Carlyle says: "I never knew a clever man who came out of entirely
stupid people." James Otis's great qualities "were an
inheritance, not an accident, and inheritance from the best blood
of old England." Many years ago, when George Ticknor of Boston
was a guest of Lady Holland, at the famous Holland House, in
London, her ladyship remarked to him, in her not very engaging
way:
"I understand, Mr. Ticknor, that Massachusetts was settled by
convicts."
"Indeed," said Mr. Ticknor, "I thought I was somewhat familiar
with the history of my State, but I was not aware that what you
say was the case."
"But," he continued, "I do now remember that some of your
ladyship's ancestors settled in Boston, for there is a monument
to one of them in King's Chapel."
James Otis inherited that sturdy New England pride which puts
manhood above dukedoms and coronets.
"A king may make a belted knight,
A marquis, duke and a' that,
But an honest man's aboon his might."
From a race of the true kings of men he was descended, who
conquered out of the jaws of the wilderness the priceless
inheritance of American privilege and freedom. And while kings
at home were trying to crush out the liberties of their subjects,
or were dallying with wantons in the palaces built out of the
unrequited toil of the long-suffering and downtrodden people,
these men of iron were the pioneers of American civilization, at
a time, which Holmes so graphically describes:
"When the crows came cawing through the air
To pluck the Pilgrim's corn,
And bears came snuffing round the door
Wherever a babe was born;
And rattlesnakes were bigger round
Than the butt of the old ram's horn
The deacon blew at meeting time,
On every Sabbath morn."