USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 4 > Part 9
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The leaders of the Crawford group, and hence the founders of the Democratic party in Massachusetts, were David Hen- shaw and Marcus Morton. Henshaw, a native of Leicester, in the early decades of the century migrated to Boston, where
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POLITICAL HISTORY
he worked his way up from druggist's apprentice to whole- saler and accumulated sufficient fortune to participate in the formation and promotion of banks. His banking interests, however, were outside the orbit of those controlled by the Appletons and Lawrences, who never welcomed the new- comer into their exclusive financial clique. Interested in economic and political problems, Henshaw was known as the author of several pamphlets and became an active political factor in 1821, when with the cooperation of certain friends, particularly J. K. Simpson, he established the Statesman. This paper was ably edited by Nathaniel Greene, who had re- ceived his training on Isaac Hill's New Hampshire Patriot. It provided an organ for the Democratic group. While Hen- shaw was the political organizer and manager of the new party, Morton invariably headed the ticket. Marcus Morton, who lived till 1864, represented during his public life the highest type of leadership among the Massachusetts democ- racy. A native of Taunton and a graduate of Brown, he earlier served two terms in Congress as a representative of the rural Republicans. Elected lieutenant governor in 1824 on the Republican ticket, he served as acting governor after the death of Eustis. Henshaw represented in 1824 the urban constituency of Crawford; Morton was the leader of the rural Republicans.
Although Henshaw and Morton backed Crawford for the presidency against a Massachusetts man, they did not yet break with the Adams Republicans. Henshaw offered his sup- port to Adams and was rewarded with a seat in the State Senate in 1826; while Morton was reelected lieutenant gover- nor in 1825 on a ticket headed by Levi Lincoln.
This combination, however, was not destined to last long. Morton almost immediately resigned to accept a position on the State supreme court; while Henshaw and his followers were soon pushed out of the Adams camp.
FREE BRIDGE CONTROVERSY (1826-1827)
The immediate cause of the exodus of the Henshaw group was connected with the free-bridge question. Henshaw and some associates in 1826 received permission from the State
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MASSACHUSETTS JACKSONIANS
legislature to build a bridge from Sea Street in Boston to the flats of South Boston. As Henshaw and his friends were primarily interested in real estate development, the bridge was to pay no tolls, and the State was to have the right to pur- chase it upon completion. Another group, known as the Warren Bridge Company, now sought similar permission to build from Boston to Charlestown; but certain interests, in- cluding those of Harvard University, vested in the Charles River Bridge Company, fought the project bitterly, and Gover- nor Lincoln returned the bill without his signature. The Middlesex farmers, hot with wrath, refused to endorse Lincoln for governor and cast over 7,000 votes in 1827 for W. C. Jarvis, notwithstanding the fact that the latter had declined a nomination. Henshaw and his Statesman through- out supported the "Free Bridge men" and sought an alliance with Jarvis. Jarvis, however, would have nothing to do with Henshaw, who now found himself quite out of the Republican councils.
MASSACHUSETTS JACKSONIANS (1827-1828)
In the meantime the Federalists and Republicans were rapidly coalescing behind the conservative Adams in the for- mation of a strong state National Republican party. Pro- tectionist manufacturers, internal improvement men, bankers, anti-Warren-Bridge Republicans, and the conservative inter- ests in general effected a formal union. In 1827, Daniel Webster, former Federalist, came out for Adams, and was rewarded with a seat in the United States Senate, while Lincoln, the Republican governor, headed the State organiza- tion of the coalition.
Henshaw, no longer trusted by the Republicans, now took up aggressively the project of forming a Jackson party in Massachusetts; and, in this he was aided not only by the "Free Bridge men" and by the urban and rural democrats of various complexions but also by a few "silk stocking demo- crats" representing New England shippers and headed by the Boston merchant, George W. Lyman. When Duff Green came to Boston to raise money for the establishment in Washington of a Jackson paper, the United States Telegram, he collected six thousand dollars from the Henshaw group and five thou-
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POLITICAL HISTORY
sand from Lyman and his friends. Lyman had already estab- lished the Jackson Republican (soon merged with the Evening Bulletin) from whose columns he attacked Adams and Webster.
