Whether it's a product for home or business, farm or factory, you can be sure if it's Westinghouse.
Like lightning, his message had flashed across the land.
Like lightning, his voice had stayed here on his hand.
The free that he fought for is still our great pride.
A man is a king at his own fireside.
His name was James Otis. He lived long ago.
His name with a message to see that nothing can stand in the way of the land
with the will and the heart for liberty.
Mr. Otis, sir. Good evening to you. Good evening, Mr. Robinson.
Yes, I am Mr. Robinson, collector of customs for the crown.
We have word, Mr. Emery, 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 Wolf, Mr. Robinson. I conduct my business there.
I conduct my business in whatever place I find it, Mr. Emery.
What do you want?
The manifest of the Brigmarianne, 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. Emery. Now, suppose you hand over the manifest, and we'll cause no further unpleasant.
We can argue this matter tomorrow at my warehouse.
We will argue this matter now in your home.
Either you all deliver up to me that manifest, or I will rip this fight apart till I find it.
What right do you include 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 the tale. 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 wretches have been outworn in England for a hundred years.
This isn't England, Mr. Emery. This is Boston.
By art's order, we are protected under English law.
And by English law, these wretches of assistance are void.
Why, 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 for, or the press to be searched.
You can't serve a thing like this.
There's nothing there.
Quite true. Nothing there.
You will stop this illegal search this moment, Mr. Robinson.
It's up to you to stop, Mr. Emery. Hand me that manifest and we will leave at once.
I haven't got it.
Please. My goodness.
Excellent quality.
Only a smuggler could afford them.
No, John.
Try tonight.
Try tonight.
Try tonight.
I've met with nothing but bullheaded.
Don't excite yourself.
If we're to win this thing, we must have...
I'll tell you your troubles, Sam Adam.
Uh-oh, friends. Settle down.
If Charles is to give an accounting of my failure, this is to be a long speech indeed.
Not so long. One word will suffice.
A large word.
Not too large.
The meanest words usually are the smallest.
The word is impatient.
Impatient?
I do need 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 my lords of Parliament seek 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're 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.
Retive assistance. Was this served on you?
They broke into my house less than an hour ago.
Robinson and his gang tore the place apart.
Trying to smash my personal papers examined and ripped the bits.
Well, my patient friends, what do you think of this?
If Robinson tried to serve a writ like this on me,
I'd bash his head in with a barrel stave.
Splendid. That's all retired to the brewery and stuck up with barrel staves.
Trouble is, my friends, I'm afraid we'll give out of barrel staves before the governor gives out of rits.
Come along with me, John.
Where to?
We'll pay a visit to James Otis.
Otis? What do we want with him?
Words.
I don't trust him. He's a man bought by a question borne by the governor.
I don't think the men of the world have yet turned out enough point to buy James Otis.
Come along with me, John.
Come along with me, John.
Stand back and let me see how you look.
James, think your daughter's prittly enough gone for the governor's party tomorrow?
No, very prittly, David.
Don't you think the buddy's just caught the trifle alone?
Oh, Father.
Remember, Elizabeth, it is mystery that captures the interests of a man.
Perhaps, but it's the evidence that holds him.
Elizabeth.
Who is it you're so desirous of calling?
It's a brown horse.
What is it?
Good-looking and charming.
Gentle.
Ale to a title and one of the richest to states in Lancashire.
And a lobster back.
Don't you call him that.
He is so. He's a lobster back.
A lobster back.
And 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 that mercy says it is.
Mary.
Mercy.
Everything she hears from Mount Mercy, she repeats like a parrot.
That mercy is a patron.
Mary, that's enough.
There's enough discord and dissidence in the streets of Boston.
We don't have to track it into our home.
I warned you, James, time of the game.
Mary's infatuation with your sister will bring us nothing but embarrassment and grief.
How do you think it looks to have your daughter?
The daughter of the Advocate General of the province,
marching about town ahead 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 you still.
You're all afraid.
I'm afraid to see the truth.
I'm afraid to admit that it's high in mind that the governor is nothing but a pirate.
A pirate.
He didn't even go...
Good evening, James.
I hope we're not disturbing you.
Not at all.
Come in.
How are you, John?
Presently well.
Ruth, you remember John Emily?
My daughter's, sir.
Of course.
