The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-04-22
The Presidential Cllques and csnnldatss Of
the DemScraey and tho Charieston oos'

the Democracy and tho Chaxaeston Cos