The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765-1848

HARRISON GRAY OTIS By Samuel Eliot Morison 2 hH^. L I E) RAR.Y OF THL U N IVLR5ITY Of ILLINOIS B 0873m v.l cop,2 111. Hist, rr"survey THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF HARRISON GRAY OTIS 1765-1848 IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I THE MBRARY or THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF HARRISON GRAY OTIS FEDERALIST 1765-1848 BY SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON, Ph.D. (Harv.) WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. I BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1913 COPYRIGHT, I913, BY SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON ALL UIGHTS RESERVED Published November iqi^ V, 1 cop. Z. TO MY MOTHER 55;:;;2545 Tell me, ye learned, shall we for ever be adding so much to the bulk — so little to the stock ? Shall we for ever make new books, as apotheca- ries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another? Are we for ever to be twisting, and untwisting the same rope? for ever in the same track — for ever at the same pace? Shall we be destined to the days of eternity, . to be shewing the relicks of learning, as monks do the relicks of their saints — without working one — one single miracle with them? — Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Vol. V, Chap. I. PREFACE In the following pages I have attempted to describe the life of a man of \ngorous and fascinating personality, who was born in Boston ten years before the Revolution com- menced, who entered national politics during Washing- ton's second administration, who was a leader in the in- teresting movement that culminated in the Hartford Convention of 1814, and who lived to take a part in the presidential campaign of 1848. Harrison Gray Otis was not a great statesman, but rather a typical representative of that political and social organization which has passed into history under the name of the Federal or Federalist party. This fact alone has made his biography worth WTiting from a historical point of view. I have endeavored therefore, not only to relate the events of his life, but critically to describe his ideas, his feelings, and his preju- dices, and to discover the motives guiding his action in the political crises of his day. I have not confined myself, however, to political biography, for, in addition to being a politician, Otis was an orator and a lawyer of the very first rank, a leader in social life, and a man whose personality did much to influence the community in which he lived. I may as well confess to my readers at the start that I am a descendant of Harrison Gray Otis, four generations removed. Contrary to general opinion, I believe that a statesman's biography can best be WTitten by a descendant, if he can preserve the natural sympathy that comes from kinship and family tradition, without sacri- ficing historical judgment and criticism. My readers can X PREFACE best judge how far I have succeeded in keeping the balance. The materials for this work have been drawn primarily from the papers that Otis left behind him. They are now used for literary purposes for the first time. Confident, as I am, that the well-springs of political action can be traced mainly through the personal correspondence of the actors, I have quoted freely from the Otis manuscripts, and printed such documents of historical value as are too long to be incorporated in the text, after the chapters that they illustrate. Other contemporary political correspondence now available, as well as newspapers and offi- cial sources, has been utilized, and an earnest search has been made for manuscript material outside the usual re- positories. For secondary material, the few sketches of Otis's life printed heretofore have proved of little value, beyond giving details of his early life; but the general works and monographs covering the period have afforded me much assistance. All quotations from manuscript sources are given without change of wording, capitalization, spelling, or punctuation, with the exception that canceled passages have been suppressed, raised letters have been reduced to the line of the text (Gov' rendered as Govr., y^ as ye, etc.), and in punctuation, the dash, where obviously ending a sentence, has been replaced by a period. In a very few instances punctuation has been supplied where the lack of it obscured the meaning. It will be understood that all matter printed in the smaller type is quoted. This undertaking would have been impossible without the assistance and advice rendered by many individuals and institutions. I am indebted most of all to Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, at whose suggestion this work was begun, and under whose direction and encouragement it PREFACE xi has been carried out; to Professors Edward Channing and Frederick J. Turner for their helpful criticism; to Mr. Charles K. Bolton, for granting me every facility at the Boston Athenaeum; and to Mr. Worthington C. Ford, for opening to me the manuscript collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and for giving me his constant personal interest and cooperation. Finally, what- ever merit my book may possess is due primarily to the historical training that I have received at Harvard University. Boston, December, 1912. CONTENTS I. Family and Childhood. 