Good evening, Ruth.
Come along, Elizabeth.
We have intruded, James.
Nonsense.
Nonsense.
Now, business is urgent.
Come into my study, Mary.
Will you fetch up some wine?
Yes, sir.
Well, gentlemen, how can I serve you?
You can call a couple of dogs.
My dog, Robinson, and that gang of bugs he calls his deputies.
What has happened?
They practically tore John's house apart this evening.
How did they have a search warrant?
Search warrant, don't be ridiculous.
Nothing but a rid of assisties.
Who issued this writ?
The governor?
Not in person.
He lent 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 he were ants.
He could trample on us.
Robinson is no friend of mine.
I know that, James.
Thank you.
But you are in a position to help us.
How?
No two ways.
First, use your influence with Governor Bernard to call in these vicious rits.
And if he will not, then the second, join with us in our fight to have these rits voided in court.
Well, is that because, General Sam, my duty would be to defend the rits, 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?
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 trading directly with the spice islands of 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.
Bernard seeks to uphold it for the use of force and illegal rits.
I say both sides are in there.
Except for this.
The merchants are protecting their property, their homes.
Bernard is protecting nothing except his own pocketbook
and the selfish interests of my lords of England.
Now, this is a time for taking sides, James.
None of us are about this fight.
We're all in it up to our armpits.
We're in it, you're in it.
I will speak to the government.
Isn't that all?
Isn't that what you want?
Will you help us rid ourselves of these rits?
I can't promise that.
Not now.
Well, we won't take up any more of your time, James.
We're on our way, Bernard.
Mary, will you show the gentleman out?
Yes, Bernard.
Sam, I will do what I can.
Splendid.
Good night, James.
Good evening.
Good evening.
As cute as pretty as a mother.
Peter, are you certain my brother was coming
directly here from the governor's?
Mr. Otis said you would come directly here,
yet Miss Mercy...
You've been with us a long time, Peter, haven't you?
Yes, I have, Miss Mercy.
Thirty-eight years with your father, the judge,
and now six years with the unmasked 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 the spirit of independence,
a defiance against the discipline, the tyranny of mathematics,
suppose they should suddenly marshal 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 of that?
I think it would make it most difficult
to conduct a commercial enterprise.
Possibly.
But it would be wonderful bombs at the dignity of a digit.
I didn't bring the matter up.
The time didn't seem proficient.
Besides, I don't think it will do any good.
The governor's determined to uphold the Navigation Act.
He will use these rits 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 competent lawyers in Boston.
Confident enough to stand up against Bernard Hutchinson in company.
Well, you'll find them.
We have found him.
You.
There is.
No one else, James, just you.
Have a good day.
You are the only one.
Oh, mercy.
What are you doing here?
They're one and only men.
What are you talking about?
Well, you've got to do it.
You've got 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?
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 think is happening, Missy?
The most irresistible force in the world.
Change.
The people are emerging.
Coming out of the dark, it'll be over.
Finding they like the smell of liberty.
England refuses to believe that.
They're trying to hold on to the day with the dead ideas of yesterday.
They refuse to believe America is coming of age.
Trying to rock a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
There are factors in this beyond the emotional, Missy,
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, Missy.
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 takes.
Seems a bit ungrateful to me,
considering all Indians come to save the colonies
from the French and Indians.
Why the complaints?
Why the complaints?
I will tell you why I left them.
It is 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 are written the other.
On Judgment Day, I'm sure that the hand of the Lord
will be saved by some infernal litigation
still pending in the courts of Boston.
Let us tell the camera, Mr. Hutchingson.
Your Excellency, my deepest regrets.
Just where have you been?
You missed an excellent dinner.
I bet I am sure, sir.
With your permission.
I wonder if I might have a word in private
with your Excellency for a moment.
Walk 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 coffee house this afternoon
and 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 a little 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 rites of the system.
Legal action? Go to court.
Yes, precisely.
Go to your court, Hutchinson.
Go to your court and ask you to declare my rights illegal.
Very comical.
What is not so comical is the fact they've already
selected the man to lead their fight in court.
So, who made that fear? Sam Adams?
No, not Adams.
Mr. Otis.
Perhaps you could help us with a little now.
What is it, Mr. Hutchinson?
Mr. Otis.
