ROBERT CHARLES WINTHROP. 567 



in the contest of 1824. Mr. Winthrop's college course nearly coin- 

 cided with the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, and, as he was 

 beginning active life, a new political [):irty was forming itself, com- 

 posed partly of old Federalists and partly of such Democrats as had 

 supported Mr. Adams against Crawfoid, Jackson, and Clay. This 

 party was for a short time dominated by the " Antimasons," a singular 

 association of those who distrusted the political and moral tendencies 

 of secret societies. It early, however, assumed the name of National 

 Republicans, and later settled down as the Whig party. To this 

 party Mr. Winthrop was devotedly attached for the twenty odd years 

 that it had any existence ; not merely its favorite candidate for State 

 and national offices, but its untiring organizer, alert every day and 

 every hour to extend its influence and deepen its hold upon the peo- 

 ple. He was a popular speaker at all its conventions, and a certain 

 fighting element in his nature, which could use the weapons of fun 

 and sarcasm as well as of argument and pathos, cannot be understood 

 without reading his speeches delivered on these political occasions. 



Mr. Winthrop entered the General Court of Massachusetts as a 

 Representative when he was but twenty-five years old, and served in 

 that capacity for five terms, for three of which he was Speaker. In 

 1840 he was elected to the House of Representatives of the United 

 States, and represented the Boston district in five Congresses. In his 

 fourth term, he was elected Speaker of the Thirtieth Congress. It 

 was during his occupancy of the chair that the venerable John Quincy 

 Adams, rising to address the house, was stricken down at his place, 

 and, being carried into the Speaker's private room, died on the 23d 

 of February, 1848. 



It had been Mr. Winthrop's intention to close his career as a Repre- 

 sentative with this Congress, but he yielded to the solicitations of his 

 friends to sit for another term. He was of course the Whig candi- 

 date for Speaker ; but after a contest of unprecedented duration, in 

 which the bitterest partisans, both from the North and the South, 

 united to make any election by a majority impossible, he was defeated 

 by Howell Cobb of Georgia, who received a plurality of two votes. 



In 1850, Mr. Webster having resigned his seat in the Senate to 

 enter President Fillmore's Cabinet, Mr. Winthrop was nominated by 

 Governor Briggs to hold the Senatorship till the legislature could 

 meet. This body, on its assembling, was controlled by the " Coalition " 

 of Democrats and Free-Soilers, who elected Robert Rantoul, Jr. 

 Senator for the very few weeks of the Senatorial term then remaining, 

 and chose Charles Sumner for six years. 



