[107] In 1848, General Taylor was the Whig candidate for President of the United States; and so little was the history of this war known to our statesmen or politicians, that it is believed no newspaper, or stump orator, or advocate of his election, ever related or referred to this most gallant act of his life. He had himself, during the war, exhibited no particular sympathy in the work of catching and enslaving negroes; on the contrary, he had expressed his detestation of that policy. Of course the slave power, not willing to make open war upon him, had permitted his name to rest without connecting it with the performance of any brilliant or humane acts. The casuist may say, that he ought not to have served in such a war, and that no gallantry displayed in such a cause ought to reflect credit upon any man. But General Taylor, like other men, should be judged by the times, the customs, the morality of the age in which he lived. [108] Vide Ex. Doc., 2d Sess. XXVth Congress, No. 225. [109] Vide General Jessup's letter to General Arbuckle, 8 Vol. Ex. Doc., 2d Sess. XXVth Congress. [110] Vide General Jessup's letter to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Ex. Doc. 225, above referred to. [111] This is the view which General Jessup gives of the transaction, Ex. Doc., 8th Vol., 3d Sess. XXVth Congress [112] Vide Report of General Jessup to the Secretary of War, Ex. Doc., 3d Sess. XXVth Congress. [113] These facts may all be found in the 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 11th & 12th vols. of Ex. Doc., 2d Sess. XXVth Congress; the letters of Ross and correspondence of General Jessup, and official reports, occupying several hundred pages. [114] Horace Everett, who was many years a Representative in Congress, an ardent Whig, and constant opponent of Jackson and Van Buren. After the report of the Secretary of War in answer to his resolution had been received, Mr. Everett made a speech on the subject, exposing the manner in which the war had been conducted, and intimated that it was more immediately connected with the support of slavery than it ought to be. But while he was careful to say nothing exceptionable to the slave interest, he certainly entitled himself to the honor of being the first member who assailed the war, and the first to hold the Administration responsible for the manner in which it was prosecuted. The speech may be found at length in the Appendix to the Congressional Globe of that session. [115] Vide Letter of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Secretary of War, 9th May, 1838. Ex. Doc. 225, 2d Sess. XXVth Congress. [116] Major Zantzinger, like many other officers, appears to have thought that every negro must have a master, and he called these Exiles the property of the Seminoles, although the Agent for that Tribe had reported a few years previously, that the number of slaves owned by them did not exceed _forty_.