I am most deeply indebted to the members of the Whig Ward and County Convention for so generous an expression of their confidence; and I pray you to present to them all, and to accept for yourselves, an assurance of my profound gratitude.

It has been for some time past, and is still, my sincere and earnest desire to be relieved from further service in the House of Representatives of the United States.

With this view, I addressed a letter to the Chairman of your Convention, in July last, announcing my determination not to be a candidate for reëlection.

The opinion of himself and many other most respected political and personal friends, that the peculiar circumstances of our party, at that moment, made it extremely undesirable that such an announcement should be made public, induced me to assent to its being withheld. But my views and feelings have undergone no change, and I am still strong and sincere in the desire to retire from Congress on the 4th of March next, when I shall have completed a nine years' service as the Representative of Boston.

It is urged upon me, however, by yourselves, and by other distinguished Whigs, whose opinions I am bound to respect, that under the peculiar circumstances of the present campaign, the nomination of a new candidate would be difficult and dangerous; and that, by insisting on my purpose to decline a reelection, I may jeopard, to some extent, the success of my party, in other and far more important particulars.

It is suggested to me, moreover, that a full year will intervene between the election and the commencement of the new term of Congressional service; and that, if I should feel obliged to resign my place in the course of that time, there may be an opportunity of filling it under more auspicious circumstances.

I am quite unwilling, gentlemen, to give too ready an ear to these suggestions, lest I should seem to arrogate to myself something of popularity or influence which I do not possess. But I do not hesitate to say, that if a well-considered belief should be found to exist, among those who are authorized to act for the Whigs of this District, that the use of my name would be of any material importance to the success of their efforts, and more particularly to the choice of the Taylor and Fillmore electoral ticket, I would willingly make any sacrifice of personal feeling, and leave myself at the disposal of my friends. I would not desert those who have never deserted me: still less would I abandon those great national interests and principles, for which we have so long contended, and which, in my judgment, can only be vindicated, at this moment, by the election of General Taylor to the Presidency of the United States.

With these explanations, I desire to refer the whole subject once more to the free and unembarrassed decision of the Convention, by declining the nomination which they have tendered me. I do so in the earnest hope that they may be induced to excuse me from further service, and in the honest conviction that they can readily find a successor, who will at once bring more weight to the ticket, and more ability to the office.

This letter is not intended for publication; but perhaps you can bring my

views before the Convention in no better way, than by reading it at their next meeting.

Begging you, once more, to assure them of my heartfelt gratitude for all their kindness and confidence, and to receive for yourselves my best thanks for the complimentary terms of your communication,

I remain, Gentlemen, most respectfully and faithfully,
Your friend and servant,

Col. T. C. Amory, and others, Committee.

ROBERT C. WINTHROP.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONVENTION, OCTOBER 11, 1848.

Resolved, That we have learned, with deep regret, that the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, now representing this District in the Congress of the United States, has expressed a desire to be relieved from further service in that important station, which he has so long filled, with honor to himself and satisfaction to the country, and purposes declining a renomination.

Resolved, That in the opinion of this Convention, such a step would be fraught with great danger and serious injury to the best interests of the Whig cause, and calculated to affect unfavorably the result of our labors in the Presidential canvass and great political struggle about to take place.

Resolved, That we know of no person so likely to unite the votes of the Whig party in this District at the present time, or who, if elected, will exercise a more salutary influence at Washington, than our present honorable Representative; and that it is our earnest wish that he would reconsider the subject, and thus preserve the Whig party, at this crisis, from the difficulties and dangers inseparable from the selection of any new candidate; and with a view to effect if possible, this most desirable object, this Convention do now, renewedly and unanimously, renominate the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop to represent the First Congressional District in the next Congress of these United States, and respectfully solicit his acceptance thereof.

Mr. Winthrop accepted the nomination, and was reëlected by a majority of about four thousand.

53

PERSONAL VINDICATION.

A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE ON THE STATE OF THE UNION, FEBRUARY 21, 1850,

I Do not rise, Mr. Chairman, to enter elaborately into the general discussion to which the annual message of the President of the United States has given occasion. But finding myself under an unexpected necessity of leaving my seat for a week or two, I have been unwilling to go, without making a few remarks, which I feel to be due to my own position and character.

I have abstained, thus far, from any expression of opinion or declaration of purpose, in regard to the unfortunate sectional controversies by which our country is now agitated. I have done so designedly, and for many reasons, satisfactory to myself, if to nobody else.

