The attendance of
members was not enforced, and it was quite irregular. A full House
consisted of about three hundred and fifty members, but sixty was a
quorum. It was common for merchants and lawyers to call at the House,
look at the orders of the day, and then go to business. In an exigency
they were sent for and brought in to vote.
The House was not a place for luxurious ease. The members sat on long
seats without cushions, having only a narrow shelf on the back of the
seat next in front on which with care a book might be laid or a
memorandum written. A drawer under the seat for the documents
constituted a member's outfit. There were four wood fires--one in each
corner of the great hall. Members sat in their overcoats and hats, and
in one of the rules it was declared that when "a member rises to speak,
he shall take off his hat and address the speaker."
Boston sent John C. Gray, John C. Park, Charles Francis Adams, George
T. Bigelow (afterwards Chief Justice of the State), Edmund Dwight,
Charles P. Curtis, George T. Curtis, John G. Palfrey and others who
were men of mark.
From other parts of the State there were Alvah Crocker, of Fitchburg;
Henry Wilson, of Natick; Thomas Kinnicutt and Benjamin F. Thomas, of
Worcester; John P. Robinson and Daniel S. Richardson, of Lowell;
Samuel H. Walley, Jr.
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