450 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



laws, which have giren them the monopoly of 

 manufacturing for the agricultural sections. 



In politics Massachusetts, always strongly 

 whig, is more decidedly republican. The vote 

 at the last presidential elections was as fol- 

 lows: 



IQ 1856, Fremont- had 108,518 votes. Mr. 

 Fillmore, 19,679, and Buchanan, 39,287. Mr. 

 Lincoln had 2,000 less votes than Mr. Fre- 

 mont, and the three Union candidates had 

 together 3,700 more than Buchanan and Fill- 

 more, united. This decline in the republican 

 vote would seem to be due to the apprehen- 

 sions of approaching troubles, which the canvass 

 developed. The views under which the canvass 

 was conducted, are manifested in the speech 

 of W. H. Seward, in Bowdoin Square, Boston, 

 August 14. He was attended by Gov. Banks, 

 0. F. Adams, and Henry Wilson. In the course 

 of his remarks he stated : " Here I can play no 

 part ; I can affect no disguise ; because, although 

 not a son of Massachusetts, nor even of New 

 England born, I feel and know it my duty to 

 confess that if I have ever studied the inter- 

 ests of my country and of humanity, I have 

 studied them in the school of Massachusetts. 

 If I have ever conceived a resolution to main- 

 tain the rights and interests of these free States 

 in the union of the Confederacy, I learned 

 it from Massachusetts. It is twenty-two years 

 ago, not far from this season, when a distin- 

 guished and venerable statesman of Massachu- 

 setts had retired to his home, a few miles in the 

 suburbs of your city, under the censure of his 

 fellow-citizens, driven home to his quarters by 

 the peltings of remorseless pro-slavery people, 

 that I, younger then, of course, than I am now, 

 made a pilgrimage from my own home, which 

 was not molested on my way, to the Sage of 

 Quincy, there to learn from him what became a 

 citizen of the United States, in view of the de- 

 plorable condition of the intelligence and senti* 

 ment of the country under its demoralization 

 by the power of slavery. And there I received, 

 and thence I have derived, every resolution, 

 every sentiment, that has animated and inspired 

 me in the performance of my duty as a citizen 

 of the United States, all this time. I know, in- 

 deed, that those sentiments have not always 

 been popular, even in the State of Massachusetts. 

 I know that citizens of Massachusetts, as well 

 as citizens of other States, have attempted to 

 drive the disciples of that illustrious teacher 

 from their policy. But it is to-night that I am 

 free to confess that whenever any man, wher- 

 ever he might be found, whether he was of 

 Northern or Southern birth, whether he was 

 of the ' solid men of Boston,' or of the light men 

 of Mississippi, has assailed me for the main- 

 tenance of these doctrines, I have sought to 

 commune with his spirit, and to learn from him 

 -whether the thing in which I was engaged was 

 well and worthily done. What a commentary 

 upon the wisdom of man is given in this single 

 fact, that fifteen years only after the death of 

 John Quincy Adams, the people of the United 



States, the people who hurled him from power 

 and from place, are calling to the head of the 

 nation, to the very seat from which he was 

 expelled, Abraham Lincoln, whose claim to that 

 seat is that he confesses the obligation of that 

 higher law which the Sage of Quincy proclaim- 

 ed, and that he avows himself, for weal or woe, 

 for life or death, a soldier on the side of free- 

 dom in the irrepressible conflict between free- 

 dom and slavery. This, gentlemen, is my sim- 

 ple confession. I desire, now, only to say to 

 you that you have arrived at the last stage of 

 this conflict before you reach the triumph 

 which is to inaugurate this great policy into tha 

 government of the United States. You will 

 bear yourselves manfully. It behooves you, 

 solid men of Boston, if you are here, and if the 

 solid men are not here, then the lighter men of 

 Massachusetts, to bear onward and forward, 

 first in the ranks, the flag of freedom. But let 

 not your thoughts or expectations be confined 

 to the present hour. I tell you, fellow-citizens, 

 that with this victory comes the end of the 

 power of slavery in the United States. I think 

 I may assume that a democrat is a man who 

 maintains the creed of one or the other branch 

 of the. democratic party at the present day. 

 Assuming that to be so, I tell you, in all sin- 

 cerity, that the last democrat in the United 

 States is born." 



The results of the election were celebrated 

 in Boston on the 9th of November, and the 

 meeting was addressed by Gov. Andrew and 

 others. The Governor distinctly declared that 

 success at the election was the first step towards 

 carrying out the anti-slavery programme, which, 

 had been announced. 



On the 3d of December a meeting in honor 

 of John Brown was called at the Tremont Tem- 

 ple by the leading partisans of his principles. 

 This aroused the indignation of the citizens, 

 and it was broken up. The Unionists in the 

 hall passed the following resolution : 



Resolved, That the people of this city have submitted 

 too long in allowing irresponsible persons and political 

 demagogues of every description to hold public meet- 

 ings that disturb the public peace, and misrepresent 

 us abroad ; that they have become a nuisance which, 

 in self-defence, we have determined shall hencefor- 

 ward be summarily abated. 



A confederacy of the New England States as 

 opposed to the Southern Confederacy was im- 

 mediately projected, and plans emanating from 

 Washington, were put in activity. January 5, 

 1861, Gov. Andrew despatched agents to 

 Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island, to present 

 to the Executives of those States certain doc- 

 uments concerning the expediency of placing 

 the militia of those States in condition for a 

 prompt movement to the defence of the city of 

 Washington, if a call should be made for troops 

 for that purpose ; and also, (at the request of 

 responsible gentlemen in Washington,) con- 

 cerning organizing a national celebration of 

 the anniversary of January 8th. 



The agent sent to Maine and New Hampshire 

 was A. G. Browne, jr., afterwards military sec- 



