Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-06-04
Gbe eg1ne Nxess
BURLINGTON
FRIDAY MORNING. JUNE A, 1858
PARTIES. THE REPUBLICAN
PARTY.

call for it comes mostly from those men who
insisted in 1856 that the only possible way to
save the Union from destruction was to
elect Mr.. FILLMORE, as President-who after
the election of Mr.. BUCHANAN, said they did
not expect to elect him but to defeat
Mr.. FREMoNT,-in which they had
succeeded. They are now greatly hor-
rifed at the course of Mr.. Buchanan
Administration, and are positive that the
only way to overturn it is to get up a ne,o
party. The need or benefit of such an
operation the Republicans do not ec,--which
is not to be wondered at.
York Courier & Enquirer says, very ably, as
follows:
SO to now,ye Republicans, ye Americans,
ye old line Wings, ye anti-Lecompton Demo
Gratis, let us make unto ourselves a new par
ty.' So say some of our contemporaries
North and South, who have hitherto opposed
the Administration and yet made no terms
with the Republicans. Well, SO far as re-
CARDS ourselves, we listen with all respect for
our relations with these journals We're once Of
the most congenial character. But we are
obliged to reply, that we have no confidence
whatever in any scheme for the reconstruction
of parties. The idea is an essential falacy.
What Sir James Macintosh said of Govern
ments, is just as true of parties. They are
not made, but grow. You may as well un-
dertake to manufacture an oak tree, as en-
deavor to carve out a veritable, living, and
sustaining political party. Such an or
ganization, If 1t have any vitality at all, is IL
spontaneous, we may say an inevitable, out
growth of the necessities of the times. The
ideas of the times are its soil the spirit
of the times it's atmosphere. These are Its
elements, and when it is no longer in harno-
ny with these it dies of itself, Just as the old
Wing party died. We admit that a party
may be bent by the art of man from its nor
NAL direction, and that too a great way with
out destroying its vitality; but even that is
not salutary. We see its affect in the present
misshapen, gnarled, knotted, cracked, and
heart-rotten condition of the Democratic
party. The attempt to bend any party when
once self-rooted, out of its natural growth is
apt to prove mischief but the attempt to
how ont IA new party, and make it take root
by any external appliancc,is sure to prove an
absurdity
Now the sooner our friends learn to ap-
preciate this one great fact the better. The
controlling necessity Of the times is 10 settle
,chat shall be The policy Of The Federal Gocern-
naent towards Sdrery, and that question must
be DEFINITELY settled before the Repubhca,
party can possibly gre place 10 any other or
gani.ation. 1t is idle and foolish for any
one to blind himself to this manifest truth
or to imagine that because particular case
hno hn bo 90
Kansas, the policy itselfis no longer in ques-
ton 1t is perfectly certain that the bear
ings of this slavery question have greatly
changed within the last few years The
leading minds of the South are thoroughly
pervaded with the belief that growth and ex-
pansion are necessary to the welbeing Of the
institution, and that the internal influences
which operate ayainst this can never be
overcome, except by the posit,ve actire inter-
ference of the Federal Government in its
| favor And we confess this idea is not alto
| gether without reason. All history shows
that there is nothing so favorable to the life
| and vgor of any organization, either in
Church or State, as an outreaching aggres-
sive habit of action. and that the natural
effect of confinement and passivity is to bring
| on decay. And again til re is tha fact that
slavery every year finds it more difficult tt
expand because of the growing preponder.
ance of free labor. There is a nerve, IA will
an energy, a power of adaptation IN fre,
labor that give it an immense advantas,
over the opposite system in the struggl. f.,
new feldsEan advantage which must ussn
redly tell decisiyely against the latter. unles,
the Federal government comes to its aid witt
its immense resources. And here is tn,
! point. Shall The Federal Gorernnent peryer
its po,oers, for the behoof of Slavery, or not
The Southern leaders demand it;-shaN it b.
aHoped? The Democratic party says Yes
The Republican party says No. And it i,
not possible that there should be an ntcrmc
diate answer.
1t is here and here only that that actua
living issue lies Shall the national policy be