The truth is non-partisan

In the mid-1700s New England merchants were running a successful but
illegal rum business. Sea captains bought the molasses in the
Caribbean from the French and Dutch instead of the British, avoiding
British taxes at the point of purchase. The molasses were then
smuggled to New England where 60 distillers made them into rum. The
colony depended on this business as well as other smuggling. They
feared that a clampdown would bring about a depression, where all but
the wealthiest would be affected. The British crown, represented by
Governor Francis Bernard in Boston, wanted the taxes so sought to
catch the smugglers by using "writs of assistance." These writs
enabled British customs officers to enter any colonist's home with no
advance notice, no probable cause and no reason given.

In 1761 James Otis, a Boston lawyer, came to the defense of merchants
and rum runners claiming that the writs were unlawful. He used the
English common law, showing that English liberty provided freedom at
home. "A man's house is his castle,' he said. If a man behaved
quietly, he should be protected from unlawful searches. John Adams
listened in awe to Otis's five hour defense and left convinced that
Britain's politicians were trying to take complete control over the
colonies' finances and politics. John Adams later claimed: "The child
independence was then and there born,[for] every man of an immense
crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take
arms against writs of assistance."

Thomas Hutchinson, a Bernard appointment and one of the wealthy and
privileged, sat as chief justice in Boston. He first delayed the
decision on the writ case and then persuaded the other justices to
rule against the merchants and citizens of Boston. For the next 10
years Otis battled Hutchinson and the British establishment in Boston
from his seat in the Massachusetts legislature. Speaking of Otis, John Adams
stated: "I have been young and now I am old, and I solemnly say I
have never known a man whose love of country was more ardent or
sincere, never one who suffered so much, never one whose service for
any 10 years of his life were so important and essential to the cause
of his country as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770." The phrase
"Taxation without representation is tyranny" is usually attributed to
Otis. Otis would have been a more powerful influence in the coming
Revolution except that as he got older he became senile and his
behavior became more erratic. He is said to have fought at Bunker
Hill. He died in 1783 from a strike of lightening while standing on
his sister's doorstep.

Sources:

Langguth, A.J. Patriots: The men who started the American Revolution.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.

Ridpath, John Clark. James Otis, the pre-revolutionist. Project
Gutenberg. 1 Nov. 1996. 29 Sept. 2007
<http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/722>.

// posted by John Fisher @ 9:23 AM