1 
 
 1 
 
 LETTER TO A FRIEND, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN G. PALFREY, 
 
 A REPRESENTATIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS IN THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS. 
 
 " Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy Country's, 
 Thy God's, and Truth's." 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 METCALF AND COMPANY, 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1850. 
 
 University of California 
 
 Southern Regional 
 
 Library Facility
 
 THE following was all in type, and awaiting only the last proof correc- 
 tions to be struck off, on the 29th of July, when I learned that, in conse- 
 quence of the death of Mr. King, and the transfer of Mr. Winthrop to the 
 Senate, the Governor would order elections in the First and Second Districts, 
 and might include the Fourth. As my position referred to in the second 
 paragraph of the Letter was thus liable to be changed, (as in fact has proved 
 to be the case,) I have suspended the printing to the present time. The tenth 
 trial for an election in this District takes place to-day. The sheets will go to 
 the printer before night, for the press. 
 
 August 19th.
 
 UCSB LIBRARY 
 
 LETTER. 
 
 Cambridge, July 20th, 1850. 
 MY DEAR FRIEND : 
 
 I WAS much gratified by the manner in which you spoke of my course in 
 political life, when we met this week at the College Commencement, the first 
 time for several years. Others of my former pupils and friends, who, like 
 you and myself, have belonged to the Whig party, took the same occasion to 
 express their sympathy and continued confidence, in highly satisfactory terms. 
 The week before last, an official publication was made of the returns of 
 votes given at the last trial for a Representative in Congress from the Fourth 
 Congressional District. As it is understood that the Governor has this week 
 left town without appointing another day for an election, I infer that it is 
 not his intention to do so till the autumn, when it is altogether uncertain 
 whether I shall be a candidate. Accordingly, I feel at liberty to break the 
 silence which I have hitherto thought proper to maintain in respect to some of 
 the strictures to which you referred as having been passed upon my conduct. 
 I desire to do so for two reasons. I am not insensible to the disapprobation 
 of many who have misunderstood, or even of some who have maligned me ; 
 and I venture to hope that, in the satisfaction of their success, those who have 
 opposed my reelection will be inclined to judge of my representations with 
 somewhat more of candor, and that passion and prejudice will have less 
 sway than it would be reasonable to expect during an exciting contest. At 
 all events, I have children, to whom my good name is dear, and to whom it 
 will continue to be so when I shall be no longer here to defend it. I would 
 have them prepared to show, that, as far as the matters in question are con- 
 cerned, they have no occasion to blush for their parentage. 
 
 I may name yet another motive, which you will fully appreciate. I have 
 been a Christian minister. Numbers, yet living, listened to me, and gave 
 me their affectionate confidence, while, year after year, I endeavoured to en- 
 force the principles of a lofty Christian morality. I will not have it allowed, 
 without a protest, that I was utterly unworthy of that confidence so gratefully 
 remembered ; I will not, if I can help it, allow any good influence that in 
 former times I may have exerted over their minds to be annulled by the 
 belief, inculcated in the assaults that have been made upon me, that he 
 who urged on them the claims of truth and righteousness has ceased to 
 " reck his own rede." 
 
 I shall make no apology for egotism in what I am about to write. I must 
 speak constantly of myself, for my object is self-vindication. 
 
 I must begin a long way back, though not a step further back than my 
 bumble history has been ransacked by the newspaper writers for matter with
 
 which to upbraid me. Taking advantage of the unfavorable feeling which 
 exists in our community respecting a withdrawal from the clerical pro- 
 fession, and presuming that, in a matter so delicate and private, I should 
 be unwilling to make explanations, they have not shrunk from using the 
 grossest freedom in their inquisition into my earlier course. 
 
 In the year 1831, after thirteen years' service in the parochial ministry in 
 Boston, I accepted a Professorship in the Theological Department of the Uni- 
 versity, and removed to Cambridge. My partial friends in the religious so- 
 ciety with which I had been connected objected to my taking that step, and 
 urged that it was not wise. But no doubt of its being taken under a disin- 
 terested sense of duty ever reached me from any quarter. My position had 
 been every thing that heart could desire, and never more attractive, to say the 
 least, than when I relinquished it. Separating myself from relatives and 
 friends, I left it for a place, to be retained, as I supposed, for the rest of my 
 life, where I was to have more labor, less leisure, less compensation, and 
 social position and advantages certainly not superior to what I left behind. 
 Except that I was not in ill health, I took the step under the same circum- 
 stances as the same step had been taken just before by the late Rev. Dr. 
 Ware, jr., and I never heard that he was charged with being prompted by 
 political, or any other worldly ambition. 
 
 After four years, with a view to add to my pecuniary means, which proved 
 unequal to the wants of an increased family, I became editor of the North 
 American Review. I am ashamed to write of matters of such purely per- 
 sonal concern, but the impudent and false constructions put upon them by 
 those who have felt justified in criticizing so distant a period of my life, com- 
 pel me to the unwelcome task. At the end of four years more, namely, in 
 1839, my situation was this : During five days and a half of every week of 
 the College terms, I was doing harder and more exhausting work, in the 
 lecture-room, and in preparation for it, than I have ever done in any other 
 way. I was one of the three preachers in the University Chapel ; and during 
 my turn of duty, in what remained of Saturday after the week's lecturing 
 was done, I had to prepare for the religious service which I conducted on 
 Sunday. As Dean (or executive officer) of the Theological Faculty, I was 
 charged with affairs of administration in that department of the University. 
 As editor of the North American Review, I was under obligation to lay be- 
 fore the public two hundred and fifty or more closely printed octavo pages 
 every quarter. I had in press a work, of some extent and labor, on the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. And (imprudently, perhaps, but for apparently sufficient cause) 
 I had engaged to deliver and print courses of lectures for the Lowell Institute, 
 which accordingly I did deliver in 1839-40, and the two following winters. 
 
 These things united made a task too great for the health and strength of 
 most men. At all events, it was too great for mine. Plain indications 
 showed that I must have some relief, or be crushed, body and mind. My 
 permanent engagements were the professorship in the University, and the 
 editorship of the Review. In the Review was embarked a large capital (for 
 me) ; and to dissolve my connection with it, until there should be an oppor- 
 tunity for an advantageous sale, was not to be thought of, because this would 
 have been to put it out of my power to reimburse the friends to whom I was 
 indebted for the investment. I did not desire to resign my professorship. 
 Nor did I yet contemplate such a movement. My plan was to obtain such
 
 relief as scorned absolutely necessary, and no more, by a dispensation from a 
 portion of its duties. A recent event had put it in my power to relinquish 
 a part of my income from that source. I accordingly made a communication 
 to the Corporation of the College, proposing to give up the less important part 
 of my duties, (and with them three eighth-parts of my salary,) and submitting 
 a plan by which I thought they might be executed at less expense to the in- 
 stitution, and without derangement of the system of the department. The 
 Corporation, after conference with me by a committee, and consultation 
 among themselves, acceded to my proposal, and passed a vote accordingly. 
 A copy was transmitted to me, and the transaction was complete. 
 
 A few days passed, and the President called upon me to give me informa- 
 tion, which, as he very properly said, he thought I ought to possess. He told 
 me that, at a subsequent meeting of the Corporation, more full than those at 
 which my proposal had been considered and acted on, dissatisfaction had 
 been expressed with the arrangement on the part of members who had been 
 absent, on grounds having reference to the general policy of the College, and 
 the inexpediency of precedents of this nature. His communication was 
 limited to giving me this information, without any suggestion that further 
 action was expected from me, or was contemplated by the Corporation, in the 
 way of a reversal of what had taken place. But it cost little reflection to show 
 me that I could not with propriety take advantage of a vote which it ap- 
 peared would not have been passed in a full board against such opinions of a 
 minority. It was equally clear that I must not think of going on as I had 
 done. Accordingly, on a revision of the whole subject, I announced my in- 
 tention to resign at the end of the academical year. This was done with 
 perfect good feeling on both sides, of which feeling towards myself the most 
 flattering evidence was afforded in documents placed in my hands by the 
 authorities of the College. I did not remain in Cambridge, where I had lived 
 eight years, as, according to the theory lately broached of my movements, I 
 should have done, to pursue objects of political ambition. I removed in the 
 autumn to Boston, advertising my house in Cambridge to let, which was 
 effected in the summer of the next year. And this is the whole story of my 
 separation from the College, an event unexpected and undesired by me, and 
 connected with no ulterior views beyond the preservation of my life and 
 health. My object in it has been preposterously misrepresented. There is not 
 a shadow of proof, nor have I any recollection or belief, that I had then any 
 more thought of a course of life like that into which unexpected circumstances 
 have since led me, than I now have of becoming some day Emperor of China. 
 
 Having lived in Boston two years, engaged in my studies, in the manage- 
 ment of the North American Review, and in the preparation and publication 
 of my Lectures before the Lowell Institute, not writing a line for any news- 
 paper, nor seeking political associations of any kind, nor thinking of politics 
 more than every tolerably well-informed person, with whatever pursuits, may 
 be supposed to do, I was elected by my fellow-citizens of that place to rep- 
 resent them in the General Court of the Commonwealth, for the years 1842 
 and 1843. It has been said and printed, that, by way of introducing myself 
 to political life, I became a frequent attendant at the primary meetings, after 
 my removal to Boston. To the best of my knowledge and belief, I never 
 was in a primary meeting till after I had taken my seat as Representative in the 
 General Court. To the best of my knowledge and belief, I never was in a
 
 primary meeting but three times in my life ; namely, on the 6th of January, 
 and the 31st of August, 1842, at Boston, and on the 21st of September, 1847, 
 at Cambridge. To the best of my knowledge and belief, no solicitations 
 not so much as any hint from me led to my nomination for the General 
 Court If any one supposes that he knows any thing to the contrary of this, 
 I desire him to make it public. 
 
 Though I took a part in other measures, for the responsibility of a Repre- 
 sentative was upon me, my regular business in the House was that of 
 chairman of the Committee on Education, a place assigned to me without the 
 slightest motion (and, I will add, without the slightest expectation) of my own. 
 It was a place, however, I suppose, not unsuitable for a person of my habits, 
 as it has been repeatedly filled by clergymen before and since. And it pro- 
 cured me a pleasure of the choicest kind. With others of that committee, I 
 was subsequently placed on a special joint committee, to whom were referred 
 the subject of the continuance of Normal Schools (the first provision for 
 only three years having then expired), and a proposal for the establishment of 
 School District Libraries. The committee determined that Resolves should be 
 reported to continue the Normal Schools, and establish the Libraries; that 
 they should be introduced in the House, and that I should prepare and take 
 charge of them in that body. Under circumstances of no little difficulty, 
 these were carried through, and became a law on the 3d day of March, 
 1842. I look back upon that day as the date of the most useful public ser- 
 vice I ever rendered, excepting only the day of my first vote in the Congress 
 of the United States. 
 
