Collected Political Writings of James Otis. Otis James

      The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as a design element in Liberty Fund books is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash.

      Compilation, introduction, translations, editorial additions, and index © 2015 by Liberty Fund, Inc.

      Cover art and frontispiece: Portrait of James Otis, Jr., by Joseph Blackburn, oil on canvas, 1755. Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library.

      This eBook edition published in 2015.

      eBook ISBNs:

      978-1-61487-270-2

       978-1-61487-646-5

       www.libertyfund.org

      [print edition page v]

Introduction: The Life, Times, and Political Writings of James Otis

A Note on the Texts

Chronology of the Life

Acknowledgments

PART 1: The Writs of Assistance Case

1. John Adams’s Notes on the First Argument of the Case, February 1761

2. Josiah Quincy Jr.’s Notes on the Second Argument of the Case, November 1761

3. John Adams’s Reconstruction of Otis’s Speech in the Writs of Assistance Case

4. Essay on the Writs of Assistance Case, Boston Gazette, January 4, 1762

5. A Sample Writ of Assistance

PART 2: Massachusetts Politics, 1761–63

1. Essays from the Boston Gazette, December 21, 1761–April 11, 1763

December 21, 1761

December 28, 1761

January 11, 1762

January 11, 1762 (supplement)

January 31, 1763

February 28, 1763

March 21, 1763

April 4, 1763

April 11, 1763

       2. A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay

      [print edition page vi]

       PART 3: The Imperial Crisis, 1764–67

       1. The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved

       2. A Vindication of the British Colonies

       3. Brief Remarks on the Defence of the Halifax Libel on the British-American-Colonies

       4. The Boston Gazette, May 13, 1765

       5. Considerations on Behalf of the Colonists. In a Letter to a Noble Lord

       6. The Boston Gazette, August 19 and 26, 1765, Responding to Criticisms of Noble Lord

       7. John Hampden to William Pym Essays from the Boston Gazette

       December 9, 1765

       December 16, 1765

       December 23, 1765

       December 30, 1765

       January 6, 1766

       January 13, 1766

       January 20, 1766

       January 27, 1766

       November