The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1848-07-20
THE POSITION OF PARTIES.


American politics present Just now to the superb
cial eye, a confused medley without form or method
1t is the office of philosophy to discern and revea
the principles which lie at the bottom Of these up
parently confused Developments at the surface ant
which explain their nature anC tendency.
Numerous unmportant and temporary aims ant
motives now as at all times decide the attitude O
trivial or selfish characters (such as the FHunkcr
politicians the devotees of military glory, the habit
uated followers Of party asprants for Office &c. &C.
but the grand elements Of difference which divide
earnest, sincere and thoughtful men-the men upon
whose direction the movements of all the Others de-
pend in reality-may he reduced to three.
The violence of the Political Abolitionists has
brought about deporable state of things which
has modified the relatveattitude of their party from
being as it was of late appropriately called, the
"Thrd Party" in certain to that of the first
party That is to say, the chief party of aggressive
strife, and the origin of new and dangerous turn
In the political history of the country The old
Democratic party $50 called) is thought by many
who were familiar with the rise and progress of
Jacksonism at the South, to have been designed orr
ginally, it has certainly been used ever Since bv
the ultra South for the entertainment of Southern
rights and by many of the more extreme for the
perpetuation and extension of Slavery. However
this may be- it is certain that the price invariably
paid for the support Of that party by all its candi-
dates, from Van Buren, to Cass, has been perfect
subservience to the needs and demands of the pe-
culiar institution 1t is opinion that even John
Tylor broke from the Wings and embraced Locofoco
ism more because he was Slavery-propagand at
heart than from opposition to the "Fisca Corpora
tion y and it is certain that his administration was
mainly characterized by the first overt production
of the plot for extending Slavery.
But this was still National Party, by virtue of
an understanding between the leaders of its respec
tive sections Qttle understood and less acqucsced
in BY the rank and file at the North as has lately
appeared y by which the support of the Party to
Slavery was exchanged for the support of the South
to Democratic principles for which the latter cared
nearly as little their allies did for slavery, save as
a cloak oran instrument of their own designs. Thus
the power of the party lay mainly in the South, and
has steadily increased with the increasing alarm and
acerby Of feeling there, while decreasngas stead-
ly at the North The dissolution of this compact
was consumnlated at the Baltimore Convention of
1913; for though perhaps majority of Presses and
Politicians always of the Hunker stamp inwardly,
still eagerly cling to it, the main body of the party
Mt the North ind nanty disown and will not endure
it, that the action of that Convention and the
humiliating posture required of poor Lewis Cass
have clearly developed its nature. {
Thus the parties which stand in the foreqroundofI
aggressive strife in this contest are two violent
reckless, growing and dangerous sectional factions
grounded those geographical divisions" against
which Washington so earnestly warned us. They Q
mutually exasperate and increase each other; each
the actual feelings and interests of
their respective sections, and exciting either side
jeaousies and alarms, at first groundless but daily
growing real, their reciprocal influence goads on
the parties to and worse extremes in imagined
self-defence. WITNESS the progress of Calhoun, y
rom the old platform, "Leaye us where we are" to VI
he monstrous one, "Le as go mhere we please - r
md the rapid falling Of greater and greater numbers II
nto the same position And the other hand the cC
actous spirit which has bitterly swollen in the m
Iorth.) Il
In opposition to these two extremes and exposed
o the hot fire of both, the now Third Party-rHE .,
WING PARTY OF THE UNION, stretches ~,
8 gallant and indomtable line with hands close G.
lasped in faerral patriotism from North to South S.
nbroken united and confident of success. Great oh
nd important National interests have heretofore I'll
cen contended for by this partyits old principles
i'll the same, are too well known to need enun1er-
ion here; but all communicative say houghtrully ~,
I'd emphatically-all combined, dwinde into nsig- A,
ficance compared with the grand mission of the col
'rty In this crisis; mission Of pacifcaton and "
lion. For our own part, native inbred and ar
Mt wing as we are and have ever been, we care col
{ rush in comparison, whether we support a me
mig or Democrat in the person Of Gen. TAYLOR. In
neh 'he great question in such time as this, is oa'
tween National and Sectional candidates the
Inc prospect Is suspicious for our united land sol
e powers Vi darkness and disunion if not IN he Sci
ally broken as VIC hope, in the oyorthro, ,r, toir
ats them in November, cannot now lo,o :. occ
oil the nation for years to come. The trin, - Fat
uohiish Is secure, and the success of the Sou er
faction with its soft and plastic fpure-ho,d
wis Cass, is equally impossible with the almost no,
Tally to be dreaded success of the opposite OK thrt
me- had
ioldlng these views, we do not deem It neodrn or the
nt TO waste our labor room and the time and thel
ney OF our patrons with extended exposures of seer
meanness, the weakness the wickednoss Of .IeI
Wis Cass' Leave him sink into his native and ln,
pen oo'eurity' He isl man s6ou. whom Yer took