It is very disturbing to hear talk in a public place
that our distinguished advocate general purposes
to go to court not to defend the action of our governor,
but to, uh, challenge him.
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 the most congenial place to discuss it.
Is it, uh, 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 may see your way clear
to discontinue the issuance of these rits.
How dare you even suggest that I would listen to you?
Well, they will cause nothing but mischief
your Excellency, my dear. James, please.
In the face of them, no home is safe from intrusion
by any subordinate in 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 rits in court.
I say that...
I order you to defend them.
You order?
I do.
You overestimate your position, sir.
There is nothing in your commission that gives you
the authority to order me to defend an illegal act.
You are my advocate general, sir.
I am not your advocate general.
I give you back your precious post.
James!
Where am I, then, to this day?
This day.
Lightning has always fascinated me.
Since I was a child,
it comes from my heavens like the revelation of truth,
suddenly and with fire.
You know, Mary, I'll tell you something.
What is it?
I've always had a curious feeling
that when God Almighty and His providence
should take me from time into eternity,
it should be by a bolt of lightning.
Don't say that.
You are nuts.
Makes me shiver.
Makes me afraid.
Now that you've seen part one of a bolt of lightning,
it's turned to our Westinghouse program and ready for next.
Don't buy till you see these.
Hmm, 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 scrape 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 foods
out of here because the frost free defrost 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.
And 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 helter button.
It's the sign of the frost free system.
As 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 only only truly completely automatic refrigerator.
Remember, you can be sure if it's Westinghouse.
Now let's return to Westinghouse Studio One
and a bolt of lightning.
What do you think, Sam?
I think it's fine, David.
I think I've made my point strongly enough.
Oh, yes, yes.
It's a good speech.
A good wine requires a touch of minorness,
whereas they both have the tendency to make one seek the solace
at the nearest couch.
And one must go to sleep.
The liquid route is preferable to the verbal one.
Oh, Ruth, you must see the latest draft here of Danger Speech.
It's really the finest, I think.
Ruth.
Am I your very special villain, Ruth?
You can't meet on the plane, Sam.
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 have done to James in the past few months is despicable.
What have I done?
What have you done?
You've destroyed him.
Ruth, you have destroyed him.
His career is as good as ended.
But there isn't a respectable client in Boston who'd retain him again.
We've managed so far, Ruth.
We've 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 a scum and rabble of the waterfront.
Why do you intrude yourself among decent people of Boston?
People want nothing but peace.
Why? Only the poor people want peace?
Well, 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 fact, they want the same thing.
It's a very simple thing.
They want the freedom to have a lock on the door of their homes.
That's ridiculous.
No, it isn't, Ruth.
Sam's put his finger in the very heart of the matter.
That's why I fight to bar my door against intrusion.
Whether by a foot pad or a constable.
The right to the honorable estate 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.
And now, look at us now.
Elizabeth is running off to Nova Scotia
so she can marry Lieutenant 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 where do you go?
I would love it dearly.
Sorry, James.
Elizabeth is overwrought.
I apologize.
Well, we're all 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 rips illegal.
I hope you're right, James.
Don't you want to win this case?
No. I want Hutchinson to declare them legal.
I want Bernard to keep issuing them.
I want the collectors of Custom to execute them.
I want Bill and it to be compounded on Bill and you
until the people cry out in fury.
I don't want to win a skirmish change. I want to win a war.
A war?
You've used that word before, Sam. I don't like it.
I'm a loyal British subject.
The idea of war against Britain is revolting to me.
It's reasonable.
I insist our grievances can be settled and must be settled
within the framework of English law.
You know, Lord James, but I know people.
And when one group, nation, race, or any combination of humans
sets out to impose its will on another to enslave and deprive them,
then look to the barricades and not the law courts for relief.
When defense of liberty becomes treason,
then surely treason is defensible.
More it's desirable.
But in this matter, I'm not the rebel, no. Now, 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.
But 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.
Yes.
A hopeless cause?
Yes, sir.
Well, there's only one other thing to say, James.
What is that, sir?
Stand firm.
Against all the forces that will try to drain from you
your will to struggle, you stand firm.
Well, Mr. Smerry, where do you think you're going?
I'm walking in my sleep.
Then walk right back around enough to your own room.
Can I come down for just a minute?
No.
