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WILLIAM WEMMS AND SEVEN OTHERS. 489°

Attucks, whom Montgomery was supposed to have killed,
appeared to have undertaken to be the hero of the night, and
to lead this army with banners, to form them in the first place
in Doek square, and march them up to King street with their
tlubs. They passed through the main street up to the main
guard, in order to make the attack. If this waa not an unlaw-
ful assembly, there never was one in the world. Attucks, with
his mirmidona, comes round Jackson’s corner, and down to the
party by the sentry box; when the soldiers pushed the people
off, this man with his party cried, ‘‘do not be afraid of them,
they dare not fire, kill them! kill them! knock them over!”"—
and he tried to knock their brains out. It was plain the sol-
diers did not leave their station, but cried to the people,
“stand off.”? Now to have this reinforcement coming down
under the command of a stout mulatto fellow, whose very
looks were enough to terrify any person, what had not the sol-
diers then to fear? He had hardiness enough to fall in upon
them, and with one hand took hold of a bayonet, and with the
other knocked the man down. This waa the behavior of
Attucks; to whose mad proceedings, in all probability, the
dreadful carnage of that night was chiefly to be aseribed. And
it was in this manner this town had been often treated; a Carr
from Ireland, and an Attucks from Framingham, happening
tw be here, shall sally out upon their thoughtless enterprises,
at the head of such a rabble of negroes and worthless charac-
ters ag they can collect together, and then there were not
wanting persons to ascribe all their doinga to the good people
of the town,

Gentlemen of the Jury, I will enlarge no more on the evi-
dence, but submit it to you. Facts are stubborn things; and
whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates
of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evi-
dence. Nor is the law less stable than the fact; if an assault
was made to endanger their lives, the law is clear, they had a
right to kill in their own defense; if it was not so severe as
to endanger their lives, yet if they were assaulted at all, struck
and abused by blows of any sort, by snowballs, oyster shells,

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