 In 1843, by reason of straitened circumstances, (the cause of which there is 
 no need to explain, but which were not such then, or at any other time, as to 
 occasion to any person the loss of a cent by me,) I disposed of the property, 
 and relinquished the editorship, of the North American Review, which, as 
 things stood, was inadequate to my needs, and looked about for some more 
 advantageous employment of my time. Should it be asked why, released 
 from other engagements, I did not seek to resume my former profession, there 
 are those who will understand why one should be reluctant to return to that 
 profession, when relinquished, as a resource for a livelihood. From time to 
 time, as opportunity has occurred, I have freely given other reasons, in my 
 judgment of great weight, and am always ready to do so, to any one who 
 has a curiosity upon the subject. I shall probably be thought to have already 
 thrown off reserve quite sufficiently as to these personal matters, without 
 going further now on this point. I will but add, that since retiring from the 
 University, in 1839, 1 have published three octavo volumes on important sub- 
 jects in theology ; and I may hereafter lay before the public some further 
 evidence that I have not forsaken the studies proper to the clerical profession, 
 but, on the contrary, have devoted to them more time than the routine of 
 parochial services would have allowed me to command. 
 
 In the spring of 1843, the lease of my house in Cambridge expired. As the 
 reasons which had caused me to remove to Boston still remained in force, I 
 tried through the whole summer to find another tenant, by advertising and in 
 all the other usual ways ; but without success. For this simple reason, be- 
 cause I could not afford to hire one house while I owned another which 
 was vacant, I moved back to Cambridge in November, 1843. But the 
 newspaper construction of the proceeding (somewhat unmindful of chronolog-
 
 ical congruities) was different : " He saw that our District was unoccupied 
 ground. A Whig, a true, honest, patriotic Whig, Benjamin Thompson, 
 
 had been elected as our Representative in Congress It was well known 
 
 that he was anxious to return to private life The Secretary moved 
 
 from the city," &c. Mr. Thompson declined a reelection in 1846. He 
 was first chosen in 1844. And " the Secretary," who was not yet Secre- 
 tary, moved from Boston to Cambridge in 1843. 
 
 The administration of the State government was changed by the result of 
 the fall election of 1843, and it was understood that there would be a change 
 in the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth. My desire to be considered 
 a candidate having been made known to my friends, I was elected to that 
 office by the General Court in the following January. I hope that in the 
 four years I held it the Commonwealth received no detriment from me. 
 
 The duties of the Secretary's office, of so different a description from the 
 employment to which I had been accustomed, may well be supposed to have 
 been found at first somewhat irksome and distasteful. But use and method 
 made them easy, and not unpleasant. If not very interesting or intellectual, 
 they were at all events not at all exhausting ; and by method and diligence 
 I found myself able to perform them with exactness within such a daily allow- 
 ance of time as to leave considerable leisure for more congenial pursuits. 
 The emolument, joined to my private resources, was enough to enable me to 
 live with frugal comfort, and educate my children. In short, I was living 
 very satisfactorily, and desired nothing different. But so it was not ordered. 
 
 Though, while a Representative in the General Court, I had been sent as a 
 delegate from Boston to the Whig State Convention in September, 1842, and 
 though I made two or three speeches in the Presidential contest of 1844 (the 
 annexation of Texas being already a pending question), it was in the autumn 
 of 1845 that I first became connected in any material way with political trans- 
 actions. If I mistake not, that was a time when Christian man or Christian 
 minister might well think that it did not misbecome him to take an interest in 
 public affairs. For my part, I am most confidently of the opinion that the 
 cause of truth and righteousness, of God and of man, demanded quite as much 
 active service at that time in the popular assemblies as in the pulpits of the land. 
 
 In October of that year, at a Convention called in Cambridge of opponents 
 to the annexation of Texas as a Slave State, I was appointed, in my absence 
 and without my knowledge (but that is quite immaterial), a member of a 
 committee there raised, called the Massachusetts Texas Committee, charged 
 with inviting anew the attention of the people of the Commonwealth to that 
 flagrant meditated wrong, and obtaining petitions to Congress with a view 
 to arresting the further progress of the scheme. My principal agency as a 
 member of this committee was in the preparation of a circular letter to the 
 clergy of the Commonwealth, invoking their aid in behalf of the contem- 
 plated object. I was also a member of a sub-committee of three persons to 
 solicit funds for circulating information and appeals on the subject, and col- 
 lecting the names of petitioners. The result of the action of this committee 
 was, that petitions with forty or fifty thousand signatures from Massachusetts 
 were forwarded to Washington at the meeting of the Twenty-ninth Congress. 
 
 In the summer of 1846, my friend, Mr. Charles F. Adams, having assumed 
 the editorship of the "Boston Whig," I contributed to that journal a series of 
 twenty-six numbers, entitled " Papers on the Slave Power." They attracted
 
 8 
 
 some attention, and were presently after collected in a pamphlet, which 
 passed through three editions. 
 
 On the following September 16th, the chairman of the Whig Committee of 
 the Fourth Congressional District called upon me, and requested my permission 
 to allow my name to go before the District Convention, soon to meet, as a can- 
 didate for nomination as successor in the House of Representatives to Mr, 
 Thompson, who had made known his intention to withdraw. I expressed 
 my disinclination to accept the proposal, and stated some of my reasons. At 
 his request, however, I consented to withhold a reply for a few days. On the 
 21st day of that month I wrote to him, positively declining the proposal. 
 In this determination I never wavered. Representations were made to me, 
 in conversation and writing, by leading gentlemen of the party, with a view 
 to change my purpose ; but my answers were uniform and decided. These 
 applications were continued up to the evening before the Convention, when 
 the gentleman who at its meeting was chosen President visited me at my 
 house to urge a change of my resolution, and received the same reply. 
 
 I did not desire the place. I was resolved not to be a candidate for it. 
 Various reasons were conclusive with my own mind, some of which I men- 
 tioned from time to time. And what added to their force at that particular 
 juncture, and made me absolutely averse to the step, was the hostility which, 
 in some hitherto friendly quarters, had been excited against me by the general 
 tenor, and particularly by some passages, of my recent publication on the 
 " Slave Power," and which there was plain reason to apprehend would as- 
 sume a character still more painful, should I consent to become a candidate 
 for the place in question.* 
 
 Notwithstanding these unequivocal and constantly repeated denials, 
 known to every one who knew any thing about the matter, the Convention 
 nominated me as the candidate of its party. The state of things was then 
 changed ; such an expression, under such circumstances, of confidence and of 
 desire for my services, had its weight ; and, after much and long hesitation, I 
 yielded to the representations which were made to me, that, as a matter of 
 public duty, I was bound to recede from my position. I am glad that I did 
 not then know all the personal consequences which were involved in that 
 decision. I fear that I might not have had spirit to encounter them ; and 
 then some approbation of my conscience, which I now possess, for duty since 
 honestly performed, would have been lost. 
 
 * One little matter which gave great offence was, that, in commenting on the course of a 
 distinguished gentleman of the Whig party, I had said, in the off-hand style of an ephemeral 
 newspaper communication, that it was " hard to make a statesman out of a calico-merchant." 
 I regret the expression, for it was not necessary to my argument, and it provoked a clannish 
 wrath, that dreams not of being appeased, after having, like a troubled sea, cast up much mire 
 and dirt. The paper was hastily written, and sent to the press with little time for expurgation. 
 In the pamphlet reprint, I suppressed the offensive words. But, after all, what is there in them 
 to raise such a transport of displeasure? All callings in private life, it is likely, have their 
 tendencies some of one kind, some of another unfavorable to the wisest and loftiest politi- 
 cal action. A large proportion of our political men are lawyers by profession, from which it 
 might be inferred to be a prevailing sentiment among us, that a lawyer's training is eminently 
 what a statesman needs. But Burke, who knew something about statesmanship, ventured to 
 leave on record a different opinion. How many thousand times has it been said, in State 
 Street and elsewhere, how many thousand times, even, in reference to my humble self, 
 that " parsons make poor politicians." The remark may be flippant ; I incline to think it is ; 
 but would it be dignified for the cloth to be fiercely ruffled by it from Barnstable to Berkshire ?
 
 At the first trial, in November, there was no choice, the votes of the Demo- 
 cratic and Liberty parties outnumbering those of my supporters. I was elect- 
 ed in the following month, a large number of the Liberty party having 
 withdrawn their opposition. 
 
 I was a delegate from Cambridge to the Whig State Convention held at 
 Springfield, September 29, 1847. Part of the resolutions reported for the 
 adoption of that body, by a committee raised for the purpose, related to the 
 course proper to be pursued by the Whigs of Massachusetts in respect to the 
 Presidential election, then a year distant. One of them was as follows: 
 
 "Resolved, That, if this course of policy shall be rejected, and the war 
 shall be prosecuted to the final subjugation or dismemberment of Mexico, the 
 Whigs of Massachusetts now declare, and put this declaration of their pur- 
 pose on_record, that Massachusetts will never consent that Mexican terri- 
 tory, however acquired, shall become a part of the American Union, unless 
 on the unalterable condition, that ' there shall be neither slavery nor involun- 
 tary servitude therein, otherwise than in the punishment of crime.' " 
 
 Desiring to reduce this to something practical, Fmoved to amend the series 
 by adding the following : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Whigs of Massachusetts will support no men for the 
 offices of President and Vice-President of the United States, but such as are 
 known by their acts, or declared opinions, to be opposed to the extension of 
 slavery." 
 
 This is what has been often called in the newspapers, " Mr. Palfrey's reso- 
 lution of ' No union with slaveholders.' " 
 
 The amendment was opposed by Mr. Winthrop. It was defended by my- 
 self, and more ably by others ; among others, very eloquently by Mr. William 
 Dwight, of Springfield, who said, "You cannot vote for a candidate not 
 known to be opposed to slavery extension ; it would he guilt."* The vote was 
 taken after nightfall, when many of the western delegates had dispersed to 
 their homes, and when it was difficult to count the members as they stood in 
 their places, on a level floor, in a dimly-lighted room. The majority was de- 
 clared to be against my amendment. Many said afterwards, and among 
 them some who belonged to the reported majority, that if the count could 
 have been made more accurately, the decision would have been reversed.! 
 The Whig County Conventions met presently afterwards, and in the greater 
 number of them, including (if my memory serves me) nearly, if not all, 
 the larger counties, except Suffolk, this resolution was adopted either in 
 terms or in tenor. It expressed what was then (namely, in the autumn of 
 1847) the sense of the Whig "party of Massachusetts. 
 
