journal, (we do not recollect what one, but we have seen it within a week,) disclaims all solicitude in relation to his political partizanship, and is satisfied, perfectly satisfied, - with the conviction that General Zachary Taylor is a GREAT and GOOD man! The facts on which this conviction is founded were not stated, nor do we recollect that the editor alluded to any particular acts that constitute the character of a great and good man.' But with the true hero worshiper that is of no importance. If the altar is well furnished with human flesh for the sacrifice, and thousands of hearts have been pierced to supply a generous libation of human blood, the adoring throng require no other stimulant to their devotion. "To say nothing of the elements of greatness, a quality which as appropriately belongs to a devil as to a saint, and a term which may be used to signify the darkest of crimes as well as the brightest of virtues, we have yet to learn wherein consists the goodness of General Taylor; and we sincerely hope that some of his worshipers will, ere long, have the goodness to portray those features in his character, and recite some of those acts of his which give him a claim to idolatry. We are the more anxious on this point, because we should be glad, for once in our life, to be one of a political majority, and at the same time be sure that we are right. Only satisfy us that General Taylor is truly deserving of the approbation of the wise, the humane, and the patriotic, and we will heartily unite in every thing adapted to do honor to his virtues, although we will give no pledge to become a worshiper in the temple of his fame, or To crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, "We are aware that it is said by the worshipers, that General Taylor does no more than fulfil his duty to his country by prosecuting the war with all the power of his arm and his intellect. He has been bred a soldier, in the service of his country, and he must not disobey the orders of the President. There is no other alternative; he must obey or resign. Miserable apology, contemptible subterfuge. Let him resign his commission. He has, himself, pronounced the war unnecessary, unjust, and cruel. He used language similar to this, if we remember rightly, in his letter to Henry Clay, announcing the loss of Mr. Clay's son. He then pronounced his own condemnation. If he admits that the war is unnecessary, unjust, and cruel, he cannot escape from the consequences of the admission, namely, that he who voluntarily carries it on successfully, is guilty of gratuitous injustice and cruelty. When an officer is placed in a position where he cannot, without disobedience to his superior, refrain from the commission of acts which his conscience tells him are offences against God and humanity, there is one plain, straight-forward path for him to pursue. If his orders are to ravage a neighboring state, to rob and murder its inhabitants, and burn its cities, acts which he feels to be inconsistent with justice and humanity, wherein is he a whit better than the hired bravoes and assassins which we read of in Italian history, if he persists in the obedience to his orders rather than to the law which God has written on his heart? The characters are analo. - gous, if not identical. Both rob and murder for hire, and, like Falstaff, think it no sin to labor in their vocation. There is, however, one remarkable difference; the Bravo, for a guinea or two, disposes of an individual designated by his employer, the Hero does his work indiscriminately, by wholesale, and for an annual salary of some thousands of dollars. Which will have the heaviest account to be settled hereafter, is known only to that Judge who is subject to none of the imperfections attendant upon mortality. "In these remarks we have used the word Hero, with its derivatives, according to its present popular acceptation. We are aware that another and far different idea is connected with the word. Had General Taylor felt any partiality for the character of a hero in that other and nobler sense, he would have thrown his commission in the face of the Presi dent, the moment he received an order to pass over the boundary of the United States with an invading army. Had he done so, in all probability there would have been no war, the difficulties with Mexico would have been amicably adjusted, — thousands of innocent lives would have been saved, millions of dollars might have remained in the public treasury, or in the hands of individuals, to be used in constructing canals and railroads, or employed in promoting the arts and sciences which improve and embellish society, and our heroic representatives in Congress would have lost the opportunity of dishonoring themselves by voting supplies to carry on a war which they have acknowledged to be unrighteous, cruel, and unnecessary. He would then have proved himself a true and legitimate Hero, and the wise and virtuous of all nations and ages would have combined and when the portals of to do him reverence, --- ay, immortality should be opened to receive his disembodied spirit, may we not believe that all heaven would echo with the shout, THE HERO COMES!" May 6, 1847. "Will Mr. Webster receive any votes from those who have not acted with the Whig Party?' This is submitting the question of Mr. Webster's popularity to the test of analysis, and not leaving it to be decided by vague and unsupported declamation. We are satisfied that investigation will show that Mr. Webster, more than any other man of his party, commands the confidence of those who do not act with it. His public life has been long, and the principles he has advocated and the policy he has pursued are all before the public, and well and generally known. They are distinguished by moderation, consistency, and firmness. Although a Whig, he is not a man to be claimed wholly by his party; he has more frequently contended for the preservation of the Union, and upholding the Constitution, than for mere party principles; he is, and is acknowledged to be, a man full of American feelings, broad and catholic as the Constitution of the country, and limited only by the boundaries which the true original spirit of the Constitution prescribes. Such a man, it is believed, the people, who love the Union and the Constitution more than they love party, want; and they would be most happy to show their admiration for him, and their confidence in him by their votes, if they had an opportunity of doing so. Of this we cannot permit ourself to doubt; and nothing but timidity on the part of those who are desirous of seeing Mr. Webster president, has suffered his name to be kept back, and prevented it from being made more prominent than any other name on the list of the whig candidates for that office. Who can fail to see that the times, the embarrassed state of our own country, as well as the aspect of European affairs, demand just such a man as Daniel Webster at the helm of state? -a man known and respected abroad as well as at home. "If the cause of that timidity, which fears to present the name of Mr. Webster as a candidate for the presidency, be investigated, it will be found to be a sentiment, distrustful, to the last degree, of the people. It proceeds upon the assumption that they are incapable of appreciating the value of the most important services rendered to the country; that they are jealous of pre-eminent ability and devoted patriotism, unless that ability and patriotism are displayed on the field of battle, amid the smoke of cannon and the clash of contending armies. We submit whether, in our past experience, sufficient evidence has been furnished to authorize this conclusion. If this be true, then, indeed, it may well be doubted, as they to whom we refer do doubt, whether the people are capable of self-government,—whether republican liberty can be maintained. But is such a doubt to be entertained now? Are we to take counsel from a feeling that despairs of the Republic, when thrones are tottering, and the eyes of the people of |