James Otis, a Boston lawyer and Massachusetts legislator, composes a pamphlet entitled Rights of the Colonies Asserted and Proved. He argues that If the colonists are not directly represented in Parliament, then Parliament has no authority to tax them. The Massachusetts Assembly votes its approval of the pamphlet, and in October it draws up a petition to the king that makes the same case. However, the language of the petition is deemed so offensive that the upper chamber of the legislature, the Council, led by Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, recasts it. In the new version, a defiant call for rights gives way to a deferential request for continued privileges. Writing to Jasper Mauduit, Massachusetts' Parliamentary agent, or lobbyist, Boston representative Thomas Cushing leaves no question about his, or his compatriots', views of the Sugar Act and the proposed Stamp Act.