The Daily Union

From the Lancaster (Pa.) Intelligencer,

"Look to the Senate!"

If General Taylor had not reached the presidency emphatically as a no-party candidate, and amidst a profusion of professions against proscription such as inveigled thousands of honest democrats into his support, we would not have uttered a syllable of complaint, if he had filled every office from Maine to California with the most ultra whigs. But, elected under the most solemn and oft-reiterated declarations of neutrality between the two great political parties that have so long divided the public opinion of the country, his present open and shameless disregard of these professions furnishes a spectacle that cannot fail to bring deep dishonor upon his name, and subject him to the lasting reproaches of every well-balanced and well-thinking mind; for surely it will not be contended that politics have become a game so degraded that a man, however distinguished his past life, can deliberately violate his most sacred promises with impunity. About the offices themselves, no reflecting man will care a straw; for to the public it is a matter of small concern whether A or B receives the salary, provided the duties be honestly and properly discharged. "But it is not so unimportant a matter, whether the highest officer in the nation pays a decent regard to the professions on which he was elected, or whether he deliberately violates and disregards them. If an individual in private life, to attain particular ends, pledges his word to the observance of a certain line of conduct, and afterwards, from selfish and interested motives, acts contrary to his professions, he is set down by all who know him as a very unreliable kind of a gentleman. The same code of morals must apply, with additional emphasis, to men in high official stations, inasmuch as they are elevated so far above their fellows, that their example is reflected in the conduct of others—and hence it is both a trite and a true saying, that the character of governors is ever an index to the character of the governed.

For the shameless duplicity of President Taylor, or, if you please, his weakness in permitting the misconduct of his cabinet, there should be a remedy. There is a remedy, we would rather say, and let it be faithfully and fearlessly applied. The Senate is decidedly democratic, and it behooves that body to commend to the lips of certain office-holders the same poisoned chalice from which others have been made to quaff so deeply. This, not in a spirit of revenge, nor to exemplify the law of retaliation, but for the higher purpose of checking and rebuking an administration which treats its pledges as if they never had been made. A high responsibility, therefore, rests upon the Senate, and in common with many of our democratic cotemporaries, we trust it may be fearlessly discharged. The times and the occasion demand it.