The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-03-02
I H E r E P U BLIC.
WASHING TON:
SATURDAY MORNING. MARCH ?. 1850.


Congress.
In the Senate, yesterday, very little
business was done in open session; and,
after some time spent in the consi deration
of executive business, that body adjourned
till Monday.
The House of Representatives., at an early
hour, resolved itself into Committee Of
the Whole, and took into consideration
bills on the private calendar; after which
the House also adjourned till Monday,
The Opposition presses attribute the
prevailing excitement-the Incorporate
language employed by politicians-the
movements for sectional convention
the menaces of separation-the announce
ment of an actual dissolution of the Union
all the evils and perils, in short, which
distract the country and distress good
men-to the policy pursued by President
TAYLOR. They say that if General CAss
had been elected to the Presidency, no
thing of all this would have happened, be-
cause it is known that he would have We
toed the Wilmot proviso. They say that
nothing of all this would have happened if
General TAYLOR had only announced that
he would veto the Wilmot proviso; and
that all will be calm and quiet again, if he
will only say now that he will veto the
Wilmot proviso.
1t is true that General TAYLOR has kept
himself aloof from this controversy, and
has maintained himself in the position in
which, as the chief Executive, he ought
TO stand. He has not insulted Congress
by announcing any predetermination with
regard to any law that they may pass. He
stands so uncommitted that he can act
upon any and every bill that may be sub
mitted to him, as he may deem it his duty
to act, on full view and deliberate con-
sideration of all the facts and circum-
stances that may exist at the time. Dur
ing the whole tendency of the Southern
Congressional elections-when such fierce
and hot war was waged upon him daily by
the Locofoco press, and when, with the
members of the Cabinet, he was denounced
as the ally and friend Of the Abolitionists
because he would not declare that he
would veto the Wilmot proviso-General
TAYLOR remained firm in the course indi-
Gated by his sense Of his constitutional
obligations. He did not say, and he has
not said, that he would veto, or would
sign, bill with the Wilmot proviso.
This the Opposition journals assume to be
the cause of the Southern excitement, and
of the threats of a Southern convention.
We can give more satisfactory solution
of this agitation. 1t is the convulsive
struggle of a faction for the recovery of po-
litical power. This faction has allied itself
with three other forces, to foment agitation
the disunionists proper, the Abolition
lists, and few Wings who have been dis
appointed in receiving anticipated honors,
or who have failed to acquire in the Ad-
ministration or in the party the consider
alton TO which they deem themselves en-
titled. These classes have beeU occupied
industriously for the last five months in
creating sectional excitement; they have
vented their spleen and discomfort; they
have fomented i'll feeling; they have in
famed i'll blood; they have, in short,
brought about a state Of things in which
men Of sanguine and nervous temperament
have been led to believe-some in hope and
some in fear-that the dissolution of the
Union was at hand. Some have gone so far
as to set time within which the event was
10 happen, unless immediate preventive
action were adopted; others have pro-
claimed that they regarded the event as
so near that they should refrain from the
use Of irritating language from DISPOSE
sition to part-as we must psrt-friends.
Some, more open and audacious in their
reasonable intents-who do not pretend
to temper their rufianism with any exhi-
bition of decency-have presented the
petitions Of fanatics and madmen calling
for '.peaceful" dissolution of the Union
as if this Union were capable of being
dissolved otherwise than by revolutionary
violence
In producing this state Of things we
have attributed some agency to malcon-
tent Whiggery. Some Of this there must
be, and we must be candid enough to
admit that it has been playing into the
T hands of the men who seek the overthrow
of General TAYLoR's administration even
at the hazard Of the Union. We cannot
get along with the history of this bust
ness, and omit all allusion to this obviou:
element. But we will dispose Of it as far
as two or three individuals are concerned
land we believe that a really malevolent