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mercial pursuits, before that object can be fully

accomplished.

Supplies of provisions, water-casks, merchandise, and articles connected with the prosecution of the Slave Trade, are, it is understood, freely carried by vessels of different nations to the Slave factories; and the effects of the factors are transported openly from one Slave station to another, without interruption or punishment from either of the nations to which they belong, by ships engaged in the commerce of that nation. I submit to your judgments, whether this government, having been the first to prohibit by adequate penalties, the Slave Trade-the first to declare it piracy—should not be the first, also, to forbid to its citizens all trade with the Slave factories on the coast of Africa; giving an example to all nations in this respect, which, if fairly followed, cannot fail to produce the most effective results in breaking up those dens of in iquity.

THE HONOURABLE ROBERT C. WINTHROP,

MEMBER OF CONGRESS FOR BOSTON.

THIS is a name which I delight to honour. Graceful, gallant, and accomplished, Winthrop is the rising glory of the Whigs; and, by his truth and worth, he well has merited this high and distinguished position. Possessing the prestige that naturally arises from gentle birth and ample fortune, this promising member has no interest to serve, no favour to seek. His politics are those of his party, but modified by enlarged reason and enlightened judgment; he has stepped beyond the narrow boundary of New England policy, and if I mistake not, the remark that men of that section of the Union are unskilled in the Art of Government will in his case be refuted. Already he has foreseen the imperative necessity of reducing the scale of commercial restriction, and in

the Session of 1846 declared his willingness to accept, under certain conditions, a modification of the Tariff of 1842.*

The general views of the Member for Boston on the Oregon Question were explicitly laid down in his speech upon the subject in the House of Representatives as early as the 3rd of January. The impression produced by his remarks was greatly increased by the fact of his voting against giving the Notice, contrary to the opinion and vote of his colleague, Mr. Adams. "I have no hesitation" observes the Hon. Member "in saying "that I honestly think, upon as dispassionate a "review of the correspondence as I am capable

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of, that the American title to Oregon is the best "now in existence. But I honestly think also "that the whole character of the title is too "confused and complicated to justify any arbi

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* We may not, however, claim Mr. Winthrop as a Free Trader, for I remember that when alluding to the possibility of Mr. Calhoun's accepting the mission to England, after speaking of that illustrious Senator in terms of the highest esteem and veneration, he added, smiling, "But we "(that is, the Whig party generally,) "cannot allow Free Trade to be a part of his instructions.

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"a compromise of the question is every way con"sistent with reason, interest and honour."

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He adds, in conclusion "As a friend, then, to "Oregon, with every disposition to maintain our "just rights to that territory, with the most "sincere desire to see that territory in the pos"session of such of our own people as desire occupy it-whether hereafter as an independent nation, as was originally suggested by a distinguished Senator from Missouri, (Mr. "Benton,) and more recently by a no less dis"tinguished Senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. 66 Webster,) or as a portion of our own wide spread and glorious republic-I am opposed "to the steps which are now about to be so "hotly pursued.*

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"Sir, I feel that I have a right to express

something more than an ordinary interest in this "matter. There is no better element in our title "to Oregon than that which has been contributed "by Boston enterprise. You may talk about the

* i.e. Giving the Notice to Great Britain that the convention of joint occupation be at an end.

"old navigators of Spain, and the Florida treaty, "and the settlement at Astoria, and the survey "of Lewis and Clarke, as much as you please, "but you all come back, for your best satis"faction, to "Auld Robin Gray" in the end. "Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, in the good

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ship Columbia, gave you your earliest right of "foothold upon that soil.

“I have seen, within a few months past, the "last survivor of his hardy crew, still living in

a green old age, and exhibiting with pride a "few original sketches of some of the scenes of "that now memorable voyage. My constituents "all feel some pride in their connection with the "title to this territory. But in their name I pro"test against the result of their peaceful enterprise being turned to the account of an un

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necessary and destructive war. I protest against "the pure current of the river which they dis"covered, and to which their ship has given its ❝ noble name, being wantonly stained with either "American or British blood!

"But while I am thus opposed to war for "Oregon, or to any measures which, in my judg

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