1765-1775, ^t. 1-10 1 Forbears — Patriot Otises and Tory Grays — Child- hood in Boston — Latin school — Reminiscences of April 19, 1775. II. Boyhood and Youth. 1775-1783, JEt. 10-18 . 15 Life at Barnstable — Return to Boston — Changed conditions — Activities of Otis's father — Death of his mother — At Harvard College. III. Law and Business. 1783-1796, ^t. 18-31 . 27 Bankruptcy of his father — Studies law with John Lowell — Shays's Rebellion — Legal business — Wash- ington's inauguration — Marriage — Stage plays — Loyalist property — A leading lawyer — Copley purchase. IV. A Hamiltonian Federalist. 1794-1796, ^Et. 29-31 45 The growth of two national parties — Situation in Massachusetts — The Essex Junto — Influence of the French Revolution — Otis's political debut — "Second Shirt Speech" — Elected to Congress. V. The French Peril. 1796-1798, .Et. 31-33 . 59 Situation in 1797 — The Fifth Congress — Maiden speech — American policy of France — Danger of invasion — Letter to General Heath — French influence in Congress. VI. The Crisis of 1798, ^t. 32 72 First two sessions of the Fifth Congress — Lyon affair — The X. Y. Z. dispatches and their effect — Letters to and from Jonathan Mason, General Heath, T. H. Perkins, John Gardner. xiv CONTENTS VII. Defense and Reprisal. 1798, ^t. 32 . .97 Federalist policy of 1798 — Army and Navy Acts — Question of hidden motives — Naval retaliation. VIII. A System of Terror. 1798, ^t. 32 . 106 Otis's part in the Naturalization, Alien, and Sedition Acts — His defense of the power of Congress to punish seditious libel — Letter from Judge Stor3\ IX. The Republican Court. 1797-1801, ^t. 32-35 125 Social life in Philadelphia, as told in Otis's letters — In Washington, 1800-1801 — Visit to Mount Vernon. X. Adams Asserts Himself. 1798-1799, .Et. 33-34 151 The envoys in Paris — Otis's visit to Adams and Gerry — His reelection — Federalist intolerance — Divisions in the party — Hamilton's war policy — Adams decides for peace — Otis tries to heal the breach — Essex Junto opinions — Letters on French relations and the Logan affair. XI. Intrigue and Defeat. 1799-1800, .Et. 33-35 . 176 The Sixth Congress; elections and debates — Intrigues against Adams — Otis vs. Pickering — Electioneering in 1800 — Letters from R. G. Harper. XII. Jefferson or Burr? 1800-1801, JEt. 35 . 199 Otis's last session in Congress — The attempt to renew the Sedition Act — The Judiciary Act — Midnight appointments — Election in the House — End of an era — Letters from Samuel Sewall, Theophilus Parsons and Otis. XIII. Harry Otis, Friend and Host .... 217 Character and personality — Not a Puritan — Ap- pearance — Friends and enemies — Relations with the Adamses — Wit — Social Life in Boston at the beginning of the nineteenth century — Clubs — Fed- eralism in society — Otis's houses — HospitaUty — Eating and drinking — Old Madeira. CONTENTS XV XIV. Family Relations — Expansion — Literature — Oratory — Harvard College. 1801-1816, ^t. 36-51 235 Otis's tastes primarily domestic — Refusal of a nomination for governor — The Otis family — Grays and Turners — Material expansion — Literary revival — Otis and William Tudor — Otis as an orator — Rela- tions with Harvard College — Student rebellions — Ticknor's reforms. XV. Calm, Conspiracy, and the Chesapeake Affair. 1802-1807, ^Et. 36-42 257 Otis in the State Legislature — Judicial reforms — Banking schemes — Federalism and the Louisiana Purchase — Ely Amendment — Secession plot of 1804 — Decline of Federalism — Foreign affairs — Boston and the Cliesapeake — Letters of John Rutledge, R. G. Harper, Otis, and Harrison Gray. XVI. The Federalist Machine. 1800-1823, yEt. 35-58 286 Growth of a Federalist party organization in Massa- chusetts — The Legislative Caucus in session — The Central Committee — Methods of nomination — The machine in Boston — Election Day — Political din- ners — Educating the voter — A national Federalist Club — Presidential nominations : Secret Federalist National Conventions of 1808 and 1812 — Letters illustrating Federalist methods. XVII. Jefferson's Embargo. 1807-1808, .Et. 42-43 . 321 Objects of the Embargo — Its economic effect — Essex Junto views — Federalist recovery in New England — Recall of John Quincy Adams — Otis at the parting of the ways — Boston's plea for miti- gation — The Election of 1808 — Letters of Josiah Dwight and George Cabot. ILLUSTRATIONS Harrison Gray Otis {Photogravure) . Frontispiece From a portrait by Chester Harding, 1830. In the possession of Mrs. John Holmes Morison. The Parents of Harrison Gray Otis . .16 Samuel AUjTie Otis, from a portrait by Stuart, and Elizabeth Gray Otis, from a portrait by Copley.

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