So in 1849 there was a coalition between the Free Soil and the Democratic Parties in some counties and towns, each supporting the candidates of the other not specially obnoxious to them, neither party committing itself to the principles of the other party or waiving its own.

In the fall of the next year, 1850, this policy was pursued throughout the State and resulted in the election by the Legislature of a Democratic Governor, Mr.
Boutwell, and of Charles Sumner as the successor of Daniel Webster in the Senate.

The experiment was repeated with like success in the fall of 1851.
These two parties had little in common.

They could not well act together in State matters without some principle or purpose on which they were agreed other than mere desire for office and opposition to the Whig Party.

They found a common ground in the support of a law providing for secrecy in the ballot.
There had been great complaint that the manufacturers, especially in Lowell, who were in general zealous Whig partisans, used an undue influence over their workmen.