Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/745

 OTIS and succeeded Fisher Ames in congress, where he soon became a leader of the federal party. He served two terms in congress, and in 1801 was appointed United States district attorney for Massachusetts. Subsequently he became a member of the state legislature, and was speaker of the house from 1803 to 1805, and president of the senate from 1805 to 1811. He was chairman of the legislative committee which in 1814 reported in favor of calling a convention of the New England states at Hart- ford to consider the best mode of redressing the grievances inflicted on those states by the war with Great Britain. He was a leading member of that convention, and was one of the three commissioners appointed by Massa- chusetts to go to Washington and make a rep- resentation to the federal government. In his "Letters in Defence of the Hartford Conven- tion" (Boston, 1824) he defended the charac- ter and intentions of that body. In 1814 he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas of Massachusetts, which office he held till 1818, when he took his seat in the United States senate, to which the legislature had elected him in the preceding year. In 1820, in the debate on the Missouri question, he advocated with great force the restriction of the extension of slavery. In 1829 he was elec- ted mayor of Boston, and in 1832 retired from Cblic life. He was distinguished as a popu- orator, and during his later years strong- ly opposed the anti-slavery movement. OTIS, James, an American orator, born at Great Marshes, now called West Barnstable, Mass., Feb. 5, 1725, died in Andover, May 23, 1783. He graduated at Harvard college in 1743, studied law in Boston, was admitted to the bar in 1748 in Plymouth, where he began to practise, and in 1750 removed to Boston. In 1760 he published a treatise entitled " The Eudiments of Latin Prosody, with a Disserta- tion on Letters, and the Principles of Harmo- ny in Poetic and Prosaic Composition." His public career dates from his argument, in 1761, on the question whether the persons employed in enforcing the acts of trade should have the power to invoke generally the assistance of all the executive officers of the colony. Otis was at that time advocate general, but, deeming the writs of assistance illegal, refused to argue in behalf of them, and resigned. He was then employed upon the other side, and produced a Erofound impression. The judges evaded giv- ig a decision ; and the writs, although secret- ly granted at the next term, were never exe- cuted. The next year Otis was elected to the legislature, where his eloquence soon placed him at the head of the popular party, and jus- tified his claim to the title of the "great incen- diary of New England." On June 6, 1765, he moved that a congress of delegates be called from the several colonies. The motion was adopted, and a circular letter was sent to the other colonies, in consequence of which the stamp act congress met in New York in Octo- OTOE 731 her of that year. Otis was one of the dele- gates to this body, and a member of the com- mittee to prepare an address to the house of commons. In May, 1767, he was elected speaker of the provincial house, but was nega- tived by the governor. When Charles Towns- hend's plan of taxation had passed parliament, the Massachusetts house sent in 1768 another circular letter requesting the colonies to unite in some suitable measures of redress. On the message of Gov. Bernard requiring the letter to be rescinded Otis made a speech, pronounced by the friends of the government to be " the most violent, insolent, abusive, and treason- able declaration that perhaps ever was deliv- ered." The house refused to rescind by a vote of 92 to 17. In the summer of 1769, finding that the commissioners of customs had sent accusations against him to England, charging him with treason, he inserted an advertisement in the "Boston Gazette" denouncing them. The next evening he met Eobinson, one of the commissioners, in a coffee house. An alterca- tion ensued, ending in an affray, in which Otis was overpowered by numbers and severely injured. To a cut in the head received on this occasion his subsequent derangement is attributed. In the action instituted against Eobinson, he obtained an award of 2,000, which he gave up on receiving from the de- fendant a humble written apology. In 1770 he retired to the country for his health, but in 1771 was again chosen a representative. Nearly all the rest of his life he was deranged. He spent his last two years at Andover. At one time his mind was thought to be restored, and he returned to Boston and resumed the practice of law ; but the lucid interval proving temporary, he went back to Andover, and was shortly after killed by a stroke of lightning while standing at the door of the house in which he lodged. During his derangement he destroyed all his papers. He had previously published pamphlets entitled " A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Eepresenta- tives" (1762), "The Eights of the British Colonies asserted" (1764), and "Considera- tions on behalf of the Colonists " (1765). See " Life of James Otis," by William Tudor (Bos- ton, 1823). OTOE, a S. E. county of Nebraska, separated from Iowa and Missouri by the Missouri river, and watered by the Little Nemaha and other streams; area, about 700 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 12,345. The Midland Pacific railroad traverses it. The E. part is mostly prairie, the W. part is timbered, and the soil is fertile. There are salt springs in the N. W. part. The chief pro- ductions in 1870 were 175,058 bushels of wheat, 632,160 of Indian corn, 109,063 of oats, 129,832 of barley, 97,062 of potatoes, 5,180 Ibs. of wool, 60,180 of butter, and 14,248 tons of hay. There were 2,935 horses, 2,608 milch cows, 4,202 other cattle, 1,333 sheep, and 5,956 swine ; 1 manufactory of boots and shoes, 3 of jewelry, 2 of saddlery and harness, 5 of tin, copper, and