John Adams Vs. Preston And His Men

     The book, John Adams, by David McCullough, is a powerfully written biography of one of our nation’s greatest heroes. This biography explores Adams’ life in great depth, unveiling a side to his life unbeknownst to those who have never studied his life in great detail. Through diary entries, letters, and various other documents, the reader grasps a sense of what Adams’ day to day life was like, and is also able to grasp the enormity of his lifetime accomplishments.

John Adams, a well-educated delegate from Massachusetts, faced many roadblocks leading up to the Revolution, most importantly, the Boston Massacre Trial. Adams risked his life by defending the British during the lengthy trial, as most of the colonist’s opinions plummeted when they learned he was defending those who killed their own. At the end of March, reaching a couple weeks since the bloody Boston Massacre, a grand jury brought Captain Preston and his men to plead them guilty for murdering the colonists. After searching for a lawyer, John Adams stepped up and lead them to the conclusion of innocence, all due to Adams’ closing statement. Adams argues that the colonists will not consider them innocent because they are British. He tells the colonists to disregard the uniforms, look past their nationality, and see that they are men too, men who fear death and trial. In order to strengthen his argument and sway the jury, Adams included uses of rhetorical appeals, SOAPS, and various literary elements into his speech to produce the conclusion of innocence towards the British.

Jonathan Sewall and John Adams were close friends and agreed on many issues. British policies towards the American colonies during the 1760s and 1770s, however, was not one of them. Sewall, a staunch supporter of authority, defended British policies. John Adams, on the contrary, believed the policies to be unjust and thus challenged British authority. Sewall believed that the colonial challenge to British authority threatened the very way of life in the colonies while Adams thought that British authority provided a bigger threat. Each man’s view of the cause of the revolution also differed.

In the story "John Adams and the Coming of the Revolution”, author David McCullough discusses how John Adams was asked to defend the British soldiers in court of the soldier’s accusation of man slaughter, following the Boston Massacre. Being such a problematic case that could ruin his reputation, John Adams accepted to defend the soldiers because of his experience in difficult cases, and his strong principles and beliefs. John Adam’s reputation did not even tarnish because of how skillfully he handled the case gaining the respect of the people of Boston.

Through the newly established revolutionary’s communication networks, the story of the “Boston Massacre” had spread through the colonies quickly. The news of the massacre was aided by Paul Revere’s engraving of the British soldiers shooting the citizens. He put into detail bloodthirsty British soldiers with grins on their faces firing into a peaceful crowd. The story and engraving were circulated and reprinted in many newspapers throughout the colonies, thus creating sympathy for Boston and filling the colonies with anger and contempt towards Britain. This allowed for the people of Boston to bring the soldiers to court. The soldiers were tried in Boston and won their innocence as part of self-defense, thanks to their defense attorney, John Adams. Though they had won their trial, the citizens of the colonies still felt anger to the soldiers for killing the people by firing their weapons into the crowd that was fighting unfair acts that were attacking their freedoms and increasing the taxes on their

This chapter provided information from the trial of Captain Thomas Preston. The chapter asked the question, “What really happened in the Boston Massacre”. Chapter four focused on the overall event of the Massacre and trying to determine if Captain Preston had given the order to fire at Boston citizens. The chapter provides background information and evidence from Preston’s trial to leave the reader answering the question the chapter presents. Although, after looking through all the witnesses’ testimonies some might sway in Captain Preston’s favor, just the way the grand jury did.

John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 and died July 4, 1826. He was an early advocate of American independence from Great Britain, a major figure in the Continental Congress author of the Massachusetts constitution, signer of the Treaty of Paris, first American ambassador to the Court of St. James, first vice president, and second president of the United States. Although Adams was looked as one of the most significant statesmen of the revolutionary era, his reputation faded in the 19th century, only to grow again during the last half of the 20th century.

The American Revolutionary War occurred during 1775 to 1781 years, which was an army conflict between the Great Britain and the thirteen united states of America. John Adams said “The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.” From his view, he thought that because of the designer of independence, freedom, and equality that Americans wanted, states decided to become a unit and start the American Revolutionary War. Therefore, events such as the Albany Plan of Union, Sons of Liberty, Nonimportation Agreements, and Boston Massacre presented Americans’ minds changed before the American Revolutionary War.

