Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 3

[188] up the morale of its voters, and maintained its relative strength. The way for a more complete union was prepared this year. The Democrats of the State, not now in power at Washington, showed sympathy with antislavery efforts, and in their convention in September, 1849, expressed themselves in resolutions, drawn by B. F. Hallett, against the extension of slavery to free territories. They and the Free Soilers in the autumn, by a popular impulse, with little prompting from leaders, united in several counties and a considerable number of towns, and succeeded in electing thirteen senators and one hundred and thirty representatives,—a number which would have been much larger if a plurality instead of a majority rule had then prevailed.¹ This partial result showed the affinity between the masses of the two parties, and pointed the way to the complete and effective cooperation of the next year.