The Somerset Herald And Farmers' And Mechanics' Register

GENERAL TAYLOR AND THE PRESIDENCY.

The "Anthracite Gazette," an ably conducted neutral paper published at Pottsville, takes strong ground in favor of Gen. Taylor as "the People's candidate" for the Presidency, and gives notice of the holding of a mass convention in that place at an early day, to advance the old General's claims, and to which the eastern and northern counties of the State are expected to send delegations. The partiality of the American people for Gen. Taylor has recently been manifested in so many ways and in so many quarters, that we cannot perceive how he can well be prevented from being elected President in 1848. We know there are ultra party men who do not approve of his repeated declarations that he will not be a party candidate, nor, if elected, a party President. But to our mind there is nothing objectionable in these declarations, certainly nothing that should prevent the Whig party from supporting him. The idea will not be entertained for a moment by any sensible man, that Gen. Taylor means to be understood as saying or intimating that he has no fixed political principles, and that he would pursue a half-way policy to suit, as much as might be, the views of all parties, regardless of the effects which such policy would be likely to have upon the country. We are bound, in justice to his intelligence and integrity, to put a more liberal construction upon his words. When he says that he is not a politician, and that, if elected, he will not be the President of any clique or party, but of the whole people he manifests an honesty of purpose that is certainly commendable, as being a virtue rarely met among aspirants for the Presidency at the present day; which is no surrender of principle, but, on the contrary, is the best pledge that a man could give of his determination to administer the Government honestly and faithfully. It has been for many years a source of incessant complaint, that our Government was administered more with an eye to the advancement of the interests of the Administration and its partisans than for the benefit of the whole people, and now when a man is brought up as a candidate, who is not willing to prostitute Executive authority and influence to such base purposes, what man— be he Whig or Democrat—who desires to see corruption removed from high places and the Government restored to its pristine purity, but will heartily and cordially enter into his support? But, however men may differ on this point, let none be so simple as to suppose that Gen Taylor has no opinions of his own in regard to measures involving high interests and important principles. To suppose that he was destitute of such, would be supposing that he was little more than an idiot. We have good authority for saying, that in principle he is a Whig; but we have his own declarations that he will not be the candidate or the President of this or that party; and from these it is concluded by some of both parties that he will not suit them, because he would in all probability not go as far in carrying out party measures as they want a President to go. Our own inferences from the premises are, that he approves of the Whig policy generally, though he may side with the Democrats on some questions, where no great and important principles are involved, and that he holds to the pure Republican doctrine that minorities have rights which it is the duty of major- ities to respect, and in case of neglect or refusal by others, that they be protected by the Executive to the extent of his lawful power. These constitute a part of the Whig creed; and though the con- trary is never preached by others, it is not unfrequently practiced. If the Whigs, as a party, cannot expect to realize in Gen. Taylor all that they could desire, the prospect of the Democrats is still less cheering; and if he be elected to the Pre- sidency, as now appears quite probable, and should succeed in allaying party strife and in restoring the Government to that high and pure standard which it occupied in the days of WASHINGTON, he will be hailed as one of the greatest benefactors of the age.