Pushing Back Against Government Intrusion

 By Al Baker - Posted at Forget None of His Benefits:

“The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.” –Romans 14:22

James Otis[1] was eighteen years old when he graduated with his good friend John Adams from Harvard in 1743. Harvard at the time was a hotbed of Puritan theology which included a fervent resistance to tyranny, a theology built on the writings of John Calvin, John Knox, Theodore Beza, Samuel Rutherford, John Milton, et al. By 1761 merchants in Boston were highly indignant and incensed at the British law of Writs of Assistance. This law allowed for general search warrants by colonial customs officials to break open shops of business, cellars, and houses to search for prohibited goods and merchandise on which duties had not been paid. These searches could be made without having to consult a judge or describe the goods being searched for or their suspected location. They also did not require evidence that the goods even existed. Customs officials could legally search any premise without providing any evidence supporting their actions. In 1761 thirty-six year old James Otis addressed the local court with these opening words to his five hour oration.

I was desired by one of the court to look into the (law) books, and consider the question now before them concerning Writs of Assistance. I have accordingly considered it, and now appear not only in obedience to your order, but likewise in behalf of the inhabitants of this town, who have presented another petition, and out of regard to the liberties of the subject. And I take this opportunity to declare that whether under a fee or not (for in such a cause as this I despise a fee) I will to my dying day oppose, with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand and villainy on the other, as this Writ of Assistance is.

Friend and fellow Harvard alumnus, John Adams, witnessed Otis’ speech and said, “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, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous elegance, he hurried all away before him. American independence was then and there born. The seeds of the patriot and heroes to defend the vigorous youth were then and there sown. Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to give away, as I did, ready to take arms against the Writs of Assistance. Then and there the child of independence was born. . . I do say in the most solemn manner, that Mr. Otis’ oration against the Writs of Assistance breathed into this nation the breath of life.”

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