[165] not oppose him, nor join in introducing him as a candidate. Hoar says that the address and resolutions are well drawn and satisfactory. He has evidently felt the fascination of Webster's presence. Webster told him that he would not oppose the nominee of the Whig convention, but that he would never call on the people to support Taylor, though he might be nominated.1The antislavery Whigs of Massachusetts, anticipating the result of the Whig convention, conferred in advance as to the manner in which they should meet it. On May 27 there was a conference in Boston at the office of C. F. Adams, where were present Adams, S. C. Phillips, Sumner, Wilson, E. R. Hoar, E. L. Keyes, F. W. Bird, and Edward Walcutt. They decided in case General Taylor, or any candidate not distinctly committed against the extension of slavery, should be nominated at Philadelphia to enter at once upon an organized opposition to his election, and to call a State convention for the purpose. At a later meeting, June 5, they approved a form of call prepared by E. R. Hoar, and agreed to issue it in the event of General Taylor's nomination. Wilson and Allen were joined at Philadelphia by thirteen2 other delegates, who approved their public protest against General Taylor's nomination, and it was decided to call a national convention to be held at Buffalo in August. The two protesting delegates from Massachusetts upon their return home addressed their constituents,—Wilson by letter, and Allen in person,—both reviewing the proceedings at Philadelphia, and summoning the people to reject them.3 The call already prepared was at once issued, with a list of signers, in which Adams's name stood first and Sumner's second. It invited the citizens of Massachusetts who were opposed to the
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1 Nevertheless he entered, though reluctantly, into the canvass for Taylor. Early in 1848, Webster said to a company of ‘Young Whigs,’ his earnest supporters for the Presidency (among whom were E. R. Hoar, O. P. Lord, G. T. Davis, and C. R. Train), on the occasion of their call upon him at J. w. Paige's house in Summer Street, Boston, that he would support heartily as the Whig candidate any conspicuous leader of the party, trained and experienced in civil affairs, and of national reputation as a statesman; but that he would riot advise the nomination, or recommend the election, of a ‘swearing, fighting, frontier colonel’
2 The last survivors of the fifteen were Stanley Matthews and John C. Vaughan, both of Ohio. The former died in 1889, and the latter died in Cincinnati in 1892.
3 Boston ‘Whig,’ June 19 and 24. 1848. Wilson gave an account of this period, including 1845-1851, in a speech in the Massachusetts Senate, Feb. 24, 1852 (Boston Commonwealth, March 1, 1852), and in a letter to L. V. Bell (‘Commonwealth,’ July 14, 1852). The meeting. which was addressed by Allen, passed a resolution which deserves a perpetual record: ‘Massachusetts wears no chains and spurns all bribes; she goes now, and will ever go, for free soil and free men, for free lips and a free press, for a free land and a free world.’
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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