liant career. Charles Francis Adams, who had served
respectably but without great distinction, in each branch
of the Legislature, brought to the cause his inflexible courage,
his calm judgment, and the inspiration of his historic name.
John A. Andrew, then a young lawyer in Boston, afterward to
become illustrious as the greatest war Governor in the Union,
devoted to the cause an eloquence stimulant and inspiring
as a sermon of Paul. John G. Palfrey, then a Whig member
of Congress from the Middlesex District, discussed the great
issue in speeches singularly adapted to reach the understanding
and gratify the taste of the people of Massachusetts, and
in a series of essays whose vigor and compactness Junius might
have envied, and with a moral power which Junius could never
have reached. Anson Burlingame, afterward Minister to China,
captivated large crowds with his inspiring eloquence.* Samuel
G. Howe, famous in both hemispheres by his knightly service
in the cause of Greek independence, famous also by his philanthropic
work in behalf of the insane and blind, brought his great
influence to the party. Henry Wilson, a mechanic, whose early
training had been that of the shoemaker's shop, but who understood
the path by which to reach the conscience and understanding
of the workingmen of Massachusetts better than any other man,
had been also a delegate to the Convention at Philadelphia,
and had united with Judge Allen in denunciation of its surrender
of liberty. Stephen C. Phillips, a highly respected merchant
of Salem, and formerly Whig Representative from the Essex
District, gave the weight of his influence in the same direction.
Samuel Hoar, who had been driven from South Carolina when
he attempted to argue the case for the imprisoned colored
seamen of Massachusetts before the courts of the United States,
one of the most distinguished lawyers of the Massachusetts
bar, came from this retirement in his old age to give his
service in the same cause; of which his son, E. R. Hoar,
was also a constant, untiring, and enthusiastic champion.
Richard H. Dana, master of an exquisite English style, the
only Massachusetts advocate who ever encountered Rufus Choate
on equal terms, threw himself into the cause with all the
ardor of his soul. On the Connecticut River, George Ashmun,
the most powerful of the Whig champions in western Massachusetts,
found more than his match in Erastus Hopkins. William Claflin,
afterward Speaker, Li