Among the members were Rufus Choate, Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, George N.
Briggs, Marcus Morton, Marcus Morton, Jr., Henry L.Dawes, Charles Allen, George S.Hillard, Richard H.Dana, George S.Boutwell, Otis P.Lord, Peleg Sprague, Simon Greenleaf, and Sidney Bartlett.
There were a good many interesting incidents not, I believe, recorded in the report of the debates, which are worth preserving.
One was a spirited reply made by George S.Hillard to Benjamin F.Butler, who had bitterly attacked Chief Justice Shaw, then an object of profound reverence to nearly the whole people of the Commonwealth.

Butler spoke of his harsh and rough manner of dealing with counsel.

To which Hillard replied, pointing at Butler: "While we have jackals and hyenas at the bar, we want the old lion upon the bench, with one blow of his huge paw to bring their scalps over their eyes." Hillard was an accomplished and eloquent man, "of whom," Mr.
Webster said in the Senate of the United States, "the best hopes are to be entertained." But he lacked vigor and courage to assert his own opinions against the social influences of Boston, which were brought to bear with great severity on the anti-slavery leaders.
Hillard was not so fortunate in another encounter.

He undertook to attack Richard H.Dana, and to reproach him for voting for a scheme of representation which somewhat diminished the enormous political power of Boston.

She elected all her representatives on one ballot, and had a power altogether disproportionate to that of the country.