George F. Hoar

The Whigs of Massachusetts, by their Legislature, and in their popular assemblies, have resolved, that opposition to the extension of Slavery is a fundamental article in their political faith.

He is a Slave-holder, and has been selected because he could command votes which no Whig from the free States could receive.

He is not opposed to the extension of Slavery over new territories, acquired, and to be acquired, by the United States.

HE IS NOT A WHIG, if measured by the higher standard of principle, to which the Whigs of Massachusetts and of the North have pledged themselves solemnly, deliberately, and often.

Upon the great questions of currency and Finance, of Internal Improvements, of Protection to American Industry, so far from agreeing with the Whigs, he has distinctly avowed that he has formed no opinion at all.

HE IS NOT A WHIG, if judged by the opinions he entertains upon questions of public policy.

HE IS NOT A WHIG, when tried by the standard of our party organization.

In so doing they have exceeded their just authority, and have proposed a candidate whom no Northern Whig is bound to support.

Never was a prediction received with more derision; never was prediction more surely fulfilled.

But the nomination of General Taylor, a Southerner, one of the largest slaveholders in the country, whose laurels had been gained in the odious Mexican War, upon a platform silent upon the engrossing subject of the extension of slavery…

I shall oppose all such extension, and all such increase, at all times, under all circumstances, even against all inducements, against all combinations, against all compromises.

He declared in the Senate, as late as 1848: "My opposition to the increase of slavery in the country, or to the increase of slave representation in Congress, is general and universal.

He had disappointed them by opposing the resolution they offered at the Whig State Convention, pledging the party to support no candidate not known by his acts or declared opinions to be opposed to the extension of slavery.

Is it not because we have here a sufficient, ample, safe, secure, convenient, commodious, port, harbor, haven?" Of course when the speech came to be printed all the synonyms but the best one would be left out.

I do not think the employment of a Senator of the United States as counsel before the Legislature would be approved by public opinion now.

All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield, And what is else not be overcome.

And when both we and our children shall have been consigned to the house appointed for all living, may love of country and pride of country glow with equal fervor among those to whom our names and our blood shall have descended!

He knew well that a little more or less of rhetoric signified nothing; he was only to say plain and equal things--grand things, if he had them; and if he had them not, only to abstain from saying unfit things--and the whole occasion was…

If any man wishes to read me out of the pale of that communion, let him begin, here, now, on the spot, and we will see who goes out first.

Hoar of Middlesex answered, that "he thought it quite as desirable that the Legislature should represent the conscience as the cotton of the Commonwealth.

The manufacturer and the merchant dreaded an estrangement that would cause the loss of their southern trade, and with it all hope of a law that would protect their manufactures.

The Whigs of Massachusetts disliked slavery; but they loved the Union.

They asked from the National Government only a system of protection that should foster home manufacture, and that they might pursue their commercial and manufacturing occupation in peace.

It had established asylums for the blind and insane and deaf and dumb, and had made liberal gifts to schools.

The Whig policy had made Massachusetts known the world over as the model Commonwealth.