to be better than the system of electing them by
small single districts, and I think the slight property qualification
was highly useful as a stimulant to saving and economy.

It is, however, a great pity that the labors of this Constitutional
Convention were wasted. It was a very able body of men. With
the exception of the Convention that framed the Constitution
in the beginning, and the Convention which revised it in 1820,
after the separation from Maine, I doubt whether so able a
body of men ever assembled in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
or, with very few exceptions indeed, in the entire country.
The debates, which are preserved in three thick and almost
forgotten volumes, are full of instructive and admirable essays
on the theory of constitutional government. Among the members
were Rufus Choate, Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, George N.
Briggs, Marcus Morton, Marcus Morton, Jr., Henry L. Dawes,
Charles Allen, George S. Hillard, Richard H. Dana, George
S. Boutwell, Otis P. Lord, Peleg Sprague, Simon Greenleaf,
and Sidney Bartlett.

There were a good many interesting incidents not, I believe,
recorded in the report of the debates, which are worth preserving.

One was a spirited reply made by George S. Hillard to Benjamin
F. Butler, who had bitterly attacked Chief Justice Shaw, then
an object of profound reverence to nearly the whole people
of the Commonwealth. Butler spoke of his harsh and rough
manner of dealing with counsel. To which Hillard replied,
pointing at Butler: "While we have jackals and hyenas at
the bar, we want the old lion upon the bench, with one blow
of his huge paw to bring their scalps over their eyes."

Hillard was an accomplished and eloquent man, "of whom," Mr.
Webster said in the Senate of the United States, "the best
hopes are to be entertained." But he lacked vigor and courage
to assert his own opinions against the social influences of
Boston, which were brought to bear with great severity on
the anti-slavery leaders.

Hillard was not so fortunate in another encounter. He undertook
to attack Richard H. Dana, and to reproach him for voting
for a scheme of representation which somewhat diminished the
enormous political power of Boston. She elected all her representatives
on one ballot, and had a power altogether disproportionate
to that of the country. He said, speaking of Dana: "He should
remember that the bread he and I both eat comes from the business
men of Boston. He