The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1858-05-21
THE NEXT PRESIDENCY.

| IHE NEAE PkESlDENC1.
An Administration paper in New York
has an article in relation to the next contest
for the Presidency, from which We take the
extract below. Alter exhibiting the present
distracted condition of the democratic party
and promising that Mr.. Buchanan will not be
a contestant FOR the nomination, the article
continues:
But the great difficulty with the democracy
is an obstacle which even Mr.. Buchanan in
1856 was not able to overcome, and which
the wisest administration of the government
on his part will hardly be competent to rene
dy. That difficulty lies in the omnous mi
nority to which the democratic party has
been reduced in the popular vote OF the
Union. This minority has existed since 1886,
and has never been overcome except IN the
election of poor Pierce. In 1886, with 1ar-
rson, Webster, White and Alangum all in the
field, the distracted opposition were yet strong
enough to command a popular majority in
the field, and in 1887 they rolled up very
handsome majority in both sections. In 1910
this majority had accumulated to such an ex-
teht that it crushed 20 pieces the admlnsira-
ton of Van Buren, as with the force of an
avalanche. In 1874 the diversion Of 10000
opposition anti-slayery votes in New York
gave the election to Mr.. Polk by some five
thousand plurality in the decisive vote of the
Empire State. In l84S General Taylor was
elected over General Cass; nor is it certain
that the latter would have carried New York
with Martin Van Buren, out Of the way, while
it is certain that without the outside aid of
Van Buren, as the free soil candidate, Cass
w9uld have lost Ohio. In 1852 the heavy
popular vote cast for Pierce was not so much
in favor of the democracy as in opposition to
the pernicious disunion principles of w. II.
Seward, which the people suspected TO be
identified with the election OF General Scott.
Besides, Gen. Scott had been Native Ameri-
can, and his reputation of nativeism, while it
gained him nothing from the "lOvely German
accent or the sweet Irish brogue," aiienated
the natives-an undeveloped balance of pow
er al that day, but the strength of which we
can now understand.
The first year of poor Perce's admnistra.
ton disclosed the delusive, hollow and evan
escent character of the tremendous popular
vote by which he was elected; the second
year left him hard aground; before the end of
the third his crazy craft was embedded in the
sand and filled with water; and with the ex-
piration OF the fourth it was broken to pieces,
and the spoils divided among the wreckers.
So demoraIized, crippled and disjointed did
he leave the democracy, that in 1856, not
withstandng the solid national popularity of
Mr.. Buchanaa, and the malignant divisions of
the opposition forces, their aggregate popular
majority in the Presidential yoteswns nearly
three hundred and eighty thousand. This,
too. with an opposition candidate who, in
most of the slave States, vas run merely to
save appearances.
In the elections which have since occurred
we have seen nothing to iustify. the. n,pres-
sion that, North or South, thegdsmecracy y.
have made any positive or substanii ~,
ton of this opposition maiorityes.fx 10 4, 91r,
New York election last Novetnbur vent der,
the democratic State ticket by alsanils oniel
plurality. but then there were over ontrhun-'
bred thousand voters who remained at home.
In word, since 1896 the democratic party,
upon the popular vote of the Union, has been
a minority party, and the only majority Presi-
dent they have had since that day was elected
by opposition votes. By good management
on the part of the democracy, and by the bad
management of the opposition, the former
have repeatedly contriyed to win with the
odds against them; but such an achievement
as the election of Mr.. Buchanan can hardly
be expected twice in succession.
The election Of 1856, on the other hand,
sufficiently admonishes the republican party
that a sectional platform will not unite the
opposition forces, and that with two or three
candidates in the field they can be very nicely
defeated The opposition, then, in 1860, to
be sure of success, must assume the attitude
of great homogeneous national party, North
and South, and rally upon n single candidate
throughout the Union, as in 1910, and the
result will probably be the same. In this
view it is easy to understand that neither Mr..
Seward, nor Mr.. Douglas, nor Mr.. Banks, nor
even Colonel fremont, will answer the pur-
pose, but that some new man, with no sec
tional or factious grudges against him, must
be brought GU. upon the course. Who that
time. Let it suffice for the present that all
great political revolutions eliminate in bring