New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-11-07
Parties and their Dissolution.

But our perception Of the truth Is not
pnchangeable.- Our vision grows clearer
and gains wider scope. What we thought
to be true to-day we see to be only partially
true tomorrow. Perhaps we see 1t to be
entirely false. Man is created progressive
Herein is his glory and his hope.
But this cannot be said of parties-at
least, of those which have hitherto made
their appearance. They are not progress
sive They are based on the notions which
at some particular time their members
agree in regarding as the truth. They are
the incorporation Of temporary opinions.
Though of great service in advancing and
carrying out those opinions and giving the
world what benefit may be thence derived,
they are not formed to do more than that
When the opinions of a party have done
their work and are no longer useful, the
party cannot be expected to renounce them
and adopt others of later discovery and
higher character. The reason Of this is OBJ
vious. Every party is composed ofindiyid-
uals of different instincts and varying
powers of thought, who have agreed as to
the ideas of the party, bat are quite likely
or even certain to disagree as to other and
newer ideas. Thus it is that parties are
dissolved and forgotten It is nothing that
their names are retained. The superficial
and the hasty may be influenced by name,
but the earnest man looks into the reality
behind ii.
The history of political contests in this
country proves the truth of this. Where
are the old Federal and Democratic parties
between which the supremacy in the Re
public was once 6ercely disputed They
are gone. They live no longer What
truth was in the ideas of either has become
established and is no more a subject of con-
troversy the great men in both now re-
ceive justice irrespective of the'en1bittered
animosities which once pitted them against
each other and divided the whole land. But
the parties themselves have passed away.
The questions which separated them are at
rest. The ends for which they existed have
been achieved. One has indeed triumphed
over the other, as the New always in the
end triumphs over the Old, for it had on its
side the tendency of the age The current
of destiny bore it along That party was the
Democratic. Its essential principle was
that the Power belonged to the People
It's instinct was to trust to the People more
than to checks and balances artifcially con-
nived to keep them in order. How great
is the triumph of this principle, and this
instinct, maya be seen in our Elective Ju-
dietary, and also in the fact that each the
great parties which for the past fifteen
years have occupied the stage claims to be
Democratic.
The Fedcralists, too, have their triumph.
Their main idea, the Unity of the Repub-
lie and the superiority of the Federal over
theStatc Governments, has been established,
or is being established. Mr.. Calhoun, in
his speech last Winter, proclaimed the fact
that the Government has been changed
from mere aggregation of independent
States but slightly related to each other
into great national, consolidated De-
mocracy, and that, not as the result Of any
special effort, but by the action of the
system itself Mr. Calhoun here spoke
the truth.
And, if welcome down to more recent
parties, we still find them passing through
the same process. Since the days of Dem
ocratic and Federal collision, party antag-
onisms have related more TO collateral prin-
cipes and practical measures than to
fundamental, essential ideas. But still,
the ground in dispute between them con-
stantlv narrows as the contested questions
are disposed of. OF the points so long at
issue between the Wing and the soi-disant
Democratic party, what remains as a
subject of controversy Only the Tariff.
The right of the General Government to
make Internal Improvements has been viz
tually established through the ingenious
device which its EXTREMIST opponents so
gladly helped in the last session of Con-
gress. We mean the cession of alternate
sections of public land in aid of railroads.
That makes good the principle, no matter
though behind a convenient disguise.
Parties live by their antagonism, and
when that is exhausted they dissolve and
give way to new combinations, based on
new ideas, which are never wanting.
Names may be retained, organizations
kent ND after the hfe has denarted. but