Writs of assistance.
An illicit trade with the neutral ports of
St. Thomas and Eustatius, and with the
French islands— under flags of truce to the latter, granted by colonial governors, nominally for an exchange of prisoners, but really as mere covers for commercial transactions—was carried on some time by the
Northern colonies.
Of this the
English merchants complained, and
Pitt issued strict orders for it to be stopped.
It was too profitable to be easily suppressed.
Francis Bernard, who was appointed governor of
Massachusetts Aug. 4, 1760, attempted the strict enforcement of the laws against this trade.
Strenuous opposition was aroused in
Boston, and the custom-house officers there applied to the Superior Court to grant them writs of assistance, according to the
English exchequer practice—that is, warrants to search, when and where they pleased, for smuggled goods, and to call in others to assist them.
Thomas Hutchinson was the
chief-justice, and favored the measure.
The merchants employed
Oxenbridge Thatcher and
James Otis—the former a leading law practitioner and the latter a young barrister of brilliant talents—to oppose it. The people could not brook such a system of petty oppression, and there was much excitement.
Their legality was questioned before a court held in the old
Town Hall in
Boston.
The advocate for the crown (
Mr. Gridley) argued that, as Parliament was the supreme legislature for the whole British realm, and had authorized these writs, no subject had a right to complain.
The fiery
James Otis answered him with great power and effect.
The fire of patriotism glowed in every sentence; and when he uttered the words, “To my dying day I will oppose, with all the power and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on one hand and of villany on the other,” he gave the keynote to the concerted action of the
English-American colonies in opposing the obnoxious acts of the British Parliament. “Then,” said
John Adams, who heard
Otis's speech, “the independence of the colonies was proclaimed.”
Very few writs of assistance were issued, and these were rendered ineffectual by the popular opposition.
See
Otis, James.
