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.