Bancroft was taken to the tavern, where a supper was served to him and to a small number of Democrats. Mr. Bancroft was excited, and walking the room he said:—“I do believe if General Harrison is elected, Divine Providence will interfere and prevent his ever becoming President of the United States.” These words of disappointment seemed prophecy, when the death of Harrison occurred within thirty days after his inauguration.
In his address Mr. Bancroft spoke with great confidence of the vote of New York. There were some conscientious Democrats in his audience, who remembered the remarks, and it was with great reluctance that they gave him their votes when he was a candidate for Governor in 1844.
The more considerate members of the Democratic Party apprehended defeat from the opening of the canvass. As early as June 17, the Whigs had enormous mass meetings at Boston and Bunker Hill. The Democrats were not inert. The Governor of the State was a Democrat and there were those who had hopes of his re-election. In set-off of the great meeting of the 17th of June at Charlestown, the Democrats prepared for a similar meeting on Lexington Green, July 4. The concourse of people was large. Governor Morton was present and spoke. I there met William D. Kelley, who spoke to a portion of the crowd from a wagon. He was then employed in a jeweller’s establishment in Boston.
Groton sent a company of volunteers for the day numbering about seventy-five men, under command of Captain Wil-
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.
