This was the beginning of the separate Free Soil organization in Massachusetts, which afterwards grew into the Republican party. . . . The speeches were earnest and determined, and they were received in a corresponding spirit. No great movement ever showed at the beginning more character and power. It began true and strong. All the speakers united in renouncing old party ties. None did this better than C. F. Adams.Sumner's speech was a brief one.3 He dwelt upon the growth and potent influence of ‘the slave-power,’ which he defined as
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nomination of Cass and Taylor to meet at Worcester, June 28, ‘to take such steps as the occasion shall demand—in support of the principles to which they are pledged, and to co-operate with the other free States in a convention for this purpose.’
Sumner took an active part in obtaining the speakers,1 and making other preparations for the convention.
Five thousand people answered to the call.
It was an assembly distinguished for that loyalty to moral principle which has been the life and glory of New England.
Finding no hall large enough, the multitude thronged upon the Common.
The venerable Samuel Hoar, whose name is associated with the mission to South Carolina for the protection of the colored seamen of Massachusetts, was called to the chair.
S. C. Phillips reported an address and resolutions; six delegates at large, with Adams's name at the head, were chosen to attend the convention at Buffalo.
Among the speakers were Allen, Wilson, Amasa Walker, Joshua Leavitt, Adams, Sumner, Keyes, E. R. Hoar, J. R. Giddings, and L. D. Campbell, the last two from Ohio.
Early in the day Sumner read a letter from Dr. Palfrey (then in Congress) approving the objects of the meeting, and moved a vote of thanks to Allen and Wilson.
His speech at the City Hall in the evening was entitled ‘Union against the extension of Slavery.’2 Wilson has described it as ‘one of great thoroughness and force; not only enunciating the commanding principles of liberty, but foreshadowing with confidence and hope the time when they should be embodied in the actual and triumphant policy of the State and nation.’
Sumner, writing of the convention, said:—
1 Among those whom he invited were William Pitt Fessenden, who, however, decided to support Taylor.
2 Works, vol. II. pp. 76-88.
3 ‘There was the manly form of Charles Sumner in the splendor and vigor and magnetic power of his youthful eloquence,’—G. F. Hoar at Reunion of Free Soilers of 1848, held Aug. 9, 1877. W. S. Robinson described the scene in a letter to the Springfield republican. Warrington's ‘Pen Portraits,’ pp. 184, 185
Cambridge, MA. Press of John Wilson and Son. 1877.
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