there was cause for just indignation on the part of the people towards the British soldiers, there is no doubt.  But there is reason to question the time and manner of the assault made by the citizens.  Doubtless they had “a zeal, but not according to knowledge.”  There is no record to controvert the fact of the leadership of Crispus Attucks.  A manly-looking fellow, six feet two inches in height, he was a commanding figure among the irate colonists.  His enthusiasm for the threatened interests of the Province, his loyalty to the teachings of Otis, and his willingness to sacrifice for the cause of equal rights, endowed him with a courage, which, if tempered with better judgment, would have made him a military hero in his day.  But consumed by the sacred fires of patriotism, that lighted his path to glory, his career of usefulness ended at the beginning.  John Adams, as the counsel for the soldiers, thought that the patriots Crispus Attucks led were a “rabble of saucy boys, negroes, mulattoes, &c.,” who could not restrain their emotion.  Attucks led the charge with the shout, “The way to get rid of these soldiers is to attack the main-guard; strike at the root:  this is the nest.”  A shower of missiles was answered by the discharge of the guns of Capt.  Preston’s company.  The exposed and commanding person of the intrepid Attucks went down before the murderous fire.  Samuel Gray and Jonas Caldwell were also killed, while Patrick Carr and Samuel Maverick were mortally wounded.

The scene that followed beggared description.  The people ran from their homes and places of business into the streets, white with rage.  The bells rang out the alarm of danger.  The bodies of Attucks and Caldwell were carried into Faneuil Hall, where their strange faces were viewed by the largest gathering of people ever before witnessed.  Maverick was buried from his mother’s house in Union Street, and Gray from his brother’s residence in Royal Exchange Lane.  But Attucks and Caldwell, strangers in the city, without relatives, were buried from Faneuil Hall, so justly called “the Cradle of Liberty.”  The four hearses formed a junction in King Street; and from thence the procession moved in columns six deep, with a long line of coaches containing the first citizens of Boston.  The obsequies were witnessed by a very large and respectful concourse of people.  The bodies were deposited in one grave, over which a stone was placed bearing this inscription:—­

    “Long as in Freedom’s cause the wise contend,
    Dear to your country shall your fame extend;
    While to the world the lettered stone shall tell
    Where Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell.”