370 



OTIS. 



Jed him to form great projects, also pushed him for- 

 ward too impatiently to their execution. Adelaide 

 at first held the reins of government. Otho, dis- 

 gusted at his state of dependence, left the court, and 

 a civil war broke out, at the head of which was his 

 cousin Henry, the young duke of Bavaria. Otho 

 completely humbled him, and granted the duchy to 

 his nephew Otho of Suabia (978), who thus became 

 the possessor of two great fiefs. He afterwards 

 became involved in a war with Lothaire, king of 

 France, for Lorraine. Lotlwire attacked him in 

 Aix-la-Chapelle, in 978, and Otho was obliged to 

 retreat, but, having collected his forces, drove back 

 Lothaire, laid waste Champaigne, and advanced 

 towards Paris, the suburbs of which he burned. By 

 the terms of the peace which was concluded in 980, 

 Lorraine was left in its former relations to the 

 empire. Otho next attempted to drive the Greeks 

 from Italy ; but they called in the Saracens to their 

 aid, from Sicily (981), and Otho suffered a total 

 defeat at Basentello, in Calabria. He himself 

 escaped only by leaping into the sea, where he was 

 picked up by a Greek ship that was sailing by. 

 From this he afterwards made his escape by artifice ; 

 but he died soon after, at Rome, in 983. His son 

 Otho III., who succeeded him, was born in 980, and 

 died in 1002. With him the male line of the imperial 

 Saxon house became extinct. 



OTIS, JAMES, a distinguished American patriot, 

 was born February 5, 1 724 5, at Great Marshes, 

 in what is now called West Barnstable (Mass.) His 

 family was one of the most respectable in the colony, 

 nnd of English origin. In June, 1739, he entered 

 Cambridge college. The first two years of his col- 

 legiate course are said to have been given more to 

 amusement than to study, his natural disposition 

 being vivacious and ardent; but subsequently he 

 was distinguished for his application and proficiency. 

 After finishing his course at the university, he 

 devoted eighteen months to the pursuit of various 

 branches of literature, and then entered upon the 

 study of the law, in 1745, in the office of Mr Gridley, 

 Under that eminent lawyer he employed his legal 

 novitiate, and then went to Plymouth, where he was 

 first admitted to the bar. The two years, however, 

 of his residence in that town, were more occupied in 

 study than in practice, so that, when he removed to 

 Boston, in 1750, he was well qualified to assume a 

 high rank in his profession. This he quickly did : 

 his practice became very extensive. On one occa- 

 sion, he went, in the middle of winter, to Halifax, in 

 consequence of urgent solicitation, to defend three 

 men accused of piracy, and procured their acquittal. 

 Although his professional engagements were so 

 numerous, he cultivated his taste for literature, and, 

 in 1760, published a treatise, entitled the Rudi- 

 ments of Latin Prosody, with a Dissertation on Let- 

 ters and the Principles of Harmony, in poetic and 

 prosaic composition, collected from the best Writers. 

 He also composed a similar work on Greek prosody, 

 which remained in manuscript, and perished with all 

 his papers. It was never printed, as he said, be- 

 cause " there were no Greek types in the country, 

 or if there were, no printer knew how to set them." 

 In 1755, he married Miss Ruth Cunningham, the 

 daughter of a respectable merchant, who brought 

 him a dowry at that time considered very large. 

 A mid 'all the embarrassments which his affairs subse- 

 quently experienced, in consequence of his entire 

 devotion to the concerns of the public, he sacredly 

 preserved the fortune which he received with his 

 wife, to whom it returned after his death. The 

 public career of Mr Otis dates from (he period 

 when he made his famous speech against the " writs 

 of assistance," for which an application had been 



made, by the officers of the customs, to the superior 

 court of Massachusetts, in pursuance of an order in 

 council, sent from England, to enable them to carry 

 into effect the acts of parliament regulating the 

 trade of the colonies. When that order arrived, 

 Otis was advocate-general, and was, consequently, 

 requested to lend iiis professional assistance in the 

 matter ; but, deeming the writs to be illegal and 

 tyrannical, he refused, and resigned his station-. He 

 was then applied to, to argue against the writs, 

 which he immediately undertook to do, in conjunc- 

 tion with Mr Thacher, and in opposition to his 

 former preceptor, Mr Gridley, the attorney-general. 

 Of the discourse which he pronounced, president 

 Adams the elder says, " 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 eyes into futurity, and a rapid torrent 

 of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before 

 him. American independence was then and there 

 born. Every man, of an immense crowded audience, 

 appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take 

 arms against writs of assistance." The court ad- 

 journed for consideration, and, at the close of the 

 term, the chief justice, Hutchinson, delivered the 

 opinion ; " The court has considered the subject of 

 writs of assistance, and can see no foundation for 

 such a writ ; but, as the practice in England is not 

 known, it has been thought best to continue the 

 question to the next term, that, in the mean time, 

 opportunity may be given to know the result." 

 When the next term came, however, nothing was 

 said about the writs ; and though it was generally 

 understood that they were clandestinely granted by 

 the court, and that the custom-house officers had 

 them in their pockets, yet it is said that they were 

 never produced or executed. Otis had now fully 

 committed himself against the designs of the British 

 ministry, and thenceforward bent all his energies to 

 maintain the freedom of his country. At the next 

 election of members of the legislature, in May, 

 1761, he was chosen, almost unanimously, a repre- 

 sentative from Boston, and soon became the leader, 

 in the house, of the popular party. For the detail 

 of his course, during the period in which he was 

 a representative, we must refer our readers to the 

 biography of him by Mr Tudor. In 1765, Mr Otis 

 was chosen, by the Massachusetts legislature, one of 

 the members of a committee appointed to meet the 

 committees of the legislatures of other colonies at 

 New York, in consequence of the passing of the 

 stamp-act by parliament. They met in convention 

 October 19, in the same year, and named three com- 

 mittees to prepare addresses to the king, lords, and 

 commons. On the last Mr Otis was placed. In 

 this convention, Mr Otis made the acquaintance of 

 many distinguished men, from different colonies, 

 and subsequently maintained, with several of them, 

 a friendship and correspondence. In May, 1767, 

 after the repeal of the stamp-act, Mr Otis was 

 elected speaker of the house of representatives ; but 

 he was negatived by the governor, who entertained 

 a peculiar animosity towards him, from his inde- 

 fatigable endeavours to defeat every plan of en- 

 croachment. In the summer of 1769, the vehement 

 temper of Mr Otis was so much wrought upon by 

 the calumnies which he discovered that the com- 

 missioners of the customs in Boston had transmitted 

 to England concerning him, by which, indeed, 

 they sought to have him tried for treason, that 

 he inserted an advertisement in the Boston Gazette, 

 denouncing them in severe terms. The next even- 

 ing he happened to go to the British coffee-house, 

 where one of the commissioners, a Mr Robinson, was 



