Use the passage to answer the question. Excerpt from a Speech by John Adams
If an assault was made to endanger their lives, the law is clear, they had a right to kill in their own defence; if it was not so severe as to endanger their lives, yet if they were assaulted at all, struck and abused by blows of any sort, by snow-balls, oyster-shells, cinders, clubs, or sticks of any kind; this was a provocation, for which the law reduces the offence of killing, down to manslaughter, in consideration of those passions in our nature, which cannot be eradicated.

What is the main idea in Adams’s statement?
A. The soldiers showed great restraint by not responding more forcefully.

B. The soldiers overreacted to events and should be punished accordingly.

C. The soldiers were provoked in some way, so they did not commit murder.

D. The soldiers were doing their job and bear no blame for the tragic events.