born Feb. 21, 1816, Concord, Mass., U.S.
died Jan. 31, 1895, Concord
U.S. politician.
He graduated from Harvard College (1835) and Harvard Law School (1839). His outspoken opposition to slavery soon made him a leading public figure in his home state. By the mid-1840s he was a member of the antislavery Whigs, or "Conscience Whigs," in the Massachusetts state senate. Later he helped form the Free Soil and Republican parties in Massachusetts. He served on the Massachusetts state supreme court (1859–69), was briefly U.S. attorney general (1869–70), and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1873–75).