OTIS, JAMES ( 1725-83 ) . An American states man of the Revolutionary period. He was born. February 5, 1725, at West Barnstable, Mass.; graduated at Harvard in 1743, and studied law in the office of Jeremiah Gridley. He practiced for two years at Plymouth, but settled in 1748 in Boston, where he soon rose to the front rank in his profession. In 1761, when he was Advo cate-General, application was made to the Massa chusetts Supreme Court. for writs of assistance. i.e. general search warrants for the discovery of smuggled goods imported into the colony. Otis was convinced of the illegality of these writs, and resigned his office rather than argue in their defense. He was inunediately engaged to argue against them, which he did in a speech of great force and eloquence. It was of this speech that John Adams said "Ameriean independence was then and there born." The judges reserved their decision. but no more writs were enforced. though sonic were issued. The resignation of Otis and his plea in behalf of the popular side of the writs-of-assistanee controversy gave him a high reputation for patriotism. ability, and eloquence, whieli he more than maintained in the Legisla ture. to which he was elected the same year. Taking an active part in the legislative discus sions upon taxation and representation. he be came still more conspicuous by publishing in the following year. 1762, his Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatires, which has been considered one of the sources from which all the ar.mnients against Parliamentary taxation were later drawn, and the basis of all subsequent treatises on free speech in America and France. This was followed, in 1764, by his Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved. llis apparent recognition of Parlia mentary supremacy in this pamphlet, however, served to quality the regard in which he had been held by the extremists. in it third pamphlet, entitled on Behalf of the colonists, published the following year, he reestablished himself in the esteem of the radicals. On June 6, 1765, he made a motion, which was carried. that a congress of representatives from the various colonies should be convened. In pur suance of this measure a circular letter was sent, inviting time colonies to join in a congress, and the Stamp Act Congress, which met in New York in the fall of 1765, was the result. Otis took part in the proceedings of this body, and served on the committee which framed an address to the House of Commons. Ile was chosen
Speaker of the Massachusetts General Court in 1766, but the Governor interposed his negative then, as also in the following years. In 1768, after the passage through Parliament of Charles Townshend's bill for the taxation of the colonies, the Massachusetts General Court sent a second circular letter to the other colonies, calling on them to join in some common plan for protec tion. It was in answer to the message of Ber nard, the Royal Governor, demanding that the circular be recalled, that Otis made a notable speech, condemned by the partisans of the Crown as "the most violent, insolent, abusive, and trea sonable declaration that perhaps was ever de livered." Only seventeen members voted to re call the circular. in 1769 the enstoms commis sioners accused him in England of treason. This coming to his Ile publicly denounced the commissioners in the Boston Gazette. Meeting "Robinson. one of the commissioners, in a coffee room the next night, he became involved in a dis pute with him. An affray resulted, in which Otis received a cut on time head, which is supposed to have been the ea use of his subsequent insanity. lie sued Robinson, and recovered £2000 damages. but relinquished this sum in consideration of a written apology from Robinson. After a short residence in the country for the benefit of his health, he returned to the Legislature in 1771. He was insane for the greater part of his sub sequent life, with the exception of a short in terval, when he went back to Boston and resumed the practice of his profession. The last two years of his life were spent at Andover, where he was killed by lightning,. May 23, 1783. He published in 1760 a treatise on The Rudiments of Latin Prosody: with a Dissertation on Let trrs and the I'rine•ipless of Harmony in Poetic and Prosaic Com posit ion. Of his public career the elder Ad :Inis said: "I never knew a moan whose love for his eountry was so sincere; never one who suffered so much; never one whose services for any ten years of his life were so important or so essential to the cause of his country as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770." His Life has been written by William 'Tudor• (Boston. also by Francis Bowen (Huston, 18471. Also consult Tyler, Lit ern ra 11 ist nry of the American Rerol t ion (New York. 1897).