ing with the judiciary. This assurance was given
in the report of a joint committee of the Legislature to whom
the matter was committed, consisting of the leaders of the
Democratic and Republican parties, who reported that there
was no purpose to change the judicial tenure with which the
people were well satisfied. Accordingly I voted for it. The
measure got a bare majority in the House which it would never
would have had without that stipulation. The plan was submitted
to the people again with a proposition that the choice of
delegates to the Constitutional Convention should be by secret
ballot. The people approved the plan by a substantial majority.

I have no doubt that the pledge above mentioned was made in
good faith and that the men who made it meant to keep it.
But before the Convention met two things happened which changed
the conditions. The coalition was wrecked. There were two
causes for its overthrow. One of them was the appointment
by Governor Boutwell of Caleb Cushing to a seat on the Supreme
Bench of Massachusetts. General Cushing was a man of great
accomplishment, though never a great lawyer. He could collect
with wonderful industry all the facts bearing on any historic
question and everything that had been said on either side
of any question of law. But he never had a gift of cogent
argument that would convince any judge or jury. He owed
his success in life largely to the personal favor of men who
knew him and were charmed by his agreeable quality. He was
regarded by the people of Massachusetts as a man without moral
convictions and as utterly subservient to the slave power.
So his appointment was a great shock to the Anti-Slavery men
and made them believe that it was not safe to put political
power in Democratic hands. General Cushing vindicated this
opinion afterward by the letter written when he was Attorney-
General in the Cabinet of President Pierce declaring that
the Anti-Slavery movement in the North "must be crushed out,"
and also by a letter written to Jefferson Davis after the
beginning of the Rebellion recommending some person to him
for some service to the Confederacy. The discovery of this
letter compelled President Grant who had been induced to nominate
him for Chief Justice to withdraw the nomination. The other
cause was the passage of the bill for the prohibition of the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, known as the Maine
law. This measure had passed the