Cassoday's first public speech was in favor of the Free-Soil party (in New York).

The evidence

• “Cassoday has a natural admiration and reverence for the law, enjoys a sharp legal contest and always thoroughly examines every doubtful question, and as business crowded upon him from the first, and his practice covered a wide range in some of the most intricate branches of the law, his professional career has been necessarily marked by constant attention and severe study. In politics, be has been a Republican ever since the organization of the party ; as a boy, he warmly supported David Wilmot, who then represented the Tioga district in Congress; his first speech in public was in favor of the Free-Soil party, in 1848; on the disappearance of that party in Tioga, and on his becoming a voter, he acted with the Democrats, until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in the spring of 1854, when he openly repudiated both of the old parties, and favored the formation of a new party. On leaving the University, he delivered a Fourth of July oration to his old friends and neighbors, and soon after " stumped " the county for Fremont and Dayton.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/17-bios-janesville.md, PDF p. 696 / book p. 700

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources