Writs of Assistance - James Otis
Firestorm Over British Colonial Laws Cause the American Revolution
What would prompt such a rash action by a man whose biggest beef with the colonial government was that they had not given him more responsibility? Everyone recognized James Otis as an honest politician, a rarity even 250 years ago. He was definitely a talented, although somewhat eccentric, attorney. In just a few years there were few that would not even question his sanity but on this day, he proved to be brilliant. What makes a lawyer who has just resigned a lucrative government office, brilliant?
The Right to Privacy
It was the tiny spark he generated that day; the same ember that was to be fanned into the greatest flame of liberty the world has ever known. A group of Boston merchants needed someone to argue their suit before the Superior Court of Massachusetts. Parliament had passed a law that allowed the colonial authority to issue “Writs of Assistance”. These were the most all encompassing search warrants issued under modern common law. Not only did they authorize search and seizure of private property, they allowed it to occur without cause. These writs could be transferred by any agent who happened to hold the certificate at the time. There was also no definition of a legal agent or even an expiration date.
Smuggling ... or Free Trade?
This new strategy was an attempt to crack down on smuggling and other illegal commerce. Illegal commerce did not mean drug interdiction or some other nefarious product. It referred to the free trade that these businessmen had practiced for years without interference. To be fair, the trade had been illegal for all those years but the mercantile laws, which said that the colonies could only exercise free trade with Great Britain, had not been enforced. Now, as a revenue scheme, the British government in London meant to remedy this oversight immediately and absolutely. They had even sent, allegedly, the only honest customs agent in the empire to Boston to make sure that bribery would not thwart their scheme.
Idiots and Lunatics
James Otis was incensed that parliament would even think about abusing their lawful liberties as Englishmen. He agreed to represent the merchants pro bono because he equated the human right to property with the right of life and liberty. Otis was the first to eloquently convey that any law not made by the representatives of the people was null and void. This is where the volatile clarion call, “no taxation without representation”, was conceived. One by one, he tore each revenue act into legal shreds. Everyone, even those justices of the court who had already made up their mind to oppose Otis, sat spell bound for five hours while he spoke. John Adams related this fitting summary of James Otis’s address.
“He asserted that these rights [British Liberties] were inherent and inalienable. That they never could be surrendered or alienated but by idiots or madmen and all the acts of idiots and lunatics were void and not obligatory, by all the laws of God and man.” - John Adams
The King's Gift
After the courts heard every stirring argument that Otis made that day, they surreptitiously ruled against him. The long royal arm reached 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean and held a firmly and deviously subsidized grip on it agents. The writs of assistance would stay in effect until the first drop of blood shed on Lexington Green served to amputate the last shred of imperial control in Massachusetts. In retrospect, these Writs of Assistance may have been the greatest gift King George could have bestowed on the colonies.
Sources:
Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes, 1999, Houghton Mifflin Books
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic by John Ferling, 2003, Oxford Univdersity Press
