His success may have been due in
part to the circumstance that he was not far removed from the mass of
the people in the particulars named, and that he acted in a period when
fidelity to the cause of freedom and activity in its promotion
satisfied the public demand.
Francis W. Bird had been an active member of the Coalition on the
Free-soil side, and an active supporter of the project for a
Constitutional Convention. It cannot be said of Mr. Bird that he did
anything so well that one might say "nobody could have done better,"
but his zeal never flagged and hence he did much to secure results.
Like Mr. Wilson, he knew every member, and he never hesitated to set
forth his views. He always had a following, and in those days it was
safe to follow him. In 1872 he became alienated from General Grant
and consequently from the Republican Party. His influence was
potential with Mr. Sumner, and it is not an over estimate of that
influence to assume that he was responsible in a large degree for the
defection of Mr. Sumner. Following that election, Mr. Bird became a
member of the Democratic Party, but upon what ground it is not easy to
conjecture. His whole life had been a protest against that party, and
much of his public career had been directed to its defeat. During the
war and the period of reconstruction, he had been its earnest and even
bitter antagonist.
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