Collected Political Writings of James Otis. Otis James

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СКАЧАТЬ Honor therefore for his reason, and he may depend upon it ’tis of more importance to him to take care & muster up a good reason for this assertion, than to vindicate himself against any thing I said of him last Monday, which is however all literally true; and if it could be doubted his

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      Honor’s paper of this day has confirm’d it, in the opinion and, to the grief, of some of his best friends. His Honor must not flatter himself that the world will readily believe all the hard things he has been pleased to say of me, meerly upon his suspicion. ’Tis probable enough that I might say about the time refer’d to, that I fear’d his Honour would never cease engrosing places of power & profit for himself, his family, and dependents, ’till he had set the province in a flame. That is not only my present opinion, but I believe the opinion of some thousands who never saw his Honor ’till he rode the circuits. Unreasonable and unbounded desires of power and profit, and of such places as can’t be legally executed by the same man, are apt to generate arbitrary power, oppression, uneasiness, animosities, civil dissentions, and in independent states, civil wars; but then these evils are to be attributed to those who usurp undue dominion, not to those who oppose it. After all, if the pretended threats were uttered, which I am satisfied never were, every unprejudiced man of common humanity would excuse them as rash unadvised words of heat and passion, especially, when uttered in the cause of an injured father, and, as there has been nothing done by me to disturb the quiet of the province, which is as loyal as any one in the dominions, and if his Honor would resign his seat at the council-board, would be free from any uneasiness. All the apprehension of animosities & civil wars, had therefore better have been spared, as it will answer no end but, what I dare say his Honor never intended, namely, to make the people of England look upon us in a very bad light, forward attempts to alter our constitution, and have a tendency to procure a standing army, to dragoon us into passive obedience. How much better effects are to be expected from a proclamation his Excellency was ill advised to issue last fall? It seems some of our Fathers took a strong aversion to bonfires, squibs and crackers, in consequence of which the populace were restrain’d from those marks of loyalty on the anniversary of the King’s accession, I think it was. Some of the little Boys and negroes vented their rage at this disappointment upon the lower windows in the Town-House. This affair was dress’d up in the proclamation in such a manner, that I fear a stranger would mistake us all for a parcel of Jacobites, it being impossible to find by the proclamation that loyalty misguided was the occasion of this loss of glass to the public, which however I have good reason to suspect was the case, as most of the persons I saw from the Council Chamber, were children who could not be supposed to know the difference between a Jacobite & a Jebusite. Twenty Pounds were offered for discovering the offenders; yet the windows were left unmended for some weeks, as was said, for fear of a remonstrance from the House against the expence: A genteel rebuke to the House, for daring

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      to remonstrate about a month before, against the Governor and Council’s arming vessels without their consent.

      His Honor tells us the emoluments of his lucrative posts “are easily cast up”; but as the particulars are not in the power of every man to find out, I wish an account current had been stated. His Honor condescends to express his readiness to resign his office of Chief Justice, whenever the people shall desire it. His Honor is quite safe: his Excellency long ago informed him the majority were of his side; and if they were not, they can have no vote in the matter. I never heard any man contend that he should be deprived of his office of Chief Justice, or of his place of Lt. Governor, which I think are enough for any gentleman to hold. The office of judge of probate is incompatible with that of chief justice; and the commission for the latter, is in law a supersedeas¹⁷ of the former. So is the commission to be judge of the Superior Court, to that for the admiralty. And all acts & decrees made below after such superior commission, are illegal and void. There is no point of law clearer than this. If the salaries and perquisites of the chief justice will not maintain him with dignity, I am for his having more pay, not more offices and power. I have always contended for this in the House, and ever shall while I have the honour of a seat there. I have long tho’t it and am far from being singular in my opinion, a great grievance, that the chief justice should have a seat in the council; and consequently so great a share of influence in making those very laws he is appointed to execute upon the lives and property of the people. But this opinion affects all the judges of the superior court, and can’t therefore be founded on any particular prejudice to his Honor.

      His Honor towards the close hath furnished us with a new kind of political catechism. It manifestly appears from some of the questions, that his Honor would not only have me subjected to the infamous character and punishment of a common Barrator, but to something far worse. What his Honor’s ultimate wishes were when he wrote those genteel queries, I shall leave; first observing that I can’t trace the least appearance of a wish for my amendment, or good estate hereafter. I shall take my leave of the performance, by wishing his Honor, health and prosperity in this life; that he may be made a great blessing to the province in his office of chief justice; that he may receive the rewards of virtue here, and be finally crowned with a happy immortality.

      James Otis.

      Boston, April 7, 1763.

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