Each numbered paragraph is to be given to a pupil or member to
read, or to recite in a clear, distinct tone.
If the school or club is small, each person may take three or
four paragraphs, but should not be required to recite them in
succession.
1. James Otis was born in West Barnstable, near the center of
Massachusetts, February 5, 1725.
2. His ancestors were of English descent. The founder of the
family in America, John Otis, came from Hingham, in Norfolk,
England, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in the year 1635.
3. His grandson, John Otis, was born in 1635. He removed from
Hingham to Barnstable, where he became a prominent man and held
several important positions. For eighteen years he was Colonel
of Militia, for twenty years Representative, for twenty-one years
member of the Council, for thirteen years Chief Justice of common
pleas, and Judge of Probate.
4. His two sons, John and James, became distinguished in public
life. James, the father of the subject of this sketch, was an
eminent lawyer. He, like his father, became Colonel of Militia,
Chief Justice of common pleas, and Judge of Probate.
5. James Otis, Jr. thus by inheritance, derived his legal bent
and love for political life.
6. His mother's name was Mary Allyne, or Alleyne, of
Wethersfield, Conn., daughter of Joseph Allyne, of Plymouth. She
was connected with the founders of Plymouth colony, who arrived
in the Mayflower in 1620.
7. James was the oldest of thirteen children, several of whom
died in infancy. Others lived to attain distinction.
8. He was fitted for College by the Rev. Jonathan Russell of
Barnstable, and was so industrious in his studies that he was
ready in his fifteenth year to enter as a freshman at Harvard in
June, 1739.
9. There is grave reason for believing that his excessive
devotion to study at this early period, had much to do with his
nervous and excitable condition in succeeding years.
10. "Make haste slowly" is the translation of a Latin motto,
which parents and teachers ought to observe in the education of
children.
11. Far better is it for the student to take time in making a
thorough preparation for the great work of life, than to rush
through his preparatory course at the great risk of health and
strength. Let him aim ever be to present "a sound mind in a
sound body."
12. James Otis was graduated from college in 1743, after
completing a four years successful course.
13. After graduation he wisely gave nearly two years to the
pursuits of general literature and science before entering upon
the law.
14. In this, he set a good example to the young men of the
present day, who are so strongly tempted to enter at once upon
professional life, without laying a broad and deep foundation for
future usefulness.
15. James Otis was very fond of the best poets, and "in the
zealous emulation of their beauties," says Dr. Magoon, "he
energized his spirit and power of expression.
16. "He did not merely read over the finest passages--he pondered
them--he fused them into his own soul, and reproduced their
charms with an energy all his own."
17. In 1745 he entered the law office of Jeremiah Gridley, in
Boston, who was then one of the most distinguished lawyers in the
country.
18. He began the practice of law in Plymouth, in 1748, but soon
found that he was "cabined, cribbed and confined" in the
opportunity to rise in such a small place.
19. In 1750 he removed to Boston, and there finding full scope
for his powers, soon rose to the foremost rank in his profession.
20. He justly won the high place so generally accorded him, by
his learning, his integrity, and his marvelous eloquence.
21. In acting successfully as counsel for the three men who were
accused of piracy in Halifax, he received a well earned fee,
which was the largest that had ever been paid to a Massachusetts
lawyer.
22. Like James A. Garfield, he kept up a lively interest in
classical studies during his entire professional career.
23. James Otis married Miss Ruth Cunningham, daughter of a Boston
merchant, early in 1755.
24. The marriage was not in all respects a happy one, partly on
account of political differences. While he became an ardent
patriot, she remained a staunch loyalist until her death on Nov.
15, 1789.
25. Another reason for the want of complete domestic felicity was
the peculiar character of his genius, which, so often glowing,
excitable and irregular, must have frequently demanded a home
forbearance almost miraculous.
26. The elder daughter, Elizabeth, married a Captain Brown of the
British army, and ended her days in England. 27. The younger
daughter, Mary, married Benjamin, the eldest son of the
distinguished General Lincoln.
28. In 1761, when he was thirty-six years of age his great
political career began, by his determined opposition to the
"Writs of Assistance."
29. He said with an eloquence that thrilled every heart, "A man's
house is his castle; and while 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."
30. "I am determined to sacrifice estate, ease, health, applause
and even life, to the sacred calls of my country in opposition to
a kind of power, the exercise of which cost one king his head and
another his throne."
31. In 1762 he published a pamphlet entitled, "The Rights of the
Colonies Vindicated," which attracted great attention in England
for its finished diction and masterly arguments.
32. In this production he firmly took the unassailable position,
that in all questions relating to the expenditure of public
money, the rights of a Colonial Legislature were as sacred as the
rights of the House of Commons.
33. Some of the Parliamentary leaders in England spoke of the
work with contempt. Lord Mansfield, the great English legal
luminary, who had carefully read it, rebuked them for their
attitude towards it.
