Three cemeteries remain intact - King's chapel burying ground, with the graves of John Winthrop and John Cotton; the Old Granary burial ground in the heart of the city, where Samuel Sewall, the parents of Franklin, John Hancock, James Otis and Samuel Adams are buried; and Copp's Hill burial ground, containing the tombs of the Mathers.
As James Otis's vigour and influence declined, Adams took a more and more prominent place in the revolutionary councils; and, contrary to the opinion of Otis and Benjamin Franklin, he declared that colonial representation in parliament was out of the question and advised against any form of compromise.
The beginning of the active opposition to the crown may be placed in the resistance, led by James Otis, to the issuing of writs (after 1 75 2, Otis's famous argument against them being made in 1760-1761) to compel citizens to assist the revenue officers; followed later by the outburst of feeling at the imposition of the Stamp Act (1765), when Massachusetts took the lead in confronting the royal power.
He was a nephew of James Otis, and the son of Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814), who was a member of the Confederation Congress in 1787-1788 and secretary of the United States Senate from its first session in 1789 until his death.
Young Otis graduated from Harvard College in 1783, was admitted to the bar in 1786, and soon became prominent as a Federalist in politics.
