"ANNOUNCER:" "Whether it's a product for home or business, farm or factory, you can be sure if it's Westinghouse." "[MUSIC PLAYING]" "[SINGING]" "Mr." "Otis, sir." "Good evening to you." "Good evening, Mr. Robinson." "[THUNDER]" "Yes?" "I am Mr. Robinson, collector of customs for the crown." "We have word, Mr. Emory, that you have certain papers here covering a contraband cargo consigned to you within the last few days." "My warehouse is at the foot of Long Wharf, Mr. Robinson." "I conduct my business there." "I conduct my business in whatever place I find it," "Mr. Emory." "What do you want?" "The manifest of the Brig Marianne which docked at Salem two nights ago." "I have been informed on excellent authority that her illegal cargo of molasses and rum was consigned directly to you." "That's not true." "It is true, Mr. Emroy." "Now suppose you hand over the manifest and we'll cause no further unpleasantness." "We can argue this matter tomorrow at my warehouse." "We will argue this matter now in your home." "Either you will deliver up to me that manifest, or I will rip this place apart until I find it." "By what right do you intrude yourselves into my home?" "By authority of the governor." "He has no such authority." "You can't come in here without a search warrant." "I am in here." "I demand to see your credentials." "Ah, a stickler for detail." "Show it to him." "This is not a search warrant." "No." "It is a writ of assistance." "It will do." "It will not do." "These writs have been outlawed in England for 100 years." "This isn't England, Mr. Emroy." "This is Boston." "But by our charter, we are protected under English law." "And by English law, these writs of assistance are void." "Why, in every English court has declared them in violation of Magna Carta." "This Is no search warrant." "It names no names." "Nor does it specifically state the article to be searched or the premise to be searched." "You can't serve a thing like this." "There's nothing there." "Why, true." "Nothing there." "You will stop this illegal search this moment, Mr. Robinson." "It's up to you to stop, Mr. Emory." "Hand me that manifest and we will leave at once." "I haven't got it." "Please." "My good knitting." "Excellent quality." "Only a smuggler could afford them." "No, Don." "SAM ADAMS:" "I tried and I tried and I tried and I've met with nothing but bull-headed dung." "If we're to win in this thing, we must have" "I'll tell you your trouble, Sam Adams." "Huh-Ho." "Friends, settle down." "If Charles is to give a counting of my failure, this is be a long speech indeed." "Not so long." "One word will suffice." "A large word." "Do too large." "Ah, the meanest words usually are the smallest." "The word is "impatient."" "Impatient?" "Well, I do pledge guilty to the charge." "Well, certainly things are wrong here in Boston, but give them time." "These matters have a way of finding their own solution." "It's always been my belief that the true solution is never one that's found, it's one that's earned." "I am impatient to put an end to the deplorable, despicable existence that me Lords of Parliament seem to perpetuate in a land they have never seen nor will ever understand." "Sam, you make it sound a lot worse than it really is." "We're forbidden to trade with any other country but England." "We can't manufacture a product that competes with British industry." "We've prescribed from this end, we're banned from that end." "Well, it all boils down to the point where a man must buy a custom stamp to kiss his wife." "I still say you're too impatient." "I am." "I admit it." "Liberty is a thing I hope to see happen." "Sam." "Sam, look at that." "Writ of assistance." "Was this served on you?" "They broke into my house less than an hour ago." "Robinson and his gang torn the place apart." "China smashed, my personal papers examined and ripped to bits." "Well, my patient friends, what do you think of this?" "If Robinson tried to serve a writ like this me," "I'd bash his head in with a barrel stave." "Splendid." "That's all retire to the brewery and stock up with barrel staves." "Trouble is, my friends, I'm afraid we'll give out of barrel staves before the governor gives out of writs." "Come along with me, John." "Where to?" "We'll pay a visit to James Otis." "Otis?" "What do we want with him?" "Why?" "I don't trust him." "He's a man bought by oppression borne by the governor." "I don't think the mints of the world have yet turned out enough coin to buy James Otis." "Come along with me, John." "Turn about." "Let me see how you look." "James." "Think your daughter's a pretty enough gown for the governor's party tomorrow?" "How very frivoly." "Don't you think the bodice is just a trifle low?" "Oh, Father." "Remember, Elizabeth, it is mystery that captures the interests of a man." "Yes, but it's the evidence that holds him." "Elizabeth." "Who is it you're so desirous of holding?" "Ted Brown." "Ah." "Good looking and charming, gentle and heir to a title." "And one of the richest estates in Lancashire." "And a lobster back." "Don't you call him that." "He is so, he's a lobster back, a lobster back." "On account of the likes of him, we have to pay heavy taxes and our ships can't trade with the Indians." "And taxation without representation is tyranny." "And don't tell me it isn't so because Aunt Mercy says it is." "Mary." "Aunt Mercy." "Everything she hears from Aunt Mercy she repeats like parrot." "Aunt Mercy is a patriot." "Mary, that's enough." "There's enough discord and dissidents in the streets of Boston." "We don't have to track it into our home." "I warned you, James, time and again." "Mary's infatuation with your sister will bring us nothing but embarrassment and grief." "How do you think it looks to