Notwithstanding the activities of Henshaw and Lyman, the Democrats accomplished very little politically in Massachu- setts in 1828. Morton refused the formal nomination for governor, but was backed by the Statesman and received 4,423 votes; in no county were the Jackson electors able to win a majority. The election did consolidate a Democratic organization in Massachusetts; but it was a machine torn by dissension from its birth. Although Massachusetts was firmly in the hands of the National Republicans, Andrew Jackson was elected President in 1828, and the Federal patronage must shortly pass to the Democrats. The question at the moment was whether the choicest plums would go to the Henshaw or the Lyman faction. Henshaw was finally appointed collector of the port of Boston; but Jackson, possi- bly influenced by Vice-President Calhoun, thought it wise to appease the Lyman following by appointing many ex-Federal- ists to office. In the end, this did not prevent the Lyman faction from drifting away from Jackson; instead it brought upon the administration the criticism of Morton, who was anxious to build up a Jackson party in Massachusetts founded on the democratic theories of Jefferson, and who felt that this plan was being imperiled by the appointment of ex- Federalists to office.
JACKSON PARTY CONSOLIDATED (1829-1831)
While the Henshaw and Lyman factions were jockeying for power in the Democratic organization, the time approached for the State campaign of 1829. Morton, hesitating to ally himself with a single faction, again refused a formal nomi- nation; but in a listless campaign he received approximately 7,000 votes, about one-quarter the number cast for Lincoln. Apparently encouraged by this showing, he consented to head the ticket in 1830, although he assured Calhoun there was not the slightest chance for success. His prophecy was correct, notwithstanding the fact that he more than
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ANTIMASONIC MOVEMENT
doubled his vote (Lincoln, 30,908; Morton, 14,440). Morton was disappointed, mistakenly attributing his failure to Jackson's policy of propitiating ex-Federalists by appoint- ment to office. He represented the rural Democracy and had little faith in the seacoast Federalists who had been enticed under the Democratic banner by the State-rights and low- tariff Calhoun. Morton eventually broke politically with his old school friend, Calhoun; and the latter's quarrel with Jack- son in 1831 finally threw the Massachusetts Democrats into the arms of the Jackson faction.
ANTIMASONIC MOVEMENT (1826-1831)
The early thirties witnessed the advent of two new parties in Massachusetts politics-the Antimasonic and the Working- men's parties. "Two irreconcilable elements formed the basis of New England culture," says Darling in his monograph on Political Changes in Massachusetts 1824-1848: the advocates of "a determined and settled order, and an equally positive individualism. The friction between them gave opportunity for the growth of such religious changes as the Unitarian departure from orthodoxy, and such moral stirrings as its contemporaries, Temperance and Abolition. Antimasonry was another phase of the same conflict. The Antimasons were a restless group, swayed by the emotion of re- form." The feeling that Masonry, as J. Q. Adams put it, was "a conspiracy of the few against the equal rights of the many" and an organization socially and politically dangerous had been growing for some time, when it was fanned into political activity by the disappearance and death of William Morgan in the Niagara River in September, 1826.
In Massachusetts, political Antimasonry seems to have originated at a meeting on November 1, 1828, in Fall River, which resulted in political organization for the congressional elections of that year. Some momentum was gathered in 1829, when Antimasonic votes were cast in the State election and a State convention held in December. By 1830 the move- ment had become sufficiently powerful to elect three State senators and from twenty to twenty-five members of the house, but as yet offered no gubernatorial candidate.
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In 1831 the legislature voted to shift the date of the State election to coincide with the national contest, which meant that there would be two State elections that year. In the first, the Antimasons made no nomination, and Levi Lincoln again easily defeated Morton. The fall election, however, was more bitterly contested. The Antimasons, now thoroughly aroused, entered aggressively into the campaign. A committee waiting upon the Governor found that, although he "sincerely and earnestly" desired "the dissolution and extinction of Free- masonry," as chief magistrate he refused to unite with any "combination of men in means for its suppression." There- upon they offered the nomination for governor to John Quincy Adams; and upon his refusal, nominated Samuel Lathrop.
ANTIMASON COMPLICATIONS (1831-1833)
Both the National Republicans and the Democratic party refused to take seriously the Antimasons, but the latter suc- ceeded in carrying Hampshire and Franklin Counties and in taking second place on the ticket. The Antimasons claimed 150 of the 490 members of the lower house, which proved that many of the rural National Republicans and rural Federal- ist communities had swung to the new party. The vote for governor was Lincoln, 28,804; Lathrop, 13,357, and Morton, 10,975.
