The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-05-08

leog discover, when beyond reparstion. that
like Captain Tyler he has arrived at the dock
with his trunks and bandboxes too late for the
steamboat.
We FAY that the discordant factions of the
democracy, with the settlement of this Kansas
imbroglio in Congress, are coming together
again, with every prospect of a complete re-
union within the next eighteen months. We
have had within the last ten years two very re-
nsrkabe examples Of the nps and downs of
political parties upon the slavery question,
which will 60 very far to sustain this opinion.
In ls4S the Presidential contest turned upon
the slavery agitation in connection with our
vast territorial acquisitions from Mexico, and
the democracy were defeated by the divisions
thus created in their ranks. But in 1850 in the
celebrated Compromise measures of Henry Clay,
all these threatening complications of the
slavery question were happily adjusted. And
what were the consequences in 1852! The COM
plete reunion of all the factions and fragments
Of the democracy, North and South, and such
reinfcrcements from the floating materials Of
the country that poor Pierce was elected almost
y reclamation, and the whig party was extin
guished.
In 1854 the terrible Kansas Nebraska bill of
Mr.. Douglas reopened the breach in the North
ern democratic camp, and made such rup-
ture in the ranks that but for the Intervention
of Fillmore, and the treachery of the Sew
ard managers, Fremont would have been
elected by the eold vote of the North
ern States. AS it was, the result would
still have been accomplished against any other
democratic candidate than Mr. Buchanan. The
"favorite son of Pennsylvania "a tried and
experienced statesman, and a candidate whose
hands were perfectly clean of any contact with
that Kansas-Nebraska bill-Mr Buchanan was
the only man, perhaps, of the democratic party,
that could have carried in 1856 solitary
Northern State, Notwithstanding the fact that
the opposition forces were divived into two par
ties and upon two candidates.
But the overwhelming Kansas agitation of
that day subsidized with the Presidential election
into dead calm and if there have followed
few spasmodic revivals of this Northern excite.
ment, they must necessarily cease altogether
with the final settlement of the question. So
far, too, as Congress is concerned the question
is substantially settled. The people of Kansas
may reject the Lecompton constitution; but if
they do, they know the alternative. They must
wait for admission until they have acquired the
full ratio of population for one representative
in Congress. 1t has been said that theJ will
have this population before the end of the
present year; but, in any event, "a the destiny
of Kansas is fixed, and as the matter of her State
constitution has been submitted to her people.
nothing is left of this business upon which any
general agitation can be revived. Lecompton
or no Lecompton. before the year 1860 Kansas
will be in the Union free State, from stem to
stern. The American people know this, and it
is not likely, therefore that they will follow the
hue and cry of the Kansas shriekers any longer
upon the nice distinctions between this that and
the other bill of Congress.
We conclude, therefore that in 1860 as in
1852, the democratic party will have recovered
from its intestine feuds and divisions upon the
slavery question, and will be once more CON-
pact and powerful national party. But should
thoro DO no union of the Northern factions. the
party in the South will at least be united a. in
1856. In that event, with two or three North
ern candidates in the field the most that can
be accomplished by them will be to throw the
election into the House of Representatives,
where the South, under the constitutional law
for an election there, will certainly hold the
balance Of power. But with the democracy of
the. South presenting solid front in 1860, win
it not be their policy, as in 1856, to cast about
them for the man capable Of commanding the
balance Of power in the North? Undoubtedly.
Cannot Mr.. Douglas, then, for example, dis
cover that if he would rise in the future, he
must appropriate the present golden oppor-
nifty, not to prevent but TO facilitate the re-
union and consolidation of his party? His only
alternative is the fate OF Martin Van Buren,.
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