The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-08-08

that no shipping merchant could venture on
any distant voyage. General Cass stood In
the front of the whole riot He declared war
10 be inevitable. HIS belligerent propensities,
displayed on this as well as on all other sub
jects, covered the whole platform. l never
believed that this cry of war was sincere on
the part of the wire-workers behind the screen,
though never doubted that the worthy Cen
eral was perfectly sincere, and was complete
! ly duped by them. / advised my friends here
to vote for the amicable notice to England, TO
1 England, TO "pay out rope, and test their
| sincerity about this platform. The result pre-
cisely answered my expectations. When we
refused to hold them they refused to fight and
the result was that the whole pretensions to
fifty-four forty were abandoned by themselves,
and they fell back to the British line of forty
nine, upon which a settlement could at any
moment have been made without word of all
this unjust and insolent bravado The plat
form was abandoned those who had adhered
TO it most violently, among whom was General
Cass were Frustrated in the dust. The Chair
man Of the Committee on Foreign Relations,
/ (Mr. Allen under deep sense Of this humil-
iation, instantly resigned, and the present
chairman, (Nr. Hannegan,) declared in his
place that Mr.. Polk had by surrendering the
platform and his own pledges to adhere TO it,
IS sunk himself so low that the hand of resur-
rection could never reach him." When put
to the test, Mr.. Polk treated the whole plat
form 81 9 40 with contempt, and gave up the
whole country above 49o.
Mr. FooTE, Gin his seat.) He was wise,
and acted by the advice of the Senate.
Ma. CLAYTON. Oh yes he was wise
The folly was in having platform In this
case, an irresponsible cabal, called Conven-
| ton, like the last one at Baltimore, many of
the members ofwhich were appointed at a tav-
ern o. a cross road meeting, assembled and as
sumed the duty of directing and controlling
the whole legislation of Congress on questions
of peace and war They did not devote ten
minutes to the title to Oregon, which they de-
cided, and not one out of fifty of them had ev-
or read or known any thing about it. The
platform thus formed deeply endangered the
peace Of fifty millions of human beings. We
were at one time, by all the laundering and
clustering of the Administration, driven with
in an inch of a war with England
There was another pla.form-that made by
the famous Kane letter. In that precious doc
ument, your President, according tothe con-
struction of some, avowed himself to be in IA
vor of the tariff, and according to that of 9th
ers, opposed TO it. Unquestionably the mass
that in that letter, he ayowcd himielf to be
friend of the tariff. 1t is as true as scripture
that in the State of PENNSYLVANIA and other
States at the North the flags were flying with
the inscription, /" Polk, Dallas and the tariff of
'42;' and when we assailed those who prac-
tised these impositions on the peoples las we re-
peatedly did, and accused them Of duplicity,
inc reply was, on all occasions, we are the
true champions of the tariff of '42;' and in
proof ofthe assertion we were referred to the
! Democratic vote in the other House, without
which the bill OF 1912 could not have passed,
and told that, therefore, the Democrats were
entitled 20 the whole merit Of the measure
Now, again, the politicians, have published
one life Of Gen. Cass to suit the North, and
another TO suit the South, in regard to the
Wilmot Proviso. Thus, by platforms, they ev-
! er palter with us in double sense" keep
the word of promise to the ear, but break it to
the hope"-at one time deluding our honest
people into vote for Mr. Polk, which he new
er could have received had he then avowe6
himself to be what he has since proved to be,
the champion Of free trade; and at another,
representing Gen. Cass as a man of Northern
principles in the North, and man of Southern
principles in the South.
There is another platform 1t is that of an
honest man, who says that he is Wing, but
that if elected to the Presidency he will not be
the tool of party-that he will be the Presi-
dent Of the people that he has no enemies to
punish, no friends TO reward-that while he
will do his duty in removing corrupt, incompe-
tent, or uniaithful men from office, he will not
be the supporter of that infamous system of
prescription which distributes the public of
fees Of the country as the spoils Of victory
that he will on this and all other subjects en-
deavor to restore the Government of the coun-
try to the principles of the constitution. His
platform. is the constitution; Ill others are ut
terly unworthy Of respect. The patriotism of
mere politicians, which explodes in deceptive
party pledges, is understood to be, as Dr.
johnson defines il, - the last refuge of a scoun-
drel." There is little difficulty in finding mot |
toes and illustrations to suit the title page of
the whole volume of political platforms. In |
the action Of some of the Presidents of The u |
nifed States we can find enough to remind us
Of the old saw
"The Davlwas sick, the Devil a monk would be
The DeTil got well, the Devil a monk was he!'
The honorable gentleman also attacks Gen. |
Taylor on the ground that he lacks qualifca-
tons In justice, however, to his own noble
heart, the Senator admits that Gen. TAYLOR is
a pure, honorable, high-ninded and patriotic
man. But he finds fault with Gen. Taylor on
account of what he supposes to cvincc a want
OF great learning He reasons from General
Iaylor's confession that he was not politician
that he is not competent for the Presidency.
Tha: is, l think, his chief objection. The
gentleman certainly did also find much fault
with one or two Of Gen. Taylor's letters. /
shall not deny that his letters, like those of 9th
er great military commanders, written in the
hurry of camp, and on a barrel, a box. or a
drum-head, have not the beauty of finish and
the rotundity of period which the gentleman
50 well knows how TO give TO his own letters.
But for strong sense, and appropriate language
to convey it, no man can excel those letters of
TAYLOR in which he found it important to at
tend TO the manner as well rs the matter of
his composition. On every court martial on
which he has served for the last twenty wears.