Taylor men and the Cass men of the North did, and for precisely the same reasons, and addressed to others precisely the same arguments which had been so long addressed to him in vain, and which he had been so long refuting, he shook deeply--very deeply--the confidence in his sincerity which his apparent zeal in behalf of freedom had inspired. For our part, we were inclined to take a charitable view of his conduct. We thought we saw him struggling in the meshes of party association, and yielding not until he had half satisfied his own conscience that he could vote for Taylor as not so certainly declared as Cass, and therefore not quite so objectionable on the great issue, and at last reconciled to himself by the general sense that it was a little better that Taylor should be elected than Cass. We thought we saw a painful conflict with his self-respect and his sense of consistency--a consciousness that he had not chosen the nobler, even if the more expedient, part--that he was doing at best a doubtful act against which his better nature revolted. We are disposed always to respect, in silence, such manifestations, and not to reproach. "But what shall we think, what shall we say, of the spirit exhibited and the sentiments expressed in the following passage of Mr. Greeley's letter, which we have read with astonishment and regret: "'... And now to revert to the main question--the organization of the new Territories, and the allowance or disallowance of slavery therein--I have been confidently hoping for an _early and peaceful adjustment of the whole vexation_. The bills of which Mr. Douglass, in Senate, gave notice on reaching this city--to provide for the organization of California as a State and New Mexico as a Territory--were _signs of promise_. Upon the basis here suggested, it _seemed to me practicable to settle the whole difficulty without farther excitement or peril_. I thought we should ultimately agree to permit _New Mexico_, as well as California, to take the requisite steps for organizing as a State, and _bring them both into the Union in the course of the next two years_, leaving them _free_ to frame _their own institutions_. This done, the North would be morally certain that slavery would not be tolerated in either State, and the South would _save the point of honor by the almost certain defeat_ (in Senate) _of the Wilmot proviso_, which, to an established and admitted State, is confessedly inapplicable. And thus would _close the grave of agitation_ with regard to slave territory.' "And the letter then proceeds to say that 'the bright sky has been overcast' by the modification by which it is proposed to annex the portion of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande to Texas, which is _stated as the only objection to the bill_.