The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-09-24
The Coming Presidential Election The
CrisAs OF 1855.


severely than any former political contest.
1t once seemed possible that, when the time APP
preached, the Know Nothing question might
divide the anti-slayery party to such an extent
as to weaken it materially, or even to paralysc
it for all practical purposes. This appeared to
be most likely contingency at the time the
Philadelphia Grand Council broke up. But
now recent indications as well in New England
as in New York and the West show that the
agitation OF the artful men who have made
anti-slayery their hobby has not been devoid
Of fruit. Throughout New England, we must
expect to see nativism postponed to abolition
in Pennsylvania and New York, the recent
scenes in Kansas, aggravated by the woeful
imbecility of the administration, have famed
the sinking anti-slavery embers into glow;
while, in Ohio and large section of the West,
the tendency is obviously treason-ward. To
blind ourselves to the breakers towards which
the ship Of State is drifting would be sheer
madness. 1t is not to be disguised that the
abolitionists have advanced with gigantic
strides during the last FIVE years. Principles
| have not altered. What was true in l849 ia
true to-day. Nor is there any reason to believe
that mems wits are sharper now than they used
| to be, OF that the human intellect has received
| such Development in the past FIVE years az
| to enable it TO detect wrong institutions which
| seemed blameless in the last decade. But, as
| in nature the constant action of the most in-
| significant causes is capable Of producing the
most astounding results 30 the persevering
| agitation OF anti-savery has worn a passage to
the minds Of the thOughtless. Appeals have
been successfully made to The pride Of the
| North. The South has been painted as a ruth
less tyrant usurping powers which rightfully
| belong to the North, and subOrdinating the
general government to the interests Of one do
nestle institution. OF course all this is mere
| rant and defamation. If it were true, the
blame should fall, not upon the South, which
in the case supposed would only have obeyed
the law OF self preservation, but upon the
North, which having the power, would have
used it to selfdestructon or establishment.
But lose who think and those who read are a
fractional portion of every community. Shout
| what you will in the ears of the masses, they
will believe it IN the end so you shout long
enough and loud enough. SO it comes about
that The aboitionists now muster an army
strong enough to threaten the citadel OF the
Union, and after q career hriefer than the al
lotted span Of mans life, the United States
| Constitution is now about to be brought to the
| bar, and mayhap to be condemned.
Great crises have not been unknown in
| American history. The election of Jefferson
was crisis Of vital consequence not only to
| the Institutions Of this country--then wavcring
between monarchism and democracy-but to the
cause of human equality and popular aoye-
reignty throughout the world. On that occa-
sion the right prevailed by an overwhelming
majority, and in three months, the waters were
| calm. The election of Jackson was likewise
crisis--though Of less sgnifcance--as being
the second triumph of pure popular sovereignty
over the nascent bureaucracy of the Uuited
States. But into what insignifcance do these
crises sink, when compared with that which
| 1856 portends-with struggle in which not
only the future Of this or that institution is in
issue, but the whole fabric reared by Washing
ton, and strengthened and backed up by the
strenuous efforts Of tho best men in the coun-
try for nearly seventy years, is staked on the
result with contest the effect of which may
be to dissolve the Union, whose formation has
been the wonder Of statesmen for more than
half century, but which, like those wondroas
works Of antiquity at which the gods assisted,
once subvcrted, can never, never be rebuilt
This is no mere American question. 1t con-
Germs Americans Of course, but not them alone.
lis a problem Of universal application and i'm
portance Europeans are directly interested
l - ~ -
in whose fate every human being has person
al concern. On the surface it may seem to be
mere quarrel about this OF that system Of la
Dor in substance, It's the cause of human
rights and liberty which is at stake. Agitate, ag-
tate, says the British oligarchy and the Euro
pean monarchs to the American abolitonists
Books teeming with abolitionist theories. money
freely voted Tor the aid of the abolitonist cause,
they send across the Atlantic more than once,
when the mania has almost died out here, their
encouragement and their subsidies have re-
viyed It, There was time when simple mind
ed persons could believe that they acted thus
from pure aud high impulses. Long ago. this
delusion was dispelled by inquiring into the
British systems of lalpr aud il was made APP
parent to the most incredulous that, though
individual Englishnen may have been mised
in the crusade by prepopderancc of heart over
head, the movement at large originated with
the aristocratic dread of American democracy
and tended, not TO the liberation of the negro
bu: to the humiliation of this republic To the
contest Of next year tue British oligarchy lool.
with an anxiety which cannot be pictured.
Hanging themselves in the balance, warned by
daily pcrils that American example is over
riding British precedent, usage, and routine
throughout the United Kingdom, thcy hope bat
in the aboiitionists. II, next year, the oppo-
nents Of slavery win the day, and the Union is