|
Suggest an Entry under this Topic | | Reference |
James Otis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"James Otis (February 5, 1725 – May 23, 1783) was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts who was an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. The phrase 'Taxation without Representation is Tyranny' is usually attributed to him, along with the phrase 'If we are not represented, we are slaves'. ..." |
| Articles |
American Political Writing, 1760-1789 - Wikisource, by William MacDonald, The Cambridge History of American Literature, 1917
Book I, Chapter VIII
"Otis challenged the writs as 'the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law-book.' ... lacking the exact specification of place and circumstance which a search-warrant ought to contain, such a writ was on both accounts illegal." |
The Presidents - Chapter 2 - Wikisource, by John Fiske, The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914
"When James Otis in 1761 delivered his memorable argument against writs of assistance, John Adams was present in the court-room ... In his old age [he] wrote, with reference to this scene, '... Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born.'" |
The Bill of Rights: Searches and Seizures, by Jacob G. Hornberger, Freedom Daily, Oct 2004
Related Topics: Right Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
"One of the most famous and eloquent denunciations of writs of assistance was issued by colonist James Otis ... in 1761 ... It was that type of fury against writs of assistance that helped fuel the Revolution, the conflict in which British citizens living in the New World took up arms against their own government." |
|
| Books |
James Otis, The Pre-Revolutionist, by John Clark Ridpath, 1898
Etext available at Project Gutenberg |
| |
|
