Boston Massacre - Where was George Washington?
American political campaigns? Underhanded, dirty. Americans can spin, lie, and misinform better than any Russian or Chinese or Iranian effort or anything the ancient democracy of Athens did. We've been at this here longer than anyone else in this modern world. This way of being has a high pedigree --- our Founding Fathers did it.
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Jefferson and Hamilton were each calling the other "a Caesar." So too was George Washington called this. The "Hitler' of that day was "Caesar." George Washington was even threatened with impeachment over the Jay Treaty.
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In the trial of the Boston Massacre, cries of 'Fire, damn you Fire,' yelled from the back of the crowd, egging on scared 18 year old British soldiers being bombarded by rocks and sticks from a mob. John Adams, a future 2nd President of the United States, defended those British soldiers.
Where was George Washington during these trials? He was out west exploring land promised by Lt Gov Dinwiddie in 1754.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer 3/17/2016, 7/11/2016, 8/23/2016, 9/9/17, 9/10/17, 2/17/2019, updated 10/30/2024
Table of Contents
American Caesar
American Caesar
[38]Hamilton’s admiration for Julius Caesar continued throughout his life, giving credence to Jefferson’s account of a visit Hamilton paid to the home of the Secretary of State in Philadelphia probably in the spring of 1791. Hamilton inquired about the portraits hanging on the wall. Jefferson identified the subjects as Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and John Locke, claiming them to be his “trinity of the three greatest men the world has ever produced.” Hamilton was unimpressed. “The greatest man that ever lived,” he remarked, “was Julius Caesar.”Morris, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny, 224
But Hamilton probably played a joke on Jefferson:
The evidence indicates, however, that either Jefferson misunderstood Hamilton, or Hamilton was playing a joke on the humorless Virginian. All Hamilton's references to Caesar in his correspondence were negative, with the sole exception of a neutral reference to his military skill."
Page 157 of Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers Paperback – October 16, 2009
by Carl J. Richard (Author)
Hamilton: "In a word, if we have an embyro Caesar in the United States, 'tis [Aaron] Burr."
Page 158 of Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers Paperback – October 16, 2009
by Carl J. Richard (Author) and here: https://archive.org/details/notesonduelsand00sabigoog/page/n223/mode/1up?q=burr
Hamilton likens Jefferson guile in this way:
No. Mr. Jefferson has hitherto been distinguished as the quiet modest, retiring philosopher—as the plain simple unambitious republican. He shall not now for the first time be regarded as the intriguing incendiary—the aspiring turbulent competitor.
How long it is since that gentleman’s real character may have divined, or whether this is only the first time that the secret has been disclosed, I am not sufficiently acquainted with the history of his political life to determine; But there is always “a first time,” when characters studious of artful disguises are unveiled; When the vizor of stoicism is plucked from the brow of the Epicurean; when the plain garb of Quaker simplicity is stripped from the concealed voluptuary; when Cæsar coyley refusing the proffered diadem, is seen to be Cæsar rejecting the trappings, but tenaciously grasping the substance of imperial domination.
Page 157 to 158 of Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers Paperback – October 16, 2009
by Carl J. Richard (Author) and here https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-12-02-0347
John Adams said Hamilton was the Ceasar: " When Burr shot Hamilton, it was not Brutus killing Caesar in the Senate-house; but it was killing him before he passed the Rubicon."
Page 156 of Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers Paperback – October 16, 2009
by Carl J. Richard (Author) and here https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5655
Fire, Why don't you Fire?
SUMMATION OF JOHN ADAMS IN REX V WEMMS: .
"The next witness is Dodge, he says, there were fifty people near the soldiers pushing at them; now the witness before says, there were twelve sailors with clubs, but now here are fifty more aiding and abetting of them, ready to relieve them in case of need; now what could the people expect? It was their business to have taken themselves out of the way; some prudent people by the Town-house, told them not to meddle with the guard, but you bear nothing of this from these fifty people; "
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"no, instead of that,
they were huzzaing and whistling, crying damn you, fire! why don’t you fire? "
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"So that they were actually assisting these twelve sailors that made the attack; he says the soldiers were pushing at the people to keep them off, ice and snow-balls were thrown, and I heard ice rattle on their guns, there were some clubs thrown from a considerable distance across the street. "
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"This witness swears he saw snow-balls thrown close before the party, and he took them to be thrown on purpose, be saw oyster-shells likewise thrown.-Mr. Langford the watchman . . ."
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How was the mob described?
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” . . . outside agitators, “a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes, Irish teagues, and out landish Jack tarrs.”
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Source:
Best Thing He Ever Did
John Adams wrote 3 years after that trial:
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"The Part I took in Defence of Cptn. 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."
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Source:
1773. March 5th. Fryday
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But !
John Adams knowing this Boston Massacre had the qualities of an event manufactured to have maximum propaganda impact --- had a truth tucked inside it, as many enduring fabrications do:
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"This however is no Reason why the Town should not call the Action of that Night a Massacre, nor is it any Argument in favour of the Governor or Minister, who caused them to be sent here. But it is the strongest of Proofs of the Danger of standing Armies."
Paul Revere's The Bloody Massacre
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Picture by Paul Revere.
Jury Verdict?
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The jury agreed with Adams and acquitted six of the soldiers after two and one-half hours’ deliberation.
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Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they had fired directly into the crowd.
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The jury’s decisions suggest that they believed the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd, but should have delayed firing.[67]
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Patrick Carr, the fifth victim, corroborated this with deathbed testimony delivered to his doctor.
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The convicted soldiers were granted reduced sentences by pleading benefit of clergy,
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which reduced
their punishment
from a death sentence
to branding of the thumb
in open court.
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Wikipedia:
Where was George Washington?
during these trials?
Dates of Washington’s Journey
October 5, 1770 to December 1, 1770
Founders Online website references to this Journey:
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See link on GW’s diary for this trip on Founders Online October 5, 1770 to December 1, 1770
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See Founders Online documents for the whole year of 1770, January to December
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When was Massacre and its Trials?
October to December The Trials about the Boston Massacre
Original name of Massacre?
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Before the “The Boston Massacre” name became common,
the incident
was also called
from the title of the
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In the early 1800’s it was also called the State Street Massacre.
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Source:
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Attucks Crispus Real Story
Another Distortion
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Attucks Crispus, was hailed in Life Magazine as a hero.
But evidence at the trial?
Read about that.
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Sources
Founders Online Links
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From Founders Online:
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Because of the length and the complex interrelationship of the documentation for the trials growing out of the incident, the editorial treatment varies from that given to other cases in this edition.
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The material has been arranged in five parts:
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(2) A “Descriptive List of Sources and Documents,” by the editor in chief, describing in some detail for the reader’s guidance the sources, manuscript and printed, and which lists the numerous documents;
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(3) Rex v. Preston, No. 63, Documents I–XIV, with footnotes running in a single sequence throughout;
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(4) Rex v. Wemms, No. 64, Documents I–XXII, with footnotes running in a single sequence throughout;
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(5) An alphabetical list, with explanations in modern terms so far as possible, of the numerous streets, buildings, and other landmarks mentioned in the testimony and arguments.
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Source:
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A list of all documents
relating to the Boston Massacre:
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A Mob 5 years earlier
Description of a Mob 5 years earlier:
August 1765
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Thomas Hutchinson, then the chief justice of the highest court in Massachusetts—and no friend of the Stamp Act—had his Boston house gutted by an angry mob in August 1765. The mob more or less dismantled it brick by brick while his furniture and possessions were stolen or smashed in the streets. Hinderaker estimates $300,000 to $450,000 damage in today’s money.
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Source:
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