James Otis Jr. (February 5, 1725 – May 23, 1783) was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who was early supporter of patriotic causes in

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

at the beginning of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. Otis was a fervent opponent of the

writs of assistance In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrant (legal), Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, and ''certiorari'' are commo ...

introduced in 1761 which allowed law enforcement officials to search private property without cause. He later criticized British plans to introduce new taxes in the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

. As a result, Otis is often credited with coining the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny". Otis was a mentor to

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, Political philosophy, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts, a le ...

, and his oratorical style inspired

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

. He is recognized by some as a

Founding Father The following is a list of national founders of sovereign states who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e., political system ...

due to his efforts leading up to the Revolutionary War. However, Otis was plagued by mental illness and alcoholism, and his erratic behavior had rendered him inconsequential and embarrassing to the cause by the early 1770s.

Early life

Otis was born in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, the second of 13 children and the first to survive infancy. His sister

Mercy Mercy (Middle English, from Anglo-French , from Medieval Latin , "price paid, wages", from Latin , "merchandise") is benevolence, forgiveness, and kindness in a variety of ethical, religious, social, and legal contexts. In the social and le ...

and his brothers Joseph and

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

were leaders during the American Revolution, as was nephew Harrison Gray Otis. His father Colonel James Otis Sr. was a prominent lawyer and militia officer. Father and son had a tumultuous relationship. His father sent him a letter articulating his disappointments and encouraging him to seek God's righteousness to better himself. In 1755, Otis married Ruth Cunningham, a merchant's daughter and heiress to a fortune worth £10,000. Their politics were quite different, yet they were attached to each other. Otis later "half-complained that she was a 'High Tory,'" yet in the same breath declared that "she was a good Wife, and too good for him", in the words of John Adams. The marriage produced children James, Elizabeth, and Mary. Their son James died at age 18. Their elder daughter Elizabeth was a

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

like her mother; she married Captain Brown of the British Army and lived in England for the rest of her life. Their younger daughter Mary married Benjamin Lincoln, son of the distinguished Continental Army General

Benjamin Lincoln Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 ( O.S. January 13, 1733) – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was involved in three major surrender ...

Writs of assistance

Otis graduated from Harvard in 1743 and rose to the top of the Boston legal profession. In 1760, he received a prestigious appointment as Advocate General of the Admiralty Court. He promptly resigned, however, when Governor Francis Bernard failed to appoint his father to the promised position of Chief Justice of the province's highest court; the position instead went to Otis's longtime opponent Thomas Hutchinson. In the 1761 case ''Paxton v. Gray'', a group of outraged Boston businessmen engaged Otis to challenge the legality of "

" before the Superior Court, the predecessor of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. These writs enabled the authorities to enter any home with no advance notice, no probable cause, and no reason given. Otis considered himself a loyal subject to the Crown, yet he argued against the writs of assistance in a nearly five-hour oration before a select audience in the State House in February 1761. His argument failed to win his case, but it galvanized the revolutionary movement.

recollected years later: "Otis was a flame of fire; with a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities." Adams promoted Otis as a major player in the coming of the Revolution, writing nearly 50 years later: "Then and there was the first scene of the first Act of opposition to the Arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the Child Independence was born. ... The seeds of Patriots & Heroes ... were then & there sown." The text of his 1761 speech was much enhanced by Adams on several occasions; it was first printed in 1773 and in longer forms in 1819 and 1823. According to James R. Ferguson, the four tracts that Otis wrote during 1764–65 reveal contradictions and even intellectual confusion. Otis was the first leader of the period to develop distinctive American theories of constitutionalism and representation, but he relied on traditional views of Parliamentary authority. He refused to follow the logical direction of his natural law theory by drawing back from radicalism, according to Ferguson, who feels that Otis appears inconsistent. Samuelson, on the other hand, argues that Otis should be seen as a practical political thinker rather than a theorist, which explains why his positions changed as he adjusted to altered political realities. In 1764, Otis expanded his argument in a pamphlet stating that Americans lacked proper Parliamentary representation, making it unconstitutional for Parliament to tax Americans. According to Matthew K. Reising, Otis developed his argument regarding Parliamentary authority by examining the effects of the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

in America rather than the historical situation of 17th century Britain. In the ''Writs'' case, Otis said that "An Act against the constitution is void … and if an act of Parliament should be made … the executive courts must pass such acts into disuse." Otis did not identify himself as a revolutionary; his peers, too, generally viewed him as more cautious than the incendiary