have your daughter, a daughter of the Advocate General of the province marching about town, her head stuffed full of these wild, rebellious ideas." "What would you have me do, Ruth?" "Well, speak to your sister." "My sister's opinions, like the movements of the heavenly bodies, are things beyond my power to control." "You could forbid Mary to see her." "I will see her still." "You're all afraid." "Afraid to see the truth." "Afraid to admit the his high and mighty Mr. Governor is nothing but a pirate." "A tyrant." "He's even" "[KNOCK ON DOOR]" "Well, Sam Adams." "Good evening, James." "I hope we're not disturbing you." "Ah, not at all." "Come in." "How are you, John?" "Passably well." "Ruth." "You remember John Emroy?" "My daughters, sir." "And Charles." "Thank you." "Of course." "Good evening, Ruth." "Come along, Elizabeth." "I'm very tired." "We have intruded, James." "Nonsense, nonsense." "Our business is urgent." "Oh, then, come into my study." "Mary, will you fetch up some wine?" "Yes, Father." "Well, gentlemen." "How can I serve you?" "You can call off your dogs." "My dogs?" "Robinson and that gang of thugs he calls his deputies." "Well, what's happened?" "They practically tore John's house apart this evening." "Well, did they have a search warrant?" "Search warrant?" "Don't be ridiculous." "Nothing but a writ of assistance." "Ah, who issued this writ?" "The governor?" "Not in person." "He left that job to Mr. Hutchinson." "I see." "Breaking into a man's house, insulting his family." "And you should have seen your friend Robinson, smirking and sneering as though we were ants he could trample on." "Robinson is no friend of mine." "I know that, James." "Thank you." "But you are in a position to help us." "Oh?" "Well, two ways." "First, use your influence with Governor Bernard to call in these vicious writs." "And if he will not, then the second." "Join with us in our right to have these writs voided in court." "Well, as Advocate General, Sam, my duty would be to defend the writs, not oppose them." "Oh, you'll never do that." "I have no choice." "God help the man who has no choice." "That's not a fair thing to say, Sam." "There's such a thing as the obligations of public office." "Well, there is such a thing as the obligation to one's own conscience, too, James." "How does your heart lie?" "With Bernard and Robinson and the viciousness of the administration?" "Or is it with the people of Boston, your own kind?" "But it doesn't invariably follow that my own kind is always right." "I'm not sure they're right in this case." "There is a law that prevents the colonies from trading directly with the Spice Islands or the West Indies." "It's a bad law, I'll admit, but still a law." "Now the merchants seek to subvert the law by subterfuge, smuggling." "The law seeks to uphold it with the use of force and illegal writs." "I said both sides are in error." "Except for this." "The merchants are protecting their property, their homes." "Bernard is protecting nothing except his own pocketbook and the selfish interests of me Lords of England." "Now this is a time for taking sides, James." "None of us are above this fight." "We're all in it up to our armpits." "We're in it." "You're in it." "I will speak to the governor." "Is that all?" "Isn't that what you want?" "Will you help us rid ourselves of these writs?" "I can't promise that." "Not now." "Well, we won't take up anymore of your time, James." "Let's me on our way, John." "Mary, will you show the gentlemen out?" "Yes, Father." "Sam-- I will do what I can." "Splendid." "Good night, James." "Sam." "Good evening." "Good evening." "She's a pretty as her mother." "Peter, are you certain my brother was coming directly here from the governors?" "PETER:" "Mr. Otis said he would come directly here, yes, Miss Mercy." "32, 39, 44" "You've been doing this a long time, Peter, haven't you?" "Yes, I have, Miss Mercy." "38 years with your father, the judge." "And now 6 years with the young master James." "And during all that time at the end of the day, there is always a perfect balance." "Why I should hope so." "Peter, wouldn't it be wonderful if one day your figures should refuse to balance?" "If they were suddenly taken with a spirit of independence." "A defiance against the discipline, the tyranny of mathematics." "Suppose they should suddenly marshall of all their numbers, and in stout columns, march off the page of your ledger, shouting out their defiance, proclaiming their independence to add up to whatsoever sum fitted their arithmetic pleasure?" "What would you think about that?" "I think it would make it most difficult to conduct a commercial enterprise." "Possibly." "But it would be wonderful balm to the dignity of a digit." "JAMES OTIS:" "I didn't bring the matter up." "The time didn't seem propitious." "SAM ADAMS:" "Oh." "JAMES OTIS:" "Besides, I don't think it will do any good." "The governor's determined to uphold the Navigation Acts, and he will would use these writs as he pleases." "The merchants will fight this, James." "I suppose they will." "Well, who will we get to take the case up in court?" "I don't know." "There are many confident lawyers in Boston, Sam." "Confident enough to stand up against Bernard" "Hutchinson and company." "Well, you'll find he out." "We have found him." "You." "Sam." "There is no one else, James, just you." "Have a good day." "You are the only man, James." "Now Mercy, what are you doing here?" "The one and only man." "What are you talking about, Mercy?" "Well, you've got to do it." "You have to stand up and fight the things that are happening in this town." "You've got to take the side of the merchants." "Why should I?" "Because" "Why should I take the side of the merchants?" "Because it's the