the first Governor of New Jersey (1776-1790), and a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

 

“While we are straining every nerve to baffle foreign attempts to enslave us, surely it must be very criminal in the descendents of Britons who love life and liberty alike, to be silent and to suffer their legal rights to be invaded and torn from them by their own representatives....” (p3/c1)

 

Historical Background

The Boston “Massacre” occurred on March 5, 1770, in Boston. A small group of soldiers, stationed in front of the Custom House, were taunted and attacked by a mob of several hundred citizens of Boston. When one soldier was knocked down by a thrown object, the soldiers fired into the mob killing three instantly, mortally wounding two, and wounding six others less seriously. Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson promised the crowd a fair investigation into the shootings.

 

Captain Thomas Preston and eight soldiers were arrested. On March 27, they and four civilians inside the Customs House who were alleged to have fired shots were indicted for murder. In the trial that followed in November, attorney and future president John Adams and his co-counsel Josiah Quincy Jr. defended the soldiers, six of whom were acquitted, while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and branded on their thumbs in a reduced sentence.

 

Depictions and reports of the event, especially a colored engraving produced by Paul Revere, strengthened colonial resolve to resist British oppression.

 

Additional Content

This issue also includes a notice to the publishers that “You may with Confidence, assure your female Readers, that a Number of the principal Ladies in Connecticut, have wholly discarded foreign Tea, ’till the Revenue Acts are repealed, and others are coming into the patriotic Measure; so it is to be hoped, in a few Weeks, the Consumption of the pernicious Plant will be totally annihilated” (p4/c1); along with other notices and advertisements, including one offering 40 Spanish Dollars for the return of a bail runaway (p4/c1).

 

The Boston Gazette and Country Journal (1719-1798) was a weekly newspaper printed in Boston. Published by Benjamin Edes (1732-1803) and John Gill (1732-1785) from 1755 to 1775, and by Edes and his son thereafter, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal became one of the most powerful voices for American independence. Contributors included Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Josiah Quincy, James Otis, Paul Revere, and Phyllis Wheatley. After the war, the newspaper opposed the adoption of the Constitution and the administration of George Washington and lost much of its influence.

 

 



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