Corporation, and who included for a long time the Governor,
Lieutenant-Governor, and members of the Senate, had always
been held to be the representative of the Commonwealth, although
the members of the body who were not members _ex-officio_
were elected by the Board itself.

A bill passed in 1851, to which no objection was made, vested
the election of this body in the Legislature. But after a
few years' trial, that was abandoned, and the members of the
Overseers are now chosen by the Alumni of the College.

I shall speak in a later chapter of the foundation of the
Free Soil Party. The call for the Convention held at Worcester
on the 28th of June, 1848, addressed to all persons opposed
to the election of Cass and Taylor, written by his son, E.
R. Hoar, was headed by Mr. Hoar. He presided over the meeting,
and delegates were elected to a National Convention to be
held at Buffalo, which nominated Van Buren and Adams for President
and Vice-President. This was the origin of the Republican
party.

After 1848, Mr. Hoar did not relax his efforts to bring about
a union of all parties in the North, in opposition to further
encroachments of the slave power. In accomplishing this end,
his age, the regard in which he was held by all classes of
people, his known disinterestedness and independence, fitted
him to exert a large influence. The Free Soil movement had
led to the formation of a party in Massachusetts, small in
numbers, but zealous, active, in earnest, containing many
able leaders, eloquent orators, and vigorous writers. They
had sent Charles Allen to the lower House of Congress, and
Sumner and Rantoul to the Senate. But they had apparently
made little impression on the national strength of either
of the old parties.

In 1854, the passage of the measure known as the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill afforded a new opportunity. A meeting of citizens
of Concord appointed a committee, of which Mr. Hoar was Chairman,
and A. G. Fay, Secretary, who called a meeting of prominent
persons from different parts of the State to meet at the American
House in Boston, to take measures for forming a new party
and calling a State Convention. This Convention was held
at Worcester on the 7th of September, and formed a party under
the name of Republican, and nominated candidates for State
offices. Its meeting has been claimed to be the foundation
of the Republican party of Massachusetts, and its twenty-
fifth anniversary was celebrated