Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1848-03-16
Correspondent. Of tn. Indiana SLOT. Sentinel.
WASHINGTON, March 5, P. M.

whole class would be puzzled with the solution of
boys sum problem than that
1t would take Philadelphia iawyer TO explain it !;
and. this Major General Zachary Taylor of the
regular army, was reared and educated in the west
aso have no doubt he has, many atine, heard the
expression: and. like me- taken up an idea that
Philadelphia lawyers must be achortLeberyy above
common peoples persimrnoHS; and the remembrance
of this old saw must have been his inducement for
addressing letter at the time dated, with great pro-
fessional accuracy, "Hend Quarters, Army of Occu-
patton, Camp near Monterey '(Mexico) August g.
lS47," the whole burden of which the canvass
for the Presidency of the United States aud especial
y 50 far the author is connected Herewith il is
addressed with equal form and etiquette, to Hon.
Joseph r. Ingersoll, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and
was very ostentatiousy paraded by the Hon. Wash
ington Barrow, a wing member of Congress from
Tennessee, in a speech made by that politician at
Taylor meeting, on the % ut., in Philadelphia. My
present object is to make few plain common-sense
remarks upon this letter. and therefore will not &C.
cupy your time with synopsis of 1t but, wish
your readers to see and read it for themselves, so
that, if say anything about 1t that is unfounded,
fair ar-fetched, illiberal, they may detect in
it. clip it from the National lntelgencer (whig)
of this city, enclose it herewith and ask of you ST.
mul,aneous insertion of it in your columns 81. if
you have not already done so. We published it in
our papers Of March 9Th and :9th.-Eds
As ] make pretensions to scholarship myself,
and as have always subscribed and still do to the
tmehonored adage that he who lives in glass houses
should never throw stones. pass over the grammar
and the dicton of this letter with but two remarks
1. If General Taylor should be the wing candidate
for the presidency, what reflection will he be Of
those who claim for that party all the learning and all
the decency. 2. How unfortunate for his literary
fame was it, that Major w. w. S. Bliss, Assistant
AdJutant General of the @sy, belonging at the time,
and perhaps still, to the Generals staff-who had,
b.sA
letters, military and political. which had been pointed
to the unmistakabe evidences of General rs rich
scientific education, and classical turn of mind
happened to be absent from camp at the time 1t was
written, on leave Of absence. professional duty,
on the sick list; for it has proved, beyond doubt
that General Tayl was in those dispatches and let
tiers, for which he received such distinguished ex-
pressions of admiration, trading borrowed capital
In this, however, ne now says he is wing, we
should not be much asonished II is the strongest
proof of his politics that he furnishes shall pass
over, repeat, all this, and proceed 10 the considera-
ton of such expressions in the letter the writer evil
IDENTIFY intends TO make, and which his correspondent
nor the public can misunderstood. l shall conine
myself mostly to his gross Inconsistencies, with
gentle touch at his egotism and presumPtien-quali-
ties which he tries hardly to conceal, by his wonder
full expressions Of humility and low estimate of
himself.
In the first parapragh the General says he is
whig and in the third one he says he Is no politi
clan. The sciences teach that oil and water cannot
mix the scriptures teach that man serve two
masters; but if you will show q nO-politicisn-
tohig, n ,chig democrat, will show you that the
teachings Of the chemist and the divine both fall
aciOus and will also show you infdet-chriStiGn
the avowa Of OmDiscience that she who IS not for
me Is against me" TO the contrary Notwithstanding
No politician and lohig inconsistent positions
any take: If they be consistent, there
must be, John Randolph used to say, something
false in the philosophy of the books.
In the second paragraph, he says that he considers
the views of Mr. Clay and the wings, for the most
part more nearly assimilaied as regards political
matters, to those of Mr.. Jefferson than their oppo
nents; he is not quite certain, mark ye. ON this point
it is well he is not for will repeat for him the posi-
tive assertion of one who was politician, in every
sense of the word, and who devoted to nothing else
the same forty years of his life that General Taylor
confesses found him entirely removed from the
sphere of political matters that he had but little time
to devote to the consideration investigation of great
political questions my witness is not democrat
but whig. In the spring of 1871, in the month of
March, Mr. Houghton, the editor of wing journal
in Boston; a man who has been leading politician
for forty years and more; ripe scholar, deep
thinker, and an energetic writer; In speaking very
commercially of General Harrison's inaugural ad-
dress, said "if President Harrison will take
advice (for we too have a right to advise him)
tue less ne lnlnkS, dnG the less ne inks
Jefferson the better; for all the evils that have beal
len country, for the last twelve years, have been
caused by the fact that General Jackson and MIR. Van
Buren, have had the moral courage to carry out the
pernicious doctrines that Mr. Jefferson preached but
was too great a coward TO practice" There is one
thing certain between MIR. Houghton (whig) and
General Taylor (whig) there is remarkable iHcon-
SiStency.
In the fourth pa agraph of this letter. will be found
the most glaring Observation-Disclosures TO say hypocri-
sy-of all and that too, in two short sentences
which, to a casual reader, would seem the most I'M
pretending. 1t is where he says, 81 must say have
wish for the presidency, and cannot consent to be
exclusively the candidate for party. And if | am
at ALL to be made at the coming election, 1t
must be borne in mind that have been made or will
be made SO by Others without any agency of mine in
the matter" Now what is the PLAIN English of all
this 81 will not make myself party candidate ;
but the wings can, if they wish. l cannot help what
they do! ~
| So much for Gen. Taylor's inconsistencies; now
for the egotsm and presumption of this letter, which,
throughout is continual effort to make the people
believe he is a very modest man that he doubts his
qualifications and abilities for the Presidency; that
he does not desire the Office that he would rather
Mr. Clay elected and yet he expects the people to
vote for him, and elect him: for 1t certainly be
under no other feeling that he renbeS at the thought
of undertaking " to discharge the duties properly of
an office which was filed and adorned by Washing
ton Jefferson well several others of the pures,
wsest, and most accomplished statesmen and patriots
of this any other age country" If such are
not his expectations, why trembIe? He not only ex-
poets the peoples votes, but he must have them with
out any pledges on his part: well might he say,
in so many words, a. whether | am, not, in
favor Of United States Bank Protective Tariff,
Distribution of the proceeds of the Public Lands
Assumption Of the State Debts, the war with Mexico