The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-04-21
The Con ,rcssionnl " h eau, The Crisis
Tho Drift OF Even


OF Congress in caucus. with view to appoint the
time and place for their national convention, the
failure OF any action at that meeting upon that
proposition, and the prospects of its final rejection,
naturally attracte the public attention to the
cond meeting Of the caucus last night. A stormy
pow-wow was anticipated; and split between the
Northern and Southern wings, upon the shelving Of
al declarations of principle-the imminent danger
impending of fatal dissolution of the national
whig party upon the particular issue of recogni-
tion of the Fugitive Slave law, became the para
mount subject of doubt and fear, and hopeful specu
lation.
The caucus re-assembled pursuant to appointment.
The night dark and stormy-in keeping with
the dark and stormy proceedings of the secret con-
clave. The results, as far as we are advised,
before our readers. Mr.. Mangum again presided
A good many Southern wings, it appears, and some
friends of Mr. Webster absent while Seward,
Trueman Smith, Senator Wade, of Ohio, and other
leaders Of the abolition cohorts of the North, were
| duly on hand. The place appointed for the Hing
National Convention is Baltimore, and the time the
sertateenth dag of June. Thus much is fixed. The
proposition of Mr.. Marshall, renewed and
| fierce debate succeeded. The Chairman, Mr.. Man
gum declared the resolution out Of order, and was
sustained by vote Of forty-six against eighteen.
| This was decisive. The Northern wings would not
| come up to the mark on the Compromise, and the
Southerners had no other alternative than to bolt,
which they did-Mr. Marshall leading off. Wemay
now expect third party to enter the Presidential
race. and the most exciting contest Of the last
twenty years.
The time is suspicious for new party. The
crippled, disorganized, and demoralized condition
of the two old parties, presents inviting opening
for a new party, upon schedule Of measures up to
the demands Of the country and the wants of the
age Vague and unmeaning generalties upon settled
questions, and exploded doctrines have served their
day. The empty and barbarous clamor of the fife
and drum is insufficient for the time. Something
may be due to Chepultepec but it is paltry baga-
elle compared with what is due to the United States
among themselves, and to their present commanding
position among the nations the earth. The time
when the Presidency could be accorded with safety,
Us the reward Of great military services, without
much regard to the capacities, principles or weak
points Of the man. That time was, but is no more
The melancholy feebleness of General Harrison--the
lamentablo ncapacty Of General Taylor, God rest
their honest old souls and the near escape which
the country experienced under the Clayton regime,
from the horrors of a civil war, have rendered the
capacity of the Presidential candidate and the prn-
cpes of the candidate Of either party his plans and
his policy, all-important, in advance of his election.
The momentous relations still existing between the
two sections Of the Union the broad field of our do
mestic and foreign affairs, demand of the candidate
for the popular suffrage free, full, frank, and
equivocal statement Of his position and his purposes
in the administration of the government. 1t is
especially due to the South after the experience of
the unmeaning election Of lS4S, that the election of
1862 should have meaning, and a guaranty against
the possible of free soil cabinet like that
Of Gen. Taylor.
We shall therefore hail an Independent party, in
patriotic Union movement, not only justified, but
| exacted, by the necessities of their position and
| the relations between the North and the South. We
have crocodile tears to she'd over the final dis
ruption of the wing party, and its reduction to
mere sectional faction. We read no portents in the
political heavens Of pestilence, famine or cruel
war, from this explosion of old out party of
political obbers for the spols. The lame ducks of
| the old whig board Of brokers may waddle off into
the shade to lament their misfortunes but public
opinion is elastic ard will spring at once into more
vigorous action, from the removal these old party
shackles. The wing party of the North may then
| look back, and with their open eyes the fatal
game which they undertook to play, in falling into
the incendiarv schemes Of Seward and his Holy AIN
ance of unprincped demagogues and crazy fanatics.
They will to wonder that the Union wings of
/ the South have refused and scorned to accept the
successful dodge Of AS, when it promised again the
rich reward of the spells. They will cease, perhaps
to play themselves, the 'artful dodger," when their
cheat is detected and repudiated. If they fail to
wheedle the Southern wings by side issues and slip
perry eyasions it will probably bring out the North
whig party in its true coorshostle to Southern
slavery, and acting under the lead of Seward,
with view of bending all the powers of the federal
government to the common cause of emancipation.
Doubtless the South is prepared to the late pie
bald Northern wing party openly degraded into an
abolition pary clamorous and venemous for the to-
tai repeal of the Fugitive Slave law, as the COM
mencement Of their operations
Under the natural laws Of trade an over imitation
Of the currency by excessive infusion Of shinplas-
tiers into the general circulation is followed by an
explosion and panic. Rogues prosper, honest men
suffer, and the working community are defrauded of
their hard earnings. But in the explosion of an
old worn-out party of political hacks who have sub
sisted by power and spos obtained under false pre-
fences, the swindlers alone the losers The pub
lie are beneftted-tie country gains by it Such,
believe, will be the benefcent results of split
| in the wing party, if it is only followed up with
energy and unyieldng independence by the seceders
Let the South insist upon a distinct understanding
also. at the Baltimore Convention, and, like the
spear Of Ihuriel it will bring out the old democra-
tic party in its true shape. very large quantity
of black and notified sheep have been lately snug
gled into the democratic flock Upwards of hun
dred thousand IN New York, including the Van Bu-
rens, who rallied upon the Buffalo platform in lsis
now in sweet communion with the soundest old
hunkers of Tammany Hail. The coalition in Nassa-
chusetts is too notorious and barefaced to be toe-
rated; and the condition Of the party in Ohio very
little better Let the Southern democrats, at Balti-
more, bring up the convention to the Fugitive
Slave law, purge the party of its abolition afilia-