Note 4 — Ballads of the Revolution.[1]
Reading edition
“The Board of Trade had proposed ... collecting the duties ... the justice of the restrictions on trade was denied and their authority questioned; and when the officers of the customs asked for ‘writs of assistance’ to enforce them, the colony regarded its liberties in peril. This is the opening scene of American resistance. It began” in 1761 ... “in a court-room ... James Otis ... stood up ... the champion of the colonies.”—Idem., vol. iv., ch. 18, p. 414.