The New Student's Reference Work/Otis, Harrison Gray

Otis, Harrison Gray, an American statesman, was born at Boston, Mass., Oct. 8, 1765. He studied at Harvard College, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. Sent to the legislature in 1796, he soon became leader of the Federal party. He was one of three commissioners sent in 1814 by Massachusetts to Washington to present to the government the subject of the damages inflicted on New England by the war with Great Britain. As United States senator in 1820, in the debate on the Missouri question, he strongly favored the restriction of slavery. He was a popular orator, and opposed the antislavery movement in his later years. He died at Boston, Oct. 28, 1848.