Republican Herald

TAYLOR'S INTERFERENCE AGAINST REPUBLICANISM IN THE OLD WORLD.

In a late number of the Washington Union, we find the following article, setting forth facts which strongly implicate Gen. Taylor and his contemptible under-managers in an attempt to aid the old monarchical governments of Europe in their efforts to defeat the progress of liberty. We make no apology for devoting so much space to a subject of so much interest to our readers:

"Our readers will recollect that, not many months since, the German revolutionary government at Frankfort, with the view of preparing for the great conflict with despotism which they saw was inevitably approaching, and has now come, purchased of certain citizens of New York the steamer United States, then employed in ocean navigation. To facilitate the patriotic purposes of the German government, and to manifest its respect and courtesy, the administration of Mr. Polk directed that the steamer should be taken into the United States naval dock at Brooklyn, and fitted up as a war steamer for immediate service. It also permitted American officers to enter temporarily into the service of the new German navy, in order to organize it and instruct its personnel in the most modern improvements and tactics in naval warfare. Thus did the administration of Mr. Polk lend its countenance and its sympathies to the great popular movement going on in the heart of Europe, at the same time carefully keeping itself within the bounds of neutrality, and avoiding any act which would compromit this nation in the affairs of the contending parties. The act was in accordance with the character of the first and most powerful republic of the world, and was cordially responded to by the patriotic American people.

Now, we learn that the administration of Gen. Taylor, under the counsel and direction of Mr. Clayton, the Secretary of State, and his fellow councillors, has interfered with the arrangement, and required heavy bonds to the effect that the steamer United States shall not be used in any of the wars of Europe, thus defeating the very object of the purchase by the German government. The administration by this act (if it has done so) has placed itself on the side of the tyrants and aristocrats of Europe in their struggle with the people to preserve their own privileges and power, and to keep the latter in a state of servitude and slavery. We hope that we are mistaken in the information which we have received; and we are not inclined to indulge in that strain of remark which the occasion requires, until we know all the facts, and what defence the administration has for itself. We therefore forbear further comment for the present, and respectfully ask of the National Intelligencer, the organ of the reactionary party in Europe, and their sympathizers here, and of the National Whig, which is, or professes to be, the organ of the administration, whether or not the acts charged against the administration in reference to the steamer United States are true? Let us know all the facts and explanations belonging to this matter. We will frankly say that we do not intend that, under the pretext of neutrality, the government of the United States-now in the hands of the federalists, whose sympathies and inclinations have ever been against the extension of popular liberty, and in favor of thrones and aristocracies-shall take the part of the tyrants of Europe against the people in the great struggle for liberty now impending.

Time enough has been given to the Intelligencer and Whig to exculpate Taylor and his minister Clayton from the charges made against them in this article, but as yet, that we have seen, they have offered no denial of the facts, and no apology for the mean course of their masters, further than can be found in the fact that we are pledged to neutrality, by our previous policy, and by an old law, which somebody has raked from the ruins of the past. They do not show, and cannot show, that the course pursued by Mr. Polk involved any departure from the neutral policy we have ever maintained in the conflicts between other nations. They have not shown, and cannot show, that the conduct of Taylor, in this eleventh hour interference, was called for, or expected, or even asked, by the power which it was intended to benefit. They cannot find, in the records, even a gentle protest against the measure they have interfered to defeat, nor in one of the public journals, from Maine to Texas, one single line in opposition to Mr. Polk's courtesy towards a people who were struggling against despotism. They are driven into disgraceful silence-into an acknowledgement, in other terms, that their course is unjust, unpopular, anti-republican, and wholly uncalled for.

We feel ashamed for Taylor and his Cabinet, when we chronicle this base subserviency, this contemptible, unasked-for cringing to the spirit of despotism in the old world. Europe is on fire with the spirit of republicanism. Whole communities, whole nations are rising up against the tyranny of thrones. Sword meets sword in the conflict for liberty; and blood flows, as it were rain in the streets, in the defence of the rights. The glorious men, who have sworn to have liberty or death, and inscribed Democratic mottoes upon their banners, turn their gaze to our own favored country, and ask, if not substantial aid, at least our sympathy in their struggles. Instead of it, so far as the government is concerned, they meet a cold, harsh, bitter rebuke. All sympathy is denied to them; and the administration travels out of its way to trample upon their glorious cause --to express its regard for monarchy, and its devotion to kingship and tyranny—to the despots who trample upon the necks and the rights of the people.

Thank heaven, the American people have little respect for this monarchy-loving "Taylor Republican" administration. Their sympathies are with the masses of Europe, who are struggling to be free, and to secure to themselves and to their children the blessings of Democratic institutions. They will not be turned aside by the coldness of a President who secured his elevation by deception the most humiliating and frauds the most glaring."