Mr. Websters Speech at Marshfield Mass.

Page 6

6 Gentlemen, the whole history of the world !!howe, whether in th~ m_o!t civilized or the most barbarous ages, that the affectious nnd ad mt~~ttoD of mankind are always easily carried away towards successful nnhtary achievements. The story of all H.epublics, nnd all free Governm.et~ts show this. And we know in the case now before us, that so soon ns bnlhant sue .. cess had attended Gen. T aylor's operations on the Rio Granc~e, at Palo Alto and other places, spontaneous nominations sprang up_ for hnn.' . And here let me say, that, gene rally, these were Wlug not~nnat~on!!. Not universally, but generally, these nominations, made at vn.nous tt~nes before the assembly of the Philadelphia Convention, were Wl11~ no.n~ma­tions. General Taylor was esteemed, fro.rn the mome~t that Ius n11htary achievements brought him into public notice, a~ a 'W_l11g G~u~ral. You all remember that when we we re discussmg h1s ments m Congress, upon the quPstion of giving 1~1anks to t~e army under his command, an,d to himself, among other quest1ons, the fnends and supporters of Mr.' Polk 5 administration denounced him as being, and because he was, a Whtg Gen .. era!. . My friends near me, wh01n I am happy to see he.re, belongmg to the House of Representatives, will remember that a leadmg man of the .party of the Administration declared in his place in Congres!!l, that the pohcy of the Administration connected with the Mexican war would never prosper, till the President recalled those Whig Generals, Scott and T aylor. The policy was a Democratic policy. ~he argument was, that the men to carry out this policy should be Democ ratiC men. The officers to figh.t the bat .. ties should he Democratic officers, and on that ground, the ~rd 111ary vote of thanks was refused to Gen. Taylor, on the part of the fr1ends of the Administration. Let me remark, in the next place, that there was no particular purpose connected with the advancement of Slavery, entertained, gene rally, by those who nominated him. As I have said , they were Whig nominations, more in the l\tiddle and Northe rn, than in the Southern States, and by persons who never entertained the slightest desire, by his nowination, or by any other means, to ex ten~ the area .of slavery of .the human r?ce, or the influence of the slave-holdmg States 10 the Counc1ls of the N.ttlon .. The Quaker city of Philadelphia nominated Gen. Taylor; the Wl11gs all over the Union nominated him, wit.h no such view. A great conven­tion was assembled in New York, of highly influe ntial and rcspe~table gentlemen, very many of them well known to rue, and they nomm~ted Gen. Taylor with no such view. Gen. Taylor's nomination W<IS hailed, not ve ry extensively, but by some enthusiastic and not very far-seeing people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There were, even among us, in our own State, Whigs 9ui~e early ~nough1 certainly, in mnn~festing. their confidence ~n t~is nomm?t~on ; a h~tle too early, it may be, 10 uttermg notes of exultatwn Ill our ant1c1pated tnumph. It would have been better if they had waited. . . Now the truth is, gentlemen, the truth is, and no man can avotd see1~g it, unless, as sometimes happens, the object is too near our eyes to ~e d1s· tinctly discerned, the truth is, that in these nominations, and also 111 the nomination at Philadelphia, in these Conventions, and also in th~ Conven­tion at Philadelphia, Gen. T aylor was nominated exactly for thts reason: That, believing him to be a Whig, they thought he could be chosen '!lore easily than any other Whig. T his is the whole of it. That sngacwus, wise, far-seeing doctrine of availability, lies at the bottom of the whole matter. [Tremendous enthusiasm m1d applause.) 7 So far, then, from imputing any motive to these Convention! over the eountry, or to the Convention in Philadelphia, as operating on a majority of the ':flembers to pro?1ote slavery by the nominat ion of Geu. Taylor, I do not bel1eve n word of ll,-not one word. I sec that one part of what is called the plat. form of the ~uffalo Convention, says thnt the candidates be .. fore the public were nommated under the dictation of the slal'e power. I do not believe a word of it. [Applause.] In the first pl~ce, the Convention at Philadelphia wall composed, in a very ~ reat maJO~Jty, by members from the Free States. By a very great maJority they nught have. nominated any body they chose. Hut the Free States d1d not choose to nominate a Free State man or a North~rn man; even our n~igh bors, the States of New England, with the exceptiOn ~f New I-Ia~ps.lnre and a part of Maine, neither proposed nor conc.urred 10 the no~mat1on of any Northern man ; Vermout would hear nothmg ~ut the nommation of a Southern and s)a\·eholding candidate ; Connecticut was of the same mind, and .so was Rhode leland; the North made no demand, .nor presented any reque.st for a Northern candidate; nor nttc~pt~d any unwn among them~elves for the purpose of promoting the nommatwn of such a candidate. They we~e content to take their choice among the candidates of the ~outh. It IS preposterous, therefore, to pretend that a candidote from the Slave S~ates has been forced upon the North by Southern dictation. And 111 the next place, it is t rue that there were persons from New En .. gland, m?st ~ealous and active, and who were most earnest in proc uring the norrnnat10n of Gen. Taylor, n~d men who would cut off their rig ht l1a1Jds before they would do any thmg to promote slavery in the United ~tales. I do not admtre their yo! icy, indeed I have very little respect for Jt, un.derstand that; .but I acq~1t them of bad motives. I know the leading men Ill ~hat ~onvent1.on. I t l11~ k I understand the motives that governed ~he~. . ~he1r reasonmg. wa~ ~h1~: "Gen .. Taylor is a Whig; not eminent In CIVIl l~fe, not known 111 Cl.vtl hfe.' but still a man of .sound Whig princi­ples. Circumstances .have g1.ven hun a ~eputation and eclat in the country. If. he shall ~e the Wl11g candidate, he will be c hosen ; and with him, there will come J!lto the .two I~Io~.ses.o f Congress an augmentation of Whig ~trength. 1 he Wh1g maJonty Ill the House of R epresentatives will be Increased. The. Loco Foco mnjority in the Senate will be diminished. Tha~ was the View, and such was the motive, however wise or howe, er unw1se, .that gove.rned a very large majority of those who composed the Conrentwn at Pluladelphia. No\~' gentlemen, in my. ~pinion this w.as a wholly unwise policy; it wa! short~s1ghted and tempon.s1ng on questions. of great principles. But I acqu1t those who adopted 1t of any ~uch mot1ves as have been ascribed to them, and especially what has been ascribed to them in a part of this Buf­falo Platform. Such, gentlemen, are the circumstances connected with the nomination of. <?en. '~aylo~ . . I on.ly repeat, that t.hose who had the most agency ong.111ally I? bru_1gwg hun before the people, were Whig Conventions, and .Wh1g meetmgs 10 ~he sev~ral Sta~es, Free States, and, that a great major .. Jty of that ConventiOn wh1ch nom111:1ted him in Philadelphia were from the Free Stntes and mig ht have rejected him if they had chosen, and selected any b?dJ else on whom they could have united. u Th~s IS ~he C<l~e, g~ntlemen, ns far ns I can discern it, nnd exercising pon 1t as 1mpart1al a judgment a!! I can form, thi3 is the case presented to