Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1848-11-17
THE. ELECTION.


lations upon the result OF the recent Presiden
tial Election, but our views and feelings are
so fully and satisfactorily expressed in the
following article, which we find in the Charles
ton Mercury of the 18th instant, that we pre-
fer to adopt the same, in lieu of any remarks
of our own:
although the returns arenot yet complete
enough has been ascertained, we THINK 10
settle the question, and 10 render the elecnon
of Gen. Taylor TO the Presidency matter OF
entire certainty. In announcing this result
we sincerely wish that we felt that confidence
which would enable US TO participate in the
rejoicing of his friends Our objections TO
Gen. Taylor have not been personal, and our
support of Gen. Cass has in no sort sprung
from personal preference. To the former we
have ever given credit for the highest qualities
as a soldier. for patriotism, for integrity, and
manly simplicity of character. Had ii been
simply question of selecting man 10 fill the
high Office of President, whether our choice
would or would not have fallen upon General
TAYLOR, we could al least have seen him eleva-
led TO that position without envy OF his hon
ors, or distrust of his conduct.
But in these days, it is not men, but par
ties. that rise or fall in the Presidential cleo
ton. 1t is not men, but parties. that are co-
thed with the Executive power of the Govern
ment, and have entrusted to them the destlneS
of the country A grand superiority OF mind
and will NAV indeed make the individual man,
the virtual master, as we'll as the ceremonial
leader of lis party and where we have tull
faith in such superiority we may be Jusilfed
in separating the leader from the accidents of
position, and association, and supporting him
purely on personal grounds.
" But we cannot frame a rule on an extra
ordinary exception In common cases, we
must take it for granted that the candidate Of
a party will be one among body of competi-
tors; that his fortunate position will be the
result of this rivalry, rather than his own ac-
knowedged supremacy that his rivals for the
honor, will be his rivals for power after the
honor is gained that in office he will be sur
rounded by men who will claim to have made
him what he is and who, instead OF sinking
into the position of followers, will consider
themselves as elevated with him, not by him
and as dependent not upon his will, but upon
the will of the party which has raised him
and who will claim the right not merely to ad.
wise him as friends, but TO decide with him as
equals, upon the policy and measures Of the
Government.
owe study then the propable action Of the
Executive, not through the personal character
of the President, but through the designs, The
principles, the temper, and the predominatine
ideas of the party which he leads. In all or
binary cases it is idle 10 expect that he viii
attempt to be other than what his party wish
him, or that he will seek 10 escape from a
control, wherein consists his security and hi
strength. 1t is, then, as the representative
especially, of the Northern Wing Party, tina
we have opposed the election OF Gen. Taylor
We do not so designate him, because we thinl
him their natural or their voluntary represen
tative, but because they adopted him as such
advocated him as such, and voted for him as
such.
This feature of the Presidential election
is indeed a most striking one. That the whole
Northern Wing Party, avowing vocferously
throughout the canvass, the strongest anti-sla
very sentiments, and claiming, not through
obscure newspapers, but by their whole press
by the declarations of their first statesmen, ant
~
tons, that they were the true, and only true
Free Soil Party, and the only consistent, be
cause the only prudent and effective, enemies
TO the growth & power of the Southern State
that this party, we say, should have pre-
scented an unbroken front, and given an almos
unanimous and cordial support to a slavehol
der and a cotton planter, is one of those ex
traordinary results in politics, calculated +
rivet the attention and excite the wonder O
men. To the Northern Wing Party, anti -sla
very has evidently been principle of uniol
and strength. To the Democratic Party, OF
the contrary, it has been fountain Of bitter
ness, of intestine strife, OF destroying fashions
and humiliating defeat. The wonder is, nc
that the Wing Party, completely united i
principle, should have trIumphed, but thu
they could possibly have adopted as the bon
of their union, as the title Of their faith, as tn
emblem of their cause. as the star of thei
hope, man, whose birth, life, position an
associations, seemed to place between him an
them an impossible gulf
"By what means they hoped TO melt dow
these rugged differences, and TO convert slave
holder into convenient instrument for execu
ting the designs of an anti-slavery party, W
do not propose now to examine That the
had such hopes, we know from their own e.
press and loudly repeated declarations, an
we know it by the far stronger demonstrate
OF their vote at the Presidential election,
cannot be denied, it would be worse than id
TO deny, that the Northern Wing Party ha,
sustained General Taylor on anti-slave
grounds; and that they confidently look. n
only for his consent, but for his al
in settling the Territorial question,
terms of Once hostile in the intereCtS n