The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-12-19
The Great Union Meeting Tonight.

by SOME HNt tuOusdnu khtEcHdHts Vi NeW 1OEk,
whose names have appeared in an obscure jour
nal, will take place this evening at the Acade-
my of Music. No doubt it will be a numerous
gathering; the signers alone would make
very respectable assemblage. Bat the impor-
tant point is not whether the meeting will be
large or small, or whether it will have fine ora
tors, or men of plain unvarnished speech; but
whether anything practical will be done, and
whether those who constitute the meeting have
a true appreciation of the crisis at which the
country has arrived, and Of the right remedy
to meet the danger whether they will consent
to be mere puppets, moved by set of wire
pullers whose object is to use this demonstra-
ton for the advantage of their own dirty party
politics. which have contributed so largely to
bring the Union to the verge Of dissolution
or whether they realise the grandeur and sub
Unity Of an occasion which places the desti.
MES of the nation in their hands.
This meeting, it is true, has been concocted
by few broken down politicians, who knew
that such demonstration was generally de-
sired, and would take place with or without
their assistance. They anticipated the action
of the merchant princes of New York, in order
to repair the disaster which befeI them in the
late municipal election and to control the
Presidential Convention at Charleston. Their
artful design is to make it appear that the
meeting is theirs, and not the expression Of the
signers or Of those who will attend upon their
call. The prelimnaries are so arranged as to
give this aspect to the meeting. But if the
merchants are not entirely destitute of self
esteem, and know how to consult their own
dignity, they will compel the representatives
of Tammany Hall and the Albany Regency to
take back seats, while they stand forward
themselves and give tone to the whole pro-
ceedings
What effect could meeting have at the
South that appeared to emanate from the mise
rable remnant Of an expiring faction which is
confessedly in small minority in the city of
New York? What consolation would it be to
the Southern States, or what assurance of SYM
pathy and support could they derive from the
fact that the dirty Coal Hole and the treach-
erous Regency, who lately betrayed the pri-
vate confidence of the Governor of Virginia
now suddenly pretend to stand by the constitu-
tional rights of the South, which they have been
sapping and undermining with all diligence for
the last few years, and even within the pre-
sent month? Well might some sagacious leader
of the South adopt the warning of LAGOON to
the Trojans, when the Greeks, pretending that
they had abandoned hostilities and had re-
turned home, left behind them treacherous
wooden horse as gift to their goddess Mi
nerva, which was secretly filed with armed
men, who afterwards came forth from their
hiding place, and in the darkness of the night
opened the gates of the city to their friends,
who now emerged from their ambush "Do
you believe" exclaimed LAGOON, that the
enemy have really withdrawn or do You
| think that any gifts Of the Greeks can be free
from stratagem and deceit? Is it thus Ulysses
| is known to you? Either the Greeks are hid
! den in this wooden fabric or it has been con
| structed as an engine against our walls, to com
| mand our houses and descend upon the city
or some other treachery turks in it. Do mo-
trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever is intended
by it, fear the Greeks, and suspect their mo
| tives when they offer US gifts
And LAGOON was right, as the event proved
1t was fatal gift to the Trojans, and resulted
| in the destruction Of their city after siege O
ten years. John G. Calhoun was in the habit 0
| quoting from the original the last line of thi.
| passage of Virgil "Timeo Danaos ct dons
ferentes;' and the treachery of Northern poll
ticians has only made it too appropriate. The
repeal of the Missouri Compromise BY the Kan
sas and Nebraska bill, concocted by Genera
Pierce and his Cabinet, and Mr.. Douglas, theil
| organ in the Senate, appeared to be a splendid
! gift to the South, but it has led to the presen
revolutionary movement at the North, which
meditates the overthrow of the cherished inst
tutions of the South; or the dissolution of thu
United States. The South is not likely to pu
any faith in the blarney Of Union meeting
it appears to emanate from the free soil wing 0
the democracy in this State, which has eve
been the sworn foe of the South. It rests
therefore, with the merchants themselve.
whether they will render the meeting effective
or permit it to be worse than nullity-s
mockery of the South. 1t is not too late to de
feat the Vaccinations of the political gamblers
and thimble-riggers The merchants have only
to take the management into their own hands
and make the meeting their own, giving it q
practical direction, worthy of the habits and
intelligence of business men,
If the merchant princes of this great city only
knew their own power and felt the Importance
of their position, they might rule New York,
and through it the State, like the merchants OF
Florence, who, in the time Of the Italian repub-
lies ofthe Middle Ages, made their city the CEN
tire Of political power, as il was of wealth aud
the arts. They have the intelligence and the
riches to do this. But instead of attending to
their political duties, they have given up the
government of the city to the worst class of men
in the professional politicians