General Taylor (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXI. POLITICAL OPINIONS. Five national parties in the field--The Oregon Question irritates--Tariff--Internal improvements--Slavery--Mr. Clay's compromises--Taylor and his three hundred slaves--Taylor a Whig, but never a partisan--Defines his principles in the Allison letter--Daniel Webster's feeling--Democratic Baltimore Convention of 1848--Whig Philadelphia Convention--Taylor nominated by a large majority. There seemed to be such a universal call, judging only by the letters and extracts from the public journals which General Taylor received, that for a time he felt that, if he were a candidate for the office of President, he might have what he had coveted--that is to say, men of all parties supporting him. But practically, at the close of the Mexican War, there were at least five parties in the field, all striving for national recognition. First, the Democratic party, which, strange to say, had greatly lost its popularity during its successful contest with Mexico; second, the Whig party, in which the two great orators and statesmen, Clay and Webster, were the acknowledged leaders; third, the Free-Soil party, just then headed by an ex-President, Martin Van Buren--a party which was mainly drawn from both of the old organizations, and which planted itself simply upon the ground that all acquired territory should be forever free; fourth, the Liberty party, which was indeed the outand-out Abolition party, advocating the immediate freeing of the slaves without regard to other consequences; and, fifth, what was known as " the American party," holding tenaciously to the idea that native Americans should bear rule in the United States. So that in the political field there were just then a multitude of combatants and great turmoil, and, as the names of th...