lways took a good deal of pride in a saying of Roger Sherman's.
He was asked if he did not think some vote of his would be
very much disapproved in Connecticut, to which he replied
that he knew but one way to ascertain the public opinion of
Connecticut; that was to ascertain what was right. When he
had found that out, he was quite sure that it would meet the
approval of Connecticut. That in general has been in my judgment
absolutely and literally true of Massachusetts. It has required
no courage for any representative of hers to do what he thought
was right. She is apt to select to speak for her, certainly
those she sends to the United States Senate, in whose choice
the whole Commonwealth has a part, men who are in general
of the same way of thinking, and governed by the same principles
as are the majority of her people. When she has chosen them
she expects them to act according to their best judgement,
and not to be thinking about popularity. She likes independence
better than obsequiousness. The one thing the people of Massachusetts
will not forgive in a public servant is that he should act
against his own honest judgment to please them. I am speaking
of her sober, second thought. Her people, like the rest of
mankind, are liable to waves of emotion and of prejudice.
This is true the world over. It is as true of good men as
of bad men, of educated as of ignorant men, whenever they
are to act in large masses. Alexander Hamilton said that
if every Athenian citizen had been a Socrates, still every
Athenian assembly would have been a mob. So I claim no credit
that I have voted and spoken as I thought, always without
stopping to consider whether public opinion would support
me.

The only serious temptation I have ever had in my public
life came to me in the summer of 1882, when the measure known
as the River and Harbor Bill was pending. The bill provided
for an expenditure of about eighteen million dollars. Of
this a little more than four million was for the execution
of a scheme for the improvement of the Mississippi River and
its tributaries, which had been recommended by President Arthur
in a special message. All the other appropriations put together
were a little less than fourteen million dollars. The bill
passed both Houses. President Arthur vetoed it, alleging
as a reason that the measure was extravagant; that the public
works provided for in it were of local interest, not for the
advantage of i