[2] In order to detect and seize smugglers the crown had resorted to "writs of assistance." The law required that every ship bringing goods to America should come to some established port and that her cargo should be reported at the customhouse. Instead, the smugglers would secretly land goods elsewhere. If a customs officer suspected this, he could go to court and ask for a search warrant, stating the goods for which he was to seek and the place to be searched. But this would give the smugglers warning and they could remove the goods. What the officers wanted was a general warrant good for any goods in any place. This writ of assistance, as it was called, was common in England, and was issued in the colonies about 1754. In 1760 King George II died, and all writs issued in his name expired. In 1761, therefore, application was made to the Superior Court of Massachusetts for a new writ of assistance to run in the name of King George III. Sixty merchants opposed the issue, and James Otis and Oxenbridge Thacher appeared for the merchants. The speech of Otis was a famous plea, sometimes called the beginning of colonial resistance; but the court granted the writ. [3] These acts are complained of in the Declaration of Independence. The king is blamed "For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world," that is, enforcing the trade laws; again, "He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people," that is to say, the vice-admiralty judges and naval officers sworn to act as customhouse officers and seize smugglers. In doing this duty these officers did "harass our people." [4] While the Stamp Act was under debate in Parliament, Colonel Barré, who fought under Wolfe at Louisburg, opposed it. A member had spoken of the colonists as "children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms." "They planted by your care!" said Barré. "No, your oppression planted them in America. Nourished by your indulgence! They grew up by your neglect of them. They protected by your arms! These Sons of Liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defense." The words "Sons of Liberty" were at once seized on, and used in our country to designate the opponents of the stamp tax. Read "The Stamp Act" in Hawthorne's _Grandfather's Chair_. [5] The colonists did not deny the right of Parliament to regulate the trade of the whole British Empire, and to lay "external taxes"--customs duties--for the purpose of regulating trade. But this stamp tax was an "internal tax" for the purpose of raising revenue.