Though he had enjoyed the advantage of an education, which would have fitted him for entering upon either of what are commonly called the learned professions, his tastes had led him to agricultural pursuits. He prided himself, as any one may well pride himself, on being a good farmer; and the farmers of his neighborhood were justly proud of him, as one of the most intel ligent, observing, and scientific of their number.

We may well count it, Sir, among the consolations of this hour, that he was permitted by a kind Providence, after so long a detention amid these scenes of strife, to revisit his native fields, to die under his own roof, surrounded by his family and friends, and to lie down at last beneath the soil which he had adorned with his hand, and which was so dear to his heart.

In the beautiful village in which he lived, and which is now the scene of so much unaffected sorrow for his loss, I venture to say that no sod will be kept greener than that which covers his ashes, and that his name will long be sadly but fondly associa ted with the "Flower of Essex."

TO THE PEOPLE OF BOSTON.

LETTER OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO THE PEOPLE OF BOSTON ON RETIRING FROM THEIR SERVICE, JULY 20, 1850. ·

Having this day accepted the commission, with which I have been honored by the Executive of the Commonwealth, to supply the vacancy in the Senate of the United States, created by the appointment of the Honorable Daniel Webster to the office of Secretary of State, my relations to you, as your immediate Representative in Congress, are dissolved.

I cannot allow the occasion to pass, without expressing to you all, the deep sense which I entertain of the kindness and confidence which you have manifested towards me, during the whole period of my public career.

It is nearly sixteen years since I entered your service as one of your representatives in the State Legislature, and nearly ten years have now elapsed, since I was transferred as your sole representative to the National Councils.

I should be ungrateful indeed, were I to return no word of acknowledgment for the generous continuance of your favor and regard, which I have experienced during so long a service.

The appointment with which the Governor and Council of Massachusetts have now honored me above my deserts, has only anticipated by a few months the time when our relations were to end, as my intention to retire from the House of Representatives had been openly declared, and was unalterably fixed. Indeed, it was my earnest wish, as many of you are aware, to withdraw my name from the candidacy, at the close of the last Congressional term. Having then already represented the Bos

ton District longer than any one of my predecessors since the organization of the Federal Government, and having enjoyed the highest honors, and, I may add, the heaviest labors of the House of which I was a member, it was my sincere desire and purpose to decline another election. But my design was overruled, for reasons of which I did not feel at liberty to deny the force, and by those to whose judgment and authority I was bound to defer.

In retiring now, fellow-citizens, from your immediate service, I will enter into no formal account of my stewardship, nor detain you with any discussion of the existing state of public affairs. Other opportunities for such topics may occur hereafter.

I desire only to assure you, that I shall bear with me to other scenes of duty, the proudest and most grateful recollection of the constant indulgence and support which I have received at your hands; and that I shall never cease to cherish, whether in public or private life, the most cordial wishes for the prosperity and welfare of my native city, and for the health and happiness of all its inhabitants.

WASHINGTON, 30th July, 1850.

ROBERT C. WINTHROP

THE

BOUNDARY OF NEW MEXICO AND TEXAS.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON THE BILL FOR ORGANIZING A TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT IN NEW MEXICO, AUGUST, 14, 1850.

The Senator from Ohio, (Mr. Chase,) has now for the second time indulged in a course of remark on this subject, which, reluctant as I am to trouble the Senate, I cannot allow to pass without some notice. I understood him to say at the outset, and to repeat at the close of his remarks, that the main objection to the late compromise bill was the boundary line which it proposed to run between New Mexico and Texas, and the ten millions of dollars which it proposed to pay to the State of Texas for agreeing to that boundary line.

MR. CHASE. The statement which I made was that the main objection to the series of measures proposed by the compromise bill was, as I understood it, the great concession made to Texas of territory believed to belong to the United States; or, to speak more accurately, it was the bargain proposed to be made between the United States and Texas in reference to their reciprocal cession of territory by which the United States were to pay ten millions. I did not say there were not other serious objections to that series of measures. There were other objections. But this was most urged; it was most dwelt upon; it was most considered. The other principal objection to the bill was that it was a bill of incongruous elements.

MR. WINTHROP. Mr. President, I understood the Senator from Ohio pretty distinctly to imply, not merely that members of the Senate who had opposed the compromise bill mainly upon this ground, had now yielded to terms which were much less advantageous to the United States; but that there was something in the fact of a recent change of Administration to which this con

cession was to be attributed. The Senator even now has hardly modified the idea which he then suggested. He certainly stated that one of the main objections to the compromise bill was the running of this boundary line and the appropriation of these ten millions of dollars. He also intimated, that owing to the influence of some change of administration, gentlemen had been willing to assent to measures which they had previously opposed. Now, Sir, I had really imagined that the honorable Senator from Ohio would be one of the last Senators on this floor to assert, or even to intimate, that one of the main objections to the compromise bill was this adjustment of boundary between Texas and New Mexico. Certainly, I can conceive that Senators should have objected to that boundary line, and to the consideration which it was proposed to pay for it, as an element in a bill of that mixed and composite character;-a bill made up, as I think, of many incongruous ingredients, and into which this particular ingredient was liable to the suspicion, to say the least, of having been inserted, for the purpose of carrying through Congress measures which could not have been carried without it. So far, many of us may have objected to that element of the bill.

But, Sir, the honorable Senator knows well, that on the part of his own State of Ohio, and on the part of the State which I have the honor to represent, the main objection to that bill, above all other considerations, and in comparison with which any mere matter of boundary or of bonus, of acres or of dollars, was but as the light dust of the balance, was found in the fact, that it undertook to establish governments for vast territorial possessions which had been acquired to the United States as free soil, without any restriction as to the admission of slavery. The honorable Senator knows that perfectly well. And he knows that upon that subject we have yielded nothing, and proposed to yield nothing, in the passage of this Texan boundary bill, but that, on the other hand, we have taken the first and most indispensable step towards securing the existence of a free State, or indeed of any State, on the Rio Grande.

Mr. President, it required no change of administration to convince any of us, I think, of the absolute necessity of running