nel Preston suddenly blazed up into a
dangerous collision. Some of the soldiers fired. Several citizens
were killed, several more wounded. There was an angry call to arms,
and a general civil attack upon the military was only with difficulty
prevented by the Lieutenant-Governor, who ordered the arrest and
imprisonment of Colonel Preston and the soldiers under him. These duly
underwent a trial whose conduct and whose issue reflect the highest
honor {152} upon Boston. The soldiers were defended by no less
prominent a man and conspicuous a patriot than John Adams; and, thanks
to John Adams, Colonel Preston and six of his men were acquitted, and
only two of the soldiers convicted of manslaughter. But if the people
of Boston were willing that even their enemies should be tried fairly,
and fairly acquitted, they were not willing to allow the events of that
day to pass into oblivion. A public funeral was accorded to the
victims of the Boston Massacre, and the grim name for a grim deed was
for long years later solemnly and publicly commemorated.

The bad news of the Boston Massacre was followed to England by the bad
news of the business of the "Gaspee." The "Gaspee" was an English
warship employed to enforce the Revenue Acts along the Rhode Island
coast. Its commander, Lieutenant Duddington, took an active delight in
his duty which brought him into perpetual antagonism with a people who
regarded elusion of the revenue laws as their privilege and
prerogative. One night the "Gaspee," pursuing the Providence packet,
that had refused to lower her colors in salutation as she passed, ran
aground in shallow water and lay fast bound for the night. The news of
her insolence to the Providence packet and of her present plight flew
abroad all over Providence. After sundown a number of the townspeople
of Providence, well armed and stern of purpose, rowed from the town to
the stranded "Gaspee," boarded her, and overcame the ineffectual
resistance of her crew. In the scuffle Duddington was badly wounded.
His wounds were dressed: he and his men were put on shore with all
their belongings, and then and there the "Gaspee" was set fire to and
watched till she was consumed. Though a large money reward was offered
for the apprehension of the offenders, no one of the assailants was
ever brought before the King's justice.

Misfortunes like the Boston Massacre, disorders like the burning of the
"Gaspee," naturally increased the anti-col