side you were born to." "James, can't you see what's happening?" "What do you you is happening, Mercy?" "The most irresistible force in the world." "Change." "The people are emerging, coming out of dark into the open." "Finding they like the smell of liberty." "England refuses to believe that." "They're trying to hold on to today with the dead ideas of yesterday." "They refuse to believe America's coming of age." "Trying to rock a grown man in the cradle of an infant." "There are factors in this beyond the emotional, Mercy." "Beyond even the patriotic." "What factors?" "The future of my career, the well being of my family." "So you're balancing your books, too?" "Is that it?" "I don't know what you mean, Mercy." "If you don't know what I mean, James, then I'm wasting my time." "I can't quite understand why all this ruckus about a few shillings tax." "Seems a bit ungrateful to me considering all England's done to save the colonies from the trenchant Indians." "Why the complaints?" "Why the complaints?" "I will tell you why, leftenant." "Because Boston, the nature of the place." "And what is Boston?" "Boston is a town founded on complaint and perpetuated by a race of lawyers who were born with a petition in one hand and a writ in the other." "On judgment day, I'm sure that the hand of the Lord will be stayed by some infernal litigation still pending in the courts of Boston." "Mr." "Cavanaugh." "Mr. Hutchinson." "Your Excellency, my deepest regrets." "Hutchinson, where have you been?" "You missed an excellent dinner." "Oh, that I am sure, sir." "With your permission, I wonder if I might have a word in private with your Excellency for a moment?" "What?" "Tear myself away from this congenial company?" "I should say not." "Come, sir, speak your speech." "I'm sure that no vital state secrets are involved." "As you wish." "Madam." "I had occasion to stop by the British Coffeehouse this afternoon and I, ah, I overheard a conversation that was so intriguing, it kept me sitting there much longer than I had anticipated." "Sir, it seems the merchants of Boston are combining into a conspiracy against Your Excellency." "They're always conspiring against me." "What is it this time?" "They're going to take legal action in court to prevent any further use of the writs of assistance." "Legal action?" "Go to court?" "Yes, precisely." "Go to your court, Hutchinson?" "Yes." "Go to your court and ask you to declare my writs illegal?" "Yes." "Ha, ha, ha." "Very comical." "What is not so comical is the fact they've already selected the man to lead their fight in court." "So?" "And who might that be?" "Sam Adams?" "No." "Not Adams." "Jim." "Mr." "Otis." "Perhaps you could help us with a little matter." "What is it, Mr. Hutchinson?" "Mr." "Otis, it's very disturbing to hear talk in a public place that our, ah, distinguished Advocate General proposed to go to court not to defend an action of our Governor, but to, ah, challenge it." "What's this?" "Mere gossip, Mr. Otis." "I hardly think this is the time or the place to discuss this matter." "Oh, His Excellency thinks it is the time." "And a most congenial place to discuss it." "Is it, ah, is it true, Mr. Otis?" "Well, Otis?" "It is quite true that I have been approached by a group of citizens who have asked me to consider the matter." "What did you tell them?" "I told them I would consider it." "Consider it?" "I also promised them I would discuss the problem with Your Excellency and I hope you would see your way clear to discontinue the issuance of these writs." "How dare you even suggest that I would listen to you." "They will cause nothing but mischief, Your Excellency." "James, please." "My dear." "In the face of them, no home is safe from intrusion by any subordinate from the customs house." "This violates one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed every citizen under English law." "You are my Advocate General, sir, and you will defend these writs in court." "I say" "I order you to defend them." "You order?" "I do." "You overestimate your position, sir." "I'll decide" "There is nothing in your commission that gives you the authority to order me to defend an illegal act." "You are the Advocate General, sir." "I am not your Advocate General." "I give you back your precious post." "James." "[THUNDER]" "Father." "Where are mother and Elizabeth?" "They stayed." "[THUNDER]" "Lightning has always fascinated me since I was a child." "It comes from the heavens like a revelation of truth, suddenly and with fire." "You know, Mary, I'll tell you something." "What is it, Father?" "I've always had a curious feeling that when God Almighty in his providence should take me from time into eternity, it should be by a bolt of lightning." "Don't say that." "[THUNDER]" "Why not?" "Makes me shiver." "Ah, ha, ha." "Makes me afraid." "[THUNDER]" "ANNOUNCER:" "Now that you've seen part one of "A Bolt of Lightening," let's turn to our Westinghouse program and Betty Furness." "Don't buy until you see these." "Hm." "Wonder what they are." "These are instruction books for different makes of refrigerators." "Usually you don't get to see these books until the refrigerator is delivered to your door." "But believe me, you'd save yourself a lot of confusion and really know what you're buying if you'd read that book carefully before you buy." "For instance, what does it mean to you when a refrigerator claims in its advertising that there's no defrosting." "Well, I know of three different refrigerators that make this claim." "And yet the instruction book on the first one says," ""Frost does build up on the freezer."" "And in preparing to defrost it, the book advises you to "remove the frozen foods."" "Now is that your idea of no defrosting?" "The second book