consequently to oppose me, so far as it depended upon himself? Tell me, what reciprocity is this? Magnanimity is a noble virtue, and I have always endeavored to practice it; but it has its limits, and the line of demarkation between it and meanness is not always discernible.” If any great principles were at stake, he said, he would, in spite of it all, engage in the contest. But he feared that the Whig party was dissolved, and had given way to a mere personal party, having that character as much as the Jackson party had it twenty years before. There was something pathetic in this appeal of the old leader: “I think my friends ought to leave me quiet and undisturbed in my retirement. I have served the country faithfully and to the utmost of my poor ability. If I have not done more, it has not been for want of heart and inclination. My race is run. During the short time which remains to me in this world, I desire to preserve untarnished that character which so many have done me the honor to respect and esteem.”
He remained true to his resolution not to take part in the canvass on either side. At a late period of the campaign, General Taylor formally accepted a nomination for the presidency from a Democratic Convention in South Carolina, which preferred him to the Democratic candidate, avowedly because Cass, as a Northern man, could not be trusted with regard to slavery, while General Taylor, as a Southern man, was undoubtedly safe. Then many indignant Northern Whigs, especially
