New-York daily tribune., 1858-10-02

leader, by starting of foremost IN the direction 10
which the party was inclined to go. On the other
band, he has headed them towsrd him, driven
them before him like his sheep or his slaves. There
sbesdes another point o contrast not less remark
able. Both jefferson and Jackson outlyed their
political leadership and influence Both saw tumb
ling into ruin the ideas and the system of policy on
which they had SET their hearts. John T.. Calhoun,
though eight years dead is at this moment the
controller and dictator of the Democratic party,
the nominal leaders of il being only able 10 get on
by sending from time 20 time some William Of
Deloraine. some hardy and reckles, political moss
trooper, TO visit the tomb of the mighty wizard OF
the South and in spite Of the sePuchral terrors OF
the plsce ard AZ the risk even of the dead mans
frowu 70 snatch from his cold hand leaf after leaf
Of his dangerous book, wherewith to bcJuggle,
mi.lead and delude That such Is really the rela-
tion of Mr.. Calhoun to the present (so-caled) De-
mocrs,c party. and that the name of the Calhoun
Democracy may properly be applied TO H. a few
"reminiscences will make sufficiently manifest.
Our present $50 caed) Democratic party had lts
beginning as we have already remarked with the
rejection of Mr.. Van Buren, and the substitution OF
Mr. Polk as its Presidential candidate. Now,
that rejection and that substitution grew wholly
out of the question of the immediate annexation OF
Texas-a question raised entirely through the
agency of Mr. Calhoun. 1t was he who first put
into President Tyler's head the idea OF treaty OF
annexation with Texas. 1T was he who stirred the
South to cry for immediate annexation by suggest
inc that if We did not al once take Texas into our
own hands. Great Britain would bring about the
abolition of Slavery there. And it was he who'
after starting the idea of the annexation carried H.
as Secretary of State, 10 a conclusion, not IN the
WAY best suited to the convenience OF the Demo
cratic party, but in his own way, which he COM
PEELED that party to adopt Thus, in its very orr
gin. this party was dominated over and IN fact
called into being by Mr.. Calhoun. 1t was his cub,
though at the moment of its birth little more than
shapeless lump grinning at its own parent, and
utterly unconscious of the dances and sonersets II
would soon be called upon to perform. Dir. Cal
houn. however, notwithstanding Mr.. Polks refusal
to continue him in office as Secretary of State, and
in spite of the suspicion and even hostility with
which this new born party regarded him, proceed
shape. His ideas as to the form which 1t
ought to assume he fully expressed in his
second speech on the Oregon BILL and in his famous
Address of the Southern Members of Congress to
their Constituents. What Mr.. Calhoun proposed in
these remarkable documents was simply this: that
the slavehoding States, laying aside all previous
party differences should unite in one solid body and
should utterly refuse to have any political connec-
tion with any party at the North not prepared, IS
he expressed it, to enforce the guarantees of the
Constitution in our favor" that is to say, to make
slave-hoding the predominant interest in the
Gov, v,rnment. He suggested at the same time
that if this were done, "a host of true and
" faithful allies'-Calhoun euphemism for
dough-faces" would soon rally" in the
Northern States, "to our support there This
programme has been fully carried out. Just what
Mr.. Calhoun proposed has been done, and just
what he foresaw and foretold has happened. The
slave holding States, repudiating all former
political connection, and claiming to dictate the
terms OF admission into the Democratic party
have formed themselves into a party as Mr Cal
houn proposed; and a host OF true and faithful
allies have rallied in the Northern States just
as Mr.. Calhoun foresaw.
Among the most recent recruits 10 TINS /
party are to be enumerated number ct
respectable and wealthy but according to
the ordinary understanding Of the term, |
not very Democratic gentlemen late Wings,
and ultra Wings, special followers and admirers Of
Daniel Webster and who used to be denounced by |
their present associates nabobs and aristocrats.
For this accession TO their numbers, our so-caled
Democrats of to-day are indebted to Mr.. Calhoun,
who while he omnously muttered disunion out
of one corner of his mouth, enticingy whispered
out of the other, that the slaye-holding was the
conservative interest of the country" and that,
- in all conflicts which may occur in other |
portions of the Union between labor and capital, |
the South will ever be found to take the conser-
''yatiye side
Let US come down now TO what forms at the |
present moment the great fundamental principle of
the party-our so-caled Democratic party That |
principle is, that Congress has no right and that
the Territorial Legislatures have no right nor |
power to exclude Slavery from any Territory of the
United States. This doctrine, acted upon in the |
repeal of the Missouri Compromise carried out to
It's full extent by the Supreme Court of the United
States in the famous Dred Scott case, and fully in
dorsed as thus carried out by the Cincinnati Plat.
form and Mr. Buchanan's inaugural, originated |
with Mr.. Calhoun, was first propounded by him, |
and must be- set down as altogether his thunder.
That the present so-caled Democratic party, is |
in fact Calhoun party, originating in a Calhoun