Thinking About History Thursdays

James Otis

Today I want to focus on a lesser known Founding Father--James Otis. Otis was born in Massachusetts in 1725, where he grew up and lived most of his life. He attended Harvard and became a prominent Boston lawyer. He married the daughter of a rich merchant and they had three children. Although a loving couple, they were split politically. Ruth, his wife, was a loyalist (supporter of Great Britain) in mind but belonged to James in heart. One of their children was a true loyalist, marrying a British officer and moving to England for the rest of her days.

Otis proved to be an effective and successful lawyer, and at the young age of 35 he was appointed Advocate General of the Admiralty Court in Boston. This set into motion a series of events that cemented Otis to the revolutionary cause. His father, also a lawyer, was supposed to be appointed as Chief Justice of the Provincial Court, but instead a supporter of the Union Jack, Thomas Hutchinson got the job (and later became the Royally appointed Governor of Massachusetts). In protest, Otis resigned the post and began taking cases, some pro bono, against the British.

Otis is most famously known for taking on cases against the "writs of assistance" and developing the legal argument against them. These writs were Britain's way of forcing local, colonial authorities to enforce British will by giving them the power to search and seize any contraband in any home or business with no warrant or even suspicion of wrong doing. In various cases Otis showed how the writs violated colonial charters and even the English constitution and common law. As a budding lawyer, John Adams attended some of these cases in the early 1760s and was impressed with Otis' drive, intelligence, and tact in making his case against British excess.

Although James Otis never considered himself a revolutionary, his ideas had a significant impact on the ideas of the early movement, particularly during the Stamp Act crisis of 1763-1765. Otis began publishing various pamphlets on political and legal concepts, framed within the ideas of Locke, Hobbes, and other Enlightenment thinkers. While many are credited with popularizing the phrase "taxation without representation" it was Otis who first coined the phrase and offered a legal argument against it in one of his pamphlets. He also published pieces on constitutionalism and republicanism. Some historians tend to ignore his contributions because he was developing signs of schizophrenia and manic depression by the mid 1760s. But he was a champion of natural rights and even called for the end to slavery and the extension of natural rights to African Americans.

Otis fell from the scene as the revolution approached, largely because of his mental state, but it does not detract from the contributions he made to the idea of American republicanism and democracy. While pulled on one hand by his wife's more loyalist beliefs, Otis stayed true to his father's more revolutionary dreams of an independent America. He may not have been a member of the Continental Congress but his influence on John Adams and other Founders is pronounced. Otis died at age 58 while standing on the porch of a friend's house. He was struck by lightening.

 

Posted with Blogsy