After a few months living in Divinity Hall with his students, Palfrey decided to build a home in Cambridge for his family. He bought twelve acres north of the college from Edward Everett, borrowed money from his father-in-law, and built Hazelwood. This house still stands, now hidden behind the Cyclotron Laboratory and called Palfrey House. The current streets in this area named Hammond, Gotham, and Carver are all family names.

At various points in his life, Palfrey turned to editing as an additional source of income. While at Brattle Street, he became editor (1824-25) of the Christian Disciple, which he renamed the Christian Examiner. He is, however, best remembered as editor (1835-43) of the North American Review. He had become a financial partner of the Review in 1817. In 1835, he bought the review from Edward and Alexander Everett. By 1839, he found it difficult to both teach and edit, and he proposed to reduce his Harvard appointment to part-time. The Corporation would not accept this offer, and he resigned in April 1839. His courses would be taken over by George Rappel Noyes, but no one would be appointed Dean until 1870. While his early years with the Review were financially rewarding, beginning with the Panic of 1837 (the first real depression in the US), the Review became a financial liability. In Dec. 1842 he sold it to Francis Bowen. In 1841, Palfrey was elected as one of 35 Whig representatives from Boston to the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature). He became chair of the House Standing Committee on Education and worked closely with Horace Mann, the secretary of the state Board of Education. In spite of his party's conservative economic policy, he was able to get legislation passed that continued support for the state teachers' schools and established libraries in each school district. Though he had no trouble winning re-election in 1842, his party lost to the Democrats and his second term had several legislative disappointments. Instead of running again for the House in 1843, he sought a state appointment; when the Whigs regained control, he was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth

In spite of his own financial situation (he was unable to find tenants for Hazelwood and the family could no longer afford to live in Boston), he kept his own salary constant while increasing those of his clerks. His duties were ceremonial (open the legislature, accompany the governor on trips) and record-keeping. His statistical tables set a new standard for Massachusetts, he organized the state's Revolutionary War records to facilitate answering pension claims, and he organized and indexed the 14,000 volumes and 40,000 pamphlets that comprised the state's printed records. He served as Secretary until 1847. "The slaveholder's life is a life of utter and perpetual injustice. The worst wrongs to which men are subject from their fellow man, he is day by day inflicting."

--Papers on the Slave Power, 1846 Palfrey knew from his own experience what it was to be a slave-holder. His father and two brothers had prospered in Louisiana as plantation owners. Under Louisiana law, he would inherit one-third of his father's estate, including slaves. Although he loved his family and would never have considered himself a radical abolitionist, he regarded "the claim of property in human beings (however the same may be sanctioned by human laws) as utterly null & void before God." He began, even before his father's death, to take "the needful steps to divest myself of my legal relation to said slaves, & to grant them their unconditional emancipation." He hired a lawyer and petitioned the Louisiana state legislature in order to free those under thirty. Before their official emancipation, he paid their wages. Although a few of the older house servants remained in Louisiana, Palfrey paid for the "comfortable passage" in 1845 of sixteen former slaves to Massachusetts. After a ceremony in King's Chapel to formalize their emancipation, he arranged positions for them as servants in "suitable households," mostly in Massachusetts. While Palfrey had wanted to keep his actions private, his friends were proud and his story was used as an example by the growing abolitionist movement. Palfrey was elected in 1846 to serve (in 1847-48) as representative in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Fourth Congressional district. The Whig party was beginning to divide over the issue of slavery, but there were enough "conscience Whigs" in Middlesex County to elect him in a run-off election. By aligning himself with anti-slavery forces, Palfrey had alienated himself from many of the more conservative "cotton Whigs" in Boston who had previously supported him. In Washington, Palfrey was part of a small circle of anti-slavery congressmen who met frequently. Palfrey ran in 1849 for re-election on the Free Soil platform, but his district was too divided to give him the necessary majority. To some he was too conservative and to others too radical. After fourteen run-off elections, Palfrey finally withdrew.

The early 1850's were disappointing to his career as new coalitions changed the political scene. As the anti-slavery movement became stronger in Massachusetts and the new Republican party emerged, Palfrey was viewed with new regard. When Lincoln was elected, his friend Senator Charles Sumner secured him the appointment as Postmaster of Boston, a position he held until 1867. Taking this traditionally a patronage appointment, Palfrey ran his department with conscience. When budgets were cut, Palfrey eliminated middle-management positions and requested better pay for his clerks and carriers.

As the war progressed, Palfrey shared in the economic prosperity in Boston and, for the first time in his life, he was free of financial worry. Both his sons served with distinction in the Union Army. Much of his later life was taken up in the research for and writing of his History of New England. His work with early state records and a research trip to England in 1856 gave him excellent sources. In 1873, the Palfrey's celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, but a partial stroke soon curtailed his routine. By 1877 he had stopped his journal. On April 26, 1881, he died in his sleep. Palfrey, John Gotham. Speech of Mr. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, on the political aspects of the slave question: Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 26th, 1848. Washington: Printed by J. & G. S. Gideon, 1848. [Sprague Pampa. P]

"I do not believe it is good policy for the slave holders to let their neighbors hear them talk of disunion. Unless I read very stupidly the signs of the times, it will not be the Union they will thus endanger, but the interest to which they would sacrifice it. If they insist that the Union and Slavery cannot live together, they may be taken at their word, but it is the union that must stand."

2^nd BIO - John was a graduate of Harvard University in 1815. He studied theology at Harvard, and then accepted the pastorate of Boston's Brattle Street Congregational-Unitarian Church in 1818. he resigned in 1830 to accept the chair of sacred literature at Harvard and remained there through 1839 as dean of faculty and as one of the three preachers at University chapel. from 1835 to 1843 he served as editor of the North American Review and early allied himself with anti-slavery movement. In 1842 he was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and served in Congress, 1847-1849. he served as boston's postmaster, 1861-1867, and attended the anti-slavery congress in Paris as an American delegate.

As an abolitionist, John took his share of slaves owned by his father after his death, and freed them in Boston. To his sorrow, they harassed him for years for favors, money, etc. He was with the former President, John Quincy Adams, when the president died.

A representative from MA. He completed preparatory studies in Pillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH, and was a graduate of Harvard University in 1815; studied theology and was an ordained minister of Brattle Square Unitarian Church, Boston, Jun 17, 1818; editor of the North American review 1835-1843; member of the State House of Representatives in 1842 & 1843; secretary of state of MA 1844-1848; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (Mar 4, 1847 - Mar 3, 1849); unsuccessful candidate on the Free-Soil ticket for re-election in1848 to the thirty-first congress; postmaster of boston 1861-1867; devoted himself to literary pursuits.

Like so many New Englanders, Palfrey showed a great interest in his family's genealogy. He wrote proudly of the fact that he came from "three good Calvinistic stocks"; early Plymouth, early Massachusetts Bay, and Huguenot.

John wrote proudly of the fact that he came from "three good Calvinistic stocks": early Plymouth, early Massachusetts Bay, and Huguenot.