advises you "when the frost gets thick" to "scrap it off," like that." "Now that isn't my idea of no defrosting." "And the third book frankly says that you can speed up defrosting by placing a pan of hot water in the freezer." "Obviously, these refrigerators don't mean the same thing that Westinghouse means when it says no defrosting." "Here is the Westinghouse Care and Use book." "And it says, "The Westinghouse frost-free refrigerator completely eliminates the disagreeable task of defrosting."" "Now that means that you never have to take your frozen food out of here, because the frost-free defrosts itself so quickly that the frozen foods stay safely, steadily frozen all the time." "And of course, you don't have to scrape the frost off here because it never gives the frost a chance to build up." "And as for putting pans of hot water in here, well, of course, you never have to do that, because the frost-free refrigerator is completely automatic." "As the Westinghouse Care and Use book says, right here," ""There is nothing for you to do and nothing for you to touch."" "Now that's what Westinghouse means by no defrosting." "So if you want the only refrigerator that never needs any kind of defrosting, just look for this magic [INAUDIBLE] button." "It's the sign of the frost-free system." "Yes, when you own a Westinghouse frost-free refrigerator, your defrosting chores are gone forever." "And I don't mean one chore or two chores or three." "But I mean every single defrosting chore." "So own the only truly, completely automatic refrigerator." "Remember, you can be sure if it's Westinghouse." "ANNOUNCER:" "Now let's return to Westinghouse Studio" "One, and "A Bolt of Lightning."" "What do you think, Sam?" "I think it's fine." "I think I've made my point strongly enough." "Oh, yes, yes." "Yes, a good speech and a good wine requires a touch of irony, otherwise, they both have the tendency to make one seek the solace of the nearest couch." "If one must go to sleep, the liquid route is preferable to the verbal one." "Oh, Ruth, you might see the latest draft here of James' speech." "It's really the finest I think" " Ruth" " Am I your very special villain, Ruth?" "[INAUDIBLE]." "Thank you." "You haven't eaten all day." "Ruth, we've been friends and very good friends, too, for a long time." "Losing that friendship would be a very heartbreaking thing for me." "I don't think you have a heart, Sam." "I think you're selfish." "I think you're dangerous." "I think you're mad." "Ruth." "No, no, no, let her say it, James." "I think what you've done to James in the past few months is despicable." "What have I done?" "What have you done?" "You've destroyed him." "JAMES OTIS:" "Ruth." "You have destroyed him." "His career is as good ended." "Why, there isn't a respectable client in Boston who'd retain him again." "JAMES OTIS:" "Well, we've managed so far, Ruth." "Managed to dig our way deeper and deeper into debt." "Where will we end, James?" "In a rookery down by Long Wharf?" "I live by the docks and I like it." "Then stay by the docks with the scum and rabble of the waterfront." "Why do you intrude yourself among decent people of Boston?" "People who want nothing but peace." "[INAUDIBLE]." "Only the poor people want peace, too." "But there's something else they want." "Do you know what it is?" "Trouble?" "No, that's not what they want, that's what they acquire." "But there is something that they want, deeply, passionately." "I think the good folk of Back Bay want the same thing." "It's a very simple thing." "They want the freedom to have a lock on the door of their homes." "Oh, that's ridiculous." "No, no it isn't, Ruth." "Sam's put his finger on the very heart of the matter." "That's why I fight to bar my door against intrusion." "Whether I'm a foot pad or a constable." "The right to the honorable state of privacy." "The right to have a door to my home and the right to lock that door." "I can't argue with you, James." "I haven't the will." "All I know is that a very few months ago you were respected by every family in the community." "Now, look at us now." "Elizabeth is the running off to Nova Scotia so she can marry Leftenant Brown and raise a family far from the disgrace of her father." "Boston is no place for her." "It's no place for me, either." "Elizabeth wants me to go with her." "And will you go?" "I would love it dearly." "SAM ADAMS:" "Sorry, James." "Elizabeth is overwrought." "I apologize." "Well, we're overwrought and tired." "It's a great deal of work to put into a hopeless cause." "A hopeless cause, James?" "Yes." "No matter what I say or how I say it," "Hutchinson will never dare to declare these writs illegal." "I hope you're right, James." "Hope I'm" " Don't you want to win this case?" "No." "I want Hutchinson to declare them legal." "I want Bernard to keep issuing them." "I might want the collectors of custom to execute them." "I want [INAUDIBLE] to be compounded on [INAUDIBLE] until the people cry out in fury." "I don't want to win a skirmish, James, I want to win a war." "War." "You've used that word before, Sam." "I don't like it." "I'm a loyal British subject." "The idea of war with Britain's revolting to me." "It's treasonable." "I insist our grievances can be settled and must be settled within the framework of English law." "You know law, James, but I know people." "And when one group, nation, race, or any combination of human sets out to impose its will on another, to enslave and deprave them, then look to the barricade and not the law courts for relief." "When defense of liberty becomes treason, then surely treasonous is defensible." "More, it's desirable." "But in this matter, I'm not the rebel." "No, nor can you accuse me of treason." "Bernard, Hutchinson, me