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Browsing: Legal Papers of John Adams, Volume 3

See this volume's table of contents
See this volume's table of contents

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The Adams Papers

L. H. BUTTERFIELD, EDITOR IN CHIEF
Series III
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER PAPERS OF THE ADAMS STATESMEN
Legal Papers of John Adams
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Legal Papers of John Adams

L. KINVIN WROTH and HILLER B. ZOBEL
EDITORS
Volume 3 • Cases 63 & 64:
The Boston Massacre Trials Chronology • Index
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
1965
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© 1965 • Massachusetts Historical Society • All rights reserved
This book has been digitally reprinted. The contents remain identical to that of the first printing. Please refer to the colophon at the back of this volume.
Funds for editing The Adams Papers have been provided by Time, Inc., on behalf of Life, and by the Ford Foundation, to the Massachusetts Historical Society, under whose supervision the editorial work is being done.
The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation has made possible the editing of the Legal Papers by means of a grant to the Harvard Law School.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65–13855 • Printed in the United States of America
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Contents

  • Descriptive List of Illustrations vii
    • r. criminal law, continued
      The Boston Massacre Trials
      • Editorial Note 1
        • Descriptive List of Sources and Documents 34.
      • No. 63. Rex v. Preston, 1770 46
        • I. Indictment and Arraignment of Preston, the Soldiers, and the Civilians 46.
        • II. Adams' Notes of Authorities for the Preliminary Argument 48.
        • III. Paine's Minutes of the Preliminary Argument 49.
        • IV. Anonymous Summary of Crown Evidence 50.
        • V. Paine's Minutes of Samuel Quincy's Argument for the Crown 61.
        • VI. Anonymous Summary of Defense Evidence 62.
        • VII. Adams' Notes of Authorities for His Argument for the Defense 81.
        • VIII. Paine's Minutes of Adams' Argument 86.
        • IX. Paine's Minutes of Auchmuty's Argument for the Defense 88.
        • X. Adams' Minutes of Paine's Authorities 90.
        • XI. Anonymous Minutes of Paine's Argument for the Crown 91.
        • XII. Adams' Minutes of Trowbridge's and Oliver's Charges to the Jury 93.
        • XIII. Paine's Minutes of Cushing's and Lynde's Charges to the Jury 97.
        • XIV. Charges to the Jury as Printed in the Annual Register 97.
      • No. 64. Rex v. Wemms, 1770 98
        • I. Arraignment, Impaneling, Crown's Opening and Evidence 98.
        • II. Adams' Minutes of Crown Evidence 107.
        • III. Adjournment 111.
        • IV. Adams' Minutes of Crown Evidence, Continued 112.
        • V. Adjournment 140.
        • VI. Adams' Minutes of Crown Evidence, Concluded, and of Samuel Quincy's Argument for the Crown 140.
        • VII. Samuel Quincy's Argument for the Crown 144.
        • VIII. Adams' Minutes of Josiah Quincy's Opening for the Defense 157.
        • IX. Josiah Quincy's Opening for the Defense 158.
        • X. Adams' Minutes of Defense Evidence 169.
        • XI. Adjournment 181.
        • XII. Adams' Minutes of Defense Evidence, Continued 181.
        • XIII. Transcript of Remaining Defense Evidence 192.
        • XIV. Adams' Digest of Evidence 223.
        • XV. Josiah Quincy's Argument for the Defense 226.
        • XVI. Adams' Argument for the Defense 242.
        • XVII. Paine's Argument for the Crown 270.
        • XVIII. Adjournment 282.
        • XIX. Trowbridge's and Oliver's Charges to the Jury 282.
        • XX. Paine's Minutes of Cushing's {p. R6} and Lynde's Charges to the Jury 309.
        • XXI. Lynde's Charge to the Jury 310.
        • XXII. Verdicts 312.
  • List of Streets, Buildings, and Other Landmarks Mentioned in the Boston Massacre Trials 315
  • Chronology: John Adams' Legal Career, 1756–1778 323
  • Table of Statutes 355
  • Index 359
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Descriptive List of Illustrations

 

The Revere Plan of The Boston Massacre Scene, by Paul Revere ||facing page|| 68

The best discussion of this plan's provenance and contents appears in Esther Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived in 159, 472 (Boston, 1942). Miss Forbes suggests that the depiction of only four victims means that the plan was drawn before Patrick Carr died, four days after the riot; why Revere drew only seven soldiers is even more puzzling.
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library.
 

John Bonner's Map of Boston, 1769 ||facing page|| 69

This contemporary map will permit the reader to orient himself when reading the Boston Massacre materials and other cases involving Boston topography. For a fuller discussion of the map, see 1 JA, Diary and Autobiography   xi.
Courtesy of the New York Public Library.
 

Transcript of the Soldiers' Trial ||facing page|| 100

Titlepage of The Trial of William Wemms . . . (Boston, 1770), the only purportedly verbatim transcript of any trial in which John Adams participated. Discussed further in vol. 3:36–38, below.
Courtesy of Harvard University Library.
 

Ex Parte Evidence of the Boston Massacre ||facing page|| 100

Titlepage of A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston . . . (Boston 1770), which is essentially a collection of affidavits taken at the behest of the town authorities in the days immediately following 5 March 1770. Discussed further in vol. 3:11, below.
Courtesy of Harvard University Library.
 

The Boston Massacre, by Henry Pelham ||facing page|| 101

The story of this celebrated rendition of the fatal event in King Street has been well summarized in Clarence S. Brigham, Paul Revere's Engravings 41–57 (Worcester, 1954). Its historical accuracy can best be measured by comparing the scene it depicts with the evidence adduced at the Boston Massacre trials and the Revere Plan.
Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.
 

James Murray, by John Singleton Copley ||facing page|| 164

Justice of the peace, and barrack master to the 14th Regiment, this crusty Scottish loyalist played flamboyant, if peripheral, roles {p. R8} in the affairs of John Mein (No. 12), and in the Boston Massacre (Nos. 63, 64).
Courtesy of Frank Lyman and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 

Gilbert Deblois, by John Singleton Copley ||facing page|| 164

Merchant, loyalist, and (as juror) the savior of Captain Preston in Rex v. Preston, No. 63.
Courtesy of Dr. Elizabeth DeBlois and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 

Samuel Quincy, by John Singleton Copley ||facing page|| 165

John Adams' friend and frequent legal opponent, in the best portrait known to the editors depicting the working habit of the provincial Massachusetts barrister: gown, tie-wig, and bands.
Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 

Josiah Quincy Jr., by Gilbert Stuart ||facing page|| 196

The Boston Cicero, John Adams called him; but his writings in the patriot cause were as fervent as his orations. Scholar and law reporter, he helped defend Richardson and the troops when no one else would. (See Nos. 59, 63, 64.) He died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one; Stuart painted this portrait fifty years later, “after studying family portraits and prints, and the result was considered a good likeness.” Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart 2:628 (New York, 1926).
Courtesy of Edmund Quincy and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 

William Cushing, by An Unknown Artist ||facing page|| 197

Son of a judge, Cushing sat successively on the royal, state, and federal benches over a period of nearly 40 years.
Courtesy of the Law School of Harvard University.
 

Peter Oliver, by John Singleton Copley ||facing page|| 197

As a judge, this nonlawyer won Adams' respect, despite their deep political differences. See 2 JA, Diary and Autobiography   51.
Courtesy of Andrew Oliver, Esq., and the Frick Art Reference Library.
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volume 3

Legal Papers

Cases 63 & 64: The Boston Massacre Trials

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Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007.
http://www.masshist.org/ff/