 On the 4th evening of the following December, I arrived at Washington, to 
 take my seat in the Thirtieth Congress of the United States, which was to 
 meet on the 6th. Mr. Giddings of Ohio was waiting to receive me, and ac- 
 
 * I quote from memory ; but words so uttered are not easily forgotten. 
 
 f On looking at a newspaper file, to verify the language of the first resolve quoted above, 
 the following remark upon the resolve proposed by me strikes my eye. It is taken 
 from the " Springfield Republican," a Whig paper issued on the spot, and one of the most in- 
 fluential in the Commonwealth : " We would have adopted it [Mr. P 's amendment] at once, 
 as every way proper, and in the most perfect keeping with the resolutions as originally pre- 
 sented. And we have the most perfect assurance that such was, and is, the general sentiment 
 of the Convention." 
 
 2
 
 10 
 
 companied me to my lodging. He informed me that, Mr. Vinton having de- 
 clined the nomination for Speaker, Mr. Winthrop had been selected for that 
 place by the Whig caucus, by a majority of votes over Mr. Caleb B. Smith, 
 of Indiana. I asked him what was known of Mr. Winthrop's intended 
 course in the appointment of committees. He said he knew nothing material 
 upon the subject. I expressed briefly my anxiety in relation to it ; the con- 
 versation passed to other topics; and we separated without so much as a 
 reference on either part, so far as I remember, to any course of action to be 
 pursued. * 
 
 I reflected duly on the subject, and determined on my course ; and the next 
 day, after going to church (the day was Sunday, a circumstance which some 
 who have not regarded my proceeding as a work of mercy have not failed to 
 make busy use of), I sketched a note to Mr. Winthrop, which I sent, having 
 first taken it to show to Mr. Giddings, and made one or two slight alterations 
 at his suggestion. Of that note, presently afterwards (with perfect pro- 
 priety) published by Mr. Winthrop, the following is a copy, namely : 
 
 Coleman's, Washington, Dec. 5th, 1847. 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 It would give me pleasure to aid, by my vote, in placing you in the chair 
 of the House of Representatives ; but I have no personal hopes or fears 
 whatever to dictate my course in the matter, and the great consideration for 
 me must be that of the policy which the Speaker will impress on the action 
 of the House. 
 
 Not to trouble you with suggestions as to subordinate points, there are 
 some leading questions on which it may be presumed you have a settled pur- 
 pose. May I respectfully inquire, whether, if elected Speaker, it is your in- 
 tention, 
 
 So to constitute the Committees on Foreign Relations, and of Ways and 
 Means, as to arrest the existing war. 
 
 So to constitute the Committee on the Territories, as to obstruct the legal 
 establishment of slavery within any territory. 
 
 So to constitute the Committee on the Judiciary, as to favor the repeal of 
 the law of February 12th, 1793, which denies trial by jury to persons charged 
 with being slaves; to give a fair and favorable consideration to the question of 
 the repeal of those Acts of Congress which now sustain slavery in this Dis- 
 trict ; and to further such measures as may be within the power of Congress 
 to remedy the grievances of which Massachusetts complains at the hands of 
 South Carolina in respect to the treatment of her citizens. 
 
 I should feel much obliged to you for a reply at your early convenience, 
 and I should be happy to be permitted to communicate it, or its substance, to 
 some gentlemen who entertain similar views to mine on this class of questions. 
 I am, dear Sir, with great personal esteem, 
 
 Your friend and servant. 
 
 * One of the Boston editors published that it was within his knowledge that my opposition 
 to Mr. Winthrop was arranged between me and my friends before I left home. I met him 
 soon after at Washington, and told him how clearly he was mistaken. But what good did that 
 do ? He could not have known how I should proceed. No human being knew. 1 did not 
 know myself. I had not spoken to any person of any intention of mine in respect to the 
 choice of Speaker, nor had any one given me advice, opinion, or (as far as I remember) so 
 much as hint upon the subject.
 
 11 
 
 That night, after eleven o'clock, I received the following reply : 
 
 Washington, Culcmans Hotel, December 5th, 1847. 
 DEAR SIR : 
 
 Your letter of to-day has this moment been handed to me. 
 
 I am greatly obliged by the disposition you express " to aid in placing me 
 in the chair of the House of Representatives." But I must be perfectly can- 
 did in saying to you, that if I am to occupy that chair I must go into it without 
 pledges of any sort. 
 
 I have not sought that place. I have solicited no man's vote. At a 
 meeting of the Whig members of the House, last evening (at which, how- 
 ever, I believe, you were not present), I was formally nominated as the Whig 
 candidate for Speaker, and I have accepted the nomination. 
 
 But I have uniformly said to all who have inquired of me, that my policy 
 in organizing the House must be sought for in my general conduct and char- 
 acter as a public man. 
 
 I have been for seven years a member of Congress from our common 
 State of Massachusetts. My votes are on record. My speeches are in print- 
 If they have not been such as to inspire confidence in my course, nothing that 
 I could get up for the occasion, in the shape of pledges or declarations of pur- 
 pose, ought to do so. 
 
 Still less could I feel it consistent with my own honor, after having re- 
 ceived and accepted a general nomination, and just on the eve of the election, 
 to frame answers to specific questions, like those which you have proposed, 
 to be shown to a few gentlemen, as you suggest, and to be withheld from 
 the great body of the Whigs. 
 
 Deeply, therefore, as I should regret to lose the distinction which the 
 Whigs in Congress have offered to me, and through me to New England, 
 for want of the aid of a Massachusetts vote, I must yet respectfully decline 
 any more direct reply to the interrogatories which your letter contains. 
 I remain, with every sentiment of personal esteem, 
 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 ROBERT C. WINTHROP.* 
 Hon. J. G. PALFREY, &c., &c. 
 
 Three trials for the election of Speaker took place at the opening of the 
 House the next morning. I voted for Mr. Hudson in all. On the third, Mr. 
 Tompkins of Mississippi, and Mr. Holmes of South Carolina, who had before 
 voted for other candidates, withheld their votes, and Mr. Winthrop was 
 chosen by a majority of one. 
 
 * As to the intimation in the last paragraph but one of this note, that I had applied for some- 
 thing " to be shown to a few gentlemen, and to be withheld from the great body of the Whigs," 
 it would be too captious a criticism to interpret it as an argtanentum ad invidiam. But it 
 was entirely gratuitous, and I suppose fell dead, for I did not hear a lisp from any one, during 
 the time that I remained in Congress, that my application was thought exceptionable on any 
 such grounds, though some thought it inconsistent with my previous course in declining to 
 answer questions put to me. I desired permission from Mr. Winthrop to communicate his 
 reply, should he make one, to some friends, whom I believed to be desirous like myself to be 
 acquainted with his sentiments, and for the same reasons. This was no restriction (the suppo- 
 sition is absurd) on his own perfect liberty to inform all the world of his purposes. Had he seen 
 fit to inform me, of course he might have said, Tell them to your friends ; and not only that ; 
 tell them to every body else. Or he might have proclaimed them himself. I proposed to him 
 no concealment. He knows I did not. And I will not be so unjust to him as to insinuate 
 that he meant to imply the contrary.
 
 12 
 
 In the elections which followed, of servants of the House, I voted for the 
 persons who proved to be chosen ; namely, for Mr. Campbell of Tennessee as 
 Clerk, Mr. Sargent of Pennsylvania as Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Homer of New 
 Jersey as Doorkeeper, and Mr. Johnson of Virginia as Postmaster. All of 
 these gentlemen were candidates of the Whig party, except Mr. Johnson, 
 who was a Democrat. 
 
 My opposition to the election of Mr. Winthrop to the Chair of the House 
 occasioned a furious clamor, especially in Boston. In the papers of that city, 
 there were suggestions of the propriety of an " indignation meeting" in the 
 Fourth District; but it was ascertained, I believe, that the feeling of the Dis- 
 trict was not favorable to the project, and it was abandoned. 
 
 I withheld my vote from Mr. Winthrop as Speaker, under the persuasion 
 that he would be governed in the administration of that office by a policy, in 
 my judgment, and in that of those who had commissioned me to act for 
 them, adverse to the honor and welfare of the country. The Speaker is not 
 merely the officer presiding over the deliberations of the House. By his 
 high prerogative in the appointment of the committees, to whom all matters 
 of public business are referred in their earliest stage, he exerts on the action 
 of the House an influence in all cases very material, and in a large propor- 
 tion of cases no less than decisive. Without imputation upon Mr. Winthrop's 
 integrity, I believed his views in relation to the great question of the day to 
 be such that I could not, without a sacrifice of my own integrity, help to in- 
 trust him with that power. He was no representative of the principles which 
 had been solemnly affirmed by the Whigs who sent me to Congress. I be- 
 lieved that he would take care to place the business of the House in the 
 hands of committees who would do nothing to arrest the nefarious Mexican 
 war then raging, and who would do no justice to the great questions then and 
 now before the nation, relating to the abominations of the Slave Power, exist- 
 ing and meditated. 
 
 I might have been mistaken. The event might have shown my apprehen- 
 sions to be groundless. This would have convicted me of an erroneous judg- 
 ment. It would not have absolved me from the obligation of voting as I did, 
 while my conviction remained what it was. 
 
 But was I mistaken ? Did the event refute me ? What was the com- 
 plexion of the committees appointed by the Speaker presently after his ac- 
 cession to the chair ? 
 
 The jurisdiction of the great question of the then flagrant war with Mexico 
 belonged to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and of Ways and Means. 
 Not a member of the former Committee was publicly known to be in favor of 
 arresting the war. At its head was Mr. Smith of Connecticut. Let me say 
 very little of Mr. Truman Smith. Let me but ask whether any one dreams 
 that a committee with such leading would be under special advantages for 
 harmonizing with the moral sense of the country on a great question of na- 
 tional justice and honor. 
 
 The Committee of Ways and Means was so constituted as to promise to the 
 administration every facility in the way of funds to carry on the war. With 
 the exception of Mr. Hudson of Massachusetts and Mr. Hubbard of Con- 
 necticut, no one who knew the men imagined that there would be any action 
 on their part to arrest the plans of conquest then in prosecution. 
 
