Harrison Gray Otis (lawyer)

Infobox Congressman
name =Harrison Gray Otis


state =Massachusetts
district =8th
term_start =March 4, 1797
term_end =March 3, 1801
preceded =Fisher Ames
succeeded =William Eustis
order2 =United States Senator
from Massachusetts
term_start2 =March 4, 1817
term_end2 =May 30, 1822
predecessor2 =Joseph Bradley Varnum
successor2 =James Lloyd
order3 =3rd Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts
term_start3 =1829
term_end3 =1831
predecessor3 =Josiah Quincy III
successor3 =Charles Wells
birth_date =October 8, 1765
birth_place =Boston, Massachusetts
death_date =October 28, 1848 (aged 83)
death_place =Boston, Massachusetts
nationality =
party =Federalist
otherparty =
spouse =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =Harvard University
occupation =
profession =Law
net worth =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Harrison Gray Otis (October 8, 1765 – October 28, 1848), was a businessman, lawyer, and politician, becoming one of the most important leaders of the United States' first political party, the Federalists.

Otis was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Elizabeth (Gray) and Samuel Allyne Otis. His uncle was Revolutionary War leader James Otis, and his father was active in early American politics as a member of Massachusetts state house of representatives, delegate to Massachusetts state constitutional convention, and Continental Congress delegate from Massachusetts. His aunt was Mercy Otis Warren, a well-known poet. Another descendant was Montgomery Harrison Ritchie, who died in the American Civil War and was the first husband of Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie Adair.

Otis himself married Sally Foster on May 3, 1780, graduated from Harvard University in 1783, then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1786, when he commenced practice in Boston. In 1794 he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1796 was appointed by President George Washington to be district attorney for Massachusetts. In 1797, he was elected U.S. Representative from Massachusetts as a Federalist and a strong advocate for centralized government, in which office he served until 1801. He was appointed United States district attorney for Massachusetts by President John Adams (1801-1802), and again served in the state legislature from 1802 to 1817, serving several terms as President of the state senate (1805-1806, 1808-1811). In subsequent years, Otis was elected U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1817-1822), and then Mayor of Boston (1829-1831).

In 1814, in the midst of his political career, he was also named a judge of the court of common pleas (1814-1818), and played a leading role as delegate to the controversial Hartford Convention in which New England's secession from the United States was discussed. It led to the demise of the Federalists. Otis subsequently defended the convention in his "Letters Developing the Character and Views of the Hartford Convention" (1820) and his "Letters in Defence of the Hartford Convention" (1824).

Around 1831, Otis was involved in a major financial scandal during the site selection for the Massachusetts State House. Boston was determined to remain the state capitol, and appointed Otis to a town committee to purchase land and donate it to the state. He did so, and also quietly arranged his own private purchase of 18.5 adjoining acres from the agent of John Singleton Copley, then living in England. After a decade of legal arguments, the sale was upheld, and Otis and the Mount Vernon Proprietors developed a large part of Beacon Hill.

Otis was an overseer of Harvard University from 1810-1823, and a fellow of the university from 1823-1825, as well as one of the original incorporators of the Boston Bank. During the course of his career, he built not one but three grand houses in quick succession (see Harrison Gray Otis House), all designed by noted architect Charles Bulfinch. He died in Boston on October 28, 1848, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

References

* Samuel Eliot Morison, "Harrison Gray Otis, 1765-1848: The Urbane Federalist", 1913. Rev. ed. (2 vols in 1), Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1969.

External links

*CongBio|O000127