Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-10-29
The Late Northern Elections and their
Significant Results.

Ao.~e~~~s~~~o
From The New York Herald, 18th.
The late local elections in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota, unimpor-
tant and mdecisive as they may be regarded
touching the momentOus question OF the next
Presidency, are pretty conclusive upon three
points. At all events, we draw from them
the following important conclusions
First-That the Democratic party of the
Northern States is in that melancholy condi-
ton of sick man!which affords no symptoms
of convalescence.
Second-That the late great American, :or
third party of the North, has disappeared and
ceased to exist; and
Third-That henceforward, to the close of
the Presidential campaign of 1860, there will
be only two parties in the North-the Repub-
lican and the Democratic-and that into the
one or the other of these two parties all the
loose materials of the North, with some trih-
ing exceptions, will be absorbed
Upon the first point-the melancholy pros
tration of the Northern Democracy-very lit
tie is needed to explain the causes and Char
acter of the disease. 1t may be traced to that
from that desperate Southern Presidential
cXpeTlcIlCC VI DOuSldS dllu L lCICC Ill lCct-
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The
instantaneous and overwhelming Northern
revolution which followed that repeal will ex-
plain the whole mystery. The violent and
mpracticable movements of the Southern pro-
slavery Democracy in the way of retaliation
have only contributed fresh fuel to the fire
from that day to this.
Under this terrible pressure from both
sides, the Democratic party in 1856 would
have been crushed to atoms but for the saw
ing interposition of Mr.. Buchanan. 1t was a
rescue as from the very jaws of destruction,
and lesson which should have taught some
thing of wisdom to the various factions and
leaders of the party. But instead of this,
they commenced the game of rule or ruin
with the new administration from the day it
came into power; and so, while the account
of these faithless and rebelious leaders and
cliques, the Democracy of the North have
been beaten and tramp)ed under foot, from
the lakes of Maine to the lakes of Minnesota,
the Democracy of the South have been de-
graded to a mere sectional faction upon the
zone idea" of slavery.
Our second consideration-the disappear
ance of the late great third party of the North
only darkens still more this otherwise suff-
ciently gloomy prospect to the demoralized
Democracy. The materials of the late third
party, upon the broad, general and practical
issues of the federal government, are the nat
ural allies Of the: Republicans, and as the
American party has died natural death, the
bulk Of the loose material of the latter will be
absorbed by the former; for such are the
manifestations of these October elections.
Thus, with the people of the North divided
between two parties in 1860, instead of three,
as in 1856, we may say, from the Northern
election of the last and the present year, that
in every Northern State this side of the Rocky
Mountains the Democracy will enter into the
contest as a demoralized minority party
How they will emerge from the battle is an
other question; but, from the general drift Of
the tide of these October elections, the dullest
politician cannot fail to perceive that an Oppo.
sition President may be elected in 1860 with.
out the electoral vote of solitary Southern
State.
To this complexion of our political affairs
have.we been brought by the desperate South
ern electioneerlng experiment Of Douglas and
Pierce in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill ant
its appendages of sectional agitation. Tht
Democracy of the North are prOstrated and
broken up by one sectional party, while thu
Democracy of the Sonth are themselves re
duced to mere sectional camp.