t acquainted
with prominent men from different parts of the State. So
he advised me to accept, if I would make up my mind that I
would go only for one year, and would after that stick to
the law, and would never look to politics as a profession
or vocation. I accepted the nomination, was elected, and
was made Chairman of one of the Law Committees in the House.

I declined a reelection and devoted myself to my profession,
except that I served in the Massachusetts Senate one year,
1857, being nominated unexpectedly and under circumstances
somewhat like those which attended my former nomination. I
was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee that year. I devoted
all my time, day and even far into the night, to my legislative
duties. I was never absent a single day from my seat in the
House in 1852, and was absent only one day from my seat in
the Senate, in 1857, when I had to attend to an important
law suit. It so happened that there was a severe snow storm
that day, which blocked up the railroads, so that there was
no quorum in the Senate. I could not myself have got to the
State House, if I had tried. I suppose I may say without
arrogance that I was the leader of the Free Soil Party in
each House when I was a member of it. In 1852 I prepared,
with the help of Horace Gray, afterward Judge, who was not
a member of the Legislature, the Practice Act of 1852, which
abolished the common law system of pleading, and has been
in principle that on which the Massachusetts courts have acted
in civil cases ever since. I studied the English Factory
legislation, and read Macaulay's speeches on the subject.
I became an earnest advocate for shortening the hours of labor
by legislation. That was then called the ten-hour system.
Later it has been called the eight-hour system. I made, in
1852, a speech in favor of reducing the time of labor in factories
to ten hours a day which, so far as I know, was the first
speech in any legislative body in this country on that subject.
My speech was received with great derision. The House, usually
very courteous and orderly, seemed unwilling to hear me through.
One worthy old farmer got up in his seat and said: "Isn't
the young man for Worcester going to let me get up in the
morning and milk my caouws."

When a member of the Senate in 1857, I was Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee. I made a very earnest and carefully
prepared speech against the asserted right of the jury to
judge of the