He said, speaking of Dana: "He should remember that the bread he and I both eat comes from the business men of Boston.

He ought not, like an ungrateful child, to strike at the hand that feeds him." Dana replied with great indignation, ending with the sentence: "The hand that feeds me--the hand that feeds me, sir?
No hand feeds me that has a right to control my opinions!" A _bon mot_ of Henry Wilson is also worth putting on record.
Somebody, who was speaking of the importance of the Massachusetts town meeting, said that it was not merely a place for town government alone, but that it was a place where the people of the town met from scattered and sometimes secluded dwelling- places to cultivate each other's acquaintance, to talk over the news of the day and all matters of public interest; and that it was a sort of farmers' exchange, where they could compare notes on the state of agriculture, and even sometimes swap oxen.

Governor Briggs, who had been beaten as a candidate for reelection by the Coalition, replied to this speech and said, referring to the Coalition, "that the gentlemen on the other side seemed to have carried their trading and swapping of oxen into politics, and into the high offices of the state." To which Henry Wilson answered, referring to Briggs's own loss of his office, "that so long as the people were satisfied with the trade, it did not become the oxen to complain." Undoubtedly the ablest member of the Convention was Charles Allen.

He spoke seldom and briefly, but always with great authority and power.

Late in the proceedings of the Convention a rule was established limiting the speakers to thirty minutes each.