The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-03-01

vented, and that this beautiful region can be
preserved from the execrable taste for levelling,
which has made of the rest of the city mono
tonous Dutch fiat.
VIRGINIA STATE ACKNOWLEDGMENT Evo-
LurIoN-The State election for Governor, Lieut..
Governor and Attorney General comes off in
the Old Dominion on the 26th of May. The
brunt of the battle will of course be for the
Governorship; and whether as regards the result
to the State ITSELF or to the country at large, 1t
will be one of the most important political con-
tests which has ever taken place in Virginia, or
in any other State Of this Union. Upon il hangs
the contingency of revolution in the politics Of
the Old Dominion, and as a consequence po-
litical revolution throughout the whole United
States, which will have its elimination in the
Presidential election of 1860. The campaign
has already commenced in the local newspapers,
and will soon be transferred to the stump.
The two candidates for the Governorship in
this Virginia election are John Letcher on the
part of the democracy, and William l.. Goggin,
the opposition candidate, who comes forward On
new platform and with new issues, and will
combine variety of elements which promise the
overthrow of the democracy by an overwhelm-
ing majority. This opposition may be called
wing or it may be called by any other name
that matters little. 1t is not wing, however;
for it does not present the old, worn
out, dead issues Of whiggery-the fos.
sill remains of the past-but living, practi-
cal and constitutional issues; and among its
forces it will comprise the late disbanded army
Of Know Nothingism, who will no longer fight
under that banner, but under one more terrible
to the enemy. When these men battled under
the standard of Nativism, in 1855, they were
sufficiently formidable to strike terror into the
heart Of the democracy; and it was only owing
to the consummate electioneering skill and ire
mendous efforts Of Henry A. Wise, the demo-
cratic candidate, in canvassing the State and
addressing the people from the stump, and also
to the fact that the other candidate did not take
the field, that the State was saved to the demo.
cracy, and Wise was elected by ten thousand
majority. If this force was formidable then, it
will be doubly formidable now when it is plant
ed on new basis and operates by new mode
when the candidates on both sides will stump
the State, and when more popular broader and
better issues will be presented by the opposition
than the narrow basis Of Native Americanism
and the secresy and mummery Of ''dark lantern"
lodges.
The result Of the victory of Wise was that
Buchanan had walk over in Virginia in the
Presidential contest of 1856. A similar result
will follow in the Presidential campaign of 1860,
against the democracy and in favor Of the oppo-
sition, if Goggin comes of conqueror in the
approaching struggle. And there is every pros
poet Of his success. The advantages are all on
bis side. In 1855 the democracy had the power
full advocacy of its chief, while the opposition
had no such assistance; now the advocacy will
be equally strong on each side. In 1856 the
democracy was united in Virginia; now it is di-
vided into two factions-the Hunter men on one
side and the Wise men on the other-and both,
for some cause or other, cool to the President,
which will have the effect Of driving into the
ranks Of the opposition many of his friends
those who support his administration on ma
tional and constitutional grounds. BY their d.
visions and discords these two factions will
powerfully strengthen the hands Of the oppo-
sition, and contribute to the defeat of the
democratic candidate. The dsunion and
divisions of the democracy in other States,
its general decentralization everywhere, the
breaking up of old parties and the formation
Of new combinations-in short, all the political
events which have occurred during the last two
years, and all the political transactions that are
now taking place throughout the country, will
assist in producing the defeat Of the Virginia
democracy on the 26th of May.
The effect of this disaster will be Immediately
felt on the coming campaign of 1860. A new
Presidential party will start into existence, as if
by the touch of a magician's wand. The
dragons teeth now being sown will suddenly
spring up armed men. This party will consist
of discontinued, disaffected democrats, whose
name is legion, and of immense numbers who
nominally belong to the pro-slavery and anti
slavery parties, but who are utterly disguised
with the violent unconstitutional and dangerous
extremes to which the leaders of these parties
are pushing matter, and would gladly find any
decent banner under which to enlist rather than
remain where they are. Then there is besides
host Of moderate men who are not known by
any party designation, but who are ready to vote
for the man who stands on some sound practical
basis-these will join the new constitutional
Union party, which will, in fact largely absorb
all other elements, but particularly democrats
and republicans, whose ranks will be 30 thinncd
on the day of battle that they will be swept
away by the solid phalanx of the new
party like chaff before the whirlwind or the
grass Of the prairie by the devouring flames.
All other issues will be swallowed up and
lost in the new issue, and the most emf
ncnt living men will be brought out-Everett
Winthrop, and other distinguished
statesmen-who have been thrown out Of the po-
litical car for the last twenty years.
The State election in Virginia, therefore, to be