The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-12-02


dull, and engagements were light.
The New Kansas Trouble-Downward Ten.
denotes Of the Northern Democracy.
1t is reduced to moral certainty that Mr..
Buchanan in his message to Congress will
adopt the Kansas programme of the Lecompton
Convention, and sustain that programme for the
settlement of the slavery issue-provided, al
ways, that this question of slavery shall be sub
mitted to the popular crucible of a fair and
honest election in Kansas. On the other side,
it appears to be equally certain that the hostile
attitude assumed by Governor Walker will be
supported by Mr. Senator Douglas, of Illinois,;
Senator's Gwin and Broderck. of California.
and other Northern democratic members of
Congress, and by some of the most prominent
Of our Northern democratic journals, and upon
the broad ground that popular sovereignty"
requires that the Kansas State constitution it.
self. and the whole of it, should be submitted to
the people. slavery and everything else.
Here is well defined line of separation be-
tween our Northern democratic apostles of Ter
ritorial popular sovereignty" whatever that
may be, and the President and his Cabinet But,
well defined as it is, it strikes that this dvi-
sion in the party camp is division upon nice
distractions technicaities and secondary
issues. The only issue of any conse-
auence in this Kansas business, from the
beginning to the present day, has been
the issue of slavery" or mo slavery All
other issues entering into the matter of a State
constitution have been disregarded by all par
ties as comparatively of no consequence, one
way or the other. All reasonable men, of all
parties in and out of Kansas, have supposed
that a republican State constitution, in any or
binary form, upon all other subjects would be
satisfactory to all sides, with fair submission
to the people of this paramount issue of
slavery or mo slavery" And hence the
President, accepting this Lecompton pro-
gramme as amply providing for the popular So
luton of the slavery question, has proceeded
upon the rational idea that it covers the only
essential ground of controversy in the case.
And why should the people of the United
States, with the meeting of every session of
Congress, be frightened out of their wits with
these eternal sectional scarecrows of slavery
sovereignty" border rufianism, secession"
and "disunion" upon this Kansas imbroglio,
when there Is practical opening for final
disposition of this apple of discord? Why
should the whole country be kept in a continual
fever and ferment by these sectional agitators
in Kansas, when by very short process,
they may he left to the full responsibility of
taking care of themselves? is there any
possibility Of any agreement, in any shape,
between the interruptions border rufiians Of the
South and the violent monomanias of the North,
who have brought their conflicting notions to a
hand. to-hand fight in Kansas? These conflict
ing elements. we all know. are controlled by
the most rascally blacklegs and desperadoes of
the South and by the most bgoted roundheads
and fanatics of the North. and that they would
be capable to keep up this Kansas stew over a
Territory Of ten times the size Of Kansas as
long as Congress might think fit to leave them
subject to the loose and incomprchcnsible privi-
lcges Of "squatter sovereignty"
But We see that many Of our scheming poll
ticians are flocking TO Washington. with the de-
termination, at all risks TO make grand ex-
plosion on this Kansas business upon the
secondary issues Of the Lecompton programme.
Robert J. Walker. the Governor OF Kansas, APP
pointed to bring the trouble to quiet settle
ment. leads the way in re-opening this box of
Pandora. Mr. Senator Douglas. full Of his ideas
Of the Importance Of his position as the god
father of popular sovereignty" ranges him
self on the side of Walker. and the Chicago
Tines and Colonel Forneys Press. and that usual
ly cautious spoils organ, the Boston Post, and va
rious other Northern democratic journals, join in
this Walker movement for the humiliation of
the democratic party, and the reduction Of all
parties TO hostile sectional and disunion organi-
cations.
Thus. strange and incredible as il may appear,
Governor Walker Senator Douglas, and their
partizans and organs that were six months ago
in the front ranks Of the democracy against the
niger worshippers, are now volunteering to ac-
complish the very object for which Garrison,
Seward, Weed, Greeley and their confederates
have been laboring for twenty years-the final
disruption and destruction Of the democratic
party If this were all we might survive 1t;
but o. the next step must inevitably be the re-
construction Of parties upon purely sectional
basis, the ugly question obtrudes itself upon us
how long can the Union survive this practical
political separation Of its people?
The crisis. however, is none the less a oues-
tion of the continued unity or the speedy disco
luton of the democratic party. All the most
powerful and popular Of our Protestant
churches have been rent asunder upon
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