A passage in Governor Thomas Hutchinson's third volume of his history of Massachusetts (published posthumously in 1828), when compared with his journal entry for 5 December 1770, reveals that the governor knew much more than he was willing to tell about the so-called Boston Massacre participants' trial proceedings. The happy outcome of the case (acquittal of seven of the soldiers and convictions for nonpunishable manslaughter for two others) apparently tempered Hutchinson's account before it was published. Largely ignored (in the British Museum), the Hutchinson journal account leaves the reader with the uncomfortable conclusion that defense counsel for the accused soldiers, John Adams, in trying to do what he considered justice to Boston, came shockingly close to sacrificing his clients for the good of his constituency. Although the John Adams-Josiah Quincy defense of the soldiers has long been considered the apogee of the American legal profession, Hutchinson declares in his journal entry that Adams's "bias to the general conduct of the Town appeared very strong." Based partly on unpublished documents; 41 notes.