ed its labours on the
ninth day of October. It was an able body of men. It did not contain,
perhaps, so many distinguished citizens as its predecessor in 1821,
but, like the convention of a quarter of a century before, it included
many men who had acquired reputations for great ability at the bar and
in public affairs during the two decades immediately preceding it.
Among the more prominent were Michael Hoffman of Herkimer, famous for
his influence in the cause of canal economy; James Tallmadge of
Dutchess, whose inspiring eloquence had captivated conventions and
legislatures for thirty years; William C. Bouck of Schoharie, the
unconquered Hunker who had faced defeat as gracefully as he had
accepted gubernatorial honours; Samuel Nelson, recently appointed to
the United States Supreme Court after an experience of twenty-two
years upon the circuit and supreme bench of the State; Charles S.
Kirkland and Ezekiel Bacon of Oneida, the powerful leaders of a bar
famous in that day for its famous lawyers; Churchill C. Cambreling of
New York, a member of Congress for eighteen consecutive years, and,
more recently, minister to Russia; George W. Patterson of Livingston,
a constant, untiring and enthusiastic Whig champion, twice elected
speaker of the Assembly and soon to become lieutenant-governor.

Of the younger delegates, three were just at the threshold of their
brilliant and distinguished careers. John K. Porter of Saratoga--then
only twenty-seven years old, afterward to become a member of the Court
of Appeals and the associate of William M. Evarts as counsel for Henry
Ward Beecher in the Tilton suit--discussed the judiciary in speeches
singularly adapted to reach the understanding of the delegates; Samuel
J. Tilden, who had served respectably but without distinction in the
Assembly of 1845 and 1846, evidenced his inflexible courage and high
intellectual qualities; and Charles O'Conor, already known to the
public, gave signal proof of the prodigious extent of those powers and
acquirements which finally entitled him to rank with the greatest
lawyers of any nation or any time.

Of the more distinguished members of the convention of 1821, James
Tallmadge alone sat in the convention of 1846. Daniel D. Tompkins,
Rufus King, William W. Van Ness, Jonas Platt, and Abraham Van Vechten
were dead; James Kent, now in his eighty-third year, was delivering
law lectures in New York City; Ambrose Spencer, having served as
chairman of the Wh