 The Committee which looked better than any other on paper was that on
 
 13 
 
 the Territories. If at the time of its appointment Mr. Winthrop thought, as 
 the public did, that it would use its power efficiently for freedom, then Mr. 
 Winthrop, like the public, by and by found out his mistake. He may have 
 known better than the public what to expect ; but I have no right to sup- 
 pose it. 
 
 Of the nine members of the committee on the District of Columbia, four 
 were from the Slave States; one was a Northern Democrat, who had always, 
 I believe, voted with the South on the questions connected with slavery ; 
 a sixth, a Whig of Ohio, was reputed to be an owner of slaves in Maryland ; 
 and of the remaining three, one was Mr. F. A. Tallmadge of New York. 
 
 At the head of the Judiciary Committee was Mr. Joseph R. Ingersoll, of 
 Philadelphia, a very estimable gentleman in private life, but notoriously 
 " Southern in all but latitude." Mr. Ingersoll, with three gentlemen from 
 the South, and Mr. John L. Taylor, constituted the majority of that Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 I repeat the question, Was it for me, holding the opinions I did hold, repre- 
 senting the constituency I did represent, was it for me virtually to vote for 
 such committees, by voting the Speakership, with the power of appointment, 
 to Mr. Winthrop, when I believed that he would appoint such committees? 
 
 Mr. Winthrop knew his men. They did their work as was expected, 
 all except the Committee on the Territories, who did not do their work as 
 favorably for freedom as was probably anticipated by both sides. Neither the 
 Committee on Foreign Af.'airs nor that of Ways and Means did any thing to 
 put a stop to the war. The sluggish action of the Committee on the Terri- 
 tories in relation to the organization of governments in Oregon, California, 
 and New Mexico, placed that series of measures at great disadvantage. Nu- 
 merous petitions for the repeal of the law of Feb. 12th, 1793, and for legal 
 protection for our colored citizens visiting Southern ports, (among them, pe- 
 titions with thousands of signatures, presented by myself, so that I know 
 their history,) were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Every one 
 of them was buried outright. Numerous petitions for the abolition of 
 slavery at the seat of government went to the Committee on the District. 
 Not one of them was ever heard of more. Had they been made the subject 
 of adverse reports, their friends could have been heard upon them in the 
 House. As it was, no consideration could be had of them. They were 
 smothered. They were smothered by the hands that the Speaker had em- 
 powered. If Mr. Winthrop thought that this was the proper business of the 
 committees, he did properly to constitute them accordingly. But, as I did 
 not think so, it was not right that he should be placed in a position so to con- 
 stitute them, by the help of any vote of mine. 
 
 I was charged on this occasion with voting against my party. What party 
 elected me to Congress ? I was chosen by votes thrown to the number of a 
 few hundreds by Liberty Party men, but chiefly by those of Whigs. My 
 small number of Liberty Party supporters of course did not want me to vote 
 into power such committees as Mr. Winthrop proceeded to appoint ; and the 
 Convention of Whigs of Middlesex, on the day of my nomination, had passed 
 a resolution declaring their anti-slavery " principles and purposes," and their 
 purpose to adhere to them " at any political hazard." * 
 
 * The Whig Convention which nominated me, held at Concord, October 6, 1S46, and consist-
 
 14 
 
 My views on this class of questions were perfectly well known to the 
 Whigs who voted forme. These views had been announced, in language as 
 explicit and decided as I was capable of using, in the pamphlet on the 
 " Slave Power," which I had published during the preceding summer. It 
 had been extensively read in the District, and, if I was correctly informed at 
 the time, was circulated among the electors during the canvass, at the expense 
 of the Whig District Committee. Nothing could be more notorious and un- 
 questionable than was my position on that subject. The Whigs perfectly well 
 knew by what principles I should be governed, when they gave me their votes. 
 At least, they perfectly well knew by what principles I said I should be 
 governed. A number of Whigs refused to vote for me for that reason. They 
 did not like my antislavery principles. I thank them for their open hostility. 
 It implied at least that they thought I would be as good as my word. I am 
 much more flattered by their view of the subject than by that which after- 
 wards appeared to have been taken by those Whigs who complained of me 
 because, when in Congress, I acted up to the professions I had made when 
 they sent me to it. It seems they thought I would do as so many be- 
 fore me had done, talk one way before election, and act another way after. 
 I do not feel honored by the compliment they paid me. If that was their ex- 
 pectation, I thank Heaven they mistook their man. 
 
 But I " hazarded a Democratic organization of the House." I did no such 
 thing. But suppose I had, let any man capable for one moment of letting 
 
 ing of ninety-one delegates, from thirty-five towns, unanimously passed the following resolve, 
 viz. : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Whigs of District No. 4, whose battle-grounds are consecrated with 
 the blood of those who perilled their lives in defence of that sacred charter of our liberties, 
 which declares that all men are born free and equal, can recognize no condition of human exist- 
 ence but that of personal freedom, and that consequently we are determinedly opposed to every 
 act of the national government which has for its object, or can have for its effect, the perpetua- 
 tion and extension of the institution of slavery. That we protest against the admission into 
 this Union, or the annexation to these States, either by conquest or treaty, of any new slave ter- 
 ritory ; that we utterly condemn the annexation already consummated, and the disgraceful 
 war which has followed in its train." 
 
 The Whig County Convention for Middlesex was held at the same place on the same day. 
 The following were part of its resolves, viz. : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Whigs of Massachusetts have had enough of compromises. 
 
 "Resolved, That the war of invasion and conquest, entered upon for the support and de- 
 fence, and prosecuted for the extension, of slavery, is an enormous crime ; that the Executive 
 war with Mexico, the first-fruits of the annexation of Texas, can be justified by no reason 
 ' which does not deserve the scorn of man and the judgments of Heaven,' and that to its com- 
 mencement, its support, and its continuance we are uncompromisingly opposed. 
 
 " Resolved, That believing it to have become the avowed and settled policy of the national 
 government to foster, strengthen, and extend the institution of Slavery, and that the rights of 
 the Free States, as well as the fundamental principles of republican liberty, are thereby endan- 
 gered, the Whigs of the North are bound in duty to make the declaration, that they are to be 
 now and henceforth regarded as the decided and uncompromising opponents of Slavery ; that 
 they are opposed to its farther extension, and to its continuance where it already exists ; that 
 they will concur in all constitutional measures to abridge its limits, and promote its abolition ; 
 and that to these their principles and purposes they will adhere at any political hazard. 
 
 " Resolved, That as, upon every question involving the extension, the interests, and the ex- 
 istence of Slavery, there is ' but one party ' in the Slaveholding States, it is alike the policy 
 and the duty of the Free States to exhibit upon every such question a corresponding unanimity, 
 and that only in this way is there any hope of arresting the progress of the Slave Power to- 
 ward a monopoly of the benefits, and an absolute control of the destinies, of our National 
 Union." 
 
 See note at the end, p. 27.
 
 15 
 
 alone words and attending to things, show me what difference that would 
 have made. Let any man, acquainted with the history of the Thirtieth Con- 
 gress, point out to me any important division in that House according to the 
 old party lines. The only question of any consequence that I remember, 
 which brought into view the distinguishing doctrines of the two old parties, 
 was one which came up in committee, Feb. 17, 1848, on Mr. Vinton's loan 
 bill for sixteen millions of dollars. It was the old question between a direct 
 loan, or an issue of treasury-notes ; and upon that question I gave a Whig 
 vote, which vote turned the scale on the Whig side, while Mr. Joseph 
 R. Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, Mr. Winthrop's Chairman of the Judiciary 
 Committee, voted with the Democratic party. I defy any man to show 
 me how, in respect to any one of the old party questions, the action of that 
 Congress, from its first day to its last, from Dec. 6, 1847, to March 4, 1849, 
 would have been different in any particular had a Democratic Speaker occu- 
 pied the chair. I affirm, without fear of contradiction, that, as to all the rec- 
 ognized topics of Whig and Democratic controversy, there was no policy of 
 the House to indicate that the Democratic Mr. Davis of Indiana was no 
 longer its presiding officer. 
 
 But, I repeat, I did by no means " hazard a Democratic organization of the 
 House." The Democrats were not only a minority, but a minority disabled 
 and nullified by divisions. There were anti-slavery and pro-slavery Demo- 
 crats, Democrats in favor of, and opposed to, the policy of internal improve- 
 ments, &c. They had no concert of action. Their vote for Speaker shows 
 it. They scattered their votes on different candidates. As a party, they had 
 no candidate. Their putting one of their number in the chair was out of the 
 question. The question had there in fact been a question, had there not 
 been a foregone conclusion was not at all between Mr. Winthrop and some 
 Democrat, but between Mr. Winthrop and some other Whig. I knew, about 
 as well as I ever pretend to know any thing future, that Mr. Winthrop would 
 not be defeated. Suppose his defeat possible, the natural and probable course 
 of things would be, that the Whig party would fall back upon Mr. Caleb B. 
 Smith, who had had the second largest number of votes at the Whig caucus. 
 The Whig votes which had been withheld from Mr. Winthrop would have N 
 been readily given for Mr. Smith, in whom the dissenting members placed 
 more confidence ; and he would accordingly have been elected. The same 
 thing would have happened which occurred in 1843 in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of Massachusetts, when three or four votes, which had been refused 
 to Mr. Kinnicut of Worcester, on account of his supposed proslavery bias, 
 were given for his brother Whig, Mr. King of Danvers, and he was chosen. 
 
 But, I repeat yet again, there was not the smallest probability that Mr. 
 Winthrop would be defeated. The slave interest was satisfied that, under the 
 then existing circumstances, to place Mr. Winthrop in the chair was the best 
 thing it could do ; and place him there it would. I do not say that he would 
 have been its first choice ; but as things stood, his elevation was the most ad- 
 vantageous thing within its reach. It would have preferred to have Northern 
 votes elect him Speaker, and then have for itself the benefit of his posi- 
 tion. It would have preferred to avail itself of him for its purposes, and still 
 have the privilege of growling at him, as a Northern man, for doing no more. 
 But he was to be placed in the chair at all events. I was, and am, persuaded 
 that, if the withdrawal of two Southern opposition votes had not been enough 
 to elect Mr. Winthrop, five, ten, any reasonable number, would have
 
 16 
 
 been withdrawn, or even changed. I did not feel it to be any honor to Mas- 
 sachusetts to have a Massachusetts man do Southern work, and I had no mind 
 to give my Massachusetts vote to bring about that consummation. My notion 
 was, If South Carolina and Mississippi want Mr. Winthrop for Speaker, let 
 South Carolina and Mississippi choose him. It is not for the Bay State to do 
 that work for them. Accordingly, South Carolina and Mississippi did choose 
 him. He obtained a majority, on the third trial, by the withdrawal of the op- 
 posing votes of Mr. Holmes and Mr. Tompkins. 
 
