New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-16
SOUTHERN sEcrroyAL1s,r-vAN buren,


SOUTHERN sECTIONALIsM-vAN buren,
To relieve the apprehension of those who are
frightened at the idea Of an approaching sec
tioDal division Of parties, we have lately called
attention to some historical facts.
We have pointed out that the division into
parties, so far as our national politics are cen
cerned, has always been substantially sectional.
ard in proof of it we have shown that during
the first forty-eight years of the Federal Con-
stitutiOn only three, or OF most four, electoral
votes were contributed south of the Potomac
toward making northern man President. We
have shown further that Washington, because
he supported the elder Adams for that office,
and Henry Clay because he supported the
younger Adams, both alike fell under the ban
of the politicians of the South. We have also
cited as case in point the prescription and ex-
clusiOn from Federal Office during a period of
more than forty years of the great mass of the
most intelligent, best educated, most active,
enterprising and wealthest citizens of the
North. under the stigma of Federalism term
which, whatever its original meaning, soon
came only to denote men who would not con-
sent to play second fiddle to the South
and to act as walters on her, in cOnsidera-
ton Of being fed with the crumbs and leavings
of her political table. We have further alluded
to the fact that not only the original Northern
supporters of the policy and Administration of
Washington were, so far as the holding of Office
under the General Government was concerned,
substantially DISTINGUISHED; but that in the case
Of De Witt Clinton Il at same dsfranchsement
was extended to those Northern Democrats who
presumed to question the monopoly by the South
of the Office of President, aud her control
thereby of the Executive Administration.
This Jealous exclnsveness on the part of the
South continued, as we have seen, during eight
and-forty years. For eight of those years, in
deed, the Office of President was held by the
elder and the younger Adams; but little thanks
to the South for 1t, since between them they got
only six electoral votes south of the Potomac.
Even in the House of Representatives, by whose
vote John Q. Adams Obtained the Presidency,
only sixteen men from the States south Of the
Potomac voted for him for that office; and in
spite of a most scrupulous abstinence on his
part from doing anything to excite the prej"-
dices Of the South-sucb, for instance, as pre-
Stunning to appoint Northern Federalsts to
ofice-and in spite Of his most stabbed efforts
and those of his Cabinet to recommend
themselves to Southern favor, and though it
was impossible for the opposition to point out
any serious objection TO his administration of
the Government, yet not single, solitary cleo
tora al xota ha Uft
the Potomac; though in the case of Virginia, he
belittled himself so far as cap in hand, to plead
his former services as swift witness against
his brethren, begging for votes on his knees and
almost with tears in his eyes,
Our historical review has now brought us
down to the Presidential election Of 1886, on
which occasion Martin Van Buren, was chosen
the first Northern man who ever received from
the South any thing beyond the most penurious
Presidential support There were throwa for Mr..
Van Buren, on that occasion no less than sixty-one
electoral votes from the south of the Potomac,
being the entire votes of the States of Virginia,
North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Arkansas and Missouri-and how he happened
TO get them we will now proceed to explain.
Mr.. Van Buren, being man of superior ability,
was not naturally doughface. 1t is only your
very small men--men the Pierce caliber-wh0
are doughfaces from the love of it. Mr. Van
Buren,, in the early days of his political career,
was supporter of De Witt Clinton for the
Presidency-the first blow ever struck by men,
bers of the Democratic party $50 called) of the
North ON behalf Of Northern rights. That blow
failed through the delinquency of Pennsylvania,
the Rip Van Wrinkle of the Free States; and, as
always happens in cases of unsuccessful insur-
rection, it gave to the Southern slsvedrivers
still frmer seat, for the time, on the bent
neck and burdened shoulders of the I'M
fortunate North, destined to struggle on
for still another generation, like poor Sinbal
loaded with that tenacious and irascible Old
Man Of the Sea, or still more like Bun
yan's Pilgrim weighed down with that enormous
bundle of sins; though the case Of the unfortun-
ate North was worse even than his, for the Pill
grim had only his own sins to carry; we of the
North, beside big enough bundle of our own,
had still bigger one belonging to our neighbors.
The attempt at the emancipation Of the North
(under New.York leadership from the rule Of
the Virginia dynasty having failed, Mr.. Van Bu-
rem gave in his full adhesion to the triumph
Southern party, and presently became bitter
opponent Of De Witt Clinton, in conjunction