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

[327] and he was chosen by a large majority, receiving one hundred and thirty-nine votes to fifty-five cast for Fletcher Webster, son of the deceased statesman. It was noted at the time that his election was a disapproval of Webster's support of the Compromise by his townsmen, and that it occurred on the third anniversary of the latter's celebrated speech. Charles Allen wrote: ‘Marshfield has living principles which she would not bury in the tomb of her hero. All honor to her!’ Adams refused to be a candidate for any town but his own, and was defeated in Quincy by the refusal of the Irish voters to support him. No town was disposed to adopt Palfrey, probably because of his aversion to Democrats and his want of sympathy in previous years with the coalition. The exclusion of Adams and Palfrey from the convention was thought to have affected their subsequent treatment of its work. Sumner wrote to Wilson, March 24:—

I am obliged by your kind letter. Most sincerely do I wish that you or some other good man were representative from Marshfield. You know my little desire for public distinction, I might almost say for public favors, and I assure you I should have had sincere pleasure in seeing this honor bestowed upon another; but I hope never to fail where I can hope to do any good service to liberal principles. My desire was to visit the West, which I have never seen, during the coming spring, and afterwards, in the autumn, with fresh voice, to vindicate the new constitution before the people. The new duties imposed upon me will cause a change in these plans. I rejoice in the success of our friends. With prudence and firmness liberal principles can be permanently secured in Massachusetts. Your energy and counsels are valuable, and I am glad that they will be felt by the convention.

The convention was a representative body well worthy of the State. The Boston delegation included, among lawyers, Rufus Choate, Sidney Bartlett, F. B. Crowninshield, George S. Hillard, Thomas Hopkinson, Samuel D. Parker, George Morey, and Judge Peleg Sprague; among physicians, Jacob Bigelow and George Hayward; among clergymen, Samuel K. Lothrop and George W. Blagden; among editors, Nathan Hale, William Schouler, and J. S. Sleeper; and among merchants, William Appleton, Samuel A. Eliot, John C. Gray, J. Thomas Stevenson, and George B. Upton. Cambridge sent two jurists, Simon Greenleaf and Joel Parker, a former and a present professor in the Law School. Salem sent Otis P. Lord, later a judge; and Pittsfield, George N. Briggs. Against this array of Whigs was an equally formidable list of Democrats and Free Soilers. Among the former