The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-12-28

DECLINE OF ABoLrrIoNIsM-The abolitionist
party in the North has lately dwindled do sn
TO mere cOrporals guard. The efforts Of
their leaders to stir up the people against the
South have signally failed, and things have
gradually settled down into their old co lrse
This is shown by the very thin attendance at
the course of anti-slavery lectures now pro-
ceeding at the Tabernacle. Mr.. c. M Clay
drew pretty good house last Tuesday night
but that was caused by curiosity on the rt of
the public to see the man, many persons In the
audience thinking thai he was the son OF Henry
Clay.
The abolitiOuists have failed in their endea-
phical divisions, and they never will succeed in
their efforts to break down, override and tram
pie upon the constitution aud the laws. The
radical abolitionists-those who seek to bring
about the freedom of the slave by the dissola-
ton If the Union-have never been aoytsinp
more than q very small fraction of the popula
ton of the North; they have never cast m Ore
than hundred thousand votes at any time
and lately they seem to be dying out alto
gether.
The events of 1916 gave birth to the politi-
cal abolitonist party, which was composed OF
old party hacks who endeavored to unite the
North against the S nth in order to obtain
spoils for themselves and their adnereat-
They hoped to obtain the votes OF the people
OF the North, and therefore set up the cry OF
free soil. They failed signally, and the COM
promise measures of 1850 swept them out of
existence. Mark the distinction between the
radical and the political abolitionists-the first
party take the ground of open opposition to
the Union, the constitution and the laws-the
second, with lie. on their lips, profess
sympathy for the slave and adherence
to the constitution, at the same time Be-
cretly endeavoring TO form q new Northern
party for their personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The
people despise the first party, and they are too
well informed to be deceived by the hypocrit,-
cal professions of the second.
Although crushed by the compromises, the
political abolitionists were not annihilated
They again returned to the charge, and were
sage of the Nebraska bill. Thus, In eight years,
they had sustained two defeats. Proteus-like,
we find the same individuals, last summer, en-
gagged in forming new p,rg, uuder new
name, and with more Boosting than ever pre-
pairing to carry all the fall elections in the
Northern States. But there is always a COM
pensating principle at work in politics as we'll
as in nature, and the political abolitionsts were
terribly routed by the order of Know Nothings
the latter movement being simply a revulsion
Unpopular feeling against the political trickery
ana chicanery by which the people have been
so long swinded and humbugged. All the old
leaders, all the old parties, and all the old
sy stems were thrown overheard, and the polit
cal abolitionists sank the deepest of any
The people o. the North have told the polit-
col abolitonists, in language not to be mis-
AIKEN, that they viii not interfere with the
reserved rights Of any of the States-tha. they
will abide by the constitution and the laws, aud
that theywill not intermeddle with The internal
regulations Of any of the States. The decline
of atoliiionism was thus brought about and It's
entire dissolutioDwill transpire at period not
far distant.