Bell thirty-seven, Mr. Howell Cobb thirty-
three, and Mr. Robert M. T. Hunter, the youngest man ever elected
Speaker, was but thirty. Mr. Winthrop was thirty-eight. He was
bred to the law in the office of Mr. Webster, but at twenty-five
years of age entered political life as a member of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives. He was soon after promoted to the
speakership of that body, where he earned so valuable a reputation
as a presiding officer that some of his decisions have been quoted
as precedents in the National House, and have been incorporated in
permanent works on Parliamentary Law. He was chosen in Congress
when he was but thirty, and was in his fifth term in the House when
he was advanced to the Speakership. As an orator he was always
graceful and effective, but never took high rank in the House as
a debater. His early life gave promise of a long public career in
Massachusetts as the successor of the older Whig leaders who were
passing off the stage. He followed Mr. Webster in the Senate for
a brief period, when the latter became Secretary of State under
Mr. Fillmore. His conservative tendencies on the Slavery question,
however, were not in harmony with the demands of public opinion in
Massachusetts, and in 1851 he was defeated for the governorship by
George S. Boutwell, and for the senatorship by Charles Sumner.
Mr. Winthrop's political career closed when he was forty-two years
of age.

WHIGS ABANDON THE WILMOT PROVISO.

The events of the year 1847 had persuaded the Whig leaders that,
if they persisted in the policy embodied in the Wilmot Proviso,
they would surrender all power to control the ensuing Presidential
election. By clever management and the avoidance of issues which
involved the slavery question, they felt reasonably sure of the
votes of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee,
with a probability of securing Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida.
To throw these States away by an anti-slavery crusade was to accept
inevitable defeat, and disband the Whig party. Mr. Winthrop was
therefore representing the prevailing wishes of Northern Whigs when
he used his influence to restrain rather than promote the development
of the anti-slavery policy which had been initiated with such vigor.
The result of this change was soon visible. In the preceding House,
with a large Democratic majority, the Wilmot Proviso had been
adopted. In the