of his own profession, or however estimable as a private citizen, General Taylor is a military man, and a military man merely.  He has had no training in civil affairs.  He has performed no functions of a civil nature under the Constitution of his country.  He has been known and is known, only by his brilliant achievements at the head of an army.  Now the Whigs of Massachusetts, and I among them, are of opinion that it was not wise, nor discreet, to go to the army for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.  It is the first instance in their history in which any man of mere military character has been proposed for that high office.  General Washington was a great military character; but by far a greater civil character.  He had been employed in the councils of his country, from the earliest dawn of the Revolution.  He had been in the Continental Congress, and he had established a great character for civil wisdom and judgment.  After the war, as you know, he was elected a member of that convention which formed the Constitution of the United States; and it is one of the most honorable tributes ever paid to him, that by that assembly of good and wise men he was selected to preside over their deliberations.  And he put his name first and foremost to the Constitution under which we live.  President Harrison was bred a soldier, and at different periods of his life rendered important military services.  But President Harrison, nevertheless, was for a much greater period of his life employed in civil than in military service.  For twenty years he was either governor of a Territory, member of one or the other house of Congress, or minister abroad; and discharged all these duties to the satisfaction of his country.  This case, therefore, stands by itself; without a precedent or justification from any thing in our previous history.  It is for this reason, as I imagine, that the Whigs of Massachusetts feel dissatisfied with this nomination.  There may be other reasons, there are others; they are, perhaps, of less importance, and more easily to be answered.  But this is a well-founded objection; and in my opinion it ought to have prevailed, and to have prevented this nomination.  I know enough of history to see the dangerous tendency of such resorts to military popularity.

But, if I may borrow a mercantile expression, I may now venture to say, that there is another side to this account.  The impartiality with which I propose to discharge my duty to-day requires that it should be stated.  And, in the first place, it is to be considered, that General Taylor has been nominated by a Whig convention, held in conformity with the usages of the Whig party, and, so far as I know, fairly nominated.  It is to be considered, also, that he is the only Whig before the people, as a candidate for the Presidency; and no citizen of the country, with any effect, can vote for any other Whig, let his preferences be what they might or may.