Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
Agreable to your Request & my Promise, I sit down to inform You, that the Proceedings of the past Week issued as folows.
There being no Court 'till 4 o'Clock Tuesday PM. of Course nothing more was done than to meet & adjourn; The next Morning, The Attorney-general2 being absent by Reason of Ill health, I offered the Court to conduct the Trial of Manwarring et al,3 in Furtherance of the Business of the Court, but not as of Council for the Crown, by Warrant, Desire, or Instruction from the Town of Boston. They accepted my Offer, & I accordingly imbarked in another Windmill-Adventure, and came off as you will readily suppose like poor Quixot in a like Instance.
You will perhaps be at a Loss to explain my Meaning in regard to the Town. Know then, that upon application to Mason & Inches,4 They were both of Opinion, that their Authority did not extend to that Prosecution, which was not in Contemplation of the Town at the passing The Vote, and therefore did not desire me to pursue the Affair as engaged by them.
The Evidence on the Crown Side was examined, & it falling short in Every Respect, the Jury gave a Verdict of Acquittal without going from their Seats. The French Boy appeared both from his own Testimony & the Evidence of Other Witnesses to be guilty of deliberate Perjury, and is accordingly remanded to have the Matter laid before the Grand Jury at the next Term.
After This Trial the Business of the Court by Reason of Sewall's Absence lagged heavily; We did some small affairs & the attorney not coming, adjourned without Day on Friday Afternoon.
I must not forget to inform You, that On Thursday morning there appeared at the Town-house a Paper stuck up reflecting severely on the Court, of which the enclosed is a Copy; It being communicated to Them, They immediately laid it before the Govr. who with a general Council sitting that Day by Adjournment issued the Proclamation Which I presume You have seen in the Papers.5
I moved the Court for Judgment on the Motion for Richardson's New-Trial, but was answered that They had not yet determined it, so that Richardson among others has a Respite untill another Term.
I am of Opinion it is best for Us to exhibit our accounts to our Employ-484ers while the Matter is yet warm; of This you will be pleased to advise me, as it is necessary in some Respects We should be uniform in the Demand.
This is all I think necessary at present, & with my Regards to your Fire Side I am Your respectfl: Friend & Bror.,
NB. Mr. Fleming the Printer has undertaken to publish The Trial, & will have authentic Copies of the argument from the Council, & the Direction of the Court to compleat the whole. He has therefore desired me to apply to you for the State of your argument, which he will not be ready to insert This 14'night or 3 Weeks, you will therefore have Time Enough if you will oblige him in This Respect.6
To see the Sufferings of my Fellow Townsmen & own myself my
a Man, To see the Court cheat the injured people with a Shew of Justice which Yet we near can taste of, drive us like Wrecks down the rough Tide of Power while we no hold is left to save us from Destruction, All that bear this are Slaves, & we as such not to rise up at the great Call of Nature & free the World from such domestic Tyrants.
For King and Crowd.
Jonathan Sewall (1729–1796).
Edward Manwaring, a civilian, was accused of firing a double-loaded musket into King Street from the Custom House. His French servant boy, Charles Bourgatte, testified against Manwaring but his testimony was not believed, and he was convicted of perjury. Manwaring and 3 other civilians were acquitted (Zobel, Boston Massacre, 295–298; Adams, Legal Papers, 3:30–31).
Jonathan Mason and Henderson Inches were on the Boston board of selectmen (A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, containing the Selectmen's Minutes from 1769 through April, 1775 [Boston, 1893], 72).
Gov. Hutchinson issued a proclamation on Dec. 13 concerning the posted paper which he said tended "to inflame the Minds of the People against the Judges of the Superior Court now sitting in Boston, for their Proceeding in the Administration of Justice, and to excite to Acts of Sedition and Violence." Hutchinson offered a reward of £100 for information leading to the capture of the guilty party (The Massachusetts Gazette: and the Boston Weekly News-Letter, Dec. 13, 1770).
John Fleeming, printer and bookseller, had his printing office at this time nearly opposite the White Horse Tavern in Newbury Street, Boston. His pamphlet The Trial of William Wemms [et al.]... for the murder of Cripus Attucks (Boston, 1770) did not contain RTP's closing argument. The pamphlet states: "But as the person who wrote the trial in short-hand, was so fatigued that he could not take down what Mr. Paine said, we are not able to insist his argument in this publication" (p. 178). RTP 485apparently never sent it to Fleeming. A rough draft of closing argument from the RTP Papers was printed in Adams, Legal Papers, 3:91–93.
Saml. Quincy tells me1 he wrote you some time since by his Brother, requesting you to furnish Mr. Fleeming with your Argument on the Trial of the Soldrs., but has reced. no answer at all from you.
The Trial is now in the press, and We all shall be extremely sorry, it should appear so very deffective as it must do, unless your Argument is inserted. The person who appointed to take the Trial in Short hand was so much fatigued that he was obliged to omit writing what you said in closing that Cause, so that unless you will prepare it yourself from your minutes the Trial must be published without it.2 If you have not time to prepare the whole at large, I entreat you to send such analysis of it as you can conveniently collect from your minutes & I will take care any apology, you desire, shall be printed with the Trial. Both Mesrs. observations on the Evidences them.
As a State of the Trial will certainly be published both the Court & Bar are solicitous it should appear in such manner as to bring no disrepute on the Country, its therefore expected that if your Love of Fame will not, your patriotism will be, a sufficient inducement for you to take some pains, the publication may appear as compleat as possible. I am with much esteem your affectionate hum. Servt.,
Sampson Salters Blowers (1742–1842) graduated from Harvard in 1763 and was admitted to the bar in 1766. He practiced in Boston until the Revolution. He became a judge of the royal Court of Vice Admiralty in Rhode Island (1779), served as solicitor general of New York (1780–1783), and as attorney general, speaker of the House, and from 1797 to 1833 as chief justice and president of the Council in Halifax (DAB).
An unsigned, undated note in the RTP Papers reads: "The author of these minutes will esteem it a particular favour, if Mr. Pain wou'd give them their original Dress & add some material observations that must have escaped his Notice."