In the first place, Sir, I desired to wait until the excitement growing out of that protracted struggle for the Speakership,to which, by the unmerited favor of my friends, I was so promi nent a party, had passed away from the minds of all who were engaged in it; and until I could express myself fully and fearlessly upon these controverted topics, without the suspicion of being influenced by any thing of private resentment or personal disappointment.*

In the second place, Sir, I desired to wait until something of

The memorable contest for the Speakership of the thirty-first Congress began December 3d, and ended, after sixty-three ballotings, December 22d, 1849. The final vote stood thus: for Howell Cobb 102, for R. C. Winthrop 100, scattering 20. A Resolution had been previously adopted that, on this trial, a majority of the whole number should not be necessary for a choice, and Mr. Cobb was accordingly declared Speaker.

that fervent and flaming heat, which had been so evidently brought here from what may well be termed "the warm and sunny South," had abated; until the angry passions, which seemed pent up within so many bosoms at the outset of the session, had found vent through the safe and wholesome channel of debate; and until there could be a chance that a calm and dispassionate voice from "the cold and calculating North" might be listened to with some degree of patient attention.

In the third place, Sir, I desired to wait until matters should be rather more clearly and fully developed; until all the circumstances of the case should be before us; until we should have been able to take an observation of the precise position of the precious vessel in which we are all embarked; until we could ascertain, if possible, what is the real length, and breadth, and height, and depth, of that fearful chasm, that yawning abyss, upon the dizzy brink of which, we are told, the Ship of State is even now poising herself; until we could learn, too, what course. might be proposed by older, and abler, and more experienced hands, for extricating her from peril; and until, especially, we might hear distinctly, above the roar of the elements and the rattling of the shrouds, the voice of the responsible man at the helm,— the man who has been placed at the helm by a majority of the crew, with my own cordial concurrence, and who, by the blessing of God, I hope, and trust, and believe, is destined to be hailed by us all hereafter as "the Pilot who has weathered the storm!"

These, Mr. Chairman, are some of the views with which I have thus far abstained, and would gladly have still longer abstained, from any participation in that strife of tongues which has so long been raging around us, — a strife, let me say, which has seemed to me likely to have no more important or practical issue, than that which was chronicled by one of the sacred historians in regard to a quarrel among the Hebrew tribes, when he summed up the whole matter by saying," and the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel."

But, Sir, I have not been permitted to pursue this expectant system, as an honorable member of the medical faculty near me,

(Mr. Venable,) would probably call it, I have not, I say, been permitted to pursue this course of silent observation without interruption. It appears to have been the studious policy of a few members of this House to drag me into the debate, whether I would or no. Not satisfied with having accomplished my defeat as a candidate for reëlection to the Speaker's chair, — a defeat, Sir, which, in all its personal incidents and consequences I have ever regarded as the most fortunate of triumphs, and over which no one of my enemies has rejoiced more heartily than myself, not satisfied with the accomplishment of this result, they have made it their special business to provoke and taunt me by unworthy reflections upon my political and official conduct; and more than one of them has not scrupled to assail me with the coarsest and most unwarrantable personalities.

It is my purpose, Sir, at this moment, to notice some of these unmannerly assaults; and no one will be surprised, I think, if I should be found doing so in no very mincing or measured terms.

Indeed, Mr. Chairman, both the House and the country will bear witness, that I have been placed in a somewhat extraordi nary position during the present session of Congress. Hardly had I reached the Capital, before I found myself held up, at the length of three or four columns, in the Democratic organ of this city, as a desperate Abolitionist. The Abolition papers, in reply, exhibited me at equal length, as, indeed, they had often done before, as a rank pro-slavery man. The honorable member from Tennessee, (Mr. Andrew Johnson,) coming next to the onslaught, and doing me the favor to rehearse before my face a speech which he had delivered behind my back at the last session, arraigned me in the most ferocious terms as having prostituted the prerogatives of the Chair to sectional purposes, and as having framed all my committees in a manner and with a view to do injustice to the South. The honorable member from Ohio, (Mr. Giddings,) following him, after a due delay, denounced me with equal violence, as having packed the most important of those committees for the purpose of betraying the North. The one proclaimed me to be the very author and ori ginator of the Wilmot Proviso. The other reproached me as being a downright, or, at best, a disguised, enemy to that