 Of those gentlemen who, by withdrawing their opposition, gave the 
 Speaker's chair to Mr. Winthrop, the first-named was the Democratic repre- 
 sentative from Charleston, South Carolina. How was it to be imagined that 
 he and the Whig representative from the free Fourth District of Massachu- 
 - setts should help each other to place in power the same Speaker, and, through 
 the Speaker, the same committees ? Would the committees, and, through 
 them, the policy of the House, which Mr. Holmea was aiming at, probably be 
 acceptable to my constituents ? He wrote a letter on the subject. Let him 
 speak for himself. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHARLESTON MERCURY. 
 
 Washington, January, 1848. 
 
 SIR: In an editorial article you have thought proper to condemn my 
 refusal to vote on the third ballot against Mr. Winthrop ; and you commence 
 your essay by a remark, " That you had hoped that Mr. Holmes would have 
 explained his course to his constituents." 
 
 As you have called upon me thus publicly for an explanation, I shall 
 give it. 
 
 The Southern Whigs, opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, nominated Mr. 
 Winthrop in caucus in opposition to a majority of the Northern Whigs, who 
 were in favor of the Wilmot Proviso, and who opposed the nomination of Mr. 
 Winthrop. Why this ? Because Mr. Winthrop had been successful in de- 
 feating the Wilmot Proviso in the Massachusetts Whig Convention. This 
 circumstance, I thought, was well calculated to attract the attention of South- 
 ern men. In addition to this, when the voting commenced in the House, the 
 Abolitionists were found voting against Mr. Winthrop. My attention was ar- 
 rested by the fact. I saw at once that the Abolitionists were playing in Con- 
 gress the precise game so skilfully played in the States of New Hampshire and 
 New York, namely, acting as a balance party, and, though small in numbers, 
 contriving to control affairs. My attention being thus roused, I made inquiries 
 of the precise mode of action by which the Abolitionists proposed to effect 
 their object, and I did learn that they had proposed to Mr. Winthrop to vote 
 fbr him as Speaker, provided he would give them the organization of the im- 
 portant committees, the Judiciary, Territories, and District of Columbia, 
 upon Abolition principles, with a view to abolish slavery in this District, pre- 
 vent its introduction into any new territory, repeal the act which compels the 
 return of fugitive slaves, and defeat the law of my own State in relation to the 
 entrance of colored persons within our limits. That Mr. Winthrop preferred 
 to lose the Speakership rather than comply with these stringent demands. 
 This fact was learnt during the progress of the third ballot. 
 
 The danger to me was manifest. The Democrats would not vote for a 
 Whig, and therefore a Southern Whig could not be elected. The Northern
 
 17 
 
 Whigs would not vote for a Democrat from the South, because, with a few 
 exceptions, the Northern Whigs are opposed to slavery. 
 
 The Abolitionists would not vote for any Southern man, be he Whig or 
 Democrat. How, then, could the House be organized ? 
 
 In one mode only : by the Northern and Wihnot Proviso men merging 
 every consideration into Abolition, and electing an Abolitionist or Wilrnot 
 Proviso man upon the conditions proposed to, and rejected by, Mr. Winthrop. 
 
 I send you the correspondence between Mr. Palfrey and Mr. Winthrop. 
 This correspondence will substantiate these facts ; and now I ask, Ought I, 
 with this knowledge, to have placed the organization of the house in the 
 hands of the Abolitionists ? Ought I, a sentinel on an outpost, to have hesi- 
 tated, in an unexpected approach of danger, to defend the great, the by far 
 greatest of all interests committed to me by a generous constituency ? I did 
 not hesitate. All party considerations faded before the deep, intense, burning 
 necessity. I at once acted, acted promptly, and, I grant, decisively. Mr. 
 Winthrop was elected, and the Abolitionists defeated. 
 
 The committees have been properly organized, and Mr. Palfrey, Mr. Gid- 
 dings, and Mr. Tuck excluded from the important committees they were so 
 anxious to control. 
 
 I have thus acted ; and I have the satisfaction to know, that, when I ex- 
 plained the grounds on which I acted, I have the approval of those whose 
 judgments I deem eminent upon such subjects. The times are full of perils, 
 perils to the country generally, perils to the South emphatically. I act 
 under a fearful responsibility. If, in the exercise of that responsibility, I 
 have incurred the disapprobation of the editor of the Mercury, I regret it. It 
 will certainly be pleasing if my explanation shall satisfy him. If not, I must 
 submit with that meekness which ought always to characterize a represen- 
 tative. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 I. E. HOLMES.* 
 
 In the course of the voting, my colleagues, Mr. Ashmun and Mr. Rockwell, 
 came to my seat with a message from Mr. John Quincy Adams, to the effect 
 that Mr. Adams advised or requested me to forbear further opposition to Mr. 
 Winthrop's election ; and it has been thought to have been blameworthy in 
 me that I did not alter my course accordingly. I will not stop to discuss the 
 degree of obligation resting on a Representative in Congress to be governed, 
 in the discharge of his trust, by the request of any person, however distin- 
 guished, out of his District or in it, a member of the House or not. Mr. 
 Adams's opinions and wishes were entitled to my most respectful consider- 
 ation. How far was the expression of them voluntary in this instance ? Others 
 know. I do not. It has been stated, apparently by authority, that, " instead 
 
 * Mr. Cabell, of Florida, who voted for Mr. Wiuthrop, explained himself to his constituents 
 in a letter, from which the following is an extract : 
 
 " It is well known to those who are engaged in this unholy purpose to stir the blood arid ex- 
 asperate the feelings of the South on this delicate subject of slavery, that the object of the 
 Abolitionists can be obtained, so far as the reference of their petitions is concerned, without a 
 vote of the House, simply by presenting them at the Clerk's table. They have been re- 
 peatedly so referred. The committees have in all cases reported them back to the House, and 
 asked to be discharged from their consideration. This is the course approved by Mr. Win- 
 throp." 
 
 3
 
 18 
 
 of going himself to Mr. P., Mr. A. expressly declined doing so " ; from which 
 it is not unnatural to infer that Mr. Adams neither was the original proposer 
 of the communication, nor entered warmly into it. Had what passed been in 
 a personal interview instead of a message, I might have ventured to suggest 
 to Mr. Adams some of those considerations which were controlling my own 
 mind, and ask him how their force was to be done away ; and, in reference 
 to the letter which I had received the night before from Mr. Winthrop, I 
 might have informed him that there was a part of the case upon which I was 
 proceeding, as yet unknown to him. I might have said, " Here, Mr. Adams, 
 is a letter, in which the candidate for the chair, declining to inform me more 
 directly respecting his views, refers me to his votes and speeches as the proper 
 sources of information upon the point, whether I should give him my vote. 
 ' My votes are on record,' he says ; ' my speeches are in print.' On the rec- 
 ord of those votes which he bids me consider, I find the vote for the Mexican 
 War Bill, on the llth of May of last year. It is not for me to deny that he 
 thought it his duty to give that vote, that he considered it to be required by 
 the interests and honor of the country, and the cause of justice and humanity, 
 to let loose fifty thousand men, with all the enginery of destruction, upon 
 Mexico, for a carnage so vast, so horrible, so unprovoked, for such an object. 
 But being myself of the opposite opinion, rather than that I should have given 
 that vote, it were good for me that I had not been born. Among the printed 
 speeches to which Mr. Winthrop refers me, one of the last that I remember 
 was that of last autumn in Faneuil Hall, in which he expressed no repentance 
 for that vote, but, on the contrary, assumed its responsibility, and virtually 
 defended it. And now he distinctly challenges me, by voting for him as 
 Speaker, to express my approbation of his votes and speeches, those very 
 material ones among the rest. I know you are not the man that will advise 
 me to do it." * 
 
 * A writer in the Charlestown newspaper gave the following account of the transaction : 
 "The act is repeated. In that shrill voice the tones of vindictive triumph strike the ear. 
 But, mark ! the third and final trial is proceeding. See that venerable figure, bowing almost to 
 that tomb which has now received him. Follow him through that anxious crowd, which in- 
 stinctively and reverentially give way to 'the old man eloquent.' He approaches that strange 
 Whig, whose voice for Charles Hudson chagrined, provoked, as Mr. Hudson is at such an 
 honor he has just heard. No anger is on his brow, but sadness and kindness mark his ex- 
 pression. Let us catch the sounds of that voice, which never fell without weight upon a Mas- 
 sachusetts ear ; for its utterance was ever that of independence, truth, wisdom. We may sup- 
 pose, in accordance with the accounts of that memorable interview, which have never been 
 contradicted or denied, and which it is too late now ever to contradict or deny, that its pur- 
 port might have been this : ' My friend, I pray you to trust to me this once. You doubtless 
 mean well, but this is a new life for you. You are doing an act, the awful extent of the conse- 
 quences of which no man can tell. You are in a position of the utmost moment, for on a change 
 of your voice depends the choice of a Massachusetts or Ohio Whig, or a slave-owning South- 
 erner and radical Locofoco, to the great committee of this House. You know me too well to 
 doubt that I would not counsel you to any thing unbecoming a man, a Whig, an outspoken op- 
 ponent of slavery. But in persisting in throwing your vote practically for the Locofoco candi- 
 date, you jeopardize your country, your party, yourself ! I beseech you, as a personal favor, 
 a mark of private friendship, that you would bury any feelings of individual enmity against 
 Mr. Winthrop, which may be rankling in your bosom, and remember that in striking down 
 him, by the power providentially in your hands, you prostrate Northern interests, peace, jus- 
 tice, human rights ! ' The venerable sage of Quincy turns aside in despair, for he is skilled 
 enough in human experience, in drawing conclusions as to the working of the soul within
 
 19 
 
 Soon after, I had a conversation with Mr. Adams on the subject. As I am 
 the only witness to it, I shall say no more than that it was in the highest de- 
 gree satisfactory to me. 
 
