.. Will the spirits of people, as
yet unsubdued by tyranny, unaw'd by the menaces of arbitary power, submit
to be govern'd by military force?" [Footnote: Vindex, _Boston Gazette_,
Dec. 5, 1768.]
In 1770 it was notorious that "endeavors had been systematically pursued
for many months, by certain busy characters, to excite quarrels,
rencounters, and combats, single or compound, in the night, between the
inhabitants of the lower class and the soldiers, and at all risks to
enkindle an immortal hatred between them." [Footnote: Autobiography of
John Adams. _Works of J. Adams_, ii. 229.] And it is curious to
observe how the British always quarrelled with the laborers about the
wharves; and how these, the closest friends of Adams, were all imbued with
the theory he maintained, that the military could not use their weapons
without the order of a civil magistrate. Little by little the animosity
increased, until on the 2d of March there was a very serious fray at
Gray's rope-walk, which was begun by one of the hands, who knocked down
two soldiers who spoke to him in the street. Although Adams afterward
labored to convince the public that the tragedy which happened three days
later was the result of a deliberately matured conspiracy to murder the
citizens for revenge, there is nothing whereon to base such a charge; on
the contrary, the evidence tends to exonerate the troops, and the verdicts
show the opinion of the juries.
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