James Otis The Pre-Revolutionist | Page 8

keen as the purpose was zealous in pursuing it.
It came to be understood in the courts of Boston when Otis appeared as
an advocate that he had a case and believed in it. He avoided accepting
retainers in cases, of the justice of which he was in doubt. Pursuing this
method, he was sometimes involved in law-suits in which he was
constrained to turn upon his own client.
The story goes of one such instance in which he brought suit for the
collection of a bill. Believing in his client and in the justice of the claim,
he pressed the matter in court and was about to obtain a judgment when

he accidentally discovered, among his client's papers, a receipt which
the plaintiff had signed for the very claim under consideration. Through
some mistake the receipt had again got back into the man's possession,
and he had taken advantage of the fact to institute a suit for the
collection of the claim a second time.
Seeing through the matter at once, Otis took the plaintiff aside,
confronted him with the receipt and denounced him to his face as a
rascal. The man gave down and begged for quarter, but Otis was
inexorable; he went back to the bar and stated to the court that reasons
existed why the case of his client should be dismissed. The court,
presided over by Judge Hutchinson, afterward Lieutenant-Governor
and Chief Justice of Massachusetts, expressed its surprise at the turn of
affairs, complimented Otis for his honorable course as an advocate,
commended his conduct to the bar, and dismissed the case.
With the spread of his reputation Mr. Otis was summoned on legal
business to distant parts. On one occasion he was called to Halifax to
defend some prisoners under arrest for piracy; believing them to be
innocent he convinced the court in an eloquent plea and secured the
acquittal of the prisoners.
On another occasion he was summoned to Plymouth to defend some
citizens of that town who had become involved in a riot on the
anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. It was the custom in the New
England towns to observe this day with a mock procession, in which
effigies representing the Pope, the Old Bad One, and James the
Pretender, were carried through the streets to be consigned at the end to
a bonfire. In this instance violence was done by some of the
participants; windows were smashed, gates were broken down, etc. Mr.
Otis conducted the defense, showing that the arrested persons taking
part in a noisy anniversary, and committing acts that were innocent in
spirit, if not innocent per se, ought not to be adjudged guilty of serious
misdemeanor. This plea prevailed and the young men were acquitted.
It is to be greatly regretted that the legal pleas and addresses of James
Otis have not been preserved. A volume of his speeches would reveal
not only his style and character, but also much of the history of the
times. The materials, however, are wanting. He kept a commonplace
book in which most of his business letters of the period under
consideration were recorded. But these give hardly a glimpse at the

man, the orator, or his work. Tradition, however, is rife with the myth
of his method and manner. He was essentially an orator. He had the
orator's fire and passion; also the orator's eccentricities--his sudden
high flights and transitions, his quick appeals and succession of images.
To these qualities of the orator in general Otis added the power of
applying himself to the facts; also the power of cogent reasoning and
masterful search for the truth which gained for him at length the fame
of first orator of the revolution. The passion and vehemence of the man
made him at times censorious and satirical. His manner towards his
opponents was at times hard to bear. His wit was of that sarcastic kind
which, like a hot wind, withers its object.
All of these dispositions seemed to increase his power and to augment
his reputation, but they did not augment his happiness. His character as
an advocate and as a man came out in full force during the first period
of his Boston practice; that is, in the interval from 1750 to 1755.
On attaining his thirtieth year Mr. Otis came to the event of his
marriage. He took in union, in the spring of 1755, Ruth Cunningham,
daughter of a Boston merchant. From one point of view his choice was
opportune, for it added to his social standing and also to his means.
From another aspect, however, the marriage was less fortunate.
The Cunningham family was not well grounded in the principles of
patriotism. The timid commercial spirit showed itself in the father, and
with this the daughter sympathized. The