SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, JUNE 30, 1848, 10 SKETCH OF THE OPENING ARGUMENT IN THE CASE OF THE UNITED STATES _vs._ DANIEL DRAYTON, 84 LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR THE THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 119 SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 23, 1849, 121 SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 15, 1850, 180 TWO LETTERS ON THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY, AND ON THE RIGHT OF AN ALLEGED FUGITIVE SLAVE TO A TRIAL BY JURY, 236, 282 LETTER: THE ORDINANCE OF 1787, 238 LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR THE THIRTY-SECOND CONGRESS, 340 SPEECH, DELIVERED AT DEDHAM, NOV. 6, 1850, 357 SPEECH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, FEB. 28, 1851, 390 SPEECH, DELIVERED AT LANCASTER, MAY 19, 1851, 473 SPEECH, DELIVERED IN BOSTON, APRIL 8, 1851, 523 SPEECH, DELIVERED AT WORCESTER, SEPT. 16, 1851, 536 LETTER ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION FOR THE THIRTIETH CONGRESS, MADE BY THE WHIG CONVENTION OF DISTRICT NO. 8, MARCH, 1848. GENTLEMEN; Your communication of the 16th inst., being directed to Newton, (instead of West Newton, where I reside,) did not reach me until this morning. I thank you cordially for the kind expressions of personal regard with which you have been pleased to accompany it. You inform me that at a convention of delegates assembled in Dedham, on Wednesday, the 15th inst., I was nominated as a candidate to fill the vacancy in Congress occasioned by the death of the great and good man whose irreparable loss we, his constituents, with a nation for our fellow-mourners, deplore. At first thought, the idea of being the immediate successor of John Quincy Adams in the councils of the nation might well cause any man to shrink back from the inevitable contrast. But it is obvious, on a moment’s reflection, that the difference is so trivial between all the men whom he has left, compared with the disparity between them and him, as to render it of little consequence, in this respect, who shall succeed him; and the people in the Eighth District, in their descent from Mr. Adams to any successor, must break and bear the shock of the fall, as best they can.