A very few of the old Whigs
and Democrats, who were called "Hunkers" or "Copperheads,"
sympathized with the Rebellion, or if they did not, were so
possessed with hatred for the men who were putting it down
that they could find nothing to approve, but only cause for
complaint and faultfinding. Andrew, the Governor, Sumner
and Wilson, the Senators, most of the members of Congress,
most of the leaders in the Legislature and in the military
and political activities, were of the old Free Soil Party.
There was a feeling, not wholly unreasonable, that the old
Whigs had been somewhat neglected, and that their cooperation
and help were received rather coldly. This feeling led to
the movement, called the People's Party, which begun at a
large public meeting in Cambridge, where my dear old friend
and partner, ex-Governor Washburn, was one of the speakers.
That party called a State Convention and nominated Charles
Devens for Governor. Devens had been an old Whig. He had
become a Republican in 1856, and had been one of the earliest
to enlist in the War, in which he became afterward the most
famous Massachusetts soldier.
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