Half a minute?
No.
I'm a rebel. I don't invade.
You're a vixen.
I'm just awful.
Terrible.
Is it finished?
What?
The speech you're going to make in court tomorrow.
And can I come?
Aunt Rosie says she'll take me.
Yes, I'm both gone.
Oh, wonderful. Can I hear it?
No.
Please.
Oh, Mary.
I won't go to sleep without it.
I swear I won't.
Well, just a bit then.
I'll be happy.
Order in the court! Order in the court!
Open up the petition of the merchants of Warston
and sale them on the rick of assistant.
Your credit for the petition is...
Mr. Oantis.
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
deserter from office.
To this charge I give a very sufficient answer.
to renounce that office.
I argue against these wits, not for them,
because I will to my dying day oppose with all the powers
and faculties God has given me.
All such instruments of slavery on the one hand,
and villainy on the other,
which these wits of assistance most surely are.
Here, here.
All down in the court.
All down in the court.
All down in the court.
All down in the court.
All down in the court.
It has been known that I shall not again tolerate
any such distance from the galleries.
Ha ha ha.
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 wits of assistance, if declared legal,
will totally annihilate this sacred human right.
All down in the court.
All down in the court.
All down in the court.
We'll get over it.
With these wits, 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
for parliaments were dreamed of.
A man's right to his home is derived from nature
and the author of nature.
And is inherent in indelible and indefeasible
by any laws, facts, contracts, covenants,
or stipulations which man can devise.
In his house, man is an independent sovereign.
The club, he snaps from a tree
for a staff or for defense. It is his own.
His bow and arrow is his own.
If by a pebble he is killed a prodridge or a squirtle,
it is his own.
Right to write the property.
To maintain and defend that property is beyond question
and beyond the means of any officer of government to deny it.
Most honored, sir.
The security of my liberty and property
which surely includes one's dwelling
has been the object of old struggles against arbitrary power.
Civil or political, temporal or 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 men still.
The people, sir, they will resist.
They will resist!
What have you just done?
When father was, when his feet was over, the people,
all the people stood up on the benches
and shouted out their flags.
And all hushed and pounded with his gavel on the desk
because nearly shook the pieces.
But he couldn't quiet the mama, the people.
They cheered for her over and over again.
I have no doubt they cheered.
That's the easiest thing to do.
Chills and applause.
Good payment for actors and fools.
But mama, everyone in Boston is 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 snot.
That would be enough, Mary. Go to your rooms.
But, mother, do as I say.
You should be proud.
Both of you are 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 greengrocer.
What will they buy?
Flower, 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 to your excellency.
I don't give anything whether you will think or don't think.
You bungled it.
You allowed Hutchison to get up.
He noticed to get up.
And to perform in front of a court
as I've never seen anyone behave in a court before.
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.
I'm sorry.
Let me go.
But, sir...
You here go at once.
Sir Bobbin.
You were in court this morning, were you?
Yes, I was there, Your Excellency.
And how did Mr. Otis' performance strike you?
He's got a silver tongue.
No, taking that away.
No, but I understand that he took the 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, sir Bobbin.
Do you find these bits at all...
well, at all helpful in the pursuit of your duties?
Well, 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.
So I've been told, and with enthusiasm.
Well, being loyal officers of the King,
sometimes they do let their sense of duty
get the best of their naturally gentle dispositions.
Yes, well, I have a little favor to ask of you, Mr. Bobbin.
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.
Hmm, I all mean peace and quiet.
James Otis, Sir Sam Adams, John Hancock.
Problem makers, all of them.
I know what I'd do if I had a free hand.
Well, I'm quite satisfied on that score, Mr. Bobbin.
Of course, in your official capacity, there isn't much you can do.
That's a sad truth.
But as an individual, as a free man who has been put up to public ridicule,
as no doubt this morning you were by Otis,
well, I should think...
Is this the favor you're asking of me, Your Excellency?
I'm asking nothing specifically.
But if Mr. Otis could be shown the error of his ways,
if an example could be set,
if others of his rebellious brethren would be shown what happens
when one defies their attempt to destroy the King's law.
I understand.
You do? Perfectly.
Good.
I think you will find this father a profitable little...
London taking, Mr. Bobbin.
Well, I was never known to turn my back on a little honest prophet.
