The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-09-13
The Approaching Presidential Election and
the Slavery Question--Union or Dasunion-
Which Shall II He

The Approaching PresAoentAaA EAccuon anu
the Slavery Question--Union or Dasunion-
Which Shall II Bcs
The Presidential election of 1856 will be the
great crisis of the federal constitution on the
slavery question. 1t will be the first positive,
definite and direct sectional issue between the
two revolutionary extremes of the abolition of
slavery or the dissolution of the Union; and it
may be the final struggle between the aboli-
ton and free soil Holy Alliance of the North,
and the supporters of those compacts, conces-
sions and compromises of the constitution up
On which this great and fourishing Union of
sovereign republican States was established.
All other questions, all other distractions or
in this impending sectional and fanatical col
lision upon the slavery question; and the ext
gency will require the union of the conserva-
tives of both sections and Of all parties to pre-
vent violent overthrow of the fairest fabric
Of self government ever erected in the annals
humankind In this contest the anti-slavery pro-
paganda Of the North will be aided not only by
the affiliated abolition societies of England, but
by the governing classes and interests of both
Ems gland and France, as far as possible under
the pressure of their existing difficulties with
the great Northern colossus of Europe. But why
should the governing classes Of England and
France become parties, directly or indirectly, to
an abolition conspiracy in the United States for
the dissolution of this Union? Simply be-
cause, unless our commercial progress be ar
rested in some way, this republic will become
the overshadowing commercial power of the
earth; and will thus hold, through our CON-
mercial ascendancy, the power of commanding
the seas, in military view, in both hemis-
pheres. This is the great fear Of the Western
Powers Of Europe; and being otherwise i'm
pregnablc in our isolation, they have no other
alternative in their policy Of checking our
commercial advances to the supreme dominion
Of the seas, than the dissolution of our Union
through the agitation of this vital question of
slavery.
We have seen enough within the last two or
three years to satisfy us that the abolition
philanthropy Of the Duchess of Sutherland and
her Stafford House coterie and the American
policy Of England and France, run in the same
channel. The tri-partite overtures to the ad-
ministration Of Mr.. Fillmore concerning the
island of Cuba-th intricate Vaccinations of
English emissaries in Cuba and in SPAIN from
that day to this-the "happy accord" between
the Western Powers, as defined by Lord Cla-
rendon in the British Parliament, and the re-
markable degree of interest, anxiety and vi
GLANCE betrayed by the French government
touching the diplomacy and the personal
movements Of our late Minister to Madrid-Mr.
Soule-all point to the same ultimatum which is
European "balance Of power" upon this
continent sufficient to arrest or control the ter
ritorial and commercial advances of this dan
gerous republic, and the moral influence Of
its popular institutions. In this impending
struggle, therefore, between the holy alliance
Of the abolition and free soil traitors, dema-
gogues and fanatics Of the North, and the con-
servatives Of the Union, we must not overlook
the laid and comfort" which the anti-slavery
cause will inevitably receive IN various avail
able shapes, from their allies and auxiliaries
in England, France and Spain nor forget the
general calculation.
Reduced to its simplest FORM the great issue
of 1856 will be union or disunion--the con-
tinued peace and prosperity Of these States
under the same general organic law, or their
separation into two or three Independent con-
federacies, with all the revolutionary and
anarchical accessories of the feeble and disor-
ganized military republics of South America.
After the experience which we have had in
the preliminary skirmishes between slavery and
anti-slavery in 1920, 1914, 1850 and 1854 we
know that our Southern or slaveholding
States have arrived at that point where, if they
cannot be guaranteed the protection Of the
compacts and compromises of the federal
constitution, they are prepared to risk the
chances of secession, disunion, and separate
Southern confederacy. We know too
that in the Northern anti-slavery programme
for 1856, there are several direct issues which
comprehend the immediate provocation to Sc
cession-such, for example, as the restoration
of the Missouri black line by starving the Uni
ted States Senate into submission-the rejcc-
ton of Kansas if she shall apply, honestly or
dishonesty, for admission into the Union as
slave State-the application of the Wilmot pro-
viso against slavery to all the Territories-the
repeal of the Fugitive Slave law and the abo-
lition Of slavery in the federal District of Co
lumbia.
Any one or two of these propositions, If car
ried out by Northern anti-slavery admins
tration, and the power of an overwhelming
Northern majority in the popular branch of
Congress, will be sufficient to cut the golden
cords which bind the North and South toge-
ther, and launch us upon that stormy sea of
disunion, civil wars, revolutions and elections
by the bayonet, in which our Spanish-Ameri-
can sisterhood have been drifting at the mercy
of the winds and waves for the last quarter Of
century. And the plan of the Northern
Holy Alliance comprehends an anti-slavery
administration, and such House of Represen-