 Complaint was made, that, before giving my vote, I inquired of Mr. Win- 
 throp how lie intended to constitute the committees with reference to the ques- 
 tions of Slavery and War. It was represented as inconsistent and indeco- 
 rous in me to take that step, inasmuch as, when called upon by the Liberty 
 party, while a candidate for election as representative, to give pledges re- 
 specting my future action, I had declined to do so. 
 
 I cannot admit that there is any ground for such a censure, in either of ita 
 phases. When questions had been addressed to me, I had never dreamed of 
 treating or of regarding that course as affrontive, or otherwise than as entirely 
 respectful, on the part of the questioner. Any gentleman such was and is 
 my view may properly ask questions, and any one, on his responsibility, 
 may answer them, or decline to answer. As to which of these courses is 
 preferable, different persons think differently, and the same persons think dif- 
 ferently in respect to different occasions. The latter course had been adopt- 
 ed by me in respect to a communication from a committee of the Liberty 
 party; it was perfectly right that it should be adopted by Mr. Winthrop, if he 
 saw fit ; by both of us, of course, under the same condition ; namely, that 
 our refusal became a fact to be taken into account by the questioner in deter- 
 mining his own further action. On the other hand, I have answered ques- 
 tions. When a committee of the Liberty party asked me whether I should 
 refuse to vote for a slaveholder for any office, I told them that I should not so 
 refuse. I might add, though I do not care to lay any stress upon it, that the 
 series of measures referred to in the questions addressed to me by the Liberty 
 party was such, that, whenever canvassed in Congress, they would lead to 
 much consideration and debate, to which the legislator should not preclude 
 himself, by previous engagements, from giving a fair attention ; whereas my 
 questions to Mr. Winthrop related to an act solely his own, to be done 
 within a few days, and of which the outline, if not most of the details, had 
 no doubt been fully resolved upon in his own mind. He knew just as well, 
 and as irrevocably, on the 5th day of December, the principles, policy, and 
 plan on which he should constitute the committees, as he knew on the 13th, 
 when the names were read from the Clerk's desk. 
 
 My votes for the Whig candidate for the place of Clerk, and for the 
 Democratic candidate for the place of Postmaster, were both made subjects of 
 censure. The candidate for the clerkship was Mr. Campbell of Tennessee. 
 Just as the vote was to be taken, one of the Massachusetts delegation took 
 pains to tell me that he understood that Mr. Campbell was not a slave- 
 holder, apprehending, probably, that if I supposed otherwise it would deprive 
 him of my vote. It would not have done so, however. Nor should I have 
 asked the question. The position of Clerk is as different as possible from that 
 of Speaker. Were he ever so much of a proslavery man, he would have 
 nothing to do with the appointment of Committees, or have any similar 
 power to influence the action of the House in conformity with his views upon 
 that matter. On the other hand, I considered the office of Clerk to be so far 
 
 from the lineaments of the countenance without, to know that hia counsel, not often uttered to 
 unpersuaded ears among his friends, has fallen powerless." 
 This, however, was a mistake. I had no conference with Mr. Adama on that occasion.
 
 20 
 
 one of a confidential nature, that it was proper that he should be a person 
 harmonizing in political sentiment with the party in power in the House, and 
 with its presiding officer. And I voted for Mr. Campbell in preference to his 
 predecessor and competitor, Mr. French. * 
 
 When I went to Washington, I found Mr. Johnson in the humble place of 
 Postmaster of the House of Representatives. He was the Democratic candi- 
 date for reelection. Whether he was a slaveholder, or not, I never asked, 
 nor had, nor have I, the slightest care about it, except for his own sake. I 
 asked a respected colleague of long experience in the House, whether Mr. 
 Johnson was a capable and faithful officer. He replied that he had never 
 heard any thing against him in either of these respects. I said, then I 
 could not vote to supersede him. Other Whigs, Mr. Houston of Dela- 
 ware, Mr. Thibodeaux of Louisiana, it seems, thought as I did. At all 
 events, they gave the same vote. And yet other Whigs, whom I could name, 
 purposely abstained from voting at all, with a view to give the choice to Mr. 
 Johnson. I could have done no otherwise than I did in this instance, without 
 a complete change of my views respecting the proper course of action in 
 such cases. I did not consider myself as belonging to the party of " the 
 spoils"; the party held together, as some one has said, by "the cohesion 
 of public plunder." My opinion was, that, while officers of that descrip- 
 tion that their opinions influence the management of public affairs should 
 be taken from the party in power, because the majority has a right to have 
 its will efficiently carried out, it is, on the other hand, no reason whatever for 
 superseding a good ministerial officer, that he belongs to one or another polit- 
 ical school ; and the public good is not promoted, but damaged, by such a 
 practice. I believed that such was the opinion of the Massachusetts men who 
 sent me to Congress. Such was my opinion, and such my unrebuked practice, 
 during the years that I was Secretary of the Commonwealth. In that capa- 
 city I employed a considerable number of clerks, without ever appointing or 
 displacing one because of his being Whig or Democrat. The same appears to 
 have been the view of my superiors at home, by association with whom I 
 may naturally have been confirmed" in it. The Governor and Council who 
 came into office in 1844 found in the place of their Messenger a Democrat, 
 recently appointed by their Democratic predecessors. He was a suitable 
 person for the place, and, though much solicitation was made for it by mem- 
 
 * In the autumn of 1843, in a speech at Charlestown, I made both these statements, viz. : 
 1st. That I was informed before the Tote, by a colleague whom I named, that Mr. Campbell 
 was not a slaveholder ; but that, 2d. I should not have sought the information, nor did it in- 
 fluence my action, because, from the entirely different nature of the two offices, I had no such 
 questions to raise in respect to a Clerk as I had in respect to a Speaker. On this occasion, a 
 writer in the newspaper of that city took the very strong course of representing that I had 
 stated Mr. Campbell not to be a slaveholder, and then insisting on what he called " the notori- 
 ous, undenied, undoubted fact, that he was not only from a Slave State, but actually a slave- 
 holder." And to corroborate the latter assertion, he published a letter from Washington, in 
 which the writer said, "There is in the office of Indian Affairs a gentleman of the name of 
 Mullay, whose former residence was Tennessee, and, as I have been informed, he was a very 
 near neighbour of Col. Campbell, and he assured a friend of mine, who gave me the informa- 
 tion, that he knew Col. Campbell to be a slaveholder." There was a double mistake, however. 
 I had not said that Mr. Campbell was not a slaveholder, but that I had been so informed, giv- 
 ing my authority. And I had afterwards, directly from Mr. Campbell himself, the assurance 
 thai my information had been correct.
 
 21 
 
 bers of the Whig party, he was retained for three or four years, till he volun- 
 tarily resigned fora more advantageous employment. 
 
 Through the remainder of my service in Congress, I was not again separat- 
 ed from the Massachusetts delegation in any important vote. I took from 
 time to time as much part in the action of the House as generally falls to the 
 share of inexperienced members. It was my good fortune to introduce and 
 carry a bill making arrangements for the taking of the census of this year, 
 after a bill reported by the Judiciary Committee had proved unsatisfactory. 
 Altogether unexpectedly, I dare say, to others, as well as to myself, I had the 
 laboring oar in that House in defence of the Protective System, on which sub- 
 ject, as a member of the Committee on Agriculture, I presented a report 
 which was the fruit of much labor. The only argument made by any Repre- 
 sentative at either session of that Congress, in favor of the reduction of postage 
 to a uniform two-cent rate, was mine. On the 20th and 21st of April, I took a 
 part, which it gratifies me to remember, in that action in the House which 
 broke down an insolent slavedealers' and slaveholders' mob, after it had had 
 its lawless way two or three nights, and established for ever the freedom of 
 the press at the seat of government.* 
 
 The Conventions which respectively nominated Mr. Cass and General 
 Taylor as candidates for the Presidency were held in the May and June next 
 following the meeting of the Thirtieth Congress. A convention of delegates 
 from nineteen States, representing citizens who regarded the arrest of the usur- 
 pations of the Slave Power as the most important object of public policy, met 
 at Buffalo, the second week in August. Intelligence of its having nomi- 
 nated Mr. Van Buren reached Washington a day or two before the close of 
 the session. 
 
 A more painful question than now occurred could scarcely have presented 
 itself to me. I had been in the habit of thinking of Mr. Van Buren as un- 
 favorably as perhaps every Democrat in New England regards Mr. Clay. The 
 idea of supporting him was extremely distasteful to me, and I had written to 
 my friends in Massachusetts that I did not expect to be able to do so in the 
 event of his nomination, which some of them had informed me was, in their 
 opinion, a possible result. I came home, shut myself up almost entirely, and 
 thought over the matter sorrowfully and anxiously for a week. 
 
 I could not getaway from the conclusion. If I was to do my duty accord- 
 ing to my light, it was necessary for me to make every other consideration 
 yield to that of doing the best which the circumstances permitted for the 
 perilled and outraged cause of liberty. In looking at Mr. Van Buren's his- 
 tory, I found that his early and his recent public course had been true to right 
 and freedom. There had been a miserable interval, when, entangled in the 
 meshes of party and high station, he, like all but one of the contemporaries 
 who had stood with him in the foremost rank of American statesmen, had 
 
 * A writer in a Whig newspaper of this county, out of the District, represented me as 
 friendly to the claims of slavery, because I voted to give a Virginia member ieme to introduce 
 a bill providing for the capture of fugitive slaves. Perhaps (for folly is boundless) the writer 
 really did himself believe that I was lending my aid to make the laws on that subject more 
 atrocious than they are. Perhaps he did not know that I voted on this occasion with other 
 Northern antislavery Whigs, of much more consequence than myself, and that our aim was to 
 get into the House, for its debate and action, the subject, which, under the Rules and Orders, I 
 had been prevented from introducing, when I attempted it by a resolution which I had recently 
 offered for the repeal of the law of Feb. 12th ; 1793.
 
 22 
 
 yielded to the base expediencies of the time. His worst acts of that description 
 were of a different shade of delinquency from what had been commonly rep- 
 resented, and compared not unfavorably with acts of leading men of the 
 party with which I had always acted. Above all, the great fact stood out 
 broadly, that while Mr. Van Buren, like all the other most prominent states- 
 men of the country still living, had been too submissive to the Slave Power, 
 he was the only one of them who was man enough to turn from the error of 
 his way, and assume the thankless and thorny championship of the right. It 
 turned out that 291,000 voters in the country, more than one in ten of the 
 whole number, 38,000 voters in Massachusetts, nearly three in ten of the 
 whole number, had determined to make the policy of freedom paramount to 
 every rule of political action. I took care to have my name counted among 
 them. 
 
