James Otis Quotes About Liberty

Quotes about: Liberty

• Can there be any liberty where property is taken away without consent?

  James Otis

  Freedom, Taken, Liberty

• The colonists are by the law of nature free-born, as indeed all man are, white or black...It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, White

• And I take this opportunity to declare, that... I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me, all such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other, as this writ of assistance is. It appears to me the worst instrument of arbitrary power, - the most destructive of English liberty and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law book.

  James Otis

  Book, Opportunity, Hands

  "James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance". James Otis' speech (February 1761), as quoted in William Tudor "James Otis's Speech on the Writs of Assistance", books.google.com. 1906.

• Now one of the most essential branches of English liberty, is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle; and while he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle. This writ of assistance, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, House

  Argument against the writs of assistance, Boston, Mass., Feb. 1761. Burton Stevenson, Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases (1948), traces the proverb "A man's house is his castle" back to 1567 and notes legal usages of it by Sir Edward Coke in the seventeenth century. See Coke 1; Coke 8; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 2

• I have accordingly considered it, and now appear not only in obedience to your order, but likewise in behalf of the inhabitants of this town, who have presented another petition, and out of regard to the liberties of the subject.

  James Otis

  Order, Liberty, Towns

• One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle.

  James Otis

  Men, House, Liberty

  Argument against the writs of assistance, Boston, Mass., Feb. 1761. Burton Stevenson, Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases (1948), traces the proverb "A man's house is his castle" back to 1567 and notes legal usages of it by Sir Edward Coke in the seventeenth century. See Coke 1; Coke 8; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 2

• [Slave] trade ... is the most shocking violation of the law of nature, has a direct tendency to diminish ... liberty, and makes every dealer in it a tyrant, from the director of an African company to the petty chapman [peddler].... It is a clear truth, that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

  James Otis

  Men, Law, Tyrants

  "Argument Against the Writs of Assistance". "Argument Against the Writs of Assistance" by James Otis Jr., 1761.

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