Substantive law was considered "once given and immutable." In the ancient tradition of the common law, many embraced the belief that the law was fundamental and immutable and hence incapable of legislative alteration. James Otis, in The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, argued that "the supreme power in a state...[was] jus dicere only...[,while] jus dare, strictly speaking, belong[ed] only to GOD," [Bernard Bailyn Pamphlets, I, 454.]