Collected Political Writings of James Otis. Otis James

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СКАЧАТЬ target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_7204d4de-f654-52d2-a40c-c50237bf81b9.jpg" alt="Decorative2"/> PART 2

       Otis in Massachusetts Politics, 1761–63

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      BETWEEN 1761 and 1763 Otis wrote several essays on political subjects other than writs of assistance. The bulk of the newspaper essays reprinted in this section have to do with Otis’s argument with Thomas Hutchinson over currency. Otis was a bimetallist; Hutchinson was not. In these arguments the ever-present problem in the colonies of a lack of specie merged with the ongoing political arguments of late-colonial Boston. We also reproduce here two pieces on the agency question, probably from Otis’s pen.

      The second main subject of the essays is Otis himself. Otis’s opponents charged that his political actions grew from one source: animosity toward Thomas Hutchinson. Otis’s father, Colonel Otis, had believed that he would be appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court. Instead, Hutchinson was appointed. Hutchinson claimed that Otis threatened to “set the Province in a Flame” if Colonel Otis did not get the post. For his part, Otis charged Hutchinson and his friends with hoarding offices.

      The third subject of these essays is constitutional controversy. Otis’s constitutional concerns are present in his newspaper essays, but they are most clear in the pamphlet A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay. In Vindication Otis argues that the governor may not demand that the duly elected representatives of the colony cover expenses incurred during a recess of the House—even when those expenses have to do with fitting out a ship in a time of war. Otis fears that unchecked authority in the executive will soon become arbitrary power.

      These essays show the connection between provincial political controversies of the 1760s and the imperial issues that would soon arise with such force. They reflect Otis’s concern with checks and balances, with liberty under law, and with John Locke.

      The newspaper essays were all published in the Boston Gazette. The Vindication of the House is rekeyed from the edition that Charles Mullett published in the University of Missouri Studies in 1929.

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1. Essays from the Boston Gazette, December 21, 1761–April 11, 1763

December 21, 1761

      Messieurs EDES and GILL.

      PERHAPS I should not have troubled you or the Public, with any Thoughts of mine, had not His Honour, the Lieutenant Governor, have condessended to give me a personal Challenge. This is an Honor that I never had Vanity enough to aspire after, and shall ever respect Mr. Hutchison for it, so long as I live; as he certainly consulted my Reputation more than his own, when he bestowed it. A General Officer in the Army would be thought very condessending to accept from, much more to give a Challenge to a Subaltern.

      The Honour of entering the Lists with a Gentleman so much one’s Superior in one View, is certainly very tempting; it is at least possible that his Honour may lose much, but from those who have, and desire but little, but little can possibly be taken away.

      I am your humble Servant.

      JAMES OTIS jun.

      Boston, Dec. 19th, 1761.

      THAT the present state of the currency and commerce of this province afford room for much speculation and discourse is certain; and it is heartily to be wished that people would act as well as speculate, till things are set right. His Honor asserts, that “gold passes at too high a rate compared with silver.” I was at first as much surprised at this assertion, as his Honor ever was at a “whimsical conscience,” for, at the late conference of both Houses, about a fortnight before his Honor published his last thoughts, he very strenuously opposed the province treasurer’s being impowered to contract for gold, and “eventually (as I think he expressed it) making gold a tender”; his Honor then urged “that matters stood very well,” that “the prices already set to gold and silver, all things considered were as good as might be” that “there had then been no difficulty about gold” that “a Johannes

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      had universally passed for eight Dollars” that “the man, who should refuse gold at that rate, would be hiss’d out of all company and society”; and “(as we commonly express it) bring himself into a praemunire” that “innovations, relating to currency, are very dangerous”; and “that the very moving this matter would have a tendency to alarm the people” with much more to the same purpose. After this it was not to be expected that in a fortnight his Honor would be the first to sound this very alarm in a common news paper, and that with an addition of his own name; which very justly imports great weight, as well as sound. Other people (who have published their thoughts, while matters were in debate before, or in the contemplation of the Legislators, and undetermined by them) have been deemed seditious scriblers, incendiaries, and have been solemnly given to understand that it would be taken ill if any thing should be published relating to government, or the administration of liberty of a Briton, and those very important branches of it, the liberty of speech, and of the Press. His Honor has an undoubted right to appear, when he pleases, with his name at full length, in every news paper upon the continent, and so have I, and so has my honest neighbour Mr. Cooke the Cobbler. His Honour, a few sentences further on, accounts in part for his change of stile; “I was in hopes upon my first thoughts, that there was not sufficient grounds for this alarm, and that we might go on for twelve years to come, as well as we have done for twelve years past; but, upon consideration, I find, this cannot be.” From all which I think it clear that his Honor has changed his opinion since the setting of the assembly, and in Christian charity, it ought to be presumed to be upon good grounds, and if so, is one mark of a true philosopher, who always gives up a false opinion upon new light and evidence.

      THIS with his Honor’s example, will abundantly apologize for any sentiments in this answer which may appear to be different from what I advanced in the House of Representatives, or at the conference of both Houses; and hence I would hope that no one will impute such change to a “whimsical conscience,” or a “wrong head,” which epithet I find very liberally bestowed upon all who have the resolution to think, and act for themselves, even if such a fixed determination, should oblige them to oppose the Leviathan in power, or those other overgrown Animals, whose influence and importance is only in exact mathematical proportion to the weight of their purses: I would not by any means be understood, by this to intend a general reflection upon the Rich; for I sincerely declare, that I conceive the characters of a great majority of this class among us to be truly amiable and worthy.

      WE are now told that “it is absolutely necessary, that something should be done to prevent the exportation, being made altogether in silver.”

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      IF any thing can be done consistent with justice and equity, to prevent the farther progress of this newly discovered evil, it is past doubt that every СКАЧАТЬ