hen thought
were false. In the year 1838, Hawley convened a "World's Convention"
at Liberty Hall, called by the wicked "Polliwog Chapel," to consider
the subject of uniting all the churches in one church without a creed.

One afternoon early in the week of the session, I saw three men walking
on the street towards Liberty Hall, with knapsacks buckled on their
backs. One of these was Theodore Parker, one George Ripley, and the
third, I think, was Charles A. Dana. In this I may be in error.
Parker told me in after years when he had a wide-spread reputation,
that his first public speech was made in that convention.]

X
MASSACHUSETTS MEN IN THE FORTIES

In 1841 I was again a candidate for the House, and I was elected by the
meager majority of one vote. As a member for the year 1842 I made the
acquaintance of many persons, some of whom became distinguished in
state and national politics. The leading members on the Democratic
side were Samuel C. Allen of Northfield; Nathaniel Hinckley of
Barnstable; Seth Whitmarsh, of Seekonk; Seth J. Thomas, Richard
Frothingham of Charlestown; and James Russell, of West Cambridge.
Allen was a son of the Samuel C. Allen who had been a member of
Congress, a member of the old Republican Party of Jefferson, and the
author of the saying: "Associated wealth is the dynasty of modern
states." Another son was Elisha Allen, who was then a member of
Congress from Maine, elected in 1840. He was afterwards our
Commissioner to the Sandwich Islands, and subsequently he was Minister
from the Islands to the United States.

Samuel C. Allen, Jr., was a vigorous, incisive debater. His speeches
were brief, direct, and disagreeable to his opponents. He followed Mr.
Webster's advice to the citizens of Boston--he "made no long orations"
and in those days, he "drank no strong potations."

Thomas was an energetic, capable man, a ready debater, although of
limited resources in learning. Whitmarsh was an unlearned country
leader, whose speeches were better adapted to a neighborhood gathering
of political supporters, than to the deliberations of an assembly
charged with a share in the government of a state. Hinckley was an
original thinker, with a hobby. His purpose was to secure the
abolition of the rule which excluded from the witness-stand those who
did not believe in a personal God. This he accomplished, and by the
aid of the arguments that are formulated in Stuart Mill's Treatise on
Liberty,