156 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



ilege ; but such desecration of office and official patronage 

 as some of them have been guilty of to secure the election 

 of the master whom they served as slaves, is degrading 

 to the character of American Freemen, and will be a good 

 cause for removal of friend or foe. 



"The offices of the Government should be filled with 

 men of all parties ; and as I expect to find many of those 

 now holding to be honest good men, and as the new ap- 

 pointments will of course be Whigs, that will bring about 

 this result. 



"Although I do not intend to allow an indiscriminate 

 removal, yet it grieves me to think that it will be neces- 

 sary to require a great many to give place to better men. 

 As to my cabinet, I intend that all interests and all sec- 

 tions of the country shall be represented, but not as some 

 of the newspapers will have it, all parties. I am a Whig, 

 as I have always been free to acknowledge, but I do not 

 believe that those who voted for me, wish me to be a 

 mere partizan President, and I shall therefore try to be 

 a President of the American people. 



"As to the new territory, it is now free, and slavery 

 cannot exist there without a law of Congress authorizing 

 it, and that I do not believe they will ever pass. 



"I was opposed to the acquisition of this territory, as I 

 also was to the acquisition of Texas. I was opposed to the 

 war, and although by occupation a warrior, I am a peace 

 man." 



Upon the subject of improving our great rivers and 

 lakes, the friends of that measure may rest satisfied that 

 they have a friend in President Taylor. 



Gen. Taylor was sixty-four years old last November. 

 He is now hale and hearty, and in the full enjoyment of 

 his natural strong intellectual faculties. 



I hold my judgment tolerably good of human character, 

 and I must say that I was highly pleased with my inter- 

 view, and left him fully satisfied of his capability to fill 

 the Presidential office with honor to himself and our 

 country. 



