Samuel Allyne Otis (November 24, 1740 – April 22, 1814) was an American politician who was the first Secretary of the United States Senate, serving for its first 25 years.

[1] Early in 1789, as plans went forward for establishing the new Congress under the recently ratified Constitution, a heated contest developed for the job of Senate Secretary.

Supremely qualified for the job, the forty-eight-year-old Otis had been a former quartermaster of the Continental Army, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, member of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and John Adams' long-term ally.

On April 8, 1789, two days after the Senate achieved its first quorum, members elected Otis as their chief legislative, financial, and administrative officer.

As the Senate set down its legislative procedures and carefully negotiated relations with the House and President Washington, Otis became a key player.

The electoral "Revolution of 1800", which shifted control of Congress and the presidency from the Adams Federalists to the Jeffersonian Republicans, gave Otis reason to begin checking his retirement options.

When the seventy-three-year-old Otis died on April 22, 1814, having not missed a single day's work in twenty-five years, senators seemed to truly lament his death.

Cutts' successor, former Pennsylvania Senator Walter Lowrie, held the post from 1825 to 1836, followed by Asbury Dickins, who came within six months of breaking Otis' still-standing quarter-century service record.