The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 2Adams, Samuel
History
The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 2
Adams, Samuel
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809
never saw Dogs so greedy for their Prey, and the Serjeants could
hardly keep them in their Ranks 2 - Another swore, that after
the firing, he saw the Soldiers drawn up under Arms, and heard the
officers, as they walked backwards and forwards say to one another,
Damn it, what a fine fire that was! How bravely it dispers'd the Mob3
- A gentleman belonging to Halifax in Nova Scotia testified that when
the body of Troops was drawn up before the guardhouse (which was
presently after the Massacre) he heard an Officer say to another,
that this was fine work, just what he wanted!4 - I shall add but
one more to this list, and that is, the testimony of a Witness,
well known in this Town for an honest man; who declared that at
about one o'Clock the next morning, as he was going alone from his
own House to the Town-House, he met a Serjeant of the 29th with
eight or nine Soldiers, all with very large Clubs and Cutlasses,
when one of them, speaking of the Slaughter, swore by God, it was
a fine thing, and said, you shall see more of it.5 - To these I
cannot help subjoining, the testimony of Mr. John Cox, a very
reputable Inhabitant of this Town ; who swore in Court at one of
the late trials, that after the firing, he went to take up the
dead; that he told the Soldiers, it was a cowardly trick in them
to kill men within reach of their Bayonets, with nothing in their
hands; and that the officer said, damn them, fire again, and let
them take the consequence - to which he replied, you have killed
enough already to hang you all: But it has since appeared that he
was mistaken. - There are others, who saw, a very large party from
the Southguard, after the firing, take their post under Liberty-
Tree; by which one would think they intended to act the same part
which the Soldiers in New-York had before done, as indeed some of
them had threatened they would, and which would probably have bro't on
a new scene of confusion. But the commanding officer, very prudently
ordered the regiment to be under arms, which prevented it.
If these testimonies would not have been pertinent to the issue of
the late trial, I think it necessary to adduce them here, to
convince the world of the wretched state this Town had been in;
the reason they had to apprehend, while such blood-thirsty inmates
were quarter'd among them ; and the necessity they were tinder,
constantly to be on their guard, while there were even such
exultations at the barbarous "action" of the Evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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