| PAGE | |
|---|---|
| LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS, | [1] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JUNE 30, 1848, | [10] |
| SKETCH OF THE OPENING ARGUMENT IN THE CASE OF THE UNITED STATES vs. DANIEL DRAYTON, | [84] |
| LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS, | [119] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 23, 1849, | [121] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 15, 1850, | [180] |
| TWO LETTERS ON THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY, AND ON THE RIGHT OF AN ALLEGED FUGITIVE SLAVE TO A TRIAL BY JURY, | [236], [282] |
| LETTER: THE ORDINANCE OF 1787, | [238] |
| LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR THE THIRTY-SECOND CONGRESS, | [340] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED AT DEDHAM, NOV. 6, 1850, | [357] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 28, 1851, | [390] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED AT LANCASTER, MAY 19, 1851, | [473] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED IN BOSTON, APRIL 8, 1851, | [523] |
| SPEECH, DELIVERED AT WORCESTER, SEPT. 16, 1851, | [536] |
LETTER
Accepting the Nomination for the Thirtieth Congress, made by the Whig Convention of District No. 8, March, 1848.
Gentlemen;
Your communication of the 16th inst., being directed to Newton, (instead of West Newton, where I reside,) did not reach me until this morning. I thank you cordially for the kind expressions of personal regard with which you have been pleased to accompany it. You inform me that at a convention of delegates assembled in Dedham, on Wednesday, the 15th inst., I was nominated as a candidate to fill the vacancy in Congress occasioned by the death of the great and good man whose irreparable loss we, his constituents, with a nation for our fellow-mourners, deplore.
At first thought, the idea of being the immediate successor of John Quincy Adams in the councils of the nation might well cause any man to shrink back from the inevitable contrast. But it is obvious, on a moment’s reflection, that the difference is so trivial between all the men whom he has left, compared with the disparity between them and him, as to render it of little consequence, in this respect, who shall succeed him; and the people in the Eighth District, in their descent from Mr. Adams to any successor, must break and bear the shock of the fall, as best they can.
I most heartily concur with you in that estimate of the services, and veneration for the character, of our late representative, which your resolutions so eloquently express. To be fired by his example, to imitate his diligence and fidelity in the discharge of every trust, to emulate his moral intrepidity, which always preferred to stand alone by the right, rather than to join the retinue and receive the plaudits of millions, as a champion of the wrong,—this would be, in the beautiful language of the Roman historian, “to ascend to glory by the path of virtue.”
One of the resolutions adopted by your convention declares the three following things:—
1. That the successor of Mr. Adams, on the floor of Congress, should be a man “whose principles shall be in consonance with those of his predecessor.”
2. That his fidelity to the great principles of human freedom shall be unwavering. And,—