ired as one of the brightest
ornaments of his profession. Nor was the public confidence in him
misplaced, or his popularity without warrant. Governor Hutchinson, who
knew him only in the capacity of a powerful personal and political
opponent, was yet obliged to yield homage to his public and professional
virtues, frankly declaring that "He never knew fairer or more noble
conduct in a pleader than in Otis; that he always defended his causes
solely on their broad and substantial foundations." Among other stories
and items of fact put forth in evidence of his contempt of the
pettifogging and professional lying so common in these degenerate days,
is the following: Being engaged on one occasion to recover the amount of
a bill which was alleged by the defendant to have been paid, he
discovered, quite accidentally, among his client's papers, as the trial
was proceeding, a receipt in full for the demand before the court. The
paper in question had fallen into his client's hands in some way or
another, and he was villanously using this advantage to wrong his
neighbor. As soon as Otis detected the trick his indignation burst forth
like a scorching flame, "You are a pretty rascal!" he said; "_there_ is
a receipt for the very demand now before the court."

Otis' happiness, however, such as it was, lay outside his home. His
marriage with Ruth Cunningham, which took place in 1755, was far from
being happy. Incompatibility of temper, and radical and stubborn
differences in political principle and sentiment, were the main
ingredients in the chalice of bitterness and woe which both, doubtless,
helped to fill. His only son, a youth of promise, entered the navy as
midshipman, and died at eighteen. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth,
married a loyalist, Captain Brown, who was wounded at Bunker Hill,--an
alliance that much distressed him. The sad fortune of his second
daughter, Mary, was another source of grief. She had married Benjamin
Lincoln, eldest son of General Lincoln, who received the sword of
General Cornwallis at the surrender of Yorktown,--a young lawyer of
considerable promise; but he died at twenty-eight.

It is necessary to remember that in the great drama of the Revolution,
Otis was only one of many distinguished actors, and that, in order to
appreciate the part he played so well, we shall require to give a brief
and rapid sketch of the political situation at the time. The sudden
assertion of the spirit of liberty, which the Brit