The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-11-08
The Election-state or Parties.


The prospect that will meet the eye Of every
citizen who takes the trouble to visit the pol
this day will resemble nothing that he has ever
seen before; and nothing that he may ever see
again. Confusion worse COMPOUNDED awaits him
if he attempts to discriminate between rival
tickets and rival candidates. Old men, who
have kept firmly anchored in their breasts for
quarter of a century or more, the fundamental
principles Of the great wing or the great demo-
cratic party, viii be lost in bewilderment to-
day, if they venture to test the merits Of the va
rious individuals who solicit their suffrage, ac-
cording to the old standards of orthodoxy. For
they will have to choose not only between wings
and democrats proper, but between mere
wings and temperance wings, national demo-
Gratis and free soil democrats, barnburners and
hunkers, conservatives and reformers, Union
men and abolitionists. Six independent tickets
Will be offered them at the polls; each, per-
haps. containing some name in which they for
merly placed confidence. To map out on the
chart of principle the exact extent of territory
occupied by each of these various factions
would defy the skill of the most experienced
political geographer. What each admits, or
what its rivals repudiate, the leaders them
selves could hardly say. Their distinguishing
characteristics are lost in chaos; one feature
alone, which is common to all, is plainly visi-
bic, and that is an unquenchable thirst for the
spells. Each has its organs and its orators;
but neither the one nor the other has ever at
tempted to define the grounds of principle on
which their respective parties take their stand.
Manifestoes and speeches have not been wanting;
but the whole collection is at present but a COM
pendulum of disgraceful personalities and pot
house slang They neither afford any clue to
the political complexion OF the party whence
they emanate, nor furnish the slightest shadow
of evidence Of its claims to responsibility.
Abuse of private individuals, on grounds with
which the world and politicians have no con-
Germ, is their staple ingredient. So generally
has this practice been adopted, that while we
find one set Of speakers dragging to light the
moral Irregularities Of the Cabinet nominees.
we hear another assailing, in coarsest terms,
the private character and domestic habits Of
the President himself AT no period in our
history has so complete decentralization OF
men and parties been witnessed-at none have
we had such reason to blush for our political
,rrders--at none have good and honest men
turnod with such loathing from the fetid pool
of party politics
Whence does this arises What is the cause
OF the confusion Of parties, the degradation OF
men, and the total forgetfulness OF principle,
which is apparent on every side?
We need not wander far in the search. 1t
stands before us, in the broad face of day. No
other cause but the unprincipled policy forced
upon on honest President by an administration
raked together from all factions, and huddled
round the Capitol in an eager chase after the
spells. could have cast such blight on the
country 1t is this which has shattered all our
old political organizations, and raised up In
their stead parcel of beggarly cliques, who
would sell their corporate souls tomorrow for
few thousand dollars year. 1t is this which
has driven respectable men out of politics alto
gether in this State and thrown open the field
to rogues, to whom honest callings were both
dstasteful and Improbable. The example of
disregard to principle for the sake Of place,
once set by the Federal administration, State
| and city politicians have been but too ready to
| initiate il. If Gushing and Marcy could sit
side by side at Washington, Rynders and Van
Buren, could join in fellowship at Tammany
Hall; and scsmps who never had an opinion at
all, would set up as national democrat, or free
soil, or reform candidates for New York. The
principle was the same in all the cases. Marcy
and Guthrie chose to forget that General
Pierce was elected by the union sentiment.
evoked by the great compromise measures, and
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