 Before there was opportunity to announce the course which I resolved to 
 take, I received assurances on the part of influential Whig gentlemen of the 
 District, that, if I would but refrain from open opposition to them in the ap- 
 proaching Presidential contest, I should again be nominated by their party for 
 election to Congress. But I could not be silent. I could not consent that 
 any power or inducement on earth should tempt me to withhold such feeble 
 aid as I could give when such a cause as that of the Free Soil party was 
 struggling with such odds. 
 
 The Free Soil State Convention was held on the 6th day. of September. 
 I was desired to prepare its Address to the electors, and a series of Resolutions. 
 As one of the questions to come before it would be that of a separate nomina- 
 tion for Governor, I declined to do so, or to attend its sitting, on account of 
 my recent relations to Governor Briggs. Subsequently, on its being repre- 
 sented to me that I could confine myself to questions of national politics bear- 
 ing upon the then approaching Presidential election, I consented to prepare 
 the Address, which received some additions and alterations in the hands of 
 the Convention's committee. I also furnished some of the Resolutions, all, 
 however, relating to the national questions. And at the election which fol- 
 lowed, I did not vote against Governor Briggs. Notwithstanding my great re- 
 gard for him personally, still, in view of the influences by which he allows 
 himself to be swayed, I have always been less clear about the propriety of 
 this than of any other part of my course. 
 
 My position being understood, a Whig Convention in the District, and a 
 Democratic Convention, each set up another candidate, while many of my 
 former supporters, with others, honored me with their confidence. In this 
 division of parties, no candidate has obtained a majority of votes, and, after 
 nine trials, the District remains unrepresented. At the second trial, the 
 number of votes cast for me fell short by 43 of the number necessary to effect 
 a choice ; on the ninth it fell short by 254. The sixth trial, which took place 
 on the same day with that of State officers in November, was the first at 
 which I failed of having a plurality of votes over each of the other candidates. 
 At that time, 564 more votes were cast for the Whig candidate than for me. 
 
 This was generally thought to be owing to an estrangement of some of my 
 former supporters, occasioned by a coalition (so called in the hostile news- 
 papers) that had been formed in some of the counties for the choice of State 
 Senators. As things had been going, it seemed certain that the Free Soil 
 party would have no representative in the Senate, as in no county did it out- 
 number both the others. The same was the case with the Democratic party.
 
 23 
 
 And, by the constitutional provision, the vacant places for counties which had 
 failed to elect would be tilled from the two Inchest lists of candidates, by joint 
 ballot of the two Houses. Under these circumstances, the Democrats said to 
 the Free Soil Convention, You profess to make all other questions subor- 
 dinate to that of opposition to the extension of Slave Power. We have 
 prominent men who sympathize with you as to the question which makes 
 the basis of your organization. We will designate such persons as candidates. 
 We will then adopt an equal number of candidates of your proposing, and 
 our united votes shall carry them all into the Senate. 
 
 The Free Soil party at first declined, but afterwards entered into the ar- 
 rangement. They said, It is important that the cause of Freedom should 
 be represented in the State Senate. We can obtain a representation for it in 
 no other way. And we sacrifice no principle in obtaining a representation for 
 it in this way ; for the candidates who are offered us are men worthy of con- 
 fidence, and more fit for the Senatorial trust than those on the ticket which 
 we shall jointly oppose. And so the arrangement was made, and was suc- 
 cessful in the counties of Middlesex and Worcester, within which the Fourth 
 District lies. And, disturbed by the baseness of my privity to this coalition, 
 some of my former supporters changed their votes. 
 
 Now, though hard words break no bones, and though the word coalition 
 (with nothing to qualify it) is soft and innocuous enough, yet one naturally 
 prefers, when the time comes, to be judged with reference to facts as they oc- 
 curred, rather than to any body's imagination of them. The facts, as to my- 
 self, were these. At an early stage of the project I was consulted upon it, by 
 leading gentlemen of my political creed, and I replied distinctly to this effect : 
 1. I do not understand you to propose to make my election to Congress a 
 part of the contemplated arrangement, so as that the Democrats shall vote for 
 me on condition of our voting for their Senators; if I did so understand it, 
 I should feel that I had a right to take that question into my own hands, 
 and I should settle it by an immediate withdrawal of my name from the can- 
 vas ; I would not consent to continue a candidate on those terms.* 2. As to 
 
 * The only communication, verbal or written, which I ever had with any Democrat, re- 
 specting support from the Democratic party, was in a correspondence, consisting of two letters, 
 one received and one written by me, at Washington, in December, 1843. The tenor of the 
 letter addressed to me may be inferred from my reply, which I subjoin in full. I need give no 
 name. My correspondent will know that the letters passed, and that my copy is correct. 
 
 Washington, Dec. 19th, 1848. 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 Your letter of the 15th reached me yesterday. I thank you for the expression of confi- 
 dence which it conveys. Since our acquaintance began, in the stormy legislative scenes of 1S42 
 and 1843, though our party associations have been different, you are aware, I believe, that I 
 have not failed to value arid reciprocate your friendly regard. 
 
 You say that you desire to ascertain " what the Democratic party in this Commonwealth 
 are to expect from me and the party who have sustained me, provided they shall unite with 
 my friends and secure my election." 
 
 Pardon me, dear Sir, if, in answer to that part of the question which concerns myself indi- 
 vidually, I can only say that I shall cheerfully retire from the place to which my constituents 
 have elevated me, should that prove to be their pleasure ; and that, on the other hand, if con- 
 tinued in office, by whosesoever votes that result shall be brought to pass, lean only engage to 
 pursue the course which from time to time my best judgment of what is demanded by the pub- 
 lic honor and interest shall dictate. What that course may be expected to be, I must rather 
 leave to be inferred from what I have heretofore done and written, than from any professions 
 made on the eve of an election.
 
 
 24 
 
 the question of an arrangement limited to a joint Senatorial ticket, I have cer- 
 tainly no right to dictate, scarcely to advise ; my opinion on that question is 
 worth no more than that of any other citizen in the District ; it is not worth 
 so much as that of many, experienced (as I am not) in party action ; if I were 
 to be at the proposed Convention, I cannot say that I might not hear arguments 
 for the plan that would satisfy me; but my judgment and my feelings are 
 against it ; it is more agreeable to me that we should continue to stand inde- 
 pendently on our original principles, and refrain, though at the cost of long 
 defeat, from any thing that might turn out to be an " entangling alliance." 
 I continued so to view the question. 
 
 The joint Senatorial ticket was, however, formed in Middlesex, and I voted 
 for it. I did so, without a word of advice or solicitation from any one. Inde- 
 pendently of the deference due from me to the decision of my friends on a 
 question of expediency, upon which their judgment was far better than my 
 own, the ticket was the best in the field. Besides being half composed of per- 
 sons in thorough sympathy with me on political questions, the names upon it 
 represented a larger aggregate than those on either of the other lists, of weight 
 of character and of qualifications for Senatorial business. Setting partisan 
 considerations aside, I defy any man to deny this. 
 
 I pursue this course of remark no further. I have not been maintaining the 
 correctness of those political doctrines which, commending themselves to my 
 judgment and conscience, have, from first to last, determined my course. 
 That I have done on other occasions, and may do again. I have now been 
 vindicating, not them, but myself, and showing that I have acted in such a 
 manner as, in faithfulness to them? consistency, integrity, and honor required. 
 And I do not pretend to have taken notice of all the public animadversions of 
 which I may have been made the subject. I dare say that some which I may 
 have seen I have forgotten, and I presume that there have been others which 
 
 To that portion of your inquiry which relates to the party that nominated me for the repre- 
 sentation of the Fourth District, I am unable otherwise to reply than by referring to the author- 
 ized exposition of the principles of that party. I am not qualified to answer for it in any other 
 way. I never aspired to be a party leader, manager, or spokesman. Few men are less con- 
 versant with party operations. Respecting the party which has put me in nomination, I have, 
 for myself, no doubt of its having at heart the best honor of the country, and the highest pros- 
 perity of all interests in it. 
 
 I have not desired to send you a brief, still less a superficial answer, hut really I have said 
 substantially all that I could say, if I should enlarge ever so much. I have never made to any 
 party professions of what I would do if raised to office. My repugnance to making such 
 professions is very decided. I can go contentedly into private life, but I cannot do or say any 
 thing to restrict my perfect freedom to act in public station as my sense of duty at the time 
 shall direct. 
 
 You avow your aim to be " the greatest good of the greatest number." I accede cordially 
 to what I understand to be the spirit of your remark. But I would alter its terms. "The 
 greatest number " is only the majority. I presume your aim includes the good of the minority 
 also. We both aim at the. greatest good of the wliole. 
 
 I will only add that, as to the " moneyed aristocracy " of which you speak, I think with you 
 that its power has of late been most perniciously manifested. In my judgment, that power 
 was brought to bear on the recent Presidential election in our State, in a way which may well 
 give the most serious alarm to every reflecting and patriotic citizen. Nor is my uneasiness on 
 this subject of entirely recent date, as you may see in my pamphlet entitled " Papers on the 
 Slave Power," if you have a copy within reach, particularly in Nos. 9, 11, 22, and 24, and in 
 the preface to the second edition. I wish I had a copy here to send you. 
 
 I shall always be happy to hear from you, and am, dear Sir, 
 
 With great respect and esteem, 
 
 Your friend and servant.
 
 25 
 
 I never saw or heard of; for, considering what those known to me have been, 
 there is no reason why the like should not have heen multiplied to any ex- 
 tent. I see very few newspapers, of late, except from Washington. I was 
 formerly in the habit of reading the two principal Whig daily papers of Bos- 
 ton ; one of them constantly for thirty years. But the one I have not seen, 
 except for some such purpose as to look at an advertisement, for more than a 
 year*; nor the other for nearly two years, except on one occasion, when I 
 was told that it had stated that I voted against the usual resolution of thanks 
 to the Speaker on the adjournment of Congress. Living as retired as I do of 
 late, it has sometimes happened to me to hear, for the first time, of some in- 
 jurious misrepresentation, weeks or months after it has been doing its work. 
 