Oh, I shouldn't think that way.
Uh, might I?
I 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 can hear them take up the cry.
The people, sir!
They are the people of the world.
They are the people of the world.
They are the people of the world.
They are the people of the world.
I can hear them take up the cry. The people, sir!
They will resist.
Become a rallying call.
It will sweep across the country with the fire of a lightning bolt.
I must go, sir.
Oh, no stay.
No, I have to go home.
Why?
Elizabeth is leaving on the night packet for Nova Scotia.
Ruth is going with her.
I'm sorry, James.
I had my bare warning.
She gave me my choice this morning before I went to court.
Well, after case she would remain in Boston, go on with it.
She would leave with Elizabeth.
What do you mean, James?
I know Ruth.
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 have is broken.
Well, cousin Sam.
Hi, John.
I don't believe you've met my esteemed relative, James.
John Adams of Braintree.
John, this is James Otis.
Nice meeting you, sir.
It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Otis.
I was in the 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, whine, 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.
All this mean your 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 learnt your lesson.
And the rest of you that are huddled around here wanting treason.
It's time you learnt your lesson, too.
You're the slick tongue, Mr. Otis.
Maybe this will help you to keep it quiet.
Stop them.
Don't let them get away.
Never mind them, John.
Get her, 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 sticking around here.
I'll come and tell you what the doctor says as soon as he comes out.
Mother, please.
Oh, let her stay a room.
Mary.
Mary.
Mary.
Mary.
Mary, you should go to bed.
No.
Go to your room.
I won't.
Go to your room.
Mercy, listen to me.
I want you to get out.
Ruth.
Get out and stay out forever.
What's that mercy done?
She hasn't done anything.
Be quiet, Mary.
If your mother desires me to leave, of course I shall.
I'll pray for you.
How badly has he hurt, Doctor?
The surface wound doesn't seem to be very serious, but I'm afraid he's suffered considerable
discomfort in the brain.
He will get welled.
These things are unpredictable, Mrs. Otis.
You'll need constant care for a long time.
Be 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 here.
Now let's pause and look at our Westinghouse program again.
Thanksgiving, a holiday.
It certainly doesn't look like a holiday for mother.
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 turn out 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 is to roast a turkey in this Westinghouse roaster.
First, you pick up that nice back 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 true 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 vegetables,
it juices oranges, it doesn't 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.
We return now to Westinghouse Studio One and the bolt of lightning.
Well, we'll be right back.
William.
Look, at 10 o'clock this evening, Mr. Williams, he's a farmer from Roxbury,
he's going to be at the Wisconsin's place in the wagon.
I have some men there to load the cannon.
I'll do that, but you think you can be able to get smuggled by the Red Coast Picket?
I will. I have no trouble getting it by this time.
Both papers?
No, you are.
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.
And warbillard?
It's called strategy.
I'll be off.
Which way will the wagon be headed to?
Straight for Bunker Hill.
William Woolley, have you lost all your sense of manners?
You might at least off your cap to an older Quinton.
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 better spying.
Spying?
What do you men know of spying?
Why, one woman behind a laced 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.
This hankering can roll the disposition of the British troops.
All that.
General Gage has four regiments camped on the Common.
This morning, he moved the first Highlanders in the Royal Dragoon up Common Street to
Lynn.
General Howe has 3,000 troops aboard the fleet, and they'll be landing tomorrow morning at
Charlestown Dock.
Is that what you want to know?
Yes, ma'am.
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, ma'am.
Now I'll 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.
Wear practiced hands at the art.
Yes, ma'am.
Goodbye.
Come, Mercy.
Mary, my darling.
Come in, please.
Is your mother at home?
Yes.
Tell her I'm here.
Is your mother at home?
Mercy's here.
Come in, Mercy.
Nothing's changed.
Nothing's seven years.
Only people changed.
Well, Caden would work 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 to force us into submission.
Actually, these little pinches are just what we need to keep us awake and angry.
I'm sorry, Rue.
I forgot you don't feel as we do.
I have an island here, Mercy.
An island of solitude I built for myself.
I put up a barricade of silence.
I know nothing of what goes on outside that door.
My husband once told me that he fought to maintain the highest state of privacy.
I see to it that this battle, at least, he's won.
How is James?
How is James?
