Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 1

This modern photograph shows the Old State House restored to its original appearance and the site of the Massacre, marked by the circle of stones in the foreground. The room just inside the balcony was the Council Chamber, where John Adams argued for the opening of the courts in 1765. He was one of the defense counsel for the trial of the soldiers and their captain who fired into a Boston crowd on 5 March 1770, killing three and fatally wounding two. Adams also served on a Boston committee to select one of the orators chosen annually to commemorate the Massacre.