With this showing the Antimasons looked forward opti- mistically to the election of 1832. By that time they counted several newspapers among their supporters, the most influential of which was the Boston Free Press and Advocate, whose editor, B. F. Hallett, a native of Barnstable and a graduate of Brown, was destined to later prominence in the Democratic party. The Antimasons were now busy perfecting their organization; they called the first national nominating conven- tion in our history, and prepared for the national election. Their State ticket in 1832 was again headed by Lathrop. The National Republicans and Democrats were both concerned in 1832 with the strength of the new party, the former fearful that it might continue to draw some of the old rural Federal- ists, and the latter that it would intrigue the more radical vote, which they felt was normally Democratic.
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THE WORKINGMEN'S PARTY
The State election of 1832, however, was dominated by national issues, and the opposition of Massachusetts to Jack- son's bank policy probably accounts for the result-Lincoln, 33,949 ; Morton, 15,197 ; and Lathrop, 14,755. Of the 10,810 votes over and above the number cast in 1831, Lincoln re- ceived almost half.
Levi Lincoln retired in 1833, presumably from fear that a combination of his opponents might bring about his defeat in the next election. The news of this decision set in motion efforts to bring about a coalition of National Republicans and Antimasons. Edward Everett, opponent of the Masonic institution, at first was a candidate for the Antimasonic nomi- nation; but before the convention met he realized the impossi- bility of such a coalition, and withdrew. John Quincy Adams, prominent National Republican and backer of Lincoln in previous elections, accepted the Antimasonic nomination, un- doubtedly believing that the two parties might be drawn to- gether. But the Masonic leaders in the National Republican party were too bitter towards both Everett and Adams to consent to such a union, and called John Davis, National Republican Congressman from Worcester, to head their ticket. The Democrats, on their side, dominated by Morton and Hen- shaw, quite underestimated the Democratic element among the Antimasons and made no effort toward a coalition. Taking advantage, however, of the interest aroused by Jackson's visit to Massachusetts in June of 1833, they strengthened their organization for the coming election.
THE WORKINGMEN'S PARTY (1832-1833)
In the meantime a fourth party combination, the Working- men's party, had begun to make itself felt in Massachusetts politics. It undoubtedly drew strength from such mechanics as carpenters, masons, ship caulkers, and urban workmen of all types, groups already interested in the organization of laborers for the ten-hour day, universal education, and other reforms of distinct interest to the urban proletariat. The party, nevertheless, appears, according to Darling, to have derived its chief support from the agricultural proletariat of the rural districts. It represented an opposition not only of
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POLITICAL HISTORY
the producer toward the consumer but also of the country toward the city. The chief strength of the movement was in the counties of Hampshire, Franklin, Bristol, and Middlesex.
Not for years had a State election in Massachusetts aroused the interest created in 1833. With both the Workingmen's movement and Antimasonry at flood tide, the result was far from certain. Although Davis polled the largest number of votes (Davis, 25,149; Adams, 18,274; Morton, 15,493; and Allen, 3,459), he did not receive a majority; and the election under the Massachusetts law was thrown into the legislature. Adams as the second highest in the poll held the balance of power, in which position he quickly proved himself a member of the national party, which had taken on the name of Whig, rather than an Antimason.
DECLINE OF THE ANTIMASONS (1833-1834)
Morton was more of an Antimason than Davis; but Adams had no desire to strengthen the Jacksonian democracy in Massachusetts, and withdrew from the contest, thus ensuring the election of Davis. Keen statesman that he was, Adams may have seen the impermanency of the Antimasonic struc- ture, and he slipped out before the collapse.
Superficially, the retirement of Adams and the election of Davis appeared to effect a harmonious rapprochement between the Whigs and the Antimasons. In reality, this was far from the case. Davis was no Antimason and he allowed his party machine to ride rough-shod over the Antimasons in the matter of party patronage. When, in retaliation, important Whig legislation was held up, the Whig leaders realized that they had gone too far and allowed the Antimasons to conduct a harmless investigation into Masonry and to defeat certain bills of interest to Masons.
This sort of treatment antagonized the radical element in the new party, and under the leadership of Hallett some over- tures were made toward the Democrats. In the meantime both Morton and Henshaw began to realize the possibilities of a coalition with the more radical Antimasons, and preliminary moves were made in this direction.
