In the fall of the next year, 1850, this
policy was pursued throughout the State and resulted in the
election by the Legislature of a Democratic Governor, Mr.
Boutwell, and of Charles Sumner as the successor of Daniel
Webster in the Senate. The experiment was repeated with like
success in the fall of 1851.
These two parties had little in common. They could not well
act together in State matters without some principle or purpose
on which they were agreed other than mere desire for office
and opposition to the Whig Party. They found a common ground
in the support of a law providing for secrecy in the ballot.
There had been great complaint that the manufacturers, especially
in Lowell, who were in general zealous Whig partisans, used
an undue influence over their workmen. It was said that a
man known to be a Democrat, or a Free Soiler, was pretty likely
to get his discharge from the employ of any great manufacturing
corporation that had occasion to reduce its force, and that
he would have no chance to get an increase of wages. I do
not now believe there was much foundation for this accusation.
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