Boston Massacre

When William was fourteen he was sent to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. His health remained poor and he spent most of the time with his tutor, the Rev. George Pretyman. William, who studied Latin and Greek, received his M.A. in 1776.

William grew up with a strong interest in politics and spent much of his spare time watching debates in parliament. On 7th April 1778 he was present when his father collapsed while making a speech in the House of Lords and helped to carry his dying father from the chamber.

In 1781 Sir James Lowther arranged for William Pitt to become the M.P. for Appleby. He made his first speech in the House of Commons on 26th February, 1781. William Pitt had been well trained and afterwards, Lord North, the prime minister, described it as the "best speech" that he had ever heard.

Soon after entering the House of Commons, William Pitt came under the influence of Charles Fox, Britain's leading Whig politician. Pitt joined Fox in his campaign for peace with the American colonies. On 12th June he made a speech where Pitt insisted that this was an "unjust war" and urged Lord North's government to bring it to an end.

Pitt also took an interest in the way that Britain elected Members of Parliament. He was especially critical of the way that the monarchy used the system to influence those in Parliament. Pitt argued that parliamentary reform was necessary for the preservation of liberty. In June 1782 Pitt supported a motion for shortening the duration of parliament and for measures that would reduce the chances of government ministers being bribed.

When Lord Frederick North's government fell in March 1782, Charles Fox became Foreign Secretary in Rockingham's Whig government. Fox left the government in July 1782, as he was unwilling to serve under the new prime minister, Lord Sherburne. Short of people willing to serve him, Sherburne appointed the twenty-three year old Pitt as his Chancellor of the Exchequer. Fox interpreted Pitt's acceptance of this post as a betrayal and after this the two men became bitter enemies.

On the 31st March, 1783, Pitt resigned and declared that he was "unconnected with any party whatever". Now out of power, Pitt turned his attention once more to parliamentary reform. On 7th May he proposed a plan that included: (1) checking bribery at elections; (2) disfranchising corrupt constituencies; (3) adding to the number of members for London. His proposals were defeated by 293 to 149. Another bill that he introduced on 2nd June for restricting abuses in public office was passed by the House of Commons but rejected by the House of Lords.

In Parliament he opposed Charles Fox's India Bill. Fox responded by making fun of Pitt's youth and inexperience and accusing him of following "the headlong course of ambition". George III was furious when the India Bill was passed by the House of Commons. The king warned members of the House of Lords that he would regard any one who voted for the bill as his enemy. Unwilling to upset the king, the Lords rejected the bill by 95 votes to 76.

The Duke of Portland's administration resigned and on 19th December, 1783, the king invited William Pitt to form a new government. At the age of only twenty-four, Pitt became Britain's youngest prime minister. When it was announced that Pitt had accepted the king's invitation, the news was received in the House of Commons with derisive laughter.

Pitt had great difficulty finding enough people to join his government. Except for himself, his cabinet of seven contained no members of the House of Commons. Charles Fox lead the attack on Pitt and although defeated in votes several times in the House of Commons, he refused to resign. After building up his popularity in the country, Pitt called a general election on 24th March, 1784. Pitt's timing was perfect and 160 of Fox's supporters were defeated at the polls. Pitt himself stood for the seat of Cambridge University.

Pitt now had a majority in the House of Commons and was able to persuade parliament to pass a series of measures including the India Act that established dual control of the East India Company. Pitt also attacked the serious problem of smuggling by reducing duties on those goods that were mainly being imported illegally into Britain. The success of this measure established his reputation as a shrewd politician.

In April 1785 Pitt proposed a bill that would bring an end to thirty-six rotten boroughs and to transfer the seventy-two seats to those areas where the population was growing. Although Pitt spoke in favour of reform, he refused to warn the House of Commons that he would resign if the measure was defeated. The Commons came to the conclusion that Pitt did not feel strongly about reform and when the vote was taken it was defeated by 248 votes to 174. Pitt accepted the decision of the Commons and never made another attempt to introduce parliamentary reform.