The Antimasons, however, had not quite run their course;
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MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATS
and led by John Bailey, an intimate friend of Adams, they entered the campaign of 1834. Opposition to Jackson's bank policy seems to have played a large part in the results, for the Whigs polled 20,000 more votes than in the previous year (Davis, 44,802; Morton, 19,255; Bailey, 10,795; and Allen, Workingmen, 2,602) and Davis was elected by a majority vote over all. Morton likewise gained; but the losses sus- tained by the Antimasonic and Workingmen's parties presaged their speedy disintegration.
MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATS (1834-1838)
In spite of the rise of these two temporary parties during the early thirties, Henshaw and his able lieutenants, J. K. Simpson, Andrew Dunlap, and Nathaniel and Charles G. Greene, managed to keep the Democratic machine functioning. Their influence was founded not only on their control of Federal patronage, but also on their newspapers, the most important being the Statesman, edited by the Greenes. The obvious decline of the two new parties spurred them to re- newed activities, in the hope of attaching Democratically in- clined Antimasons and Workingmen. A strong ally had been found among the Antimasons in Hallett, who was preparing to join the Democratic ranks. The movement of the Anti- masons toward the Democracy was facilitated when the Whig legislature turned down its idol, Adams, and elected Governor Davis to the United States Senate in 1835.
To attach the Workingmen's vote, however, was not easy, for Henshaw worked more effectively with the urban pro- letariat, whereas the Workingmen's strength lay in the rural districts. The feat was accomplished in part through a for- tuitous frustration in the plans of Henshaw. With his eye on a Cabinet post, Henshaw was planning to retire from the collectorship of Boston and urged the appointment of his friend Simpson. At this point, Morton, who was quite inde- pendent of the machine and had never been under the control of Henshaw, stepped in, opposed Simpson's appointment, and finally importuned the administration to give the post to George Bancroft, a leader of the rural Democrats. As the strength of the Democracy in Massachusetts lay in the country
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POLITICAL HISTORY
districts, this seemed to be a wise move, and Bancroft received the appointment in 1838. The young historian had won the confidence of radicals in western Massachusetts, and was fol- lowed into the Democratic party by a large group of the Workingmen.
BANCROFT AND EVERETT (1835-1836)
Henceforth for some years George Bancroft, who had al- ready commenced the writing of his famous history, was des- tined to play a leading role in party politics in Massachusetts and eventually to move into the national scene. Although a brother-in-law of Governor Davis and in touch with the Boston aristocracy, Bancroft threw himself unreservedly into the Democratic movement. Not overscrupulous, he skillfully followed the tortuous maze of political intrigue, securing the Federal collectorship of Boston in 1838, the nomination for governor in 1844, a place in Polk's Cabinet in 1845, and an ambassadorship in England in 1846.
The Whigs on their part made some advances to the Anti- masons in 1835 by nominating Edward Everett, a mild Anti- mason, rather than the acting Governor, Samuel T. Arm- strong. Notwithstanding this move, Morton must have been the chief gainer from the disintegration of the Antimasons, for while there was a drop of some 12,728 in the total vote, Morton gained 5,900 (Everett, 37,555; Morton, 25,227; Arm- strong, Independent, 1,901). If any large group of Anti- masons voted for Everett, they were doomed to speedy dis- appointment, for like Adams he was more Whig than Anti- mason.
Except for the internal friction over Henshaw's successor to the collectorship, the Democratic party seemed in 1836 to be well situated to play a strong rôle in the coming presidential election. Henshaw for the time being held on to his post, and the party presented a united front. In the election for governor, Everett polled 42,160 and Morton 35,992, a relative gain for Morton on the national ticket; Van Buren ran 2,000 behind Morton and the Democrats elected only two Congress- men. Among those seeking seats in Congress on the Demo- cratic ticket, who were defeated, were Alexander H. Everett, brother of the Governor, and George Bancroft.
Courtesy of Harvard College Library EDWARD EVERETT
From the portrait by Cole
Courtesy of Mass. Hist. Society
JOHN DAVIS
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DEMOCRATIC DEFEAT
DEMOCRATIC DEFEAT (1837)
Politics in Massachusetts during the year 1837 was dis- tinctly colored by the severe panic of that year. The Whigs, of course, laid the catastrophe to Jackson's specie circular and his war upon the second United States Bank. The Demo- crats, seriously weakened by the economic depression, were further handicapped by a serious split in their own ranks. On the one hand Hallett in his Advocate voiced the feelings of the radical Democrats by urging the "Divorce of Bank and State," and by applauding Van Buren's scheme for an independent treasury; on the other hand, Henshaw and Simpson, who con- trolled the Commonwealth Bank, one of Jackson's "pet banks," defended the State bank and labored with might and main to prevent the radicals gaining control of the Democratic State convention.
