Indeed, it can be said of Otis as Coleridge said of O'Connell,
"See how triumphant in debate and action he is. And why?
Because he asserts a broad principle, acts up to it, rests his
body upon it, and has faith in it." The world is upheld, as
Emerson says, by the veracity of good men; and so the great power
of Otis as an advocate before the civil bar in the minor cases of
his career, and as an advocate of the people in the larger court
in the great case of his life, for the liberty of opposing
arbitrary power by speaking and writing the truth, arose almost
entirely from his absolute integrity and fairmindedness.
Clarendon's portrait of Falkland applies equally as well to Otis,
--"He was so severe an adorer of the truth that he could as
easily have given himself leave to steal as to dissemble." In
short, Otis acted aright, and feared not the consequences, and
thus became a power in the community because of his personal
character.

The great popularity that he immediately acquired he used for no
sinister or selfish ends. He stooped to none of the arts of the
demagogue; he was never carried away by a blind spirit of
faction. He opposed the arbitrary design of the English ministry
with great spirit and firmness, though with some indiscretion;
but he was no advocate of turbulent dissensions or causeless
revolt. He allowed himself to be ruled by the greater moderation
and prudence of his associates, while he inspired them with his
own resistless energy and determination.

No imputation can justly be thrown on the sincerity of his
patriotism, although the attempt was made by some of his
contemporaries.