The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-07-21

cotton were engaged, and about Ii, OOO DusnelS OF
corn, at rates stated in another column.
Sectional Movements for Is56-southern and
Northern AgltAt0rs-The Prospect.
The Astor House coalition Of the remains of
the late New York whig party and the odds
and ends of all the anti. slavery cliques and
coteries of this commonwealth, may be con-
sidered as equivalent to the consummation of
he IL aiding aspiration of W, II. Seward, which
is q Northern Presidential crusade against the
South and she Uniou apon the slavery question,
On the other hand. she article which We trans
fer 10 oa- Columns from the Charleston
.Hsreurs. Shows ,hss that potential organ OF
Souths III alsrais-r will listen 10 neither argu
ments ner rro.eststions from any quarter
against the organization of purely sectional
Southern party. 1t says that the South must
be rallied together in a common party, upon
stiff Southern platform, and if no party in the
North can be found to support 1t, then the time
will have arrived for the dissolution OF the
Union.
Between this Northern Seward coalition,
therefore, and these Southern ultras, our choice
is as between Scyna and Charybdis. 1t is the
whirlpool Of the anti-slayery agitation on
the one side, and the jutting rock Of seces-
sion on the other. The channel of smooth
water lying between them requires bold and
skilful navigator; and in the belief that the
pilot competent to run the passage will be
| found at the time appointed, we feel no imme
date alarm concerning the whirlpools and
| breakers roaring around US. Assuredly tue
| symptoms of the present sectional agitation,
North and South are bad enough, and the
| prospect before us is gloomy enough, and but
| for our reliance on the good sense and intel
| ligeDce and sound conservative sentiments Of
the bulk Of the American people, there would
be reason to fear that scheming demagogues
and interruptions agitators had brought us at
length to the very verge of disruption.
We see for example, that the plo. Of sec.
tional Northern party against the South is
working successfully from Massachusetts to
Wisconsin, and that the ultras of the South are
moving heaven and earth for an opposition Sec
tional and disunion party in that quarter.
We zee that the sectional policy recon-
nended by the Charleston Mercury has
been substantially adopted by the Georgia
democracy; and that mixed pro-slavery
assemblage at Lexington, Missouri, foreshadows
the merging of all parties in that State
into general organization for the protection
| Of Southern rights and resistance to Northern
abolition designs and movements in Kansas. 10
fact from the proceedings, proclamations and
| resolutions of Northern disunionists aud South.
ern secessionists, Kansas is the only living
issue of the day; and thus between the North and
the South, the next Presidency and the con-
tinuance or dissolution of the Union itself are
| to turn upon Kansas.
The Seward anti slavery league insist, first,
that the Missouri prohibition shall be restored,
which would be the expulsion from Kansas Of
the shareholders settled there under the ac.
organizing the Territory; or, failing in this,
that Kansas, if she applies for admission into
the Union as q slave State, shall be rejected;
and that neither Kansas nor any other Ter
ritory shall hereafter be admitted into the
Union as a slave State. The Southern ultras,
as far as we can understand them, desire to
make the concession of Kansas to the South,
nolens uolens, the test of Northern orthodoxy
| upon the slavery question, and propose to re-
ject any association with any Northern party
unless they are proved to be sound upon
this shibnoleth of good faith and nationality.
Between such schemes, were there no ioter-
| mediate ground, the alternative would scarcely
be better than thet between the frying pan and
| the fire. But there is the intermediate consti.
tutional ground of the Kansas and Nebrask
bill, which leaves the settlement of slavery ia
those Territories to the people thereof, where it
belongs, and provides for their ultimate ad-
mission into the Union, with or without slavery,
as the people may decide. Upon this ground,
too, we have the nucleus, organized and Ia the
field, of q solid, substantial American conserva-
| tive Union party, and it is to the Uaiou princi-
pies and the Union ticket Of this party (strip-
ped of its rubbish and fummery) that we look
unionists of both sections.
Grant that it is settled that we ore to have a
powerful, active, united and extensive sectional
anti slavery coalition party in the field in 1856
that in the North it may have plurality OF
the popular vote over any other party and a plu-
rality of the electoral vote granted that there
will be secession party in the South, absorb
| ing the Southern ultras of all other parties,
and that between these Northern and South
ern extremists, the spoils democracy will
be reduced to few scattering votes in both
sections, there is yet this new and conservative
American party-stropg in the North, strong
in the South and in the East and in the West
somewhat divided upon platforms jast now,
but ready at the right time for union aud har-
moDy upon some reliable man, with or without
a string of resolutions pinned TO the lapel of
bis coat. To this new party, and to some can.
didate who, like James Monroe, Andrew Jack
son, General Harrison and General Taylor,
win be popular enough to command the conf
dence Of the people, with or without platform,
we lock for wholesome constitutional and