But we are urged to abandon our old colors, and rush wildly into the promiscuous ranks of a one-idea party, in order to promote some grand result connected with human liberty. Let us look at the new party for a single moment in this particular light, and see what claims it has to our confidence.

Beyond all doubt, a great and grievous wrong was perpetrated by the passage of the Nebraska Bill. I united with others in protesting against it at the outset, and I have no words of palliation or apology for it now. It was an act of a character to put "toys of desperation" into all our brains, to tempt us for the moment to break from all our old relations and to plunge into any policy which might hold out ever so delusive a hope of redress. But a sober second thought may lead us to inquire, What more can the Whigs of Massachusetts do on that subject than they have done already? Their representatives opposed it at every stage of its progress by argument and by vote, while the very men who are now clamoring most loudly for their aid and alliance manifested their appreciation of such fidelity by lying in wait to undermine and overthrow them at the earliest moment.

And how happens it, by the way, that Mr. Wilson and his compeers have reserved their zeal for "the paramount issue" to so late a day? They tell us that the Whig resolutions of last year were superlatively excellent, and they seem never tired of rehearsing them with ecstasy at all their own meetings now. Why did they not recognize their goodness a little earlier? Why did they not give them an honest support at the time they were passed, and help to re-elect those who had been true to them? Why was not my old friend Julius Rockwell, who is now fit to be their Governor, fit then to be their Senator? He had just returned home from a faithful support of every Northern right, and yet, instead of rallying to support him, they united to supplant him and strike him down in the dark, and with him all the other Whig representatives who had stood firmly at his side. That was the greatest blow to the honest cause of freedom it has ever received in this Commonwealth, and we know where it came from. see by whom it was dealt, and for what end. You would not have heard a word in favor of this Fusion project from that source, if certain men had been still out of office. Did a vote

We

against the Fugitive Law, or against the Nebraska Bill, did the most uncompromising fidelity to "the paramount issue,” ever satisfy them, while their own ambition was ungratified? But now that they are fairly, or unfairly, seated in the Senate or the House, they are quite willing to fortify themselves in their position by drawing around them the very gentlemen whom they have ousted, and some of these gentlemen are polite enough to fall in at the word of command.

And this brings me to my principal objection to the new party, and that is, its eminent adaptation to defeat the very ends at which it professedly aims. I am one of those who believe that the ultraism and recklessness of some of these old Free-soil leaders, who are now calling on the whole people to sustain them in the offices which they have gained by every degree of indirection and indecency, have been the occasion of not a few of those very aggressions which they are so vociferous in condemning, and are destined to be the occasion of still new ones, if they are to be encouraged and strengthened in their fanatical career. No class of men in the country, either Northern or Southern, have, in my judgment, been more responsible for many of the measures which they have been loudest in denouncing, than your regular Northern agitators, who have at last alarmed the South into an idea of the absolute necessity of strengthening herself for the protection of her domestic institutions. Sometimes, we know, the South has received the most direct and positive aid from this source. Nobody doubts that Texas was brought into the Union through the instrumentality of New York Free-soilers, at least one of whom may be found at this moment among the leading Republican candidates in that State.

But even the Nebraska Bill owed not a little of its success, in my opinion, to the fatuity of some of these ultra men. The violence to which they resorted, here and elsewhere, but particularly here, in resisting the Fugitive-slave Law, produced the impression that the North intended to keep no faith on any point. And when at length this Nebraska Bill was introduced, a handful of them precipitated themselves into the front ranks of the opposition, in a way to drive off the only persons who could have prevented its consummation. Half-a-dozen of them, under the style of Inde

pendent Democrats, got up a flaming manifesto in such hot haste that it was said to have been dated on Sunday, and put it forth, cock-a-hoop, half-signed, to the utter discomfiture of all who hoped to prevent the bill from passing. They usurped a lead which belonged to others, and gave an odor of abolition to the whole movement. From the moment I read that ill-advised paper, I despaired of seeing that Southern opposition to the measure, which, under other circumstances, I fully and firmly believe we should have obtained. My worthy friend, Mr. Eliot, of New Bedford, called this protest, in a late speech," the first unmasking of the plot." No it was the first unmasking of our own batteries, and that before they were manned or ready for action; and upon those who adopted this rash policy, not a little of the responsibility for the result must justly fall. We read, in ancient history, of a young Spartan officer who was punished for rushing prematurely and unarmed upon the enemy, even although he gained a victory. What shall be said of those who perilled and lost this momentous stake by their unwise and reckless precipitancy?

It is not enough considered that the real retarders of any movement are often found among those who are claiming to be its leaders. Has it not been so in the case of Temperance? Has not excessive zeal and blind one-idea-ism led at last to the enactment of laws which have created a general re-action, and put back the cause of temperance, we know not how far? Just so has it been, and will it be again, with these ultraists in the cause of freedom. For one, I never witness one of their violent spasmodic agitations about slavery at the North, without looking to see it followed forthwith by some fresh triumph at the South. Our Northern fusion phalanxes, indeed, in the present instance, seem to be taking up the line of march after the mischief is accomplished, as I once saw some of our militia companies (before the days of such prompt disciplinarians as General Edmands and Colonel Chickering), turning out after a riot had been successfully carried through, and parading near the scene as if in celebration of the success of the mob. We had a grand rising about Texas, I remember, after it was irreparably annexed, and now we are to have a grand rally about the repeal of the Missouri restriction, after it is hopelessly accomplished. And while we are thus

engaged, the South will be looking about them for some fresh chances of fortifying their institutions. Our ultraists will have succeeded in nothing but in alarming them afresh into a feeling that some new defences must be secured. They will have alienated and disgusted all the moderate and reasonable men among them and among ourselves; and, with the aid of the Democracy, some fresh annexation of new territory, or some other repeal, if any thing remains to be repealed, of the restrictions upon old territory, will be successfully attempted. Geographical parties will have been arrayed against each other, and thus, the action and reaction of ultraism at both ends of the Union will go on to the end of the chapter; involving us in a never-ceasing series of mischievous and deplorable measures.

And to this end we are called on to forget the past, to disregard all experience, and to rush into the formation of what has been elegantly denominated a grand "Back-bone Party." No: the vertebral column must support a sounder brain, before I can desire to see it assuming any thing of additional strength or solidity. Better let it remain as fragmentary and fleshless as that of some fossil reptile of the coal measures, if it is only to be employed as an instrument for disjointing the carefully compacted framework of our national body politic, or if it is for ever to serve as a bone of contention among those who ought to be able to live together in unity and concord.

One thing I have resolved on in my own political career, and that is, never to give countenance or support to any policy or any party which tends in my conscientious conviction towards disorganization or disunion. Three or four years of retirement from public office have served to wean me from all inordinate affection for official station, if I ever had any, and I bring to the consideration of the present state of parties the most absolute indifference to any mere personal results. But I am not indifferent, I never can be indifferent, to the honor and welfare of my native State, or of the great and glorious country of which it forms a part.

Others may find their "paramount issues" in whatever secondary or subordinate questions they may see fit to select. I hold nothing, nothing within the range of political action, to be paramount to the honor of Massachusetts, and the integrity of the

American Union, under the Constitutions which severally secure liberty for them both.

Let me only, in conclusion, apologize for the length of this letter by saying, that I do not propose to address my fellow-citizens in any other form, and that this must serve instead of any speech or speeches which I may have been expected to make.

I am, respectfully and truly,

Your obedient servant,

ROBERT C. WINTHROP.

FARNHAM PLUMMER, Esq., Chairman of the Whig Executive Committee.