Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-09-16

of the House of Representatives. dated Baton
Rouge, March 4th, lS4S, he said
Il need hardly reply to your concluding inquiry,
that AM PEACE MAN, and that deem a state
of peace to be absolutely necessary TO the proper
and healtht,I action of our republican instito-
lions. On this important question | freely con-
fess myself to be the unqualified advocate of the
principles so often laid down by the Father Of his
Country, and SO urgently recommended by him
in his Farewell Address to the American people.
Indeed, think i may safely say that no man can
put more implicit faith than do IN the wis-
dom of his adUiCe, ,ohen he urged upon as the
n se;Z q a''''y' standing "''" our 90"
And again, in his letter to Capt. ALLISON, he said:
My life has been devoted to arms, get look
upon acar, at all times and under all circunl-
stances, AS A NATIONAL CALAMITY, to be avoided
if compatible with national honor. The principles
of oar Government as iceH as its true policy, are
Opposed TO the sUBJUGATIoN OF OTHER NATIONS,
AND THE DISBURSEMENT OF OTHER COUNTRIES by
conquest"
What pledges, then, of man sure, in situation
however difficult, to be faithful, firm, and single
hearted in his utmost duties,' has ZACHARY TAYLOR
not given, from Fort Harrison to Buena Vista, from
the tent to the farm, through his long life of eff
desty in the midst of victories? What auguries
are there in his entire career, which must not make
his arrival at the Presidency an event full of hope
to all good men, of confusion and dismay to all that
organized corruption and incapaci.y which have
ruled us so long, not governing but despoiliug us,
not upholding but affecting the general veal not
executing but only partitioning-out public trusts
Who shat regards the country at all, or his own
welbeing part Of that of the land at large,
hesitate how to choose between men so opposite !!
In the one there is clearly every thing to give the
world assurance Of man y heart perfectly brave,
sincere, untouched by any of the corruptions of
civil life unhardened by the habits of military !;
full Of kindliness and humanity to all men; true
model almost to LONELINESS, of republican simpli-
city man loved and trusted by all that have ever
approached him, but especially commanding, in
proportion as there was danger or difficulty, an
bounded confidence. In the other, what is there to
beget, at this latter end of individual eminence
among the Locefoco party, any favor but that Of
faction, any admiration but Of followers who in his
success see the hope OF their own? In General
TAYLOR there must be singularly strong native
qualities for wisely and rightly commanding men,
else how should he have been leader so daring
yet prudent, SO well-obeyed and yet so idolzed, so
careless of all reserve and outward state yet so
thoroughly respected! Does any body suppose
that all these indsputable efects-lhe unsought af-
lection which he attracts from ALL the boundless re-
lance with which all look to him in the extreme of
peril-can be brought about except by the posses
sion of true superiority! Stranger as he is to all
Sbo III, IL
off greatness, the thing is impossible. Good as he
is brave, mild as he is resolute, admirably COM
pounded of prudence to decide and of valor to act
of ardor in the fight with the most unmoved self
possession; gentle without any known trait of
weakness, as straightforward as he is discreet, ia
miliar without ever lessening the respect which he
inspires lnflexible without austery, the man evil
IDENTIFY commands, through the native ascendency
OF his character alone, and guides others by an in
stinctive wisdom equal to every emerpency-a ma
tural sagacity which, exhibiting itself not in words
but action all about him feel rather than they can
define. ..
If as yet without direct civil experience, we at
least know that he has looked wisely enough upon
the general course of public affairs to have chosen
between parties, the most Conservative between
theories, that which the maturer mind only con-
firms; between men, him above all whom true SER
vice and not personal success has crowned Fhe
general knowledge Of public questions he therefore
clearly possesses. As to particular measures, we
should feel safe in the rare integrity of his heart
the intuitive faculty sing exactly right, which
distinguish him SO much and especially we should
rely on him one who will not act till he under
stands, has ever known how to take counsel,
and has never yet, in any instance that we can re-
call, taken any counsel but the best. But, besides,
it is as little Gen. TAYLoR's theory as our own
that every thing should rest on the Presidential
opinions, right or wrong, informed or uniformed
he will have modesty enough not to consider the
nations whole intelligence centered in his single
person he is republican enough not to set up his
individual will as entitled TO override every thing
else, and call that domineering, that more than
kingty arrogance, DEMOCRACY, THE PROGRESS, THE
LARGEST LIBERTY.
As, in Short between him and his more practical
adversary, Gen. CAss, who can hesitatel Who
will take man because he has been tried, when,
we have had occasion to show he is only the
less to be trusted in proportion as he has been
tried. If the having borne long part in public