The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-09
The Presidential Campaigu-Thc Open
Ing OF the Groat Contest.

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ing OF the Groat Contest.
Yesterday our State elections, North and
South, for the present year, were concluded,
ard to day we are upon the threshold Of the
Presidential campaign. How stands the order
Of the battles 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 occupation Of
the antlslayery republican party, and the In
dispensable Southern section in the almost alb
solute possession Of the pro-slavery demo-
cracy. Between these two overshadowing SEQ
tlonal parties the conservative elements Of tho
North and the South have struggled In vain,
and thus the controlling party managers Of the
the two sections stand a. 6ercely opposed to
each other as the belligerent houses Of York
and Lancaster.
No friend Of the Union-no believer In the
principles Of popular government-no ad-
vocate Of peace and harmony-no man In
terested In the prosperity Of the State, county,
city or town in which be may have established
bis homo, can contemplate this fearful state Of
things with indifference. Nor Is there an indi- 4
vidnal within the boundaries Of tho United
Ssates, however secluded his place OF habita-
ton, or however obscure his position, whose
immediate interests, for good or evil,
may not be 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; MORGAN we imagine how this conflict,
limited to the antislavery crusaders Of the
North and the pro-slavery chivalry Of the South,
can end in anything but the revolutionary ex-
pertinent of disunion and Southern con-
federacy.
The responsibility for this threatening sectional
organization of parties may be equally charged
upon the vagabond, INSCRIPTIONS and rock
less politicians, demagogues and fanatics Of the
North and South. Henry Clay and his pa-
triotic colaborcrs in 1850 gave us 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 jugglers
reopened the whole agitation with their repeal
of the Missouri Compromise, and the wise men
of the South we're foolish enough to enter into
the fatal bargain. Almost as in an instant, the
late powerful democratic party of the North
was destroyed, and from its ruins and the ruins
of the old wing party the present grim and
formidable anti-slavery republican party has
risen.
A corresponding pro-slayery excitement in the
South has carried the politicians and the people
of that section far away from the line Of national
harmony; and 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 emo more
slave States-no more slave Territories" and
that the war between free labor and slave labor
shall continue till the one or the other is put
down, we find the pro-slavery agitators of the
South crying aloud for a slave code for all the
m,--:4~-:--. - - Ar.iy Va. y
trade, and for other equally impractcable pro-
jects for the extension of slavery.
In the midst of this confusion of tongues.
"Old John Brown" ventures, at Harper's Fer
ry, upon the practical Inauguration of the
"irrepressible conflict" of Stewards Rochester
manifesto; and while the country is startled by
the audacity of the old Kansas abolition cut
throat, the South is given in this act warning
yuhi oh M TIL
result must be such shaping of the Presiden-
tial question by the Southern democracy that
twill sweep away all such Northern trimmers
as Mr. Douglas, and all such trimming inven-
tons as squatter sovereignty. The Northern
allies Of the Southern democracy at Charleston
must be prepared to reject all such halfway
men and halfway expedients and consent 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
be SO decidedly pro-slavery as to furnish the
cue to the republicans as an anti-slavery party,
and that thus these two sectional parties will
be fairly pitted against each other.
With no other parties in the contest the result
would be the overwhelming defeat of the South
ern proslavery democracy; but there is still
the hope for third party of national charac-
ter competent to WELD the balance Of power.
The materials 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 opposition members
Of the new Congress will form the best nucleus
for this national organization, and we hope
they will set about 1t on their arrival at Wash
ington, especially as Old Brown" has totally
spoiled the plan of fusion of these South
ern opposition members with the black republi-
cans
A Coon THING FOR WESTERN RAILWAY