The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-04-14

4
OF the parties and factions of the present Con
| gress is the most remarkable feature IN our
political Affairs of the present day. All party
lines seem To be obliterated In both houses; all
! ideas Of party consistency seem to have been
L. oken up. the administration at every point Is
embarrassed by party defections. and its sue
cesses. even in those measures which are indis-
l pensable to meet the obligations of the govern,
meDt, appear to be dependent upon the chart
| lies Of the opposition. We do not wonder that
I such state of things at Washington, at this
| time, should be construed by some Of the lead
| ing journals of Europe as significant Of the
| rapid downward tendencies of our popular in
] stitutions to revolution and Mexican anarchy;
| for even among our own political philosophers
| there are not few who share La such appre-
/ tensions.
And why nots Look at the examples fur
nished by the present Congress of sectional and
facticos Generalization The party which
elected Mr.. Buchanan President came
| into this Congress with q majority
of some twenty -eight in the House and majo-
rity Of nearly two-thirds in the Senate. The
| same men are there, but where are these MAORI
ties? Frittered away into sectional and factious
cliques, under the lead of few plotting con-
| spirators and INSCRIPTIONS gamblers for the
honors the offices aud The public plumber of
| the next Presidency. Thus, with the reading of
| the Presidents annual message in the Senate
Mr.. Douglas, upon Kansas, fled off from the
administration with his squad Of Northern aud
Northwestern democratic seceders, and boldly
placed himself and his followers in the attitude
| of open rebellion.
This was an ominous beginning; but it has
been rapidly followed up by other movements
of detection and party disintegration equally
| remarkable. For instance. the Presidents
| sound and inpregnable views upon flibuster-
J ing, as set forth in his special message upon
| the Paulding- Walker case, brought about his
ears regular volley of great guns and mus
kerry from the ranks of the Southern fire
| eating pro-slavery democracy. Next, upon the
Utah army bill, the Southern ultras, Joined with
| the Western factionists. defeated the plan of
| the administration in both houses and only
when reduced to the weak and wishy-washy
| expedient of three temporary regiments Of
volunteers could this important object of
reinforcing the army in any shape be
secured. Next, the Deficiency Appropriation
| bill, to meet the army and other expenses al
ready incurred was thrown out of the House by
q decisive majority; and its reconsideration and
passage were only achieved by the generous
support of some of the more sensible members
Of the opposition camp
These examples of detection and party de-
moralizstion are quite enough to Justify the
conclusion that all party principles aud all con-
sderstions Of party consistency have ceased to
exist; that all party lines are obliterated, and
that schemng demagogues, sectional cliques
and local factions have reduced all parties in
Congress to the service of some halfdozen am
bilious, interruptions, cunning and iudefati-
gable gamblers for the grand Presidential prize
Of 1850. Thus the party which was elected to
sustain a democratic administration has been
| cut up into three or four separate and discor-
dant fragments; thus the rump of the
Know Nothing party has been divided
into two or three little separate cliques; and
! thus we find that to the black republicans
the most deadly enemies Of the President-he
has really been indebted for those appropra-
tons of men and money without which the
functions Of the government, civil and militia
ny, TO great extent would now be stopped
This is certainly very gloomy picture of
the existing condition of parties, sections and
factions in Congress, and very ominous Of
rapid downward tendency to that state Of revo-
luton and anarchy which controls, at the point
Of the bayonet, the despotic and precarious
Presidential governments Of Mexico and South
America. But, then, We have here in these
United States the safeguards of Anglo Saxon
common sense and an overwhelming mass Of In.
telligent, educated and pure bIooded white
people, wbose practical business interests
neither political parties nor reckless dema-
gogues can triilc with too far, sustained as the
people are by a vigilant. omnipresent, indcpen-
| dent press which neither parties nor factions
ncr demagogucs can buy. Hence il is that with
ell the recklessness and corruption Of the trick
sters Of Congress they have been compelled
''upon the sober second thought" TO conccie
this measure and that principle to the admins.
tration which they had resolved at first to deny
II Is in these things that VIC may find the Sc
crets Of the inherent strength and solidity Of
the Union-sn intelligent practical, conserva-
tive people, and popular and independent
press These arc the powerful elements which
have given to the administration of Mr. Bu-
ohanan lie strength and its successes against
oil the party OBJECTIONS and dcmoralizations Of
Congress Nor need Our European newspaper
contemporaries entertain any serious alarm in
consequence Of the mutinous and revolutionary
aspects of our present Congress Within another
year or 80 the members thereof will be called
TO an account at the bar Of public opinion. In
this view they are beginning to comprehend
their position. They see that in an unscrupu-
ious war upon the administration they will
Themselves be destroyed. and they are falling
back. They know that The country will sustain