THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. [From the Times, November 21.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 387, 18 April 1849, Page 4

THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. [From the Times, November 21.]

The election for President of the United States took place on the 7th instant. The Europa, which brings the result, as far as it could then be ascertained, left New York on the Bth, eighteen hours after the closing of the poll. By means of the electric telegraph it was known that General Taylor had received 131 electoral votes against General Casss 20, in the States nearest to New York. As 146 votes would place the former in an absolute majority, there was no doubt of a triumph beyond even the anticipations of his friends. It is true that his interest lay chiefly in the mercantile and manufacturing parts of the Union, so that the returns from the States not yet reported will reduce General Casss minority to a less insignificant figure. When the Europa left, however, it was deemed impossible that those States could turn the scale. Otherwise one is struck by the nonchalance of a departure at that moment. An election had just been made, which, for four years at least, created the greatest personage and decided the most influential policy of the New -World. Yet a great steamer, with sixty-two respectable passengers, all of them probably somewhat interested in the election, started across the Atlantic on its mission, as a link between the New World and the Old, before the result had become a matter of absolute certainty. The only parallel one can think of is that in the Greek drama where the interest is sustained by the arrival of successive messengers, each of whom seems to have left the scene of action on the eve of a catastrophe. Under present circumstances it is impossible not to regard peace and war, or rather a friendly and quarrelsome policy, as the alternatives' chiefly at issue. On this view of the case the choice made by the State calls for our warm congratulatioas. General Taylors military reputation it is not our business to exalt. The Mexican war was no concern of ours, but it was impossible not to admire the daring, the hardihood, and the skill of an invasion, conducted into the heart of a distant country, under a tropical climate, with an army of volunteers, and carried to the metropolis and last citadel of the empire. But General Taylor has better qualifications for government than these. , His speeches, his letters, and his whole conduct, show him to be a gen-* tleman, a man of temper, of conciliatory habits, and good sense. The humanity, of, which he has given many proofs in his military career, has been equally conspicuous, though doubtless equally tried, in the new field of political warfare. The mild tone of the General's addresses shows that he can spare hjs fellowcitizens as well as his foes, and respect, feelings as well as life and property. It is something, too, that he is not a party man. He has been selected by the Whigs — that is, the conservative and the traditional school, not" for any opinions he had ever expressed, but simply

as a clarum et venerable nomen, likely to unite many suffrages, He was offered, in fact, as a compromise to all parties. As sucfy he £as been accepted by a vast majority of the more, respectable citizens, and as such he has been denounced and contemned by the firebrands of the Union. General Cass, it must not be disguised, would have been a serious infliction, and, we are thankful to be spared him. He is a frantic envier and hater of our institutions, empire, and race ; with sufficient ambition to inspire dangerous designs, and sufficient rashness to lead him to the attempt. When the General represented his Government at Paris, he made himself remarkable for the continual bitterness of his tone to this country. He appeared to have imbibed those fabulous and vulgar notions of the British aristocracy, and of British policy, which Cooper has embodied in his novels, and which the lowest portion of the" American press industriously propagates with, ever increasing exaggeration. Ever since February he has been loudly proclaimed as the man for the crisis, and as the most suitable gift the United States could offer to the genius of revolution in the Old World. America, it was assumed, must be invoked, and if not, would at least make an opportunity of interference. Ireland, Canada, Cuba, have become familiar words in certain circles of the Union. There can be little doubt that had Cass been elected, he would have been propelled not only by his party, not only by his numerous Irish supporters, but by his own taste and ambition, to attempt another grand feat of annexation. He would not indeed have carried with him the public opinion of the States. He would have involved the Union in unprecedented debt, and struck a heavy blow at its trade and manufactures ; but he would have run all risks for fame and power, on a gambler's speculation, that if be should succeed, the Congress and the Union would accept that expiation of the crime. We will not venture to speculate on the consequences of a collision with the States. It would have been most disastrous to both parties, for such is the pride and constancy of this country, that the quarrel would have been maintained at almost any expense. But, dwelling as we do securely by our neighbour, and labouring to be at peace with him, we do not deserve to be dragged into a quarrel. General Taylor is elected without pledges. Though he is the Whig candidate, it is admitted, both by friend and by foe, that he is returned by an extensive coalition, embracing many varieties of opinion. We are not, therefore, disposed to dwell much on the accident that among his supporters are many who expect him to reward them with a protectionist tariff, and other like measures. Happily in America, as in England, there are men who can forget their party and remember their country ; and who are content to purchase with a few years of abuse an immortality of praise. Whatever animals are peculiar to England or America, self-iuterested patriots are common to both lands, and they everywhere vent their disappointment with the same ignominious fury. We are inclined, therefore, to hope for the day when a thousand will stigmatize General Taylor as a monster ' of treachery and ingratitude, because he has not sufficiently checked the introduction of British manufactures, or otherwise spent the resources of the Union for the exclusive benefit of two or three States. When Mr. Polk was elected, the cry of his supporters was "All Oregon or none ;" and he was held pledged to give effect to that modest aspiration. We venture to predict, that once created father of his country, and warmed with the more generous instincts of power, he would consult better for the Union than plunge it into war for so mere a trifle and so unjust a cause. That prediction we will now repeat on a new cause of quarrel. General Taylor will not set the growling western States against the seaboard, and class against class, for the sake of a frac- ' tion of his numerous supporters; and' were he to desire it, time only can show whether the Congress would support him. Recent experience seems to indicate that commercial questions are, happily independent of party and of men, and rest with less capriciouspower for their favourable solution. That same experience proclaims that if a man wants to wreck his present hopes of power, to scatter his followers, and win their uncompromising hatred, he cannot do so more certainly than by promising to control the elements in their favour, to pour the riches of the country into the lap of the few, and reduce a free people to the service of a selfish monopoly.