34. But they rejoined, as quoted by Bancroft, "The man is mad!"
"What then?" answered Mansfield. "One mad man often makes many.
Massaniello was mad--nobody doubted it--yet for all that he
overturned the government of Naples."
35. In June, 1765, Mr. Otis proposed the calling of a congress of
delegates from all the colonies to consider the Stamp Act.
36. In that famous Congress which met in October, 1765, in
New York, he was one of the delegates, and was appointed on the
committee to prepare an address to the Commons of England.
37. In 1767 he was elected Speaker of the Massachusetts Assembly.
Governor Bernard took a decidedly negative position against the
fiery orator, whom he feared as much as he did the intrepid Sam
Adams.
38. But Bernard could not put a padlock upon the lips of Otis.
When the king, who was greatly offended at the Circular Letter to
the colonies, which requested them to unite in measures for
redress demanded of Bernard to dismiss the Assembly unless it
should rescind its action, Otis made a flaming speech.
39. His adversaries said, "It was the most violent, abusive and
treasonable declaration that perhaps was ever uttered."
40. In the debate which ensued upon this royal order, Otis said:
"We are asked to rescind, are we? Let Great Britain rescind her
measures, or the colonies are lost to her forever."
41. Otis carried the House triumphantly with him, and it refused
to rescind by a vote of ninety-two to seventeen.
42. In the summer of 1769 he attacked some of the revenue
officers in an article in "The Boston Gazette." A few evenings
afterwards, while sitting in the British coffee-house in Boston,
he was savagely assaulted by a man named Robinson, who struck him
on the head with a heavy cane or sword.
43. The severe wound which was produced so greatly aggravated the
mental disease which had before been somewhat apparent, that his
reason rapidly forsook him.
44. Otis obtained a judgment of L2,000 against Robinson for the
attack, but when the penitent officer made a written apology for
his irreparable offense, the sufferer refused to take a penny.
45. In 1771 he was elected to the legislature, and sometimes
afterward appeared in court and in the town meeting, but found
himself unable to take part in public business.
46. In June, 1775, while living in a state of harmless insanity
with his sister, Mercy Warren, at Watertown, Mass., he heard,
according to Appleton's "Cyclopedia of American Biography," the
rumor of battle. On the 17th he slipped away unobserved,
"borrowed a musket from some farmhouse by the roadside, and
joined the minute men who were marching to the aid of the troops
on Bunker Hill."
47. "He took an active part in that battle, and after it was
over made his way home again after midnight."
48. The last years of his life were spent at the residence of
Mr. Osgood in Andover. For a brief season it seemed as though
his reason was restored. He even undertook a case in the Court
of Common Pleas in Boston, but found himself unequal to the
exertion demanded of him.
49. He had been persuaded to dine with Governor Hancock and some
other friends. "But the presence of his former friends and the
revived memories of previous events, gave a great shock to his
broken mind." He was persuaded to go back at once to the
residence of Mr. Osgood.
50. After his mind had become unsettled he said to Mrs. Warren,
"My dear sister, I hope, when God Almighty in his righteous
providence shall take me out of time into eternity, that it will
be by a flash of lightning," and this wish he often repeated.
51. Six weeks exactly after his return, on May 23, 1783, while
standing in the side doorway during a thunder-shower, with his
cane in his hand, and telling the assembled family a story, he
was struck by lightning and instantly killed. Not one of the
seven or eight persons in the room was injured. "No mark of any
kind could be found on Otis, nor was there the slightest change
or convulsion on his features."
52. His remains were brought to Boston and interred in the
Granary Burying Ground with every mark of respect, a great
number of the citizens attending his funeral.
53. James Otis sowed the seeds of liberty in this new world
without living to see the harvest, and probably without ever
dreaming what magnificent crops would be produced.
54. When the usurpations of un-English parliamentarians and their
allies at home, became as burdensome, as they were unjust he
defended his countrymen, in whose veins flowed the best of
English blood, with an eloquence whose ultimate influence
transcended his own sublime aspirations.
55. He taught, in the ominous words, which King James's first
House of Commons addressed to the House of Lords, immediately
after the monarch had been lecturing them on his own prerogative,
that "There may be a People without a king;, but there can be no
king without a people."
56. "Fortunately for civil liberty in England and America, in all
countries and in all times," as Edward Everett Hale says, "none
of the Stuarts ever learned in time what this ominous sentence
means--ot James I, the most foolish of them, nor Charles I, the
most false; nor Charles II, the most worthless; nor James II, the
most obstinate."
57. It could be said of Otis as Coleridge said of O'Connell, "See
how triumphant in debate and action he is. And why? Because he
asserts a broad principle, acts up to it, rests his body upon it,
and has faith in it."