similar number in the Commonwealth. This is apparent on the bare statement, as forty-four sticks are stronger in one compact bundle, than when apart or in small parcels. Thus, while other counties are divided, the delegation from Boston is united. In all political contests, it is like the well-knit Macedonian phalanx, or the iron front of the Roman legion, in comparison with the disconnected, individual warriors, against whom they were matched. But this abuse is to be removed; and here is the beginning-I had almost said the inauguration of a true electoral equality in our Commonwealth.

And now, in conclusion, while thanking gentlemen for the kind attention with which they have honored me, let me express briefly the result to which I have come. I have openly declared my convictions with regard to the District System, and in accordance with these, have recorded my votes in this Convention. These votes, which reveal my inmost desires on this matter, I would not change. But the question is not now between the District System, which I covet so much for Massachusetts, and the proposed amendments; but between these amendments and the existing system. On this issue I decide without hesitation. I shall vote, sir, for the propositions of amendment now before the Convention, should they come to a question on their final passage; not because they are all that I desire; not because they seem to satisfy the requirements of principles which I cannot deny; not because they constitute a permanent adjustment of this difficult question; but because, they are the best which I can now obtain; because they reform grievances of the existing system; and, because,

they begin a change, which can end only in the establishment of a Representative System, founded in reality, as in name, on equality. Their adoption will be a triumph of conciliation and harmony, and will furnish new testimony to the well-tempered spirit of our institutions,

"Where jarring interests, reconciled, create

The according music of a well mixed State."

BILLS OF RIGHTS; THEIR HISTORY AND POLICY.

SPEECH ON THE REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON THE BILL OF RIGHTS, IN THE CONVENTION TO REVISE AND AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF MASSACHUSETTS, 25TH JULY, 1853.

As Chairman of the Committee on the Bill of Rights, Mr. Sumner submitted a Report, on which, in Committee of the Whole, he spoke as follows:

MR. CHAIRMAN: As chairman of the Committee on the Preamble and Bill of Rights, it belongs to me to introduce and explain their Report. It will be perceived that it is brief and proposes no important changes. But in justice to the distinguished gentlemen with whom I had the honor of being associated on that Committee, I deem it my duty to suggest that the extent of their labors should not be judged by this result. It appears from the proceedings of the Convention of 1820, that the Committee on the Bill of Rights at that time sat longer than any other Committee. I believe that the same Committee in the present Convention might claim the same pre-eminence. Their records show twenty different sessions.

At these sessions, the Preamble and the Bill of Rights, in its thirty different propositions, were passed in review and considered, clause by clause; the various

orders of the Convention, amounting to twelve in number; the petitions addressed to the Convention and referred to the Committee; and also informal propositions from members of the Convention and others, were considered; some of them repeatedly and at length. On many questions there was a decided difference of opinion and on a few the Committee was nearly equally divided. But after the best consideration we could bestow upon them in our protracted series of meetings, it was found that the few simple propositions, now on your table, were all upon which a majority of the Committee could be brought to unite. As such I was directed to present them to the Convention. And here, sir, admonished by the lapse of time and the desire to close these proceedings, I might be content with this simple statement.

But, notwithstanding the urgency of our business, I cannot allow the opportunity to pass—indeed I should not do my duty—without attempting for a brief moment to show the origin and character of this part of our Constitution. In this way we may learn its weight and authority and appreciate the difficulty and delicacy of any change in its substance or even its form. I will try not to abuse your patience.

The Preamble and Bill of Rights, like the rest of our Constitution, were from the pen of John Adams; among whose published works the whole document, in its original draught, may be found. At the time when he rendered this important service to his native Commonwealth and to the principles of free institutions everywhere, he was forty-five years of age. But he was not unprepared. The natural maturity of his powers had been enriched by the well-ripened fruit of

assiduous study and of an active life, both of which concurred in him. The examples of Greece and Rome and the writings of Sidney and Locke were especially familiar to his mind. The common law he had made his own, and mastered well its whole arsenal of Freedom. For a long time the vigorous and unfailing partisan of the liberal cause in Boston, throughout its many conflicts; then in Congress, whither he was transferred, the irresistible champion of Independence; and then the republican representative of the united but still struggling Colonies at the Court of France; in the brief interval between his two foreign missions, only seven days after landing from his long ocean voyage, he was chosen a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and at once brought all his varied experience, rare political culture and eminent powers to the task of adjusting the frame-work of government for Massachusetts. As his work, it all claims our regard; and no part bears the imprint of his mind so much as the Preamble and Bill of Rights; nor is any other part authenticated as coming so exclusively from him.

At the time of its first adoption, the Massachusetts Bill of Rights was more ample in its provisions, and more complete in form, than any similar Declaration in English or Colonial history. Glancing at its predecessors, we shall learn something of its sources. First came, long back in the thirteenth century, Magna Charta, with its generous safeguards of Freedom, wrung from King John by the Barons at Runnymede. From time to time these liberties were confirmed, and, after an interval of centuries, they were again ratified, at the beginning of the unhappy reign of Charles I. by a