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Diary Entry for June 5, 1827

Lewis Organizes the Boston Tariff Convention

June 5. Agreeably to previous arrangements a meeting was held

this P.M. at 4 o'clock of the Growers & Manufacturers of Wool

in the Representatives Hall. As chairman of the comee I called

the meeting to order. The Hall was well filled. All the seats were

occupied, and the avenues crowded. It was supposed that

500 to 600 persons were present, many of them members of the

Legislature.

At the proper time I advanced to the Clerk's desk, addressed

the assembly as follows:

Fellow Citizens, at a meeting of growers & manufacturers

of wool, held in this city, in the month of March last, a

Com was appointed to collect funds, to correspond with

their brethren in other States, and to attend to the interests

of their constituents. Having recently [received] a communication

from the Penn.a Soc &c they immediately gave public notice

of a meeting to be held in this place on this day. You are

now convened to receive & discuss the propositions for the Penn.

Socty. & in the name of the Com. I invite you to an organiza-

tion of this meeting in the usual manner. Is it your pleas-

ure now to proceed to the choice of a person to preside on this

occasion: if so, please to manifest it--it is a vote. Please

to nominate. . . . His Ex. Gov. Lincoln is nominated. If it

be yr pleasure that he be requested to take the chair you will

please to manifest it. . It is a vote.

Gov. L. took the chair, & made a few remarks.

I then requested to have the Penn.a Resolutions read. After the

Secretary had read them, I arose & addressed the chair:

May it please your Excellency: The Com.e have two

letters, recd from distinguished gentlemen, expressing their views

on the business before us, &with your permission I will read them.

[I then read extracts from a letter from Hon. John Davis to Dr.

Tufts, & a letter from General Van [Rensselaer] to Mr. Fisher of Phila]

I have been requested, Sir, by the Come to offer some

Resolutions for the consideration of this meeting, which I will

& after submitting some brief remarks.

I congratulated the meeting that the great state of

Penn. had taken the lead in proposing a national Convention;

that the Penn. Soc. had been presided over by the late Chief

Justice [Tilghman], who lent his influence to further its view;

that we were fortunate in having a meeting during the

session of the Legislature, thereby affording opportunity to so

many gentlemen, from various parts of the State to meet

to discuss this great question; that it was a subject of

congratulation that the gentleman presiding was one who in the dis-

charge of his official duty had often enforced upon the

consideration of the Legislature the importance of fostering

manufactures, &c &c

The Resolutions were adopted, and 7 delegates were

appointed to attend the Convention of Growers & Manufacturers

of wool at Harrisburgh, Penn, 30 July 1827.

This Convention excites considerable interest in

the U.S. It was first suggested by me, in a letter to

Mattw. Carey; and the Penn. Soc adopted the hint.

June. I left Boston in a Sulkey, on an

excursion. I visited Nashua Village, N.H. Concord, Massa. &c.

I was about 16 days, and rode 325 miles. In a letter

to my wife, written at Keene, I related the events of my

journey to that place; and in a letter to Mr. Wilder,

filed with "Somerset papers," I gave an account of visit to

Somerset.

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