e energetic record of Mr. Marcy as secretary of
War, and was eminently discreditable to the President and all his
advisers.

Perhaps the most inexcusable blunder of the administration was the
attempt to take Thomas H. Benton from the Senate, where he was
honored, eminent, and useful, make him Lieutenant-general, and send
him out to Mexico to supersede both Scott and Taylor in command of
the army. The bill to enable this to be done actually passed the
House. When under discussion in that branch, a prominent Democratic
member from Ohio declared, as one reason for passing the bill, that
two of the generals are opposed politically to the Democratic party,
and "by their own acts or those of their friends are candidates
for the Presidency." The evident basis of this argument was, that
the Mexican war being a Democratic venture, no Whig had the right
to profit by it. The bill was fortunately stopped in the Senate,
though that body at the time had a Democratic majority. The measure
was killed by one convincing speech from Mr. Badger of North
Carolina. The senators knew Colonel Benton's temper and temperament,
and understood how completely unfitted he was for military command,
and how his appointment would demoralize and practically destroy
the army. To the end of his life, however, Colonel Benton himself
believed a serious mistake had been made. He had been commissioned
colonel in the war of 1812, but though of unquestioned bravery,
and deeply read in military science, it had never been his fortune
to engage in battle, or to see the face of an enemy. Yet in the
autobiographical sketch which precedes his "Thirty Years' View,"
he complacently assured himself that his appointment as Lieutenant-
general over Scott and Taylor "could not have wounded professional
honor," as at the time of his retiring from the army he "ranked
all those who have since reached its head."

WHIG OPPOSITION TO GENERAL TAYLOR.

But all the efforts to make a Democratic hero out of the war failed.
The line-officers appointed from civil life behaved gallantly.
The volunteers under their command were exceptionally excellent,--
almost competent themselves to the conduct of a campaign. The
political generals who vaulted from law-offices into the command
of brigades and divisions were furnished by the War Department with
staff-officers carefully chosen from the best educated and most
skillful of the regular a