可悲的是, 查尔斯奥斯丁 died because of a disputed bill for a Fourth of July party held a month earlier on Copp’s Hill in Boston’s North End. 托马斯·塞尔弗里奇, 枪手, had been locked in an increasingly bitter public controversy with 查尔斯奥斯丁’s father, 本杰明·奥斯汀, Jr. The two men were leading figures of the sharply divided political factions (parties) in Boston.

本杰明·奥斯汀 had been the chairman of a committee that organized a separate Fourth of July celebration for Boston’s (Democratic) Republican faction, 托马斯·杰斐逊总统的支持者, after it became clear that the town’s official celebration would be dominated by Federalists—the political faction that had grown up around Presidents George Washington and John Adams. 除了在新英格兰，联邦党人已经失宠了, 但是麻萨诸塞州, 包括缅因地区, was exquisitely balanced between the factions in one closely fought gubernatorial election after another, 然后每年举行选举.

在这种紧张的政治气氛中, the Fourth of July party hosted by 本杰明·奥斯汀’s committee turned out to be a great success—it was too successful. The presence of a Tunisian diplomat and his colorfully garbed entourage on Copp’s Hill attracted an overflow crowd and the estimated cost of $360 became a final bill for $630 (seven additional roast pigs and ten bushels of green peas added substantially to expenses). 奥斯丁拒绝支付超过估计和希伯急切, 他是波士顿王子街杰斐逊酒馆的老板，为这次活动提供服务, 尽管他本人是共和党人, 雇佣托马斯·塞尔弗里奇, 主要的联邦党人, 强行提出他的要求.

A private mediator quickly negotiated a settlement between Eager and Austin’s party committee, but Austin and 塞尔弗里奇 kept up an escalating barrage of “posts” by attacks on each other published as advertisements in partisan Boston newspapers. Austin accused 塞尔弗里奇 of unethically seeking legal business—barratry—while 塞尔弗里奇 accused Austin of spreading “jesuitically false” statements about him.

“坚守阵地”

Dueling was illegal in Massachusetts but adversaries who had “posted” each other through published advertisements would, 在某些情况下, 通过欺凌或攻击来“惩罚”对手. 如果太老或太弱——本杰明·奥斯汀54岁，托马斯·塞尔弗里奇, 虽然只有31岁, had been in poor health since his college years--they employed relatives or even hired “bullies” to carry out “chastisements.当查尔斯·奥斯汀打塞尔弗里奇时，他是在代表他父亲行事. 塞尔弗里奇被控过失杀人罪 英联邦v. 塞尔弗里奇 became a legal landmark notable for judicial decisions about the right of a defendant to “stand his ground” when attacked and whether a defendant could use lethal force in defending himself, 即使他误解了袭击者的杀人意图.

英联邦v. 塞尔弗里奇

The case was tried in December 1806 before Judge Isaac Parker of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and pitted “Republican” prosecutors, 马萨诸塞州总检察长詹姆斯·沙利文和副检察长丹尼尔·戴维斯, 与由著名联邦党人律师组成的辩护团队对抗, 克里斯托弗·戈尔和塞缪尔·德克斯特. 当塞尔弗里奇被判无罪时，出现了大规模的抗议判决. 塞尔弗里奇和西奥菲勒斯·帕森斯, 马萨诸塞州最高法院的首席大法官, who was widely understood to have influenced the grand jury’s decision to try 塞尔弗里奇 for manslaughter rather than murder, 在波士顿和其他地方被绞死的人.

当代手稿上有注解，下有注解 葬礼挽歌 indicate the continued political divide in Massachusetts: 查尔斯奥斯丁 was “shot by a pistol from the hand of T O 塞尔弗里奇” but then, 另一位作者补充道:“出于自卫。.在这一页的底部, the “mourning Sire” in the text was identified as “Honestus – or Ben: Austin [Austin wrote under the pseudonym “Honestus”] an old fashioned Jacobin.” The Jeffersonian Republicans supported the French 牧师olution and often were condemned for its excesses.

马萨诸塞州历史学会分裂

While fellows and members of the Massachusetts Historical Society have seen themselves as removed from party politics, 詹姆斯·沙利文(共和党人)的角色, 卫生部的第一任主席, 1791-1806, 克里斯托弗·戈尔(联邦党人), 第二任总统, 1806-1818, as the lead prosecutor and defense attorney in the 塞尔弗里奇 case makes it very difficult to believe that politics did not intrude upon the Society’s activities. The fact that they both would serve as governors of Massachusetts in the years following the trial (Sullivan from 1807 to 1808 and Gore from 1809 to 1810) brought party politics into the rooms of the Society. 即使是保罗·里维尔，年事已高但仍然活跃在公民生活中，也加入了这个故事. 牧师ere was the foreman of the jury at the 塞尔弗里奇 trial and when he later was accused of bias in favor of the defendant, newspapers favorable to 塞尔弗里奇 cited the “papers of the Historical Society” as proof of 牧师ere’s distinguished public service—and honorable character—before and during the 牧师olution.