 Shall I venture to suggest that I have found some mitigation of the pain 
 which severe language naturally creates, in supposing that the fiercest re- 
 proaches that have assailed me have not been from children of the State 
 which gave me birth, and in which my ancestors have lived from the first 
 hour of its two colonies ? Of the three gentlemen connected with the 
 Boston press who have censured me most sharply, I understand one to be 
 from Virginia, one from New Hampshire, and one from Scotland. Of my 
 two fellow-townsmen as prominent as any in opposition, one I learn to be a 
 New Hampshire man, and one a West Indian from Cuba. The opponent 
 who, of all others in the District, has dealt to me the hardest measure, also 
 came among us from New Hampshire. I have always heard him favorably 
 spoken of, as a man of character and good feelings; and I doubt not with 
 great justice, though to me he has certainly been 
 
 " A sweet Bell jangled, out of tune, and harsh." 
 
 Of course, the hardest thing to bear in the progress of these transactions has 
 been the loss of old friends. Up to the age of fifty years, I suppose very few 
 men had more ; and whether I, on my part, have been constant in friend- 
 ship, whether I have been easily provoked or alienated in high party times, 
 or in any times, let those who have tried me answer. The little slights and 
 affronts by which the common associates of former days find it suitable to ex- 
 press their disapprobation, are disagreeable, no doubt ; but they are not much 
 more.t The change in friends of as many years as make up half the recog- 
 
 * While these sheets are passing through the press, another paper falls in my way, in which 
 the following quotation (which I shall verify before this note is printed) is given as an extract 
 from the city paper above referred to, in September last : 
 
 " Mr. Palfrey began his career as a Free-Soiler, by his famous resolution of ' No union with 
 slaveholders.' As our present Union, formed by our revolutionary and constitutional fathers, 
 happens to consist of an equal number of slaveholding and non-slaveholding States, what doea 
 ' No union with slaveholders ' mean but ' Dissolve the Union ' ? We do not see, starting as 
 he does with this motto, why Mr. Palfrey should tell the Abolitionists that he does not agree 
 with them, that a dissolution of the Union is a remedy for slavery. If it is not a remedy for 
 slavery, why proclaim ' No union with slaveholders ' ? " 
 
 A resolution of " No union with slaveholders " is neither my "famous resolution," nor my 
 infamous, nor my obscure resolution, nor my resolution at all. I never offered it, in terms or 
 in tenor. The resolution of mine probably referred to is that which I have recited above (p. 
 9). It seemed, by the best tokens, to be at that time the resolution of Whig Massachusetts ; 
 and it should have been, if it was not. 
 
 t An instance of the change of sentiment to which I found myself liable, without any thing 
 
 having occurred to disturb subsisting friendly relations, was the following. There fell in my 
 
 way, a while ago, a newspaper editorial, in which I found myself represented as an " aspiring 
 
 man of little mind," as having " earnestly craved Whig support " when I was nominated for 
 
 4
 
 26 
 
 nized term of human life, the coldness of some, the separation from others, 
 the loud and acrimonious hostility of others, is not altogether the same 
 thing. It is pretty common for me of late to meet " hard unkindness' 
 altered eye " in faces which from boyhood before never looked at me but 
 with kindness and smiles. I have been addressed with rude language in the 
 streets, when accosting some old acquaintance. Persons whose youth I tried 
 to serve do not recognize me as we pass. I dare say it is very manly, 
 and all that, to say that one cares nothing about such things. But that is a 
 virtue beyond my mark. I do care for them, probably too much. I care for 
 them so much, that I devoutly thank God that he did not let me know to the 
 full extent what was coming, when I took my course. Had I known it, I hope 
 I should have had the courage to do precisely as I have done. But no man 
 is entirely certain of himself; and had I fully seen what I was incurring, it is 
 possible that I might have flinched. As it is, I am safely past the flinching 
 point. I have made full trial of what can be done upon me in this way, and 
 I find that, though it is a hard thing to bear, still it is a possible one. Health 
 and spirits have stood a shock as violent as any that, from any like cause, will 
 probably try them soon again, and they are left in living and working con- 
 dition. Fortified and made confident by the trial, as I could have been by 
 nothing else, I am able to assure friends and enemies, that, whether in pub- 
 lic or in private station, I expect to do what I think my duty as to public 
 affairs, unmoved by considerations of personal fear or favor. My traducers 
 cannot " defeat" me (as I interpret the word), till they have brought me to 
 some concession ; and this I have been led to a pretty strong persuasion that 
 they are little likely to do. And I find myself able to apprise those of my old 
 friends who have done with me, that well as I have loved them, and how 
 well that was, let them judge there is not a man of them, whom, if they 
 were mine again, I would not alienate to-morrow, if the price of retaining 
 them was to be a departure from what I take to be right and duty. I am 
 to keep my own respect, at all events. Whether that point fixed they 
 will be friends or strangers, is a matter not for me to settle. 
 
 It would be very foolish to expect to get at once the satisfactions of inde- 
 pendent action and the rewards of compliance. But, by a rule laid deep in 
 the nature of things, it is determined that the former should be far the better 
 of the two. And in my own humble case, they do not sland alone ; for I am 
 not only conscious that my much-berated course was an upright one; I have 
 been already permitted to see that it was also very useful. When I trace 
 the present condition and prospects of our Pacific empire to the wide popu- 
 lar movement for Freedom in 1848,* and this in part to the action of the 
 
 Congress, and as having been guilty of "Judas-like conduct," with the addition of other oppro- 
 brious language. Above the article stands the editor's name, and it is the same name which, 
 on the 24th of December, 1347, after the "Judas-like conduct" complained of, namely, my 
 vote in the election of Speaker, was subscribed to a letter of which the following is the con- 
 cluding sentence: 
 
 " I have many faults, but, if I know my own heart, a lack of gratitude is not among them ; 
 and when you count those friends upon whose services you have a just claim, do not. I pray 
 you, omit among the most humble, yet the most devoted, 
 
 " Very respectfully, ." 
 
 * The effect of the Buffalo Convention on the action of the House of Representatives, in Au- 
 gust, 1843, was one of the most magnificent results in history. The influence of that series of 
 movements in introducing a free population into California, and the slavery restriction princi-
 
 
 27 
 
 first session of the Thirtieth Congress, and this again, in part, to the effect of 
 the opening scene of that Congress, I come to the conclusion that some of us 
 did not go to Washington in December, 1847, for nothing; and I shall live and 
 die in the happy belief of having been an humble instrument in the hand of 
 Providence to do something towards saving the vast regions yet to be peopled 
 at the West from the unspeakable shame and curse of slavery. 
 
 I am not now writing to the voters of the Fourth District. But some words 
 of Burke to the electors of Bristol are so far applicable to my present purpose, 
 that I will conclude with quoting them. 
 
 " And now, Gentlemen, on this serious day, when I come, as it were, to 
 make up my account with you, let me take to myself some degree of honest 
 pride on the nature of the charges that are against me. I do not here stand 
 before you accused of venality, or of neglect of duty. It is not said that, in 
 the long period of my service, I have, in a single instance, sacrificed the slight- 
 est of your interests to my ambition, or to my fortune. It is not alleged, that, 
 to gratify any anger or revenge of my own, or of my party, I have had a share 
 in wronging or oppressing any description of men, or any one man in any de- 
 scription. No! the charges against me are all of one kind, that I have pushed 
 the principles of general justice and benevolence too far ; farther than a cau- 
 tious policy would warrant ; and farther than the opinions of many would go 
 along with me. In every accident which may happen through life, in pain, 
 in sorrow, in depression and distress, I will call to mind this accusation, and 
 be comforted." 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Faithfully your friend. 
 
 pie into its constitution, has been largely and truly set forth in the speeches of Southern 
 members of 'the present Congress; among others, in those of Mr. Seddon of Virginia and Mr. 
 Clingman of North Carolina, in the early part of the session. 
 
 NOTE (see page It). 
 
 THE following Resolves represent the sense of the Commonwealth as expressed by the last 
 General Court held before I went to Washington. They were the certified creed of the State 
 which I represented. The first series were passed February 27th, 1347; the last, April 26th, 
 1847 ; which was the last day that the Legislature had been in session before I took my seat in 
 Congress. It would hardly, I thought, have been acting up to the spirit of these Resolves 
 to help give a proslavery organization of Committees to the Congress House of Representatives. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the Legislature of Massachusetts views the existence of hu- 
 man slavery within the limits of the United States as a great calamity, an immense moral and 
 political evil, which ought to be abolished, as soon as that end can be properly and constitu- 
 tionally attained, and that its extension should be uniformly and earnestly opposed by all good 
 and patriotic men throughout the Union. 
 
 " Resolved, unanimously, That the people of Massachusetts will strenuously resist the an- 
 nexation of any new territory to this Union, in which the institution of slavery is to be tol- 
 erated or established ; and the Legislature, in behalf of the people of this Commonwealth, do 
 hereby solemnly protest against the acquisition of any additional territory, without an express 
 provision by Congress that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in such ter- 
 ritory, otherwise than for the punishment of crime." 
 
 "Resolved, That the present war with Mexico has its primary origin in the unconstitutional 
 annexation to the United States of the foreign State of Texas ; thai it was unconstitutionally 
 commenced by the order of the President to General Taylor, to take military possession of 
 territory in dispute between the United States and Mexico and in the occupation of Mexico ;
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 UCSB LIBRARY 
 
 28 
 
 and that it is now waged by a powerful nation against a weak neighbour, unnecessarily and 
 without just cause, at immense cost of treasure and life, for the dismemberment of Mexico, 
 and for the conquest of a portion of her territory, from which slavery has already been ex- 
 cluded, with the triple object of extending slavery, of strengthening the slave power, and of 
 obtaining the control of the Free States, under the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 " Resolved, That such a war of conquest, so hateful in its objects, so wanton, unjust, and un- 
 constitutional in its origin and character, must be regarded as a war against freedom, against 
 humanity, against justice, against the Union, against the Constitution, and against the Free 
 States ; and that a regard for the true interests and highest honor of the country, not less than 
 the impulses of Christian duty, should arouse all good citizens to join in efforts to arrest this 
 war, and in every just way to aid the country to retire from the position of aggression which 
 it now occupies towards a weak, distracted neighbour, and sister republic. 
 , " Resolved, That our attention is directed anew to the " wrong and enormity " of slavery, and 
 to the tyranny and usurpation of the " slave power," as displayed id the history of our coun- 
 try, particularly in the annexation of Texas and the present war with Mexico ; and that we 
 are impressed with the unalterable conviction, that a regard for the fair fame of c T country, 
 for the principles of morals, and for that righteousness which exalteth a nation, sai.ciions and 
 requires all constitutional efforts for the destruction of the unjust influence of the slave poweri 
 and for the abolition of slavery within the limits of the United States."