In a very humble capacity I stood by its cradle. It
awakened in my heart in early youth all the enthusiasm of
which my nature was capable, an enthusiasm which from that
day to this has never grown cold. No political party in history
was ever formed for objects so great and noble. And no political
party in history was ever so great in the accomplishment for
liberty, progress and law.
I breathed a pure and bracing atmosphere in those days. It
was a time of plain living and high thinking. It was a pretty
good education, better than that of any university, to be
a young Free Soiler in Massachusetts. I had pretty good company,
not in the least due to any merit or standing of my own, but
only because the men who were enlisted for the war in the
great political battle against slavery were bound to each
other by a tie to which no freemasonry could be compared.
Samuel G. Howe used, when his duties brought him to Worcester
on his monthly visit, to spend an hour or two of an afternoon
in my office. I was always welcome to an hour's converse
with Charles Allen, the man who gave the signal at Philadelphia
for breaking away from the Whig Party.
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