The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-01-10

MIR. Douglas Opens Fire on James Buchan-
"n-The Split In the Democratic Party.
From the extraordinary article on "James
Buchanan" which we transfer to this paper from
the Chicago Times (the home organ of Mr..
Douglass, our readers will perceive that our
| opinions concerning the irremediable shipwreck
of the democratic party on the rock of the slavery
question are fully sustained. With the receipt
of the news at Chicago of the reelection of Mr..
Douglas to the Senate, the journal in question
frankly declares that an "unwillngness to en-
barrass political contest in which our friends
had deep personal interest has for many months
restrained us from that free and candid express
sion Of our judgment of the acts of the admins
tration Of Mr. Buchanan that we would ike to
have given our readers" but that at length "the
action of the Legislature yesterday has removed
the last possible excuse for silence on our part"
and so that hitherto masked battery is opened
in the most spiteful broadside upon James Blu
chanan.
We shall not stop to handy words with this
Chicago mouthpiece of Mr.. Douglas in refe-
renee to its coarse and vulgar abuse of the Presi
dent but this abuse, with the intelligent reader
will serve its purpose in revealing the impossible
chasm which now separates the administration and
the centre and the right wing of the democracy
from Mr.. Douglas and his followers. The pith
and substance of this Chicago manifesto may be
found in these particular illusions to Mr.
Buchanan, to wit:-"He has told them
(the Illinois people) that if they re-
elected Douglas they should not be represented
at Charleston and Douglas, having been re.
elected, it remains to be seen whether the royal
edict will be carried out. The man who pro-
claimed it, the men who instigated it, and those
who confirm it by their action, may never hope
to hear the approving voice Of the American
people. They may triumph at Charleston IN the
Convention, but God help them before the people,"
Does this look like peace Is it not the most
unmistakeable declaration Of war against the ad-
ministration, and the party supporting it, that
could be expressed in SO many words? Can its
meaning be reduced to anything less than this
that should Mr. Douglas be overslaughed at the
Charleston Convention he will bolt, as Van
Buren, did in 1S4S, and defeat the democratic
nomination by carrying off the Northern tail
the party? 1t has all along been supposed among
the hopeful politicians of the party camp that
the remarkable forbearance of Mr.. Douglas to-
wards the administration during the late Illinois
canvass betrayed controlling desire for peace
We now see, however, that this forbearance was
simply stroke of policy. Had Mr.. Douglas
been defeated in Illinois, the way was then left
open for comparatively easy reconciliation
with James Buchanan y but the great object of
a reelection to the Senate being fully accom-
plished, the mask is thrown off and the flag of
rebellion is run up to this northwest wind.
" There is no peace" and there will be no peace
henceforward among the broken fragments Of
the democracy, to the eud of the chapter
From the readiness displayed by the Illinois
Legislature to give the earliest possible con-
frmation Of the success of Douglas before
that people, and from the manifestations of
sympathy in his behalf in his late journey
from Chicago TO New Orleans, and from
New York to Washington, il would he folly to
deny that this man has not the controlling balance
ofpower of the democratic party at his command,
demoralized, disorganized and reduced in
days But there is singular spirit of enthu-
siasm and devotion apparent among the followers
of Douglas for which we cannot account upon
any theory of personal popularity. The secret
lies in the fact that Mr.. Douglas is the apostle of
shallow but plausible dogma which affords
convenient shelter for that anti-slayerv seuti-
ment which, since 1874, has been sapping and
mining the defences of the Northern democracy.
And then, again, there is host of disappointed
Office seekers and Office expectants who have
found in this rebellion of Mr. Douglas a
very convenient pretext for joining in the
movement. There is nothing, then, very sur
prising in this declaration Of the Chicago Times.
that the managers of the national democracy
may triumph at Charleston, but God help
them before the people It is but
logical consequence Of the course deliberat-
ed upon by Mr.. Douglas from the
moment of bis failure at Cincinnati; and If in
stealing the anti-slavery thunder of the republi-
cans, he has revolted against his previous ultra
Southern pro-slavery policy, and has thus ruled
himself out Of the Charleston Convention. he
has Of least, like Van Buren, secured the footing
Of "groat revenge
The prospect for the broken rank and file Of
the national democratic party is thus gloomy
enough; but we care very little for that. The
party has run to seed, and sooner or later, like
field of dead vines, weeds and rubbish. il must
he removed from the ground. But this state of
things does not, in any important degree, inter-
fcre with the administration. It's general policy,
foreign and domestic, has thus far been success
full in Congress, in spite Of factious and impo-
tent democratic majority; and we dare say that
whatever may be the party complexion of the
next Congress, Mr.. Buchanan will find it at
least as favorable to the great measures of his
administration as the present. And, SIS with the
expiration Of his present term he will close his