No better or abler body could have been assembled for this purpose than that which met in convention at Boston in November, 1820.

Among these distinguished men were John Adams, then in his eighty-fifth year, and one of the framers of the original Constitution of 1780, Chief Justice Parker, of the Supreme Bench, the Federal judges, and many of the leaders at the bar and in business.

The two most conspicuous men in the convention, however, were Joseph Story and Daniel Webster, who bore the burden in every discussion; and there were three subjects, upon which Mr.Webster spoke at length, that deserve more than a passing allusion.
Questions of party have, as a rule, found but little place in the constitutional assemblies of Massachusetts.

This was peculiarly the case in 1820, when the old political divisions were dying out, and new ones had not yet been formed.

At the same time widely opposite views found expression in the convention.