In this they were not successful; for the convention urged that banks be compelled by law to maintain more capital and that they be separated from the State. The Whigs fought their campaign on the bank issue, at the same time denouncing Morton as a political judge who ought to be impeached. The economic depression proved too much for the Democrats, and Everett defeated Morton by nearly five to three (Everett, 50,656; Morton, 33,089).
A reorganization in the Democratic party followed the defeat of 1837. Henshaw resigned from the collectorship, and upon the death of his friend Simpson gave up the attempt to designate a successor. The choice now rested with Morton, and upon his advice Van Buren appointed Bancroft. As Morton was not interested at the time in heading a political machine, Bancroft was strategically placed to dominate the Democratic organization. To accomplish this he founded the Bay State Democrat under the editorship of J. G. Harris of New Bedford, one of his subordinates, and established a "read- ing room" as a rendezvous for Democratic politicians who formerly had forgathered in the offices of the Commonwealth Bank.
With the party patronage now in the hands of a rival fac- tion, Henshaw's position was further weakened by the failure of the Commonwealth Bank, in which he was a dominant
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figure. He was partly to blame for its collapse, but his responsibility was of course greatly exaggerated by his politi- cal enemies. With Democratic politicians jockeying for place in the new party lineup, it is surprising to find that in the fall elections the party showed recovery from the effects of the panic of 1837. The vote (Everett, 51,642 and Morton, 41,798) showed that Morton had absorbed most of the in- crease in the votes cast.
WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES (1837-1840)
In spite of conservative Federalism, of rabid Antimasonry, of the short-lived Workingmen's party, and of the rising Jacksonian Democracy, the Massachusetts Republicans, now called Whigs, had held their own and appeared to be firmly seated in power. They were at this time represented in the Senate by Daniel Webster and John Davis; and their delega- tion in the House was ably led by John Quincy Adams, the only ex-President in American history to reappear in national legislative halls. The State administration was headed by the urbane and talented, if somewhat superficial, Edward Everett, who had been governor since 1835. His easy success, however, was unexpectedly halted by Morton in 1839, who after eleven trials was at last elected governor. His victory was due not to any sudden turning to the Democratic banner but rather to a misstep of Everett. The Whig legislature, coming under the influence of a powerful temperance agita- tion, in 1838 passed a bill which limited the sale of liquors to quantities of not less than fifteen gallons. This act, which Everett signed and which was obviously intended to eliminate the sale of drinks over the bar, was looked upon as class legis- lation, and the election of 1839 was a rebuke to Everett.
Although Marcus Morton was now governor, the Whigs controlled both houses of the legislature. Knowing full well that he would meet opposition at every turn, Morton an- nounced his program in his address to the legislature of Janu- ary 22, 1840 : a document of great interest, because it contains the essentials of the Massachusetts Democratic attitude on political problems during the next decade. The governor as- serted his belief in the independent treasury and in the neces-
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WHIG SUCCESSES
sity of basing the circulating medium upon intrinsic value. Private banks, he thought, were monopolies, and were too easily tempted to inflate the currency with depreciated paper. He asserted in no uncertain terms his distrust of special legis- lation in behalf of corporations, and of "perpetuities" and "mortmain estates." He questioned whether unqualified good had come from the Whig policy of state aid to railroad con- struction, and demanded that a policy of retrenchment be pur- sued in the State finances in place of increased taxation. He advised among other things a reduction in the number of supreme court justices from five to four, a reformation in the militia system, a repeal of the license system, and a re- vision of the criminal code to reduce the death penalty. He urged that the Insolvency Law of 1838 be made more effective; that the secrecy of the ballot be secured; that the property qualifications which circumscribed the right to vote and hold office in the legislature be eliminated, and that public educational institutions be put in the hands of town and dis- trict meetings. Most of these suggestions were in line with the ideals of the rising Democracy, and they gave an insight into the counter policies of the opposition party. They were, however, ignored by the Whig legislature.
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