In truth, the Club could never do without thee!
My reasons thus I give thee in a trice,—
You want their votes, and they want your advice!
“Thy tongue, shrewd Perez, favoring ears insures,—
The cash elicits, and the vote secures.
Thus the fat oyster, as the poet tells,
The lawyer ate,—his clients gained the shells.”
Mr. Morton was Speaker of the House from 1806 to 1811, and was attorney-general from 1810 to 1832; was a delegate from Dorchester to the convention for revising the State constitution, in 1820, and was vigorous in general debate. He died at Dorchester, Oct. 14, 1837. He was an ardent patriot, an eloquent speaker, of an elegant figure and polished manners.
This Mansion, (the home of “Worthy,” later the city residence of Mr. Perez Morton) as enlarged and embellished by its honoured proprietor, the late Charles Apthorp, Esq. was then, that is, about the middle of the Eighteenth Century, said to be the scene of every elegance, and the abode of every virtue. Now, (1823) its beautiful hall of entrance, arches, sculpture, and bas-relief; the grandstair-case, and its highly finished saloon, have been removed, or partitioned off, to accommodate the bank and its dependencies.
Thomas Wentworth Earl of Strafford, the Minister, and favourite of Charles the First, sacrificed by that Monarch to his own personal safety—was beheaded near the end of the reign. Charles, in his last moments, declared that he suffered justly for having given up the Earl of Strafford to popular fury.