Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

440 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
on the la-tter's order, and a troublesome prosecution followed. The
liquor issue was a prominent factor in the caucus of 1839, when
Everett and Morton were pitted against each other once more, the
former being defeated by one vote ;
and the first important step of the
new Legislature was to repeal the obnoxious fifteen-gallon law.
Marcus Morton was the father of Judge Morton of this city.
An incident of the Morton election is preserved by an odd com-
munication of that da}", headed : " The Complaint of the town clock
to the Parish committee of the First Society in Springfield." This
' Marcus Morton would not have been governor
chronometer said :
but for me. On the day of the election in November last I was 10
minutes too fast. The polls were to be closed at half-past four. A
good whig in the upper part of the town Avho was chary of his time
calculated tliat he could leave home at four o'clock and be at the town-
hall in time to vote. His calculations were right. He left home ex-
actly at four o'clock, but he was too late. The polls were closed by
my time ;
his vote was lost, and Morton was governor b}' one vote."
The temperance issue made trouble for the whigs also iu the Legis-
lature. The delegates of 1838 were George Bliss, Orange C'hapin,
William Cliilds, Elijah Blake, Sylvester Tajdor, and Charles McClalleu,
all whigs. There was no choice in the election of 1839, and a
second ballot was equally unsuccessful. This was because there was
a union temperaiice ticket in the field, made up of three Loco Focos
and three whigs. Springfield thus was not represented in the Legis-
lature. The Hampden whigs were greatly irritated by these events,
and the Wliig Eepublican Association of Springfield was organized
early in the year 1840, with these officers : President, George Ashmun
; recording secretary, AVilliam Stowe ; corresponding secretaiy,
Henry Seymour ; treasurer, George Dwight ; executive committee,
Elijah Blake, Luke Bemis, Jr., Edward O. Morris, P^lihu Adams^
Francis M. Carew, and Otis Skeele. The presidential election was
now coming on, and the old-liners gathered at Springfield, Feb. 19,
1840, to give the whig nominee for President, William Henry