Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

430 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6.
was a member of the State Senate, and upon the death of Benjamin
Pickman he was chosen president of that body. In 1832 Mr. Bliss
had reported a bill enlarging the jurisdiction of the Court of Common
Pleas in criminal cases and regulating the appointment and
duties of prosecuting attorneys. It passed the House without amend-
ment. The great legislative event of the exciting year of 1835 was
the consideration of the new code. A large committee of the Legis-
lature took the voluminous report of the commissioners for the
revision of the statutes, and considered it during the recess. Mr.
Bliss was chairman of this committee. Governor Davis had mean-
time been elected to the United States Senate, and Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor Armstrong wanted the section about poor debtors to be
stricken out, even threatening to veto the whole bill if this were not
done. Mr. Bliss wrote William B. Calhoun on the matter, and received
this reply : "A single provision is arrayed against the whole
labor of years. It is fashionable to assume responsibility, but this
would be a most fearful kind for any individual." This reassured
Mr. Bliss, and the committee stood firm. Armstrong finally signed
the bill, contenting himself with a protest against the action of the
House requiring him to approve the whole bill or veto it.
AVhen it was rumored in Springfield that Governor Davis was a
candidate for the United States Senate, Judge Oliver B. Morris
wrote Mr. Bliss in a distressed state of mind. He asked : " Are
there any among the whig part}"^ who are willing to remove Governor
Davis from his present situation, and thereby endanger the integrity
of the party in the selection of a successor? . . . The Jackson
folk among us are delighted with the idea." But their and simi-
lar protests were unavailing, and Davis's advancement to the United
States Senate brought the adverse elements of the whig party to
the surface, aud Judge Morris's fears were realized. A convention
of the whig members of the Massachusetts Legislature had nomi-
nated Mr. Webster for the presidency in January, 1835, George
Bliss being on the coumiittee which drew up the Webster appeal to