The general election of October 1790 gave Pitt's government an increased majority. For the next few years Pitt was occupied with Britain's relationship with France. Pitt had initially viewed the French Revolution as a domestic issue which did not concern Britain. However, Pitt became worried when parliamentary reform groups in Britain appeared to be in contact with French revolutionaries. Pitt responded by issuing a proclamation against seditious writings.

When Pitt heard that King Louis XVI had been executed in January 1793, he expelled the French Ambassador. In the House of Common's Charles Fox and his small group of supporters attacked Pitt for not doing enough to preserve peace with France. Fox therefore blamed Pitt when France declared war on Britain on 1st February, 1793.

Pitt's attitude towards political reform changed dramatically after war was declared. In May 1793 Pitt brought in a bill s

From ( http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.UK/PRpitt.htm )

The people in Boston didn't want the British in their city. One night, while most of them were drunk, a man hit a soldier, causing the soldier to strike back. This caused a crowd to come and help the man stuck down. They were yelling at the soldiers and threatening them to shoot while holding sticks and rocks, ready to pelt them. One of the soldiers were struck by a rock thrown by the crowd and shot into the crowd, causing others to shoot too. Their captain told them to stop and don't fire, but they couldn't hear. People were shot and killed, but only five people died. The people called this the Boston Massacre, even though when you think of massacre, you imagine many people dying, not just five. The painting of the Boston Massacre was not accurate; the painting was used as a propaganda.

Additional info:

It's not so simple that "the people in Boston didn't want the British in their city". The people in Boston considered themselves to be British citizens, and as far as the British government was concerned, that was true.

The problem was that once the Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War in the US) ended in 1763, Britain found itself with a massive debt. Not only had they just fought what is often considered the world's first "world war" in the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and India; but Britain had also paid for Prussia's role in the war. Prussia (a small country that is now part of Germany) was Britain's only major ally and had done most of the fighting in Europe- against France, Russia, Austria and several other countries- all at the same time. Additionally, the treaty ending the war gave the British a large empire, mostly at France's expense, and they needed to set up administration and infrastructure, as well as defense, such as against raids by American Indians. To pay all this debt, the British Parliament began raising taxes.

The American Colonists were upset that they had no say in any of these matters- they were not allowed to vote for parliament, so they could not elect people to stop the government from passing laws they didn't like, especially tax increases. This is what is meant by the rallying cry of "no taxation without representation". Enforcement of these taxes became difficult as colonists boycotted merchants who complied with the taxes.

Parliament, misunderstanding what was happening, believed that the Colonists simply didn't want to pay taxes, so they passed the Townshend Acts to change the way taxes were paid and also to make it so that colonial government officials were paid by Parliament instead of by local colonial taxes (so the officials would be loyal to Parliament rather than the people they were governing). You can see why the colonists would be upset at all of this- it seemed like Parliament was trying to take from the colonists but give nothing back.

The Massacre was the culmination of this tense time. On March 5, 1770, a soldier was guarding a government building when a Bostonian came along and accused one of the officials who worked in the building of not paying for something. It escalated until the guard knocked down the other man, and a crowd started to grow. Other soldiers arrived to help the guard, as the crowd grew larger and angrier, and began throwing rocks, trash and snow at the soldiers. Eventually, as mentioned above, the soldiers began to fire, killing five civilians and wounding six more.

The British soldiers were not entirely "off the hook". There was a contentious trial, where the soldiers were famously defended by a Boston lawyer named John Adams, who would later become an important leader of the Founding Fathers. Despite already being a member of the rebellious "Patriots", Adams insisted that the soldiers get a fair trial and took the case when nobody else would for fear of reprisals by the Patriots. He was successful in getting six of the eight soldiers acquitted; two were convicted of manslaughter (because they had fired at the crowd) but were given light sentences since it was their first offense. Some civilians were also put on trial but all were acquitted.

Most of the Townshend Acts were repealed following the Massacre, except, notably, the tax on tea. In 1773, the Tea Act was passed, lowering the cost of British tea (to try to get Colonists to buy it instead of Dutch tea, and thereby pay the Townshend tea tax)- and the Tea Act was followed by the Boston Tea Party, then the "Intolerable Acts" (where Parliament tried to punish Boston for destroying the tea), and in April 1775, the Revolutionary War had begun.