Subjecthood and Citizenship: The Context of James Otis's Radical Critique of John Locke

Abstract

OR colonists present in the Boston courtroom one day in 1761, the pace of history suddenly accelerated. Attention focused on a single figure. James Otis, a provincial lawyer of mercurial temperament, harangued the judges of the Massachusetts Superior Court for nearly four hours, delivering a sometimes brilliant, occasionally rambling, and frequently outrageous speech that had no precedent in New England. John Adams later recounted the legal drama he witnessed as a young attorney. and he exclaimed, the first scene of the first act of opposition, to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there, the child of Independence was born.' The Otis that Adams depicted in this passage has become something of a popular legend. The bumptious provincial dares to thumb his nose at the royal establishment and attacks the despised general Writs of Assistance. British customs collectors stationed in Boston had brought the legal crisis to a head. They insisted that the writs justified searching private property for smuggled goods. The device allowed customs officers to act at their own discretion. They needed no special court authorization to institute a search; they were not required to identify informers. Otis and leading representatives of the local merchant community would have none of it. The Superior Court, he maintained, had no right to issue general writs, and if it persisted in doing so, then the Court's actions raised hard ques-