were divided over slavery, Hurlbut campaigned as a Jeffersonian Democrat with his father, for the election of Andrew Jackson's second term. His involvement in the anti-slavery and freesoil causes began while in the employ of David Wilmot in Towanda, Pennsylvania. Wilmot, who later became a U.S. Congressman in 1844 and introduced the Wilmot Proviso. After the following incident in Wilmot's office in 1842, Hurlbut became a freesoiler sympathizer, making speeches and traveling by wagon with a flag inscribed "Polk and the Tariff" in 1844, and advocated for Cass in 1848: From Hurlbut's arrival in Wisconsin in 1850, he is known for the following: 1850 the first Wisconsin state Governor Nelson Dewey signed papers making Hurlbut a notary public. 1854 called for political rally in Madison at which he helped develop a platform and named the new party republican. 1857 & 1859 he campaigned for his friend Governor Alexander Randall, who was governor from 1858-62. 1858 Appointed attorney for the Milwaukee, Beaver Dam & Baraboo Railroad. 1861 Colonel on Governor Randall's staff, actively recruiting soldiers for the Union army. 1869 he was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly. 1870 he was appointed by Governor Fairchild to represent him at the International Conference on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline. The president of the conference was Rutherford B. Hayes. 1872 he was appointed as a delegate to the International Penitentiary Congress, which met in London, England. 1872 he supported Horace Greeley for president, who lost to U.S. Grant. 1873 he was elected District Attorney for Waukesha County under the Reform Party ticket. 1874 member of the National Prison Congress held in St. Louis, Mo., and was made a trustee and on the criminal law reform committee. 1875 a trustee for National Prison Association in New York, on the committee for discharged convicts. 1875 bought and edited the Wisconsin Free Press, which he maintained until his death in 1905, which was devoted to his interests in the Reform Party. through the years he held various Oconomowoc city offices including the clerk of the school board for twelve years. Colonel Hurlbut was raised and active as a Jeffersonian Democrat, but just prior to the founding of the Republican Party in Madison, Wisconsin. in 1854, he wrote the platform for the American Party, which held that all political parties should be held by Americans born in this nation, make slavery a local issue, stand for prohibition, and