But, with the advent of universal suffrage, it is hard to believe that the quality of representation could be very different. In this respect, the observation in 1788 of the American lexicographer and essayist, Noah Webster, is still apt. A constitutional convention, he noted, was “a body of men chosen by the people in the manner they choose the members of the Legislature, and commonly composed of the same men; but at any rate they are neither wiser nor better.”166