JAMES OTIS JR.

West Barnstable, Massachusetts
February 5, 1725–May 23, 1783
Hidden Father of a Nation

James Otis Jr., one of the more tragic figures of the revolutionary era, was among America’s most influential patriot leaders in the 1760s. But, in one of those freak events that alter history, his career was cut short by an irate Bostonian wielding a cane in a fit of bad temper. Had Otis not suffered bouts of insanity for fourteen years before he died, he, not Thomas Jefferson, might be hailed as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.

Becoming a Patriot

James Otis Jr. was not anti-Britain early in his career, but he became that way. He graduated from Harvard in 1743, when he was eighteen. There he studied law under noted jurist Jeremiah Gridley. Five years later, he was admitted to the bar. Eventually, he became a public employee, but not for long.

In 1756, Otis accepted a position as the king’s advocate general to the vice-admiralty court of Boston. He did not like what he saw in his responsibilities as advocate general, part of which involved prosecuting smugglers.

The British were heavy-handed in their law enforcement policies regarding smuggling. They had passed a series of Acts of Trade and
Navigation between 1650 and 1767 that subordinated the colonists’ interests to their own. Those laws aggravated the Americans.

When the British passed a tax-laden Molasses Act in 1733 to
protect British West Indies planters from competition provided by
their non-British producers in
the French West Indies, it infuriated the colonists—especially the distillers who needed the commodities to make their own spirits.

FEDERAL FACTS

The Molasses Act made the products from the British West Indies more expensive for American distillers and inhibited them from importing such goods. In what was to become a time-honored tradition among the Americans, they ignored the act, along with the Acts of Trade and Navigation. They figured it was more profitable to smuggle in rum and spirits, molasses, and sugar than pay the taxes on them.

Very few people in America took paying the tax seriously. That rankled the British and led to more austere taxes in 1764, when they replaced the Molasses Act with the Sugar Act. The colonists did not like the new tax any more than the one it replaced. That was one of the reasons they decided to split from the British.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“IF WE ARE NOT REPRESENTED, WE ARE SLAVES.”

—JAMES OTIS JR., REGARDING THE SUGAR ACT OF 1764

The Teacher Teaches the Student a Lesson

Otis felt guilty about prosecuting smugglers, because the innovative British had introduced a new legal tactic called writs of assistance to help them find, try, and convict the violators. The writs did not assist anybody but the British.

The writs of assistance were general search warrants that allowed customs officials to enter houses and places of business whenever and wherever they pleased to look for unspecified contraband. Otis believed the writs of assistance were unconstitutional, even if the colonists did not have a written constitution. He did something about it.

Otis resigned his position in 1761 to defend smugglers against the vagaries of the writs of assistance.

He presented a spirited defense against the writs of assistance in a classic February 1761 court case. Otis’s eloquent five-hour presentation to the court explaining why the writs were unconstitutional captured the attention of a young attorney sitting in the courtroom, John Adams.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“A MAN’S HOUSE IS HIS CASTLE; AND WHILST HE IS QUIET, HE IS AS WELL GUARDED AS A PRINCE IN HIS CASTLE. THIS WRIT, IF IT SHOULD BE DECLARED LEGAL, WOULD TOTALLY ANNIHILATE THIS PRIVILEGE. CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICERS MAY ENTER OUR HOUSES WHEN THEY PLEASE; WE ARE COMMANDED TO PERMIT THEIR ENTRY. THEIR MENIAL SERVANTS MAY ENTER, MAY BREAK LOCKS, BARS, AND EVERYTHING IN THEIR WAY; AND WHETHER THEY BREAK THROUGH MALICE OR REVENGE, NO MAN, NO COURT MAY INQUIRE.”

—JAMES OTIS

Despite Otis’s brilliant performance, the court upheld the writs of assistance. That disappointed Otis and his clients, but it did not dissuade him from continuing his resistance to the writs or the laws with which they were associated. Like other patriots (including his sister, Mercy Otis Warren), he turned to the pen as his weapon of choice.

The Pamphlet Is Mightier Than the Sword

In 1764, Otis produced an insightful pamphlet, Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved. He also wrote A Vindication of the British Colonies and Considerations on Behalf of the Colonies, in which he attacked the British idea of “virtual representation” in Parliament (the idea that one can be represented by a decision-making process without being able to vote for those who make the decisions) and the philosophy of the Navigation Acts, which he claimed inhibited the trade of the colonists’ manufactured products.

Otis was not afraid to challenge the British in court or writing, join organizations formed to help the colonists express their distaste for the king’s policies, or take action against them. He became a member of the Sons of Liberty, and attended the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. Significantly, he introduced the motion in the Massachusetts assembly proposing that the congress be convened.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“AN ACT AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION IS VOID; AN ACT AGAINST NATURAL EQUITY IS VOID. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION IS TYRANNY.”

—JAMES OTIS, REGARDING THE STAMP ACT OF 1765

Taking a Beating

In September 1769, Otis wrote a satire of the local commissioners of customs that appeared in the Boston Gazette. John Robinson, an enraged Boston customhouse official, reacted to what he perceived as a libelous account of him and confronted Otis the next day, attacking him with a cane. Robinson beat Otis viciously around the head with his weapon. The aftereffects of the attack produced periods of mental instability in Otis that plagued him throughout the rest of his life and rendered him incapable of participating in public affairs at a time when his guidance was needed.

Otis achieved a moral victory as a result of the affair. He sued Robinson and was awarded £2,000 in damages. But Robinson offered a public apology, which Otis accepted and declared that he was satisfied. That ended the affair—but Otis paid the price in the long run.

Sadly, instead of becoming a patriot leader, Otis became a figure of public ridicule. He spent his days wandering around Boston, subjected to jeers from people who forgot or ignored his significant contributions on their behalf prior to 1769. History has not been kind to James Otis Jr. He does not receive the amount of credit due him for his contributions to the patriots’ cause. Strangely enough, he did not have a lot of time to consider them after the Revolutionary War ended.

Misfortune plagued him once again on May 23, 1783, when a bolt of lightning struck and killed him. That was a bizarre ending for the once-popular patriot whose strokes of genius had helped pave the way for American independence.