HKB
Here is all the colour for "Writs of assistance," which the officers of the crown aided by the researches of their learned counsel, Mr. Gridley, could produce.
Where, exclaimed Otis, is your seal of his majesty's court of exchequer? And what has the court of exchequer to do here? But my sheet is full, and my patience exhausted for the present.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, June 24, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
Mr. Otis said such a "writ of assistance" might become the reign of Charles 2d. in England, and he would not dispute the taste of the parliament of England, in passing such an act, nor the people of England in submitting to it; but it was not calculated for the meridian of America. The Court of Exchequer had no jurisdiction here. Her warrants and her writs were never seen here. Or if they should be, they would be waste paper. He insisted however, that these warrants and writs were even in England inconsistent with the fundamental laws, the natural and constitutional rights of the subjects. If, however, it would please the people of England, he might admit, that they were legal there, but not here.
Diligent research had been made by Otis and Thatcher, and by Gridley, aided, as may well be supposed, by the officers of the customs, and by all the conspirators against American liberty, on both sides the water, for precedents and examples of any thing similar to this writ of assistance, even in England. But nothing could be found, except the following: An act of the 12th of Charles 2d. chapter 22. "An act for the regulating the trade of Bay-making, in the Dutch Bay-hall, in Colchester." The fifth section of this statute, "for the better discovering, finding out and punishing of the frauds and deceits, aforesaid, be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the governors of the Dutch Bay-hall, or their officers or any of them, from time to time, in the day time, to search any cart, waggon or pack, wherein they shall have notice, or suspect any such deceitful Bays to be, and also from time to time, with a constable, who are hereby required to be aiding and assisting them, to make search in any house, shop, or warehouse, where they are informed any such deceitful Bays to be, and to secure and seize the same, and to carry them to the Dutch Bay-hall; and that such Bays so seized and carried to the said hall, shall be confiscate and forfeit, to be disposed in such manner as the forfeitures herein before mentioned, to be paid by the weavers and fullers, are herein before limited and appointed."
The Dutch Bay-hall made sport for Otis and his audience; but was acknowledged to have no authority here, unless by certain distant analogies and constructions, which Mr. Gridley himself did not pretend to urge. Another ridiculous statute was of the 22d and 23d of Charles 2d. chapter 8th, "An act for the regulating the making of Kidderminster Stuffs."