Gentlemen, it is worth our while to consider in what manner General Taylor has become a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.  It would be a great mistake to suppose that he was made such merely by the nomination of the Philadelphia Convention.  He had been nominated for the Presidency in a great many States, by various conventions and meetings of the people, a year before the convention at Philadelphia assembled.  The whole history of the world shows, whether in the most civilized or the most barbarous ages, that the affections and admiration of mankind are at all times easily carried away towards successful military achievements.  The story of all republics and of all free governments shows this.  We know in the case now before us, that so soon as brilliant success had attended General Taylor’s operations on the Rio Grande, at Palo Alto, and Monterey, spontaneous nominations of him sprang up.

And here let me say, that, generally, these were Whig nominations.  Not universally, but generally, these nominations, made at various times before the meeting of the Philadelphia Convention, were Whig nominations.  General Taylor was esteemed, from the moment that his military achievements brought him into public notice, as a Whig general.  You all remember, that when we were discussing his merits in Congress, upon the question of giving thanks to the army under his command, and to himself, among other objections, the friends and supporters of Mr. Polk’s administration denounced him as being, and because he was, a Whig general.  My friends near me, whom I am happy to see here, belonging to the House of Representatives, will remember that a leading man of the party of the administration declared in his place in Congress, that the policy of the administration, connected with the Mexican war, would never prosper, till the President recalled those Whig generals, Scott and Taylor.  The policy was a Democratic policy.  The argument was, that the men to carry out this policy should be Democratic men; the officers to fight the battles should be Democratic officers; and on that ground, the ordinary vote of thanks was refused to General Taylor, on the part of the friends of the administration.

Let me remark, in the next place, that there was no particular purpose connected with the advancement of slavery entertained, generally, by those who nominated him.  As I have said, they were Whig nominations, more in the Middle and Northern than in the Southern States, and by persons who never entertained the slightest desire, by his nomination, or by any other means, to extend the area of slavery of the human race, or the influence of the slave-holding States in the councils of the nation.  The Quaker city of Philadelphia nominated General Taylor, the Whigs all over the Union nominated him, with no such view.  A great convention was assembled in New York, of highly influential and respectable gentlemen, very many of them well known to me, and they nominated General Taylor with no such