New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-07-12
The Great Calamity.
From the Editor.

From the Editor.
SYRACUSE, Tuesday, July 10, 1850.
The first news Of Gen. TaylOr's illness
reached this city last evening; and when l
saw the dispatch of six o'clock, announcing
that his life was despaired Of, | knew that
the worst was at hand. 1t was 10 this
morning before his death was known here,
and the general gloom bespoke the common
consciousness of National disaster. Our
Free School Convention, though large, has
been held as if under pail, and so must be
to the end.
never spoke nor wrote to Gen. Taylor,
nor sought bis acquaintance in any way.
To the extent of my ability and industry,
opposed to the last his selection as the Wing
candidate for President. believed that his
education and political knowledge were not
such as that Office required, and that one Sc
rious consequence of his selection would be
an Inflammation of the youthful passion for
Military achievement and renown which is
one of the chief perils of our Republic.
That he was patriotic, brave, upright and
naturally sagacieus, did not doubt; that
his heart was generous, kind and true, who
ave- ao.btedp That he has dono bottor as
President than was anticipated is, think,
very general conviction. Peace to the ashes,
honor to the memory of the just and good
man!
He has been taken from US at a fearful
crisis in our Nations history-a crisis which
be was preemnently fitted and seemed pro-
yidentially designated to brave and master.
For months, disunion has been Matching its
plots in the National Metropolis, and quiet
ly weaving its traitorous webs over the South
and Southwest. There are sixty men today
in Congress who mean to live under no gov
ernment not devoted to the extension and
fortifcation of Human Slavery; and, des-
pairing of shaping our Government to their
further use, their hearts are Get on the dis
solution of the Union and the formation Of a
Southern Confederacy on its ruins. The
only man at the mention of whose name they
quailed was Zachary Taylor. He was their
chief antagonist no less by instinct than by
position. A STAKEHOLDER himself, he yet held
that Slavery could not rightfully be and
ought not to be extended to new realms. A
soldier of the Nation through almost his
whole active life, knowing himself honored
and beloved by the Nation, he loved the
Unien with fervency and single-hearted
devotion which it is but just to the officers
of our Army and Navy to say is their uni
yersal passion. Against any array Of trea-
son and notification, he would have poured
out his blood with joy; and well the plotters
knew it! They dreaded more his personal
onnosition to their contemplated fOray or
New-Mexico than all the forces which The
Government can muster there; they knew
that a simple Proclamation bearing his sig
nature and denouncing the employment o
force against New. Mexico by Texas woul(
naralyze their efforts to raise troops through
ont the South, while to the New-Mexican
themselves,
Were worth ave thousand mon"
That Proclamation was anxiously an
bopefully expecting and would not lon
have expected in vain but for this most vi
Iooked-for catastrophe. God is above all
70. to our human apprehension it seems tbs
there never was a time since Washington
8rst term when the death of PresideI
would have been so appalling calamity
II will be mercy scarcely less than mirso
If the horrors Of civil war shall yet
averted.
Mr.. FILLMORE is wise and pure state
man-cautious, conservative, and devoted
The public veal His knowledge OF puol
affairs is far more extensive and compile
than Gen. TaylOrs; his principles equal
sound, National and bene6cent Yet u
difference in power and position between
elected and q substituted Presidents Is II
mense /; and the difficulties OF the Preside