Here the speaker fell into the manner of Jefferson in the opening
paragraphs of the Declaration. It is to be noted that Otis
presented the truth absolutely; he including negroes in the
common humanity to whom inalienable rights belong.

Mr. Otis next took up the social compact, and showed that society
is the individual enlarged and generalized. This brought him to
the question before the court; for the conflict now on was a
struggle of society, endowed with inalienable rights, against
arbitrary authority and its abusive exercise.

The abusive exercise was shown in the attempts to enforce the
Acts of Trade. Of this kind was the old Navigation Act, and of
like character was the Importation Act. It was to enforce these
that the Writs of Assistance had been devised. Mr. Otis then
continued:

"Your Honors will find, in the old books concerning the office of
a justice of the peace, precedents of general warrants to search
suspected houses. But, in more modern books, you will find only
special warrants to search such and such houses, specially named,
in which the complainant has before sworn, that he suspects his
goods are concealed; and will find it adjudged, that special
warrants only are legal. In the same manner, I rely in it, that
the writ prayed for in this petition, being general, is illegal.
It is a power that places the liberty of every man in the hands
of every petty officer.

"I say, I admit that special Writs of Assistance, to search