But, to show more precisely the meaning of Otis, I let him be his own interpreter. Again and again he asserts the equality of men. This was his fundamental principle, which on an important occasion he thus expressed: “The first simple principle is equality and the power of the whole.”[230] Nor did he allow this to be limited in application by any distinction of color. John Adams, who was present when the orator first raised his great cry, says: “Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, ever asserted the rights of negroes in stronger terms.”[231] Otis, in another form, assailed directly the distinction of color, saying: “Will short, curled hair, like wool, instead of Christian hair, as ’tis called by those whose hearts are as hard as the nether millstone, help the argument?”[232] Such, then, were his premises,—the equal rights of all, without distinction of color. From these his conclusion was easy:—
“The very act of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights as freemen, and, if continued, seems to be, in effect, an entire disfranchisement of every civil right. For what one civil right is worth a rush, after a man’s property is subject to be taken from him at pleasure, without his consent? If a man is not his own assessor, in person or by deputy, his liberty is gone, or lays entirely at the mercy of others.”[233]
Stronger words for universal suffrage could not be employed. His argument is, that, if men are taxed without being represented, they are deprived of essential rights, and the continuance of this deprivation despoils them of every civil right,—thus making the latter depend upon the right of suffrage, which by curious neologism is known as political instead of civil. Then, giving point to his argument, the patriot insists, that, in determining taxation, “a man must be his own assessor, in person or by deputy,” without which his liberty is entirely at the mercy of others. Here, again, in different form, is the original thunderbolt; and the claim is made not merely for communities, but for “a man.”
Such a principle naturally encountered opposition at that time, even as now in this Chamber; but Otis was ready at all points. To the argument, that Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield, like America, returned no members to Parliament, he flashed forth in reply:—
“If they are not represented, they ought to be. Every man of a sound mind should have his vote.”
And then again, taking up the reply, he exclaimed:—
“Lord Coke declares that it is against Magna Charta, and against the franchises of the land, for freemen to be taxed but by their own consent.”[234]
Thus does he interpret again the flaming words, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.”
But, while thus positive, there is reason to believe that Otis so far yielded to prevailing sentiment, and especially to the opinions of Harrington, whose “Oceana” was much read at that time, as sometimes to recognize property in determining the basis of political power. On one occasion he said that Government could not be “rightfully founded on property alone,” thus seeming to intimate that property might enter into the foundation, although, as he derisively remarks, “the possessor of it may not have much more wit than a mole or a musquash.”[235] But it was doubtless obvious to his clear intelligence that a claim of power founded on property was very different from a claim of power founded on color. Property may be acquired; but color, from its nature, is an insurmountable condition. The original Constitution of Massachusetts recognized property as an element of political power; but it rejected all discrimination founded on color. If, therefore, under the maxim of Otis, there may be discrimination founded on property, most clearly, according to reason and early practice, there can be none founded on color; so that at the present hour his maxim is of vital force as a claim, not merely for the community, but for the individual. Let the country now, as aforetime, take it up and repeat it until it becomes the watchword of patriotism.
But Otis was not the only interpreter of this maxim of Liberty. The Legislature of Massachusetts, on repeated occasions, made the same claim. In solemn resolutions, drawn by Samuel Adams, and adopted unanimously, it declared, in substance, that, “by the Law of Nature, no man has a right to impose laws more than to levy taxes upon another”; that “the freeman pays no tax, as the freeman submits to no law, but such as emanates from the body in which he is represented.”[236] Surely this claim is not merely for the community, but for the individual freeman also.