GEORGE SEWALL BOUTWELL. 29 



frontier. At one of the evening sessions of mourning, while 

 the Committee was in Boston, he gave an account of his cam- 

 paign, and he recited a speech made by a young orator who 

 went out with him as an aid. The speech opened thus : 

 " Fellow Citizens; who is Daniel Webster? Daniel Webster 

 is a man up in Massachusetts making a dictionary. Who is 

 General Harrison? Everybody knows who General Harrison 

 is. He is Tippecanoe and Tyler too. But who is Martin 

 Van Bulen? Martin Van Bulen ! He is the man who bought 

 the wood in the Orleans, paid twenty-four dollars a cord for 

 it, carried it round to Florida and had to cut down the trees 

 to land it." A fellow in the crowd cried out, " Carrying coals 

 to Newcastle." " Yes," said the speaker, " them coals he 

 carried to Newcastle. I don't know so much about the coals, 

 but about the wood I've got the documents." 



The general public was not only disposed to accept every 

 wild statement, but the average intelligence was much below 

 the present standard, and the means of communication were 

 poor. If, however, there had been no canvass, the overthrow 

 of Van Buren would have occurred. The defeat of the United 

 States Bank, and the failure of the pet bank system, had been 

 attended by disorders in the finances, the ruin of manu- 

 factures, a reduction in wages, with all the incident evils. 

 As these evils were coincident in time with the measures, the 

 measures were treated as the guilty cause. Beyond question, 

 Mr. Clay's tariff bill contributed to the troubles. 



George Bancroft, the historian, was then collector of the 

 port of Boston. He took an active part in the canvass in 

 Massachusetts. On the evening of Saturday previous to the 

 election in Massachusetts, he spoke at Groton in a building 

 afterwards known as Liberty Hall.* 



* It was then an unfinished building and stood where the Willow Dale road 

 connects with Hollis Street. The building had been erected by a body of people 

 who advocated the union of all the churches. They called themselves Unionists. 

 Their leader was the Rev. Silas Hawley. He was a vigorous thinker, a close 

 reasoner, and he displayed great knowledge of the Bible. His following 

 became considerable. The excitement extended to the neighboring towns and 

 for a time serious inroads were made upon the churches of the village. 



The no-creed doctrine was accepted by some who never believed in any 



