The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-03-25
From the Richmond IVhig.
Taylor and his Assailant

From the Richmond IVhig.
General Taylor and his Assailnnts.
Never has any man, occupying the Presidential
chair, been more unjustly more bitterly, and more
unfortunately assailed than General Taylor.
Since his arrival in Washington twelve months
ago. every species of abuse has been lavished upon
him. His private life has been invaded his private
conversation misrepresentcd, his personal habits
travestied and ridiculed, while his whole public
conduct has been the subject of a torrent of in
vective and defamation. The sole organ of the
Democracy" told us this in advance, when it pro-
claimed that it would oppose his Administration to
the bitter end whatever face the future might
The official acts of the President have been very
few. He has confined himself TO the strict line OF
his duty. He has not gone looking about for pow
ers that he might usurp them. When the Spanish
consul at New Orleans suspected of having
kidnapped a Cuban who had taken refuge in this
country, the President instantly demanded redress
for the wrong at the hands of the Governor of Cuba.
That redress accorded with the speed of steam.
When the French minister, under the malign coun-
sells of the " foreign organ,'' attempted to insult
the American Union through its Chief Magistrate,
he and all his abettors received a rebukc which
they will not forget very soon. In every matter
connected with our foreign relations the President
trate of great just, and christian people He has
abored for the preservation of peace, at the same
time that he has carefully maintained the honor of
the Republic.
In domestic affairs, his conduct has been equally
commendable Coming into power and finding
every public post of honor or profit occupied by
bitter partisan adversaries, he has forborne to in
dulge the spirit Of partisan. Being pledged, ac-
cording 10 the Democratic convention which as
sembled in Lynchburg in lS4S, to change both men
and measures, he has contented himself with only
partial change. He has removed some who were
not efcient-some who used their positions to inter-
fere in elections, and others, who had defrauded
the treasury of thousands and tens of thousands
But he has not removed half, nor as many as the
public interests require. large majority Of those
who now hold Office under him are opposed TO him
in politics, many of them traducing him and
aboring to thwart his patriotic efforts for the pub
lie good. But wise, prudent and just man, con-
scious that the accumulated corruption of twenty
years cannot be healed in day, he is proceeding
cautiously and deliberately in the great task set be-
fore him. All the personal abuse heaped upon him
has not moved him from his propriety nor ruffied
his temper.
In respect to the agtatng question Of the day, he
has pursued the course which wisdom and patriot
ism dictated. Having carefully reviewed the course
Of Mr.. Monroe, under similar circumstances, and
being thoroughly convinced Of its wisdom he
adopted ii as his own, and has manfully adhered
TO IT, Being the President Of the whole republic,
he refused TO make himself sectional partisan
determined TO reserve his influence for the last
emergency. Being a republican in practice as in
theory he would not attempt to dictate TO the rep
resentatives Of the people-contenting himself
simply with suggesting plan by which, in his
opinion, the controversy might be adjusted Al
though the assembled wisdom Of the nation has
been for four months devoted to the subject,
no scheme more feasible has yet been devised
With notifications and expansions, II will, in all
human probability, constitute the basis on which,
at last this great sectional controversy will be sat
isfactorily adjusted.
While the President has thus, with calmness and
patriotism been pursuing the even tenor Of his way
his bitter-end asssilants have been unsparing in
their denunoiations. They have imputed TO him
every political offence which could stain the repua-
ton Of an honest man. In one breath, he Is charged
with being a cipher, an imbecie-an ignoramus; in
the next, a tyrant-an usurper, who had trampled
upon the rights Of the people and violated the Con-
stitution Of his country.
The whole course Of the Locofoco party has been
marked by extreme faction and the grossest injus-
tice. PARTY capital has been their sole aim. To
attain that, they have not scrupled to repudiate
their own long professcd principles and TO outrage
the moral sense Of the country by the grossness
and inconsistency Of their falschoods. Heretofore
as emphatically declared by Mr.. Calhoun and en-
dor.cd by them all, Congress had no power to go
behind a State constitution, and 10 impose any
other conditions upon State applying for admis-
sion than that its government was republican
Now, at one swallow, they dcvour their off
spring and threaten TO dissolve the Union II Cali
fornis is admitted with the prohibition Of slavery
prohibition for which we are indebted TO Mr.
Folks regiment Of Locofoco colonists and their
sociatcs. Again they charge General Taylor with
having dictated 10 the Californians the constitution
they should adopt. This charge is repealed by all
the circumstances Of the case-by the Locofoco
character of the population, by the proceedings Of
the people themselves, and by the direct testimony
Of Mr. Butler King, the gentleman who, it was
said, bore the commands Of the President. But
this is not ALL The four Locofocos whom the peo-
pie Of California have sent to Congress unite in
publication which declares that the President had
no agency whatever In the formation OF the consti-
tution--that that instrument was the creation Of
the people themselves, and sprang from the neces-
sites Of their position. But all this is nothing.
Iocofocos true 10 their instincts, continue 10 re-
peat the exploded calumny. a lie well stock TO IL
as good as the truth, is n cardinal doctrine with
some Locofocos.
We repeat. that their whole conduct has had but
one objcct--that Of making party capital. They
wish 70 weaken and break down General Taylor's
administration. We never saw any Of their ram
pant real for the South until his election. While
Van Buren, the chief Of the Free-soil party, was
President, and they had the loaves and fishes,
never heard word about Southern Rights When
Polk was President, and signed the Wilmot pro.
viso in the Oregon bill, IL was noble and patriotic
act But Zachary Taylor-a whig-being Presi-
dent, the case is altered He Is rank Abolition.
isi, although he owns two or three hundred ne
grocs- five times as many as all the Locofoco cdi-
tors in Virginia put together =