Collected Political Writings of James Otis. Otis James
for. That the unlettered reader may understand me, Haercredipeta among the Romans, denoted a sly, flattering scriv’ner, who by his officious attendance upon rich old men and women, work’d himself into their favor, & obtain’d a legacy in their wills, or the heirship of their estates.
The next breath approaching fate is threatned, which in the sense some use fate, can’t be applied to a madman, because the pedant says, speedy repentance, deep contrition, and total reformation, are to avert this approaching fate. ’Tis pity the predicting parson, and his knowing friend, had not found out, that punishment only is to be averted by penitence, and that the laws of Draco never punished a madman. One need not be a conjurer to discover that this parson is a prophet of bedlam, and a fit chaplain for lunaticks. His friend and he, with Baalam and his ass, before that unhappy beast was inspired, could they be brought together, would furnish out a very proper congregation for an hetrodox sermon, from these words, which I recommend to this right reverend for the subject of his next discourse upon a high holy day.
“Power, with or without Learning, in the Hands of High Flyers, in Church or State, is ten Times more dangerous to a Community, than Arrows, Fire brands and Death, in the Hands of a Fool.”
And if the benefactors, with their whole united forces, on or before the first day of April next, will publish to the world a discourse of one page only, upon
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this subject, “smile and stab or stab in the dark,” their first principle, if such performance be free from absurdity and contradiction, it shall be warranted to sell for two pence. Further, upon the head or heads of the benefactors (for some think them at least a two-headed monster) giving bond for his or their good behaviour, in their several lucrative departments, indisputable security shall be produced in double the sum, that Bluster, whoever is meant by that name, shall never seek or accept of any office during life, but shall devote all his leisure, to the detecting and exposing state rooks and robbers.
There is a species of pentinence that will recommend any man to the benefactors.
The way to their caresses and favours, is known to be broad, smooth and easy; and many there are that find it.
As the war was occasioned by the Benefactors, so early terms of peace and alliance have been offered unask’d. The capital article upon which all negociations have hitherto split, is, that certain gentlemen should, be treated worse than being given as hostages, in plain English, become the Tools to a few in power. Those who have attempted to bring about this submission, by all the sweet blandishments of persuasion, by the affronts of flattery, by the unprovok’d sacrifice of once dear friendships, by every other art of a courtier, and by the threats of all, and more than all the evils in the power of the great and the wicked, have hitherto found themselves mistaken. The writer of this, boasts of no superior learning or talents. I am sure I am right, is not his motto; but he humbly hopes he is not out in thinking common sense, a good conscience, freedom, and dependence ultimately upon one supreme sovereign good, are to be valued infinitely beyond all other earthly felicity; and when he can’t enjoy these, he trusts he shall not repine at the first fair and lawful call to die. He has been taught from his early days, by a Gentleman of true honour, who never forsook or betray’d a friend, and to whom some Ingrates entirely owe their present power and grandeur, that “it is mean to fear the face of man”; that it ever “brings a snare”; that “we should not despair of the common wealth, tho’ an army of Banditti were encamped round about, and a strong party of Patricides eating out her bowels.” “Call no man master upon earth,” is a saying worthy its author, and if rightly attended to, by all those whose particular duty it is to explain and inculcate so divine a doctrine, would soon scatter the tyrants of this world, like locusts and grasshoppers. I have discovered, without the help of the predicting parson, that error, early or late, must and will, and shall, fall before truth. A day is also hastning on, with very large strides, when some who are now the darling idols of a dirty, very dirty, witless rabble, commonly called the great vulgar, are to sink and go down, with deserved infamy, to all posterity.
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Advertisement.
Prepared and Preparing for the Press,
1. An impartial History of the last Session of the Great and General Court or Assembly of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay.
2. A full and true Account of the Grant of Mount-Desert Island to his Excellency FRANCIS BERNARD, Esq; Governor of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay.
3. The present political State of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, with a brief Account of the Services of said Province, and a State of the Rights of the Colonists in general. To which will be added, by Way of Supplement, a View of Provincial Administration for about three Years past, interspersed with Strictures upon the Conduct of some eminent Personages in former Years.
By JAMES OTIS, Esq;
The last will be dedicated to the KING. The two first will be published so soon as the General Court is dissolved; the last as soon as possible.
P.S. The Writer of a Letter directed to the Author, and published in the last Ev’ning-Post, relating to the Expences of Lieutenant Governor PHIPS’s Funeral, may meet with full Satisfaction as to that Business in the first of these Performances; Perhaps he might have had it sooner if he had given his Name.
Boston, March 21.
AT a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of this Town on Monday last, JAMES OTIS, Esq: was chosen Moderator, who made the following Speech, viz.
Fathers, Friends, Fellow-Citizens and Countrymen!
BY your unmerited good will, I am promoted to a much greater Honour than I ever aspired to. Be so good as to accept my most humble and hearty Thanks, for this unsolicited and unexpected Mark of your Esteem.—Gentlemen. It has pleased infinite Wisdom to give us a goodly Heritage. Our Forefathers have handed down to us the great Things which were done for them of old Time; but great as they were, they sell far short of what we have
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heard with our own Ears, and seen with our own Eyes. A War began, upon the most just and solid Grounds, by his late Majesty GEORGE the Second of ever blessed Memory, was, during the Life of that great Monarch, crowned with a Series of Victories and Triumphs before unparalleled in History, and, which astonished the whole World. The Smiles of Heaven have been marvellously continued upon the Councils and Arms of his illustrious Grandson and Successor, our most gracious Sovereign GEORGE the Third, whom God long preserve! The Fall of Martineco, the Reduction of the Havannah, the Conquest of Cuba, the Destruction of the Spanish Marine and Commerce, were but Preludes to a Peace that will reflect immortal Honour upon the present Reign.
We in America have certainly abundant Reason to rejoice. The Heathen are not only driven out, but, the Canadians, much more formidable Enemies, are conquered and become Fellow-Subjects. The British Dominion and Power may now be said, literally, to extend from Sea to Sea, and from the Great Rivers to the Ends of the Earth: And we may safely conclude from his Majesty’s wise Administration hitherto, that Liberty and Knowledge, Civil and Religious, will be co-extended, improved and preserved to the latest Posterity. No other Constitution of Civil Government has yet appeared in the World so admirably adapted to these great Purposes, as that of Great Britain. Every British Subject in America is, of common Right, by Acts of Parliament, and by the Laws of God and Nature, entitled to all the essential Privileges of Britons. By particular Charters there are peculiar Priviledges granted, as in Justice they might and ought, in Consideration of the arduous Undertaking, to begin so glorious an Empire as British America is rising to. Those Jealousies that some weak and wicked Minds have endeavoured to infuse, with Regard to the Colonies, had their Birth in the Blackness of Darkness, and ’tis great Pity they had not remained there forever. The true Interests