lords of parliament, the ministers of the king, look to them if you look for treason, James." "Well, by their very act they subvert, they twist, deny, destroy the guarantees of liberty, which are the very blood of English law and that is true treason." "That is sedition in its most naked sense." "I'll see you in court tomorrow, James." "Fine." "And I hope to win." "Win?" "Yes." "A hopeless cause?" "Yes, Sam." "Well, I've only one other thing to say to you, James." "What is that, Sam?" "Stand firm." "Against all the forces that will try to drain from you your will to struggle, you stand firm." "Well, Mistress Mary, where do you think you're going?" "Shh." "I'm walking in my sleep." "Then walk right back around and up to your own room." "Can't I come down for just a minute?" "No." "Half a minute?" "No." "I'm a rebel." "I don't obey orders." "Ha, ha." "You're a vixen." "I'm just awful." "Tell them." "Is it finished?" "What?" "The speech you're going to make in court tomorrow." "And can I come?" "Aunt Mercy says she'll take me." "Yes, on both counts." "Oh, wonderful." "Can I hear it?" "Now?" "Please." "Oh, Mary." "I won't go to sleep if you don't." "I swear I won't." "Well, just a bit, then." "I'll be [INAUDIBLE]." "Order in the court." "Order in the court." "We will hear the petition of the merchants of Boston and [INAUDIBLE] on writs of assistance." "The attorney for the petitioner, Mr. Otis." "May it please your honor." "I appear on behalf of the citizens of this town." "I was solicited to argue this cause as Advocate General because I would not I have been charged by some with desertion from office." "To this charge I give a very sufficient answer." "I renounce that office." "I argue against these writs, not for them because I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers and faculties God has given me, oh, such instruments of slavery on the one hand, and villainy on the other which" "these writs of assistance most truly are." "Here, here." "Order in the court." "Order in the court." "Order in the" "In the court." "Order in the court." "Order in the court." "Let it be known that I shall not again tolerate any such disturbance from the galleries." "[LAUGHTER]" "Continue, sir." "One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house." "A man's house is his castle." "And whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his castle." "These writs of assistance, if declared legal, will totally annihilate this sacred human right." "[CHEERING]" "There'll be order in this court." "I will have order." "With these writs, customs house officers may enter our houses as they please." "We are commanded to permit their entry." "Their menial servants may enter." "They break locks, bars, everything in their way." "And whether they break through malice or revenge, no man, no court can inquire." "There is a law written in men's hearts before parliaments were dreamed of." "A man's right to his home is derived from nature and the author of nature." "And is inherent, inalienable and indefeasible by any laws, pacts, contracts, covenants or stipulations which man can devise." "In his house, man is an independent sovereign." "The club he snatched from a tree, for a staff or for defense, it's his own." "His bow and arrow is his own." "If by a pebble he has killed a partridge or a squirrel, it is his own." "The right to property, to maintain and defend that property is beyond question." "And beyond the means of any officer of government to deny." "Most honored sir, the security of life, liberty and property, which surely includes one's dwelling, has been the object of all struggles against arbitrary power, civil or political, temple or law, spiritual, military, or ecclesiastical, in every age." "Listen to me, sir." "And hear this." "If the king of Great Britain, in person, were encamped on Boston" "Common at the head of 20,000 men, with all his navy on our coast, he would still be unable to execute these writs." "The people, sir, they will resist." "They will resist." "[CHEERING]" "[INAUDIBLE]." "When Father said, when his speech was over, the people-- all the people-- stood up on the benches and shouted out their applause." "And old Hutchinson pounded with his gavel on the desk until it nearly shook to pieces." "But he couldn't quiet them, mama." "The people, they cheered Father, over and over again they cheered him." "I have no doubt they cheered." "That's the easiest thing to do." "Cheers and applause." "Good payment for actors and fools." "But mama, everybody in Boston's talking about Father." "That's right." "Talking about him." "Saying he sold himself to the devil." "No one says that." "That's what the decent people say." "The decent people?" "You mean the snobs." "Aunt Mercy says" "That will be enough, Mary." "Go to your room." "But Mother, I" "Do as I say." "You should be proud." "Both of you." "Proud?" "Proud of what?" "Proud of the cheers of the mob?" "Well, we'll make a neat package of those cheers and offer them to the green grocer." "What will they buy?" "Flour?" "Corn?" "Tea?" "When you're hungry, Mary, try the taste of cheers." "You bungled it." "You failed me completely." "Well, I really don't think that's being quite fair of Your Excellency." "I don't give anything whether you-- you think or don't think." "You bungled it." "You allowed Hutchinson to get up" " Otis to get up, only to perform in front of a court as I've never seen anyone behave in a court of law." "Well, what do you want me to do?" "Shut him up." "I tried but I couldn't." "Obviously." "Well, I can see that I'll have to undertake this little thing by myself." "Then I'm sorry." "You may go." "But" "Do you hear?" "Go at once." "Mr. Robinson." "Yes, sir." "You were in court this