I declined a reelection and devoted myself to my profession,
except that I served in the Massachusetts Senate one year,
1857, being nominated unexpectedly and under circumstances
somewhat like those which attended my former nomination. I
was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee that year. I devoted
all my time, day and even far into the night, to my legislative
duties. I was never absent a single day from my seat in the
House in 1852, and was absent only one day from my seat in
the Senate, in 1857, when I had to attend to an important
law suit. It so happened that there was a severe snow storm
that day, which blocked up the railroads, so that there was
no quorum in the Senate. I could not myself have got to the
State House, if I had tried. I suppose I may say without
arrogance that I was the leader of the Free Soil Party in
each House when I was a member of it. In 1852 I prepared,
with the help of Horace Gray, afterward Judge, who was not
a member of the Legislature, the Practice Act of 1852, which
abolished the common law system of pleading, and has been
in principle that on which the Massachusetts courts have acted
in civil cases ever since.
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