The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-11-02
THE ELECTIONS TO-DAY FACTIONS o. THE
NATIONAL DEMOCRACY.

Dtdto ciSCuonn, put fcl ucCnlNo ouSb
be held. Members Of Congress to be elected
for New York, for New Jersey and Indiana, for
Illinois Michigan, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts
sixty-six in all, in the choice of whom will be
decided the political complexion of the next House
of Representatives. Legislatures are also to be
chosen which will elect several senator's.
We expect for the democracy some important
gains but it is useless to disguise the apprehension
which prepares us to hear of very serious disasters.
1t can hardly be otherwise in the circumstances
which surround the contest The causes which
conspired for our discomforture in Pennsylvania,
Indiana and Ohio, are still in operation; defectionin
the democratic ranks, fusion, alliance, union among
the various factions of opposition.
We know that the organs and ostensblo leaders of
these factions not everywhere in apparent union
and harmony but we know also that the voters Of
however the politicians may in some localities bcker
and scatter the great of opposition voters will
poll their votes together to-day in solid column.
That the two leading factions of the opposition,
the black-republcans and the northern Americans,
did not coalcsce in 1856, owing to the apprehen
sion entertained by the latter of some great sectional
convulson resulting from the election Of sectional
we might say patriotic, apprehension no longer
lists in the bosoms of the American party of the
North. Since the presidential election of 1856 they
have seen leading southern senators and represent
atives voting systematically, even on an angry sec
tonal question, with the sectional agators Of the
North. They have seen leading southern congress
men and their organs and partsans at the South
urging an open coalition and alliance between south
ern oppostionists and the sectionalists Of the
North for the purpose of overhrowing the national
party which they supposed the South would sup
port to man. Nay, they have seen similar phe-
nomenon in southern democratic conduct They
have seen great national leader of the North after
apostatizing from the national faith, after voting
whole winter with the sectional agitators of his sec
ton and after going home and denouncing the action
of the national party as fraudulent and shutting of
the decision of the Supreme Court on the slavery
question, defended, supported, commended in all
this conduct by some Of the very southern men who
were most noisy in threatening dissolution and seces-
sion in 1856.
1t is but natural that the opposition voters at the
North, who previously hesitated, should now, in
view of this most inexplcable conduct on the part
of southern men, dismiss all serious fears of injury
to the Union from fusing with strictly sectional
party in voting strictly sectional votes for strictly
sectional candidates Accordingly the fusion Of the
factions at the North is complete and perfect Ii has
been urged upon them byleadmg southern politicians and
journals for sir months past. The example has been
set them by leading congressman of the South, in
voting, during whole session Of Congress, habit
ualy with the black-republican party. Encourage
ment has been given them by southern democratic
leaders and organs in sympathizing with and CON-
mending the course of Senator Douglas, in his voting
and conspiring whole winter with the black-re-
publicans, causing large detection from the
democratic ranks in Pennsylvania and the Northwest,
and bringing about fusion of these malcontents
with the sectional party.
The common sentiment Of all these factions who
will vote together cordially to-day is hostility to
the democratic party. The grievances which sever
ally actuate them against this party various but
their hostility is the same. The common object
which all are united to accomplish is announced by
their leader, Mr.. Seward. 1.-THE democratic party,
or---to speak more accurately-the party which
wears that attractive name, is in possession of the
federal government. The republicans propose to
dislodge that party, and dismiss it from its high
trust" The republican leader goes on to state the
great subsisting issue between sectonasm and that
party falsely, it is true far his ascrption of
principles and purpose to the national democracy is
concerned but ruthfully far he sets forth the
4 AZ.
leads and under whose banner all the factions have
combined to-day.
The war he has organized is no longer to embrace
the Territories as its object but is to include the
states-is to be Of social systems, and Of do
nestle institutions The secret fight of fugitives
from their masters in the South is to be augmented
by discussions in Congress of slavery in the States,
and signalized by burning dwellings and murdered
families. The war upon slavery is not to be refer
red to the confines Of the Union; but is to be
brought home to the hearthstones Of the planters
The platform of the party with which Mr. Critten-
den. Mr.. Marshall Mr.. Gimer, Mr.. Rcaud, and Mr.
Bell vote in Congress- of the party with which the
Richmond Wing and tho Louisville Journal arc will
ing to coaesce against the democracy of the party
of which the Press is cherished organ, and the
Douglas democracy Of the North, from Pennsylvania
TO California, are the allies, has been TINS pnt forth
he its leader at Rochester Just week before the