Washington telegraph., 1849-07-11

was that a change competent to effect
any substantial Improvement in admins
tration? Since the institution of human
government, was the experiment ever
made Of carrying on the affairs of great
nation upon such principles?
The pledge then given by Judge
Saunders to the Whig Convention, con-
templated practical, substansive change
In men and measures, adequate to the
objects of consistent, systematic, and
harmonious Administration of public af-
fairs. Was this pledge ratified? In his
letter of June 20, 184s. to the committee
of the Independent Taylor party of Ma
ryland, General Taylor took ground which
broke up the independent organization in
that State, and resolved it into its own
original elements. "Under the general
authority, then,'' he said, 'sthus given
these gentlemen, Judges Winchester
and Saunders,) 1 shall deem whatever
statementthey may have made to be right
and proper; and confident i'll their integ-
rity, and in the integrity of their friend
ship for me, IshalL sustain them a0stlsoWt
qualification. [ now, therefore, take
upon my own shoulders the responsibility
of the acts Of the Louisiana delegation,
and am prepared to stand by their co1ase-
qatenceS IN thear length and 6readth. -
In the same letter Gen. Taylor disclaimed
the desire of receiving the vote of any
man, Wing, Democrat or Native, on any
other ground.
Thus, then, was the position Of Cen
eral Taylor distinctly defined before the
country. The canvass went on. 1t was
substantially Whig and Democratic
contest. Many elements became involv-
ed in it. The personal popularity of Gen.
Taylor proved most important element.
It was aided by the unpopularity of his
Democratic opponent, and by the defec
ton of large wing of the Democratic
party under the lead of Mr.. Van Buren.
To great extent it was aided by the
gross personal abuse and calumny that
were shOWered upon our candidate by
the presses of the late Administration; by
the falsehoodS of suborned affidavit-ma-
kers, and by the malignant structures of
infamed office-holding partiZans. Many
members of the Democratic party united
with us because they sympathized with
General Taylor in his views of the i'm
pertance of a governmental reformation;
and this accession to our ranks furnished
an important element of our success
But it was by the zeal and devotedness-
the labOrs and the sacrifices of the great
Wing PARTY Of the Union that the battle
was fought and the victory substantially
achieved. Without their aid, General
To x,1o bor IL
toral vote. With all their aid, any other
Whig candidate would probably have
been defeated; but in every aspect in
which it can be viewed, the result of the
late election was eminently the triumph
of the Wing party-of a party disembar-
rassed of its dogmatic ultraism and obso-
lete ideas, infused with the spirit of the
great principles which are developing,
and the great scenes which are enacting
around us, and consolidated by the recog-
nised claims of President Taylor to the
respect, confidence and gratitude of the
American people.
1t is not IN the power of any opposition
to interpret such triumph as the result
of mere personal controversy. No party
cunning can varnish it with a gloss so
deceptive. The support which General
Taylor received was no blind homage to
a successful soldier; it was the tribute of
greatful and confding people to man
whose honesty of purpose had become an
universal conviction, and to whom they
looked as the ProvidentiaI instrument of
political revolution, by which the
downward tendency of our national affairs
was to be effectively arrested. IN this
view how Insignificant becomes for
midable show of opposition, based upon
garbled passages from confidential cor
respondence, isolated from their context,
accompanied by deceptive and insidious
comments, and illustrated by copious
employment of epithets familiar only to
the vocabulary of Billingsgate.
-~~~~~~~-~~~~>~~~-~~~~--~~~