Conflicting views and contrasting ideologies have always existed throughout the history of United States politics. Alexander Hamilton, who led Federalist Party, believed that a powerful central government was necessary while Thomas Jefferson, who led the Jeffersonian Republican Party, favored an agrarian nation with most of the power left to the states. Although Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were similar in that they both harbored good intentions and tried to keep the best interests in mind for the future of the United States, their policies were drastically different. Without doubt, both of their contrasting ideas served a vital role in forming the government.

The Boston Massacre was an incident that took place on March 5, 1770 where the British Army killed five male civilians as well as injuring six others. The use of propaganda at the time led by patriots spurred hostility towards the British authority. The result of the hatred was great tension among the public as well as the death of some of the participants. Following the alarming incidence, Thomas Hutchinson, the acting governor committed himself to undertaking an inquiry, which reformed on the following day and the troops withdrew to Castle Island . The soldiers and the civilians arrested there in were arrested and charged with murder. Consequently, John Adams, a defense lawyer defended them and they were acquitted. Thus, this paper focuses on the investigative role of John Adams and the ethics behind the Boston Massacre.

Since the 1960s, considerable disagreements between North American colonists and British soldiers derived in the so called “Boston Massacre” because of imposed laws by the British Empire into the colonies. After this conflict that took place on March 5, 1770, Captain Thomas Preston was charged with murder. The event occurred as a response of a series of violent encounters between the two groups. Curiously, Capt. Preston trial was delayed until October 24 in order to calm down witnesses’ exasperations. However, the witnesses who declared in the trial gave controversial and questionable testimonies; as a result, it creates indeterminate conditions to make a valid verdict. Among the allegations, Capt. Presto stood between the infuriated town and soldiers; for that reason, it was not clear if the order to shoot was given and if it was, the order came from behind the soldiers. After considering all declarations there were not sufficient evidences to condemn Capt. Presto because British soldiers acted in self-defense. Therefore, my decision for the case is that Capt. Preston was not guilty of giving the order to fire.

On the other hand, a British perspective is given by a letter of Captain Thomas Preston, who wrote it a week after the incident. He depicts his own version of the event on March 5th and tries to defend himself. Preston starts out by presenting his sad situation in which he needs help and has nothing to support himself. Then, he starts to describe the relationships between soldiers and citizens and the main reasons of the event on the night of March 5th. Contrary to the article of Boston Gazette, Thomas Preston states that Boston citizens were constantly provoking and abusing British soldiers. Thus, there were many disputes that happened between the Townspeople and the Soldiery in Boston before March 5th. Furthermore, the captain states that utter hatred of Boston citizens to British soldiers was increasing daily and they were privately planning for general attacks. According to Preston, one of these plans was realized on Monday night, when two soldiers were attacked by the party of inhabitants. In order to provoke other citizens of Boston to riot, this party broke into two

With Parliamentary laws and taxes imposed in the 1760s, colonists became rebellious towards British troops, which led to the Boston Massacre. During this occurrence, patriots were protesting towards the British soldiers and what led to another, gunshots fired at the colonists claimed the lives of five civilians. Thomas Preston, a commanding officer who was present during the Boston Massacre, was arrested and charged with murder as well as a separate trial from the other accused soldiers. Based off three witness testimonies, I believed that Preston did not give the order to fire and should not have been trialed against it.

John Winthrop and John Adams and their respective works were heavily influenced by their times. Winthrop was a devout Puritan Christian that was escaping a persecuting king in the early to mid-seventeenth century. As a learned and religious man, he came to be the leader of this puritan sect that was to establish a society unlike any other, free from religious corruption that his fellow people saw in the Church of England, that would be a model community much like the “Citty upon a Hill” described in the bible. On the other hand, John Adams experienced the “tyranny” of the British monarchy in a contrasting way. This era was marked with worsened conditions for American colonists in terms of economic and social taxations. Their literary

After developing her status as a speaker, Adams appeal to logos in order to convince her to take full advantage of his opportunity in Paris. Highlighting John’s chance of facing adversity and dealing with temptation, Adams suggest that John might develop a “great character” if he embraced the difficulties he would face in Paris. For further support adams allude to historical figures who have prospered from “contending with difficulties”. Identifying potential benefits of listening to her advice convinces John Quincy that following his guidance is both good for him now as well as beneficial in the