morning, weren't you?" "Yes, I" " I was there, Your Excellency." "And how did Mr. Otis' performance strike you?" "Oh, he's got a silver tongue, no taking that away." "No, I understand that he took of trouble to make some very pointed remarks about your behavior as my Collector of Customs." "He did that." "I would like to ask you one thing, Mr. Robinson." "Do you find these writs at all, ah, well, ah, helpful in the pursuit of your duties?" "Why, it's a piece of paper I can shove under their noses." "Not that I couldn't be just as persuasive without it, if you know what I mean, Your Excellency." "Yes, I understand." "My boys-- that is, my deputies, they know how to do their work." "And so I've been told, and with enthusiasm." "Well, being loyal officers of the King, sometimes they do let their sense to duty get the best of their naturally gentle dispositions." "Yes, well I, uh, I have a little favor to ask of you, Mr. Robinson." "There is a faction in this town that's causing me a great deal of annoyance." "Yes, they're upsetting the usual placid nature of this colony." "And we, all of us, wish to maintain peace and quiet." "Hm, by all means, peace and quiet." "James Otis, Sam Adams, John Hancock" "Troublemakers, all of them" " I know what I'd do if I had a free hand." "Well, I'm quite satisfied on that score, Mr. Robinson." "Of course, in your official capacity, there isn't much you can do." "Oh, that's the sad truth." "But as an individual, there's a free man who has been up to-- put up to public ridicule as, ah, no doubt this morning you were by Otis." "Well, I should think" "Is this the favor you're asking of me, Your Excellency?" "Oh, I'm asking nothing specifically." "But if Mr. Otis could be shown the errors of his ways." "If an example could be set." "If others of his rebellious brethren would be shown what happens when one defies or attempts to destroy the King's law." "I understand." "You do." "Perfectly." "Good." "I think you will find this a rather profitable little undertaking, Mr. Robinson." "Well, I was never known to turn my back on a little honest profit." "I shouldn't think so." "Might I?" "Pray, do." "Well, James." "You're the man of the hour." "This time tomorrow, the Sons of Liberty will be distributing copies of your speech in every corner of the country." "Charleston, Richmond, Philadelphia, New York." "I hear them take up the cry-- the people, sir, they will resist." "It will become a rallying call that will sweep across the country with the fire of a lightning bolt." "I must go, Sam." "No, no, stay." "No, I have to go home." "Why?" "Elizabeth is leaving on the night packet for Nova Scotia." "Oh." "Ruth is going with." "I'm sorry, James." "I had my fair warning and she gave me my choice this morning before I went to court." "Call off the case, she would remain in Boston." "Go on with it, she would leave with Elizabeth." "She didn't mean it, James." "I know Ruth." "Well, not quite as well as I do." "She meant it." "Nothing will change her." "Ruth is kind, understanding, unselfish, but she has more than a fair share of pride." "This thing has cut us apart." "All that we had was broken." "Well, cousin Sam." "Why, John." "I don't believe you've met my esteemed relative." "James, this is John Adams of Braintree." "John, this is James Otis." "Pleasant meeting you, sir." "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Otis." "I was in a courtroom today." "I heard your magnificent speech." "It was a speech that breathed into this nation the very breath of life." "Well, it's nice of you to say so." "Robinson." "What the devil does he want here?" "I've been looking for you, Otis." "Have you?" "I've got something to say." "Well, say it then." "You're a sneaking, rank contemptible rebel, Otis." "A liar and a slanderer." "I've slandered no one." "You slandered me and my men." "Good, loyal officers of the King." "You said they broke locks." "Called us menial servants." "Well, I'll not let you get away with that." "I have no wish to enter into a public brawl with you, Robinson." "I'm not interested in your wishes, Mr. Otis." "I'm calling you a lying, contemptible troublemaker." "And it's time you learned your lesson." "And the rest of you that are huddled around here, wanting treason." "It's time you learned your lesson, too." "You've a slick tongue, Mr. Otis." "Maybe this will help you to keep it quiet." "JOHN ADAMS:" "Stop him." "Don't let them get away." "Never mind them, John." "Get a doctor quickly." "Quickly." "Mary, Mary, you should go to bed." "No." "Go to your room." "I won't." "You can't expect the child to leave while the doctor is still in with James." "It's very late, Mary." "There's no point in sticking around." "I'll come and tell you what the doctor says, as soon as he comes out." "Mother, please." "Oh, let her stay, Ruth." "Mercy, listen to me." "I want you to get out." "Ruth." "Get out and stay out forever." "What's Aunt Mercy done?" "She hasn't done" "Be quiet, Mary." "If your mother desires me to leave, of course I shall." "I'll pray for him." "How badly is he hurt, doctor." "Surface wound." "Doesn't seem to be very serious." "But I'm afraid he's suffered considerable discomfort to the brain." "He will get well." "These things are unpredictable, Mrs. Otis." "He'll need constant care for a long time, and quiet." "I think it would be best now if you were all to leave." "Anything you want or need, Ruth, whatever I can do." "You've done quite enough as it is, Sam." "Can we see him, doctor?" "For a little while, yes." "ANNOUNCER:" "And now let's pause and look at that Westinghouse program again." "Thanksgiving, a holiday." "Now it certainly doesn't look like a holiday for mother." "BETTY FURNESS:" "It sure doesn't, the poor dear." "Mom has