Father's mind is almost completely gone, Aunt Mercy.
But up until a little time ago, he seemed almost to be getting well.
He'd be fine for days.
Let us to Franklin to Patrick Henry, even plan 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.
Rue, 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?
Just soon be fighting in Boston.
It won't be safe.
He may be hurt?
Possibly.
But he's beyond further hurtness.
So 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.
But I shall stay here.
I like my little island, Mercy.
And for the little longer that matters, I'll stay upon it.
Ruth, may I come again?
Of course.
So often, if you like.
Jane!
You can't come in!
Alright, over to Cambridge.
Bunker Hill!
Father, you frightened me.
Why should I frighten you?
It's so late.
I was listening to the storm thunder.
Is it my storm, Mary?
Your storm?
Is there lightning?
It's not a storm, Father.
What is it?
A battle.
A battle?
Bunker Hill, just beyond Charleston.
A British woman burning the American lines.
Are they not fighting?
How many?
I don't know.
Where are they from?
From all over.
The men have gathered from all over New England.
They do resist.
The people, they do resist.
James, where are you going?
To Bunker Hill.
Don't go out.
Why not?
But 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.
Well, they can even dozen red coats of bare bag.
And then what?
Well, a musket's got two ends and I just as soon bash him as bang him.
William.
Eh?
Come take a look at this.
Look at what?
The Ekenney Ulster, the breastwork yonder.
That one?
Eyes.
I know familiarity about him.
No.
Like reason you Hampshire man.
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.
He said his mind's completely gone and did he act like a child now.
It's him, the old man.
He's right here with us.
He should be great.
Like I was seeing a ghost.
Ghosts are abroad this day.
Thanks be to prophets, victory and muskets.
Look to the work at hand, Tom.
Which one do you want?
The one on the left.
Second in line.
I like a plump fifth in line for me.
Up to the limit, please.
Fire!
The fighting stopped.
It just begun.
A man passing by told me that our men fought wonderfully well.
Three times the British tried to take our position.
Three times they failed.
Only when our ammunition was spent did our line retreat.
Did he say nothing of your father?
Had he seen him?
He saw nothing of father.
Is he dead on that hill Mary?
No.
If he were, it would be an end to his torment.
It would be good.
Master.
It would be good.
I want it.
God help me, I want it.
I pray for it.
Father.
It was a fine beginning, Mary.
Fine first page.
The end.
Pad, September 1783.
Medical intelligence from the French capital reports that the peace negotiations are proceeding at an urgent pace.
It is expected that a treaty of peace will be signed any more, granting full and complete independence to the form of British colonies in America.
Lay the windows open, Mary.
It's starting to rain.
I know. I've been watching the storm gather its force.
The clouds hunching up in the horizon like sails, flat with wind.
The lightning that is coming closer.
Mary, do you remember what I said to you once long ago about the lightning?
Yes.
It made me shiver.
Why should it make you shiver?
What is lightning with a bond of fire binding him into us?
It's always frightening.
It shouldn't.
If the rain should come in, would you close the shutter?
I will.
Be sure.
I promise.
The end.
His name was James O'Riss.
He lives long ago.
Was he that had the courage to sing?
That freedom is sure when a man is secure in his castle of liberty.
This is Paul Brinson.
We'd like you to meet Mr. Thomas E.G. Paradis,
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 has a personal responsibility
to see that we keep it that way.
I think that tonight's Studio One show of the story of James O'Riss
has made many of us pause to reconsider the blessings of freedom that 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 the many other splendid examples of Americanism you've given us.
Thank you, Commander Paradis.
On behalf of all of us at Westinghouse,
we appreciate this tribute by your 3 million American Legionnaires.
And I assure you that we will always support the American way of life.
Our sincere thanks to you, dear Legion.
And now here's Betty Frenes.
Talk about 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.
You guess won't even know you had cabbage for dinner.
And the same thing is true of fish or cauliflower, anything else you cook.
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 as fresh and sweet as all outdoors.
Best of all, it's cleaner and cheaper to use than chemical preparation.
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
Mr. Heston appeared tonight with the courtesy of Hal Wallace.
Mr. Heston appeared tonight with the courtesy of Hal Wallace.
And now until next week, this is Paul Branson saying goodnight for Westinghouse.
Makers of more than 40 million products.
