"Let your imagination range down the old famous roads of freedom. Powers of moral quickening come from communion with ancient heroism. I take delight in the Old Testament story which tells of a dead man being let down into the sepulchre of the prophet Elisha. And when he touched the bones of Elisha the man revived and stood upon his feet.' Whatever we may think of that story it is pregnant with moral and spiritual significance. It proclaims the vitalizing energies of the great and noble dead. We touch our heroic ancestry and invigorating virtue flows out of them And so, in these tremendous days of anxious and protracted conflict, let us let ourselves down into the sacred sepulchres of history, and seek communion with the honored dead. Let us touch the bones of Lincoln if perchance we may be revived and stand upon our feet. Let our minds and hearts sink down into his letters and speeches so that his vision may inspire our imaginations and his motives fortify our souls. And let us touch the bones of Oliver Cromwell, for he being dead yet speaketh, and his words are spirit and life. Let us seek inspiration at great historic fonts. Seeing that we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, the faithful knightly warriors of other days, let us nerve our hearts in their heroisms, let us feed our wills on their exploits, and then with their virtuous blood running in our own veins, let us bravely turn to face the task and the menace of our own day." JOHN HENRY JOWETT WRITS OF ASSISTANCE February, 1761 AMERICA was settled largely by people who left their native lands in order to secure a greater degree of religious and political liberty. In the New World, separated by three thousand miles from the autocratic governments of Europe, they naturally found little. reason to relinquish this love of freedom. In the leisure hours of the long winters many read the writings of Locke, Rousseau, and other authors who have set forth the ideals of democracy. Accordingly there gradually grew up in America, in addition to the common desire for practical political liberty, a widespread interest in the abstract theory of rights and govern ment. Under these circumstances it is natural that the thirteen colonies under British rule resented fiercely any interference with their personal rights. Especially after the French and Indian War the colonists were not only alert to criticize any act of Parliament that promised to imperil the liberty under which they had lived, but they also sought by such means as were within their power to obtain for the colonial assemblies new concessions and grants. At first they were content to build up their rights within the English Constitution and they had no thought of separation from the Mother Country. As late as the end of 1774 the Continental Congress in a petition to the King expressed its desire to conform in all respects to the British Constitution. The colonial troops carried the King's colors as their flag until 1777. Indeed it is said that until near the close of the Revolution independence was advocated only by an aggressive minority. James Otis's speech against the use of writs of assistance, in Boston, in 1761, marks the beginning of the struggle in which as yet the colonists sought merely the rights of Englishmen. The dispute with England originated in an attempt to regulate American commerce. The Navigation Acts of the British Parliament had required Americans to trade with the English only, and consequently to import only goods which paid a duty to the Mother Country. Both to avoid the expense of these duties and as a protest against the injustice of the trade laws the colonists had encouraged smuggling and had carried on an illicit trade with the Dutch. Not half the goods imported into America paid the duty. It cost the British government $35,000 to collect a revenue of $7,500. John Adams estimated that the loss of revenue by smuggling on molasses alone was $125,000 a year. In 1761, in the hope of obtaining evidence that would convict the smugglers, the British government invoked writs of assistance. These writs had previously been used for other purposes in both England and America but had fallen into disuse. They were general warrants that in spite of the common law protecting the privacy of a man's home, authorized customs agents to make "diligent and complete" search of the property of suspected persons. The advocate general at this time whose duty it was as the representative of the British Crown to support the writs of assistance was James Otis. He was not only a lawyer of great ability, but he was a man of lofty principle and was a commanding figure among the colonists. That he might be free to oppose the dangerous and detested writs, he resigned his office. In their favor, however, his successor, Jeremy Gridley, presented an argument to a court who sat under Governor Hutchinson in the council chamber of the old Town House, Boston. About the massive table were ranged the five judges, clad in their rich robes of scarlet English broadcloth and wearing their large cambric bands and immense judicial wigs. Behind them were full length portraits of Charles II and James II arrayed in royal splendor. After Gridley had spoken, Oxenbridge Thatcher gave the argument for the people. Then Otis, the former officer of the Crown, arose to support Thatcher. The words of Adams gave most adequately the effect of his speech: "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 torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away everything before him. American independence was then and there born; the seeds of patriots and heroes was then and there sown. Every man of a crowded audience appeared to go away, as I did, ready to take up arms against the writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain." At the conclusion of his speech Otis immediately found himself the leader of public thought in New England and the champion of constitutional rights in the colonies. WRITS OF ASSISTANCE JAMES OTIS MAY it please your honors, I was desired by one of the court to look into the 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. It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law, that was ever found in an English law book. I must, therefore, beg your honors' patience and attention to the whole range of argument1 that may, perhaps, appear uncommon in many things, as well as the points of learning that are more remote and unusual; that the whole tendency of my design may the more easily be perceived, the conclusions better descend, and the force of them be better felt. 2 I shall not think much of my pains in this cause, as I engaged in it from principle. I was solicited to argue this cause as advocate-general; and because I would not, I have been charged with desertion from my office. To this charge I can give a very sufficient answer. I renounced that office, and I argue this cause from the same principle; and I argue it with the greater pleasure, as |