In 1852 General Scott became a candidate a second time for the
presidency, having been nominated by the Whig Convention that met at
Baltimore in June of that year, his competitors being Mr. Webster, and
Mr. Fillmore, who succeeded President Taylor. William A. Graham, Mr.
Fillmore's Secretary of the Navy, was put on the ticket for
Vice-President. General Franklin Pierce and William R. King, a Senator
from Alabama, were respectively put forward for President and
Vice-President by the Democrats. The campaign was a heated one. The
Democratic orators, however, on all occasions accorded to the Whig
candidate that meed of praise for his gallantry as an army officer and
commander to which his services to the country had entitled him, and
accorded with the universal sentiment that his services to the
country had been of inestimable benefit and shed ineffaceable luster
on the American arms in the wars since 1800; but still, being in all
essentials but a military man, it was contended he was not fit to be
intrusted with the exalted office of President. These speakers had
doubtless never read, or had forgotten, the orders published by
General Scott upon his capturing the City of Mexico, which show a
wonderful insight into civil as well as military command. It was left
to the lower portion of the opposition to indulge in caricature, and
garbled and distorted paragraphs in reports and published letters,
such as a "hasty plate of soup" already mentioned, and his reference
to "a fire in the rear," which had reference to the weak sympathy and
support he had experienced from the Administration during the war with
Mexico. The Democratic candidate was overwhelmingly elected, only four
States--Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee--casting their
votes for Scott. In his autobiography General Scott thanks God for his
political defeats. It detracted none from his reputation that the
people chose some one else for the chief Executive.
The expedition set on foot in 1857 to bring the hostile Mormons to
terms met with General Scott's censure, and he made no concealment of
his belief that it was a scheme got up for the benefit of army
contractors, whose peculations would involve the country in great
expense. It is true the cost in hardship and privation to the army, as
well as the money involved, was very great, but the results were very
beneficial. During the late civil war the inhabitants of Utah had it
in their power to greatly embarrass the Federal Government, but they
did not, as a people, commit one disloyal act. At the time of the
expedition they had put themselves in such defiance of the Federal
Government that it was necessary that strong measures should be
resorted to, and the result was as has been stated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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