He was a
clergyman, a Universalist, but at an early age he had abandoned his
profession for politics. After serving in the Massachusetts House,
Senate and Council, he was elected to Congress from the Worcester
district, for which he sat during four Congresses. He was a man of
solid qualities without genius of any sort. He was distinguished in
Congress as a Protectionist, and his speeches on the tariff question
were widely circulated by the Whig Party. They were filled with
statistics, and like all arguments based on statistics, they were
subject to a good deal of criticism by the advocates of free trade.
The three judges were respectable, clear-headed gentlemen. Of Cummins
the story is told that, when for the first time a plan of land was
introduced in a real-estate case, he refused to consider the document,
saying: "I will not allow a case to be won in my court by diagrams."
Williams had been chief justice of the common pleas court and he was
estimated as the superior among his associates upon the bench. Judge
Hopkinson was from Lowell, where he had been a favorite of the ruling
class in that city. He was a man of moderate ability. The work of the
commission continued through several months, and some of its
recommendations were adopted by the Legislature.
As the charters of all the banks in the State were to expire in 1850 or
1851, in the latter year, I think, the Legislature authorized the
appointment of a board of commissioners for the examination of the
banks.
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