The Life Source Missing From Today’s Narratives

In 1761 lawyer James Otis delivered a five-hour speech in a packed Boston courthouse in which he dismantled Parliament’s claim that general search warrants known as writs-of-assistance were constitutionally valid.  Though Otis lost the case his scholarly and fiery rhetoric won the support of onlookers such as 25-year-old John Adams, who near the end of his life wrote about his experience:

Every Man of an immense crowded Audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take Arms against Wri...