Josiah Quincy declines reelection as mayor.

Quincy withdraws after failing to win on the first two ballots, declaring, “No consideration will induce me again to accept this office.” Some historians attribute his loss of popularity to firefighters angry at his refusal to appoint their candidate as chief engineer, others to his closure of the high school for girls. The Boston Patriot later credits the “laboring class vote” for his defeat and criticizes Quincy for his “haughty anti-republican manners.”