Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/646

606 common pleas, and judge of probate, and was for some time a member of the council. He married Mary Allyne, or AUeyne, of Wethersfield, Conn., daughter of Joseph Allyne, of Plymouth. Of their thirteen children, sev- eral died in infancy. The eldest son, James, the subject of this sketch, was fitted for college under the care of the Rev. Jonathan Russell, of Barnstable, and was graduated at Harvard m 1743. Af- ter two years spent in the study of general literature he began the study of law in 1745 in the office of Jere- miah Gridley, who was then one of the most distinguished lawyers in this country. In 1748 he began the practice of law at Plymouth, but soon found that the scanty busi- ness of such a place did not afford sufficient scope for his powei'S. He removed to Boston in 1750, and soon rose to the foremost rank in his profes- sion. His business became very lucrative, and he won a reputation for extraordinary eloquence, while his learning and integrity were held in high and well-deserved esteem. It was in those days noted as remarkable that he was once called as far as Halifax in the dead of winter to act as counsel for three men accused of piracy. He procured the acquittal of his clients, and received the largest fee that had ever been paid to a Massachusetts lawyer. Until this time he continued his literary studies, and in 1760 published " Rudiments of Latin Pros- ody," which was used as a text-book at Harvard. A similar work on Greek prosody remained in manuscript until it was lost, along with many others of his papers. Early in 1755 Mr. Otis mar- ried Miss Ruth Cunningham, daughter of a Boston merchant. Of their three children, the only son, James, died at the age of eighteen ; the elder daughter, Elizabeth, married Capt. Brown, of the British army, and ended her days in England ; the younger, Mary, married Benjamin, eldest son of the distinguished Gen. Lincoln. Mr. Otis seems always to have lived happily with his wife, but she failed to sympathize with him in his political career, and remained herself a stanch loyalist until her death, 15 Nov., 1789.

His public career began in 1761. On the death of Chief-Justice Sewall in 1760, Gov. Bernard appointed Thomas Hutchinson to succeed him. James Otis, the father, had set his heart upon obtaining this place, and both father and son were extremely angry at the appointment of Hutchinson. The latter, who was a very fair-minded man and seldom attributed unworthy motives to political opponents, nevertheless declares in his " History of Massachusetts Bay " that chagrin and disappointment had much to do with the course of opposition to government which the Otises soon followed. The charge deserves to be mentioned, because it is reiterated by Gordon, who sided with the patriots, but it is easy to push such personal explanations altogether too far. No doubt the feeling may have served to give an edge to the eloquence with which Mr. Otis attacked the ministry ; but his political attitude was too plainly based on common sense, and on a perception of the real merits of the questions then at issue, to need any other explanation. On the accession of George III. it was decided to enforce the navigation acts, which for a long time American shipmasters and merchants had habitually evaded. One of the revenue officers in Boston petitioned the superior court for " writs of assistance," which were general search-warrants, allowing officials of the custom-house to enter houses oi- shops in quest of smuggled goods, but without specifying either houses or goods. There can be little doubt that the issue of such search-warrants was strictly legal. They had been authorized by a statute of Charles II., and two statutes of William III. had expressly extended to custom-house officers in America the same privileges that they enjoyed in England. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the issue of such warrants in general terms and without most sedulous provisions against arbitrary abuse was liable to result in a most odious form of oppression. It contravened the great principle that an Englishman's house is his castle, and it was not difficult to show that men of English blood and speech could be counted on to resist such a measure. The conduct of Mr. Otis on this occasion is an adequate answer to the charge that his conduct was determined by personal considerations. He then held the crown office of advocate-general, with an ample salary and prospects of high favor from government. When the revenue officers called upon him, in view of his position, to defend their cause, he resigned his office and at once undertook to act as counsel for the merchants of Boston in their protest against the issue of the writs. A large fee was offered him, but he refused it. " In such a cause," said he, " I despise all fees." The case was tried in the council chamber at the east end of the old town-hall, or what is now known as the " Old State-House," at the head of State street, in Boston. Chief-Justice Hutchinson presided, and Gridley argued the case for the writs in a most powerful and learned speech. The reply of Otis, which took five hours in the delivery, was probably one of the greatest speeches of modern times. It went beyond the particular legal question immediately at issue, and took up the whole question of the constitutional relations between the colonies and the mother country. At the bottom of this, as of all the disputes that led to the Revolution, lay the ultimate question whether Americans were bound to yield obedience to laws that they had no share in making. This question, and the spirit that answered it flatly and doggedly in the negative, were heard like an undertone pervading all the arguments in Otis's wonderful speech, and it was because of this that John Adams, who was present, afterward declared that on that day " the child Independence was born." No doubt the argument must have gone far in furnishing weapons for the popular leaders in the contest that was impending. Hutchinson reserved his decision until advice could be had from the law-officers of the crown in London ; and when next term he was instructed by them to grant the writs, this result added fresh impetus to the spirit that Otis's eloquence had aroused. At the ensuing election, in May, 1761, Mr. Otis was chosen representative, and in the following year he opposed the motion for granting a sum of money to make good the expenses of a naval expedition to the northeast, which Gov. Bernard had made upon his own responsibility. When taken to task for this conduct, Mr. Otis justified himself in a pamphlet entitled "The Rights of the Colonies Vindicated" (1764). In this masterly argument the author planted himself squarely upon the ground that in