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

502 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
Dr, Chaffee soon offended his party by supporting Mr. Banks for
Speaker of the House of Representatives. At a tenth district con-
vention a resolution applauding Dr. Chaffee's course was tabled upon
the ground that Banks was a " black republican," and an unfit man
for the American party to support.
The Fremont campaign had opened with a whirl in this part of the
State. In June, George Dwight, chairman of the citizens' committee
of arrangements, and William S. Shurtleft', president of the Young
Men's Fremont Club, invited the friends of " Fremont and Freedom "
in western Massachusetts to gather at Springfield, in mass conven-
tion, on the fourth. A huge tent was pitched near the railroad on
Chestnut street. George Bliss, who presided, annoimced a recon-
sideration in the House of Representatives of the vote against the
Free State Kansas bill. Julius Rockwell, Judge E. Rockwood Hoar,
A. 0. Brewster, of Boston ; Congressman Stanton, of Ohio ; Senator
James Dixon, of Connecticut ; and General Pomeroy and William J.
Calhoun, of Kansas, spoke.
An American State convention had occupied the City Hall on the
Tuesday previous with Thomas Colt, of Pittsfield, in the chair. Bj'
a large majority the Fremont ticket was applauded and support
pledged. The minority bolted, and then the convention selected its
presidential electoral ticket, Mr. Trask being chosen for the tenth
district.
Springfield's part in the Kansas struggle was not inconsiderable,
and requires a word. In the first place, John Brown had been in
business here, — a member of the wool firm of Perkins & Brown, and
the course of the first victim of the slave power was watched with
substantial and prayerful interest. Among the Springfield men who
went to Kansas was a Charles Stearns, who settled at Lawrence. His
theory was that the doctrine of peace would prevail, but after being
there for a while he wrote to his mother here : "I have actuall}'
bought me a rifle, and shall fight if the crisis demands it." He de-
tailed the fights between the free-state men and these ruffians, and