to keep that turkey company, watching it like a hawk." "There she goes to baste it again so it won't turnout dry." "But there wouldn't be any basting or any worrying, or any work at all to roasting a turkey if she had this completely automatic Westinghouse electric roaster oven." "Let me show you how easy it to roast a turkey in this Westinghouse roaster." "First, pick up that nice, fat bird and set it into the roaster like that." "And there's plenty of room." "See?" "Then you put on the self-basting lid with the look-in cover." "Then you set the Tru-Temp dial to 300 degrees." "Then you stay out of the kitchen and leave that turkey alone." "Your Westinghouse will roast it to perfection, baste it automatically, and turn it out so tender and juicy that you'll say, why, there just never was such a turkey." "Oh my goodness, I almost forgot." "Here are the whipped potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner." "Don't they look just perfect?" "That's what this handsome Westinghouse Food Crafter does." "It mashes them, and then it whips them until they turn out fluffy and creamy like that." "And this wonderful Food Crafter also mixes cake batter, it grinds meat and vegetable." "It juices oranges." "It does just dozens of other things." "So, well, why not give mother something extra to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day." "She'll love this new Food Crafter and she'll love the Westinghouse electric roaster oven." "Because they'll do her work for her, not only on Thanksgiving, but most every day." "Remember you can be sure if it's Westinghouse." "ANNOUNCER:" "We return now to Westinghouse Studio" "One and "A Bolt of Lightning."" "William." "Look." "At 10 o'clock this evening, a Mr. Williams, who's a farmer from Roxbury, is going to be at the Winston's place with a wagon." "Have some men there to load the canon." "I'll do that, but do you think you'll be able to smuggle it by the Red Coat pickets?" "Well, I'll have no trouble getting it by this time." "False papers?" "Manure." "And fresh and tangy it'll be." "A wagon load." "And I don't think the pickets will be too particular about prodding through it." "Oh, that's dandy." "In war, me lad, it's called strategy." "Now be off." "Aye, which way will the wagon be headed to?" "Straight for Bunker Hill." "William Wooley." "Have you lost all your sense of manners?" "You might at least doff your cap to an old acquaintance." "Sorry, ma'am." "Don't mumble." "Sorry ma'am." "That's better." "Why aren't you with the troops?" "Well, ma'am" "Speak up." "What" "Well, ma'am" "What are you doing in Boston?" "If you must know, I'm here to do a bit of spying." "Spying." "What do you men know of spying?" "Why, one woman behind a lace curtain can find out more in an hour than a dozen men could in a week of snooping." "Now what is it you want to know?" "Well, ma'am" "Speak up, William." "I'm a trifle deaf." "You know that." "Colonel Prescott is hankering to know the disposition of the British troops." "Oh, that." "General Gage has four regiments camped on the Common." "This morning he moved the first highlanders and the royal brigoon up Common Street to Lynn." "General Howe has 3,000 troops aboard the fleet." "And they'll be landing tomorrow morning at Charles Town dock." "Is that what you want to know?" "Yes, sir." "Now about the fleet." "The main section is anchored off Royal Battery." "But two Men of War and three sloops are at Hudson Point." "Yes, sir." "Now get you back to Colonel Prescott and tell him Mercy Warren says for him not to waste his soldiers on snooping." "Leave that to the women." "We're practiced hands at the art." "Yes, sir." "Goodbye," "Oh, Mercy." "Mary, my darling." "Come in, please." "Is your mother at home?" "Yes." "Tell her I'm here." "MARY OTIS:" "Aunt Mercy's here." "Come in, Mercy." "Well, nothing's changed." "Not in seven years." "Only people change." "Brocade and woodwork are beyond the reach of time." "Sit down." "I can't offer you tea." "We have none." "There's not a pound of tea in Boston, except the British commissary and the governor's house." "Gage hopes by this blockade for force us into submission." "Actually, these little pinches are just what we need to keep us awake and angry." "I'm sorry, Ruth." "I forgot you don't feel as we do." "I have an island here, Mercy." "An island of the solitude I've built for myself." "I've put up a barricade of silence." "I know nothing of what goes on outside that door." "My husband once told me that he'd fought to maintain the highest state of privacy." "I see to it that this battle at least he's won." "How is James?" "RUTH OTIS:" "How is James?" "Father's mind is almost completely gone, Aunt Mercy." "Up until a little time ago, he seemed almost to getting well." "He'd be fine for days." "Writing letters to Franklin, to Patrick Henry." "He even planned to attend the general assembly." "But then the shadow came down again." "And now he just sits there by his window, never moving." "Never saying a word." "Ruth, you must take him away from here." "Take him away?" "There's plenty of room in the house at Barnstable." "Why should we go there?" "There'll soon be fighting in Boston." "It won't be safe." "He may be hurt." "Possibly." "But he's beyond further hurt, Mercy." "Don't you understand that?" "He lives in a world where nothing exists, not even pain." "Well, then, think of yourself and Mary." "Mary can go, of course, if she likes." "I shall stay here." "I like my little island, Mercy." "And for the little longer that it matters, I'll stay upon it." "Ruth, may I come again?" "Of course." "Come often if you like." "James." "[INAUDIBLE]." "Aye, over to Cambridge." "Bunker Hill." "[CANNONS FIRING]" "[CANNONS FIRING]" "Father." "You frightened