The town of
Groton was entitled to two members in the house of representatives.
Both parties nominated candidates who favored the repeal of the
Fifteen-Gallon Law. The temperance voters put a ticket in the field,
the Rev. Amasa Sanderson, the minister of the Baptist Society, then a
new organization, and feeble in numbers and wealth, and myself. At
that time my associations were largely with Whigs, but I was opposed to
a national bank, and in favor of free trade. With those views it was
not possible for me to act with the Whig Party on national questions
or in national contests. Mr. Sanderson and I received about seventy-
six votes, and as none of the candidates had a majority, the town was
unrepresented.
Edward Everett was Governor when the law was passed, and he was a
candidate for re-election in 1839. I supported Mr. Everett on the
temperance issue against Judge Marcus Morton, who was the candidate of
the Democratic Party. Judge Morton had been on the bench of the
Supreme Judicial Court where he had the reputation of an able judge by
the side of Shaw, Wilde and Putnam. At that time I had not seen
Morton or Everett. In the year 1836 or 1837 I went to Boston to hear
Alex. H. Everett deliver a Democratic Fourth of July oration. The
effort was a disappointment to me. A. H. Everett had a reputation as
an orator, but he was far inferior to his brother Edward.
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