. Otis, at times, counseled against the mob violence of the radicals and argued against Adams's proposal for a convention of all the colonies resembling that of the

of 1688. Yet, on other occasions, Otis exceeded Adams in rousing passions and exhorting people to action. He even called his compatriots to arms at a town meeting on September 12, 1768, according to some accounts. He was a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

Pamphleteer

Otis was originally in the rural Popular Party, but he effectively made alliances with Boston merchants and grew in popularity after the controversy of the ''Writs of Assistance case''. He subsequently wrote several important patriotic pamphlets, served in the assembly, and was a leader of the Stamp Act Congress. He also was friends with

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...

, the author of ''

Common Sense Common sense () is "knowledge, judgement, and taste which is more or less universal and which is held more or less without reflection or argument". As such, it is often considered to represent the basic level of sound practical judgement or know ...

''. Otis asserted that Blacks had inalienable rights, and he favored extending the freedoms of life, liberty, and property to them. The idea of racial equality also permeates his ''Rights of the British Colonies'' (1764), in which he states:

Mental health decline

Otis suffered from increasingly erratic behavior as the 1760s progressed. He received a gash on the head from tax collector John Robinson's cudgel at the British Coffee House in 1769. Some attribute Otis's mental illness to this event alone, but John Adams, Thomas Hutchinson, and many others mention his mental illness well before 1769. The blow to the head probably made it worse and, shortly after, he could no longer continue his work. By the end of the decade, Otis's public life largely came to an end, though he was able to do occasional legal practice during times of clarity. The decline in Otis's mental health was noted by friends and foes alike. In February 1771, John Adams wrote that Otis was "raving mad, raving against father, wife, brother, sister, friend." Thomas Hutchinson wrote to Governor Bernard in December 1771 that "Otis was carried off today in a postchaise, bound hand and foot. He has been as good as his word—set the Province in a flame and perished in the attempt." Otis spent the remainder of his life battling mental illness while living with friends and family in the Massachusetts countryside. Massachusetts Governor John Hancock held a dinner in his honor in 1783, but the event was too much for Otis's fragile mental state and he returned to the countryside.

Later life and death

Near the end of his life, Otis burned the majority of his papers without explanation. Historians and biographers have access to his published papers, but this act prevented deeper insights into his life and thoughts that are available for other historical figures. On May 23, 1783, Otis died as a result of being struck by lightning while watching a thunderstorm from the doorway of a friend's home.

Selected published works

* ''The Rudiments of Latin Prosody'' (1760). Otis published the first of two treatises on prosody, and his alma mater Harvard eventually adapted it as a textbook. *
A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives
' (1762). The first political publication by Otis. Here he uses an example of an expenditure not sanctioned by the colonial legislature as the foundation of his theory that taxes can be charged only by a representative government. In effect, he summarizes the argument that held a central place in Revolutionary rhetoric. *
The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved
' (1764). This pamphlet sets down another important philosophy underpinning the Revolutionary debate: it asserts that rights are not derived from human institutions, but from nature and God. Thus, government does not exist to please monarchs but to promote the good of the entire society. *
Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists
' (1765). This pamphlet expands the author's argument from ''The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved''. He furthers the notion of natural rights by linking it to the theory of equal representation. *In 1765 Otis also authored the pamphlets ''Vindication of the British Colonies'' and ''Brief Remarks on the Defence of the Halifax Libel'', his last, in which he grants Parliament complete authority over the colonies. Scholars have settled on two explanations for his drastic reversal: either he temporarily became mentally ill, or he intended to use these pieces to defend himself against charges of treason.

References

External links

* * Full text of
James Otis, the Pre-Revolutionist
' by John Clark Ridpath, from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

*
''The Collected Political Writings of James Otis''. Edited and with an Introduction by Richard Samuelson
from Liberty Fund Library (2015) {{DEFAULTSORT:Otis, James Jr. 1725 births 1783 deaths Accidental deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from lightning strikes Harvard University alumni Massachusetts lawyers Members of the colonial Massachusetts House of Representatives Otis family People from Barnstable, Massachusetts People of Massachusetts in the American Revolution 18th-century American writers Burials at Granary Burying Ground American male journalists People from colonial Massachusetts 18th-century American male writers 18th-century American politicians Patriots in the American Revolution Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (colonial period)