New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-23

patton. Such has been the political equlity
which We Northern people haze enjoyed
Northerr men have been admitted TO tbs Presl-
Genital cffce. but only on condition Of exefcis-
ing that office solely and exclusively in slave
holding sense, and for the special promotion of
-lavehclding interests In the case, indeed, of
Mr.. Van Buren,, the shareholders were obliged
10 be chiefly content 50 far az public pledges
went, with mere general declarations of Protec-
ton for their constitutional rights, sort OF
declaration perfectly consistent with Mr.. Van
Buren's well-known non-eommittal policy.
The memory was then fresh of the Missouri
revolt against Southern domination, in which Mr..
Van Buren, had taken leading part; and though
COB plant enough in his manners, he still wAsa
man not to be pressed too far. Ii is indeed but
Justice to say that of all the Northern men who
since the slaveholdiDg triumph of 1900 have
aspred to the Presidency, Mr.. Van Buren, has
succeeded far better than any other in preserv-
ing his personal dignity intact, aud in avoiding
public prostrations at the feet of the slave
power. Instead of doing the trucking in pubic
and in person, with an instinct of selfrespect 10
which he has had too few imitatOrs, he lefs that
to be done by the understrsppers of the party
in and out of Congress-little thinking that
from among the meanest and most compliant OF
these Congressional understrappers would
presently be selected the Northern Presidential
candidates Of the party, or that his first North
ern Democratic successor in that office would
get the nomination and the election specially on
the ground that in the whole course of his public
career, whether at Washington or in New
Hampshire, he had never spoken word nor done
an act except in the interest and as the faithful
and subservient tool of the Shareholders
Yet even Mr. Van Buren,, with all his eau
tious adroitness end commendable selt-respect,
could not escape the degradation of an open and
public homsge paid to the slave power. In his
Inaugural Address he pledged himself not TO
consent to the abolition of Slavery in the Dis
trict of COlumbia-a pledge stigmatized at the
time by some of his Northern political oppo-
nents as a degrading concession, trescherous
surrender of the rights Of the North; and
pledge, too, which Mr.. Van Buren, when no
longer an expectant of Southern Votes himself
saw sufficient reason to retract A homage
to the slave power, a tribute to the poiti-
cal supremacy of the shareholders, this dec
laration undoubtedly wasi and yet compared
with the aoipgs tf Northern Presidents and
Northern Presidential candidates since, it might
almost pass for a manly act Compared with
Mr.. Fllmore's signing the Fugitive Slave act,
or with Mr.. Pierces buying up with Federal
Offices trescherous Northern votes for the Kan
sas Nebraska bill, Mr. Van Buren,, even while
delivering that Inaugural, seems still to stand
upon his feet
On at least one important point TOO, he VEN
tured in his administration of the Government
to disregard the wishes of the slayedrivers-al-
ways anxious to secure new markets in which
to sell their human live stock. He discounte-
nanced all the advances made by Texas for adj
mission into the Union; presenting himself in
this respect in very advantageous contrast to
John Quincy Adams, who, as appears by recent
disclosures, was engaged during large part of
his administration in secret negotiations for the
purchase of Cuba, with the too evident design
Of thereby buying Southern favor for himself.
The men of the North might well sigh for the good
old times of King Log where they found them
selves after the defeat and deposition of Mr.. Van
Buren, and the triumph of the Wings, under the
coImorant rule of President Tyler with Nr.
Calhoun for his Secretary of State, and the an
nexation of Texas brought forward as the basis
of a new Southern party and the outfit for a
Presidential campaign. Mr.. Van Buren, was still
a candidate for reelection, but he declined to
mount upon that new Southern platform. Per-
haps this was q matter of calculation; but even
taking it to be So still that be miscalculated the
pluck eff the North is an indication of pluck in
himself as it is not often that towards and
doug hfaces anticipate any courage in those with
whom they may be called on to act.
This refusal to consent to the annexation of
Texas was bold act of rebellion which re-
quired, in the opinion of the shareholders, that
Mr.. Van Buren, should be made an example of.
II was in vain that in spite of the intrigues of
Cas- and other Northern rivals, he obtained a
decided msjority of the votes of the Democratic
National Convention. The slavedrivers wide
a letter Of Mr.. Ritehie's, published in The Wash
ingtoH Union of July %, 1949,) before going into
convention had determined, in a convention of
their own at Richmond, that Mr.. Van Buren,
should not be nominated, thing which though
a minority they easily managed by means Of the
convenient two thirds rule. So we had as re-
suits Of the triumph of the Democracy, Texas
annexation, Polk, and the Mexican war; and in
spite of Mr.. Van Buren's efforts we should have
had Lewis Cass on the top of all that, had it
not been for Gen. TAYLOR But though Taylor