If Mr.Webster had decided to leave the Whigs and act independently, he was in honor bound to do so before the Baltimore convention assembled, or to have warned the delegates that such was his intention in the event of General Scott's nomination.

He had no right to stand the hazard of the die, and then refuse to abide by the result.

The Whig party, in its best estate, was not calculated to excite a very warm enthusiasm in the breast of a dispassionate posterity, and it is perfectly true that it was on the eve of ruin in 1852.

But it appeared better then, in the point of self-respect, than four years before.

In 1848 the Whigs nominated a successful soldier conspicuous only for his availability and without knowing to what party he belonged.