<P> Adams wrote numerous letters and essays in opposition to the occupation, which he considered a violation of the 1689 Bill of Rights . The occupation was publicized throughout the colonies in the Journal of Occurrences, an unsigned series of newspaper articles that may have been written by Adams in collaboration with others . The Journal presented what it claimed to be a factual daily account of events in Boston during the military occupation, an innovative approach in an era without professional newspaper reporters . It depicted a Boston besieged by unruly British soldiers who assaulted men and raped women with regularity and impunity, drawing upon the traditional Anglo - American distrust of standing armies garrisoned among civilians . The Journal ceased publication on August 1, 1769, which was a day of celebration in Boston: Governor Bernard had left Massachusetts, never to return . </P> <P> Adams continued to work on getting the troops withdrawn and keeping the boycott going until the Townshend duties were repealed . Two regiments were removed from Boston in 1769, but the other two remained . Tensions between soldiers and civilians eventually resulted in the killing of five civilians in the Boston Massacre of March 1770 . According to the "propagandist interpretation" of Adams popularized by historian John Miller, Adams deliberately provoked the incident to promote his secret agenda of American independence . According to Pauline Maier, however, "There is no evidence that he prompted the Boston Massacre riot". </P> <P> After the Boston Massacre, Adams and other town leaders met with Bernard's successor Governor Thomas Hutchinson and with Colonel William Dalrymple, the army commander, to demand the withdrawal of the troops . The situation remained explosive, and so Dalrymple agreed to remove both regiments to Castle William . Adams wanted the soldiers to have a fair trial, because this would show that Boston was not controlled by a lawless mob, but was instead the victim of an unjust occupation . He convinced his cousins John Adams and Josiah Quincy to defend the soldiers, knowing that those Whigs would not slander Boston to gain an acquittal . However, Adams wrote essays condemning the outcome of the trials; he thought that the soldiers should have been convicted of murder . </P> <P> After the Boston Massacre, politics in Massachusetts entered what is sometimes known as the "quiet period". In April 1770, Parliament repealed the Townshend duties, except for the tax on tea . Adams urged colonists to keep up the boycott of British goods, arguing that paying even one small tax allowed Parliament to establish the precedent of taxing the colonies, but the boycott faltered . As economic conditions improved, support waned for Adams's causes . In 1770, first New York City then Philadelphia abandoned the non-importation boycott of British goods . Faced with the risk of being economically ruined, Boston merchants agreed to generally end the non-importation and effectively defeated Samuel Adams' cause in Massachusetts . John Adams withdrew from politics, while John Hancock and James Otis appeared to become more moderate . Samuel Adams was re-elected to the Massachusetts House in April 1772, but he received far fewer votes than ever before . </P>

The american revolution led to which of the following change(s) in religion