But had Taylor indeed been in danger, the Whigs well knew that his fate would be decided long before a corpo- ral's guard raised under the act could possibly reach him.
They were, moreover, told by the President himself, in his Message, that Taylor was authorized to call for and accept volunteers from no less than six of the nearest States. The Administration, foreseeing and intending the war, had already, without any authority from Congress, most amply provided for Taylor's security. Well was it said on the floor of Congress, in reply to this pitiful apolo- gy, " Compare the provisions of the bill with the object avowed of affording relief to General Taylor and his army ; and what a picture does it present ? The bill provides that the militia, army, and navy of the United States, together with fifty thousand volunteers, shall be placed at the disposal of the President for the pur2iose of prosecuting the war to a speedy and successful termination.
Thus upon the face of the bill is its object clearly, dis- tinctly, and explicitly set forth and declared." The assertion, therefore, made by the Whigs, that their vote was given for the protection of General Taylor, is of a similar character with that Which they so bitterly denomiced in the preamble of the bill, that war existed by the act of Mexico. Their apology for voting for this assertion, which they acknowledged to be a falsehood, was, that they had first voted against it. However consistent such an apology may be with the morals of pohtics, it wiU certainly not be deemed satisfactory by those who regard the Scriptm-es as the standard of ethics. The vote of the Whig members was probably the most extraordinary and humiliating ex- hibition of rnoral cowardice ever witnessed in the national Legislature ; nor did it escape exposure and castigation.