me." "Why should I frighten you?" "It's so late." "I was listening to the storm." "The thunder." "Is it my storm, Mary?" "Your storm?" "Is there lightning?" "It's not a storm, Father." "What is it?" "A battle." "A battle?" "Where?" "Bunker Hill, just beyond Charles Town." "The British have been bombing the American line" "Our men are fighting?" "How many?" "I don't know." "Where are they from?" "From all over." "The Minute Men have gathered from all over New England." "They do resist." "The people, they do resist." "James." "Where are you going?" "To Bunker Hill." "But you can't go out." "Why not?" "Well, it's late and dangerous, and you're sick." "No man is ever so sick that he cannot rise up and fight for his people." "Reckon they'll be coming back again." "How many rounds you got left?" "Seven." "I got five." "That will make an even dozen Red Coats a fair bag." "And then what?" "Well, a musket's got two ends and I just as soon bash them as bang them." "William." "Aye?" "Come take a look at this." "Look at what?" "Do you kin the oldster with the breastwork yonder?" "That one?" "Aye, there's an old familiarity about him." "No." "Likely he's a New Hampshire man." "Ah, there's something about him." "If a man can be sure of anything, I'm sure of this." "Sure of what?" "That's James Otis." "Otis?" "It can't be him." "They say his mind's completely gone and that he acts like a child now." "It's him, the old man." "He's right here with us." "It gives me the creeps." "Like I was seeing a ghost." "Well, a ghost's are abroad this day, thanks to your [INAUDIBLE], they carry a musket." "Look to the work at hand, Tom." "Which one do you want?" "The one on the left." "Second in line." "I like [INAUDIBLE] the fifth in line to me." "Life and liberty-- fire!" "The fighting stopped." "Just begun." "A man passing by told me that our men fought wonderfully well." "Three times the British tried to take our positions, three times they failed." "Only when our ammunition was spent did our lines retreat." "Did you say there's news of your father?" "Have they seen him?" "They saw nothing of Father." "Is he dead on that hill, Mary?" "No." "It would have been an end to his torment." "It would be good." "Mother." "It would be good, I'd want it." "God help me, I'd want it." "I prayed for it." "Father." "Father?" "It's a fine beginning, Mary." "A fine first page." "September 1783." "Latest intelligence from the French capitol reports that the peace negotiations are proceeding at an urgent pace." "It is expected that a treaty of peace will be signed at any moment, granting full and complete independence to the former British Colonies in America." "Leave the windows open, Mary." "But it's starting to rain." "I know." "I've been watching this storm gather it's force." "The clouds hunching up on the horizon like sails rent with wind." "And the lightning in the distance coming closer." "Mary, do you remember what I said to you once long ago about the lightning, Mary?" "Yes." "It made me shiver." "Why should it make you shiver?" "What is lightning but a bond of fire binding heaven to earth?" "It always frightened me." "It shouldn't." "If the rain should come in, would you close the shutters?" "I will, Mary." "You sure?" "I promise." "[SINGING]" "This is Paul Brentson." "We'd like you to meet Mr. Thomas EG Paradime, national vice commander of the American Legion, and Mr. John H Ashbaugh, vice president of Westinghouse." "Mr." "Ashbaugh, this month, November, is Americanism Appreciation Month." "The American Legion and its auxiliary are doubling their efforts to remind us that the American way is the good way." "And that each one of us is a personal responsibility to see that we keep it that way." "I think that tonight's Studio One show of the story of James" "Otis has made many of us pause to reconsider the blessings of freedom we enjoy." "And so I would like to say on behalf of the Americanism" "Commission of the American Legion, that we salute Westinghouse for this and for many other splendid examples of Americanism you've given us." "Thank you." "Commander Paradime, on behalf of all of us at Westinghouse, we appreciate this tribute by your three million" "American legionnaires." "And I assure you, we will always support the American way of life." "Our sincere thanks to you and your legion." "ANNOUNCER:" "And now here's Betty Furness to talk a kitchen miracle." "Well, this is just an ordinary head of cabbage." "But believe it or not, you can now cook this cabbage without smelling up your kitchen." "Your guests won't even know you had cabbage for dinner." "And the same thing is true of fish or cauliflower, or anything else you cool." "And here's the secret." "It's this wonderful new little bulb that Westinghouse has developed." "It's called the Odor Out, and it's another Westinghouse first." "This Westinghouse Odor Out bulb destroys unpleasant odor." "Now I don't mean that it substitutes a pleasing odor for an unpleasing one." "It gets rid of the odor." "This fixture back here has an Odor Out bulb in it." "Now you just plug it in like that, and it produces odor-destroying ozone from the natural oxygen in the air and makes the air is fresh and sweet as all outdoors." "Best of all, it's cleaner and cheaper to use than chemical preparations." "This is just another example of how the genius of Westinghouse research has found new ways to make life pleasanter for all of us." "Another one of the thousands of reasons why we say you can be sure if it's Westinghouse." "[music PLAYING]" "ANNOUNCER:" "Mr. Heston appeared tonight through the courtesy of [INAUDIBLE]." "And now till next week, this is Paul Brentson saying goodnight for Westinghouse, makers of more than 40 million products for the American home."