The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1859-11-18

the Great Contest.
Yesterday our State elections North
and South, for the present year, were con.
cluded, and to-day we are upon the
threshold of the Presidential campaign.
How stands the order of the battle p
Looking over the instructive schedule of
these elections of the present year. we
find the all powerful Northern section of
the Union in the almost unbroken cccu-
patton of the anti-slavery republican par.
ty, and the indispensable Southern sec
ton in the almost absolute possession of
the pro-slavery democracy. Between
these two ovcrshadowing sectional par
ties tho conse, vatiye elements of the
North and the South have struggled in
vain, and thus the controlling party man
ayers of the two sections stand Us fercely
opposed to each other as the belligerent
houses of York and Lancaster.
No friend of the Unon-no believer in
the principles Of popular government
no advocate of peace and harmony-no
man Interested in the prosperity of the
State, county, city or town III which he
may have established his home, can con-
template this fearful state of things With
Indifference Nor is there an individual
within the boundaries of the United
States, however secluded his place of hab-
itation, or however obscure his position,
whose immediate interests, for good or
evil may not be affected by the issues of
this impending sectional struggle. For
good or for evil we are entering upon the
most momentous political conflict in the
history of the Union nor can we mag
inc this conflict, limited to the anti-sa-
very crusaders of the North and the pro-
oil a., ,,i, 40 ba -.
anything but the revolutionary expert
ment OF disupon and Southern conrcd-
eracy.
The responsibility for this threatening
sectional organization of parties may be
equally charged upon the vagabond, I'M
scrupulous and reckless politicians, de-
magogues and fanatics of the North and
South. Henry Clay and his patriotic CO.
laborers in 1880 gave us IL satisfactory
treaty of peace on this vexed question Of
slavery but Mr.. Douglas, Mr.. Pierce,
and other housing politicians eager for
the spoils and plumber of the Presidency,
were not content with this treaty. So
to win the sweet voices of the South
these desperate political Jjugglers reopen
ed the whole agitation with their repeal
of the Missouri Compromise and the wise
men of the South were foolish enough to
enter into the fatal bargain. Almost as
in an instant, the late powerful democrat
ic party of the North was destroyed, and
from its ruins and the ruins of the old
wing party the present grim and formid-
able anti-slarcry republican party has
risen. r..-
A corresponding pro-slavery excitement
in the South has carried the politicians
and the people of that section far away
l. - a 4
thus, while fugitive slaves are spirited
away TO Canada by abolition kidnappers,
other slaves from the coast of Africa are
introduced into the Southern States with
the same contempt of the constitution
and the laws. Thus we see that while
our Northern anti-slavery agitators
are protesting that there shall be "no
more slave States--no more slave Ter
ritory," ard that the war between
free labor and slave labor shall continue
till the one or the other is put down, we
find the pro-sayery agitators of the South
crying aloud for a slave code for all the
Territories, for the revival of the African
slave trade, and for other equally inn
practicable projects for the extension
. OF slavery.
In the midsts of this confusion of
tongues, "Old John Brown" ventures, at
Harpers Ferry upon the practical inau-
guration of the " irreprcssible conflict of
Stewards Rochester manifesto and while
the country is startled by the audacty of
the old Kansas abolition cut-throat, the
South is given in this octa warning which
cannot be disregarded. The inevitable
result must be such Il shaping of the Pres
idental question by the Southern democ-
racy that it will sweep away all such
Northern trimmers as Mr.. Douglas, and
all such trimming inventions as squatter
sovereignty. The Northern allies of the
Southern democracy at Charleston must
be prepared to reject all such halfway
men and halfway cXpedients, and con-
sent to stand by the South in 1860, or
there will be an Independent Southern
democratic party in the field. Indeed,
we may now predict that the platform Of
the Charleston Convention will he so de-
cidedy pro-slavery as 70 furnish the cue
to the republicans as an anti-slavery par
ty, and that thus these two sectional par
ties will be fairly ptted against each
other.
With no other parties in the contest
the result would be the overwhelming de-
feat of the Southern pro.slapery democra-
cy but there is still the hope for a third
party of national character competent
to WELD the balance of power. Tic ma
terials for this party in the North and in
the South are abundant, and only require
sound, practical, national organization
to bring them out. The Southern oppo-
stion members of the new Congress will
form the best nucleus for this national or
ganization, and we hope they will set
about it on their arrival at Washington,
especially as ''Old Brown" totally spoiled
the plan of Il fusion of these Southern OPP
position members with the black republi-
cans.