New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-07-20
DEMOCRATIC DRCLIyITY.

position of that party. Those measures may not
be incorporated in express terms into Its CREED at
the Cbarleston Convention. Though Rh"tt, Wise,
Brown. Fitzpa,rick. aud the men Of that school,
backed BY Influential journals like The Charleston
! Merony Richmond Enquirer, Mss'SS'Pp'dn, and
MONTGOMERY (Ala.) Adrertiser, demand 1t on pain
Of bolt in the Convention or at the polls, we
question whether these issues will be set forth 10
the platform in unequiyocal words. The South
prefers not to disclose her programme till she Is
able to execute it, She desires that Conventions
should by their protocols, ra,ify the victories she
has already won while, by their nominations, they
place at her disposal plant leaders whom she can
use in achievinenew trumphS. She conquers not
by fighting in the open field, but rather by subtle
strategy. Though she makes some Use of all her
| partisans, yet, in the exigencies OF doubtful
| campaign she relies more upon the cool Hunter
than the fiery WISE the willy Slide than the blatant
Brown. the practical Breckenridge than the meta
| ply sica Rbett.
Let US illustrate our views by citing facts in the
history of the Democracy-facts so commonplace
that the lesson they teach is lost upon the public
mind Since the advent of Jackson, the Southern
wing of the party, though in numerical minority,
has given the law to its Northern allies debating the
policy to be pursued, and designating the men
| whom they might exat and those whom they must
prescribe. Texas annexation, the Compromise
measures of 1850, the KansasNebrasks bill, the
LecomptOn swiDdle, the reputation of Van Buren,
in leii the crushing of Wright in 1S46, and the
election of Pierce and Buchanan, may be cited as
proofs of this position.
While it is unquestODabe, therefore, that the
entire party has been ruled BY the members dwell.
ing in one section of the Union, and those minority
of the WHOLE it is equally true that that minority
has of late years been controlled by a small mOety
of ats members. The radical and revolutionary
portion of the Southern Democracy have, for TWEEN.
ty years. dictated the of the party beyond
the Potomac. Their central idea has been the SUI
premacy of Slavery in the Federal Government,
and its spread more or less densely, over all the
States and Territories Of the Union. The founder,
the apostle, and finally the martyr, of the Negro
Propaganda, was Mr.. Calhoun. He originated the
doctrine of the inviOabity of slave property, and
the incompetency of Government to do aught to it
except protect it. All tho new ideas respecting
Slavery, which have startled even the slumbering
Conservatism of our day, emanated from his fertile
brain. All the assaults upon the Old-fashloned
principles of Freedom which have marked our time
were planned by the same bold mind. His doc
trnes and his disciples now control the Southern
wing of the Democratic party, and that wing gives
the law to its Northern allies.
This school of politicians have set their hearts
upon catching negroes in Africa and planting them
in the Territories under the sanction of Congress.
The absence Of entire unanlmiy among Southern
Democrats, and the seeming general repugnance
of the party in the North to these twin iniquilies,
only proves that they are encountering precisely
the same obstacles in their march to success which
all the other measures of the Slave Power have
met. Favored at the outset only by minority of
the party at the South each of these measures uti-
matey secured majority there, and then its accept
ance by the Northern Democracy was made certain.
Though Texas annexation was ripenlng to consum-
nation as early rs $40, no Southern member dared
to propose, and no Northern member would have
dared approve in the National Democratic Cohyen-
ton of that year, resolution favoring annexation.
Yet, four years aiterward, the fruit was garnered
by Democratic Congress. At the Convention oil
ls4S, the South did not venture to offer, nor would
the North have ratified, proposition to repudiate
the -Jeflersonian doctrine of the power aud
duty Of Congress TO prohibit Slavery in the Terri
tories. Yet, within two years from that day
! Democratic Senate aud a closely balanced House,
discarded that policy in the organization of New
Mexico and Utah Had the attempt been made to
incorporate into the platform of loo2 the doctrine
of the unconstitutionahty of such prohibition it,
would have been successfully resisted by the Con-
yention that nominated Pierce. Yet the first Con-
gress of his Administration engrafted it upol the
legislation Of the country. So, too, of the bred
Scott pronunciamiento and its logical coroary, the
Lecompton English Jungle; they could not have
been sanctioned by the Cincinnati Convention; or,
| if they had been, its nominee would have been
secuted from the polls in every Free State.
These historic data show tina. the Slave Power
advances toward universal dominion by slow, sure
and sealthy steps, that, when it achieves victory,
il chooses TO forget the temperate proclamation 1t
issued at the opening of the campaign, and i'm
proves its triumph by striking some bold blow for
the Propaganda not dreamed of by the masses
who assured its triumph.
| In the light of these facts il is plain where the
country is drifting. Slave trading on the seas and
slave holding in the Territories by scts of Congress
| are "a sure 10 follow Democratic victory next
Year, as effects follow causes. The seeming divi-
sion of sentiment ON these questions among South
ern Democrats, on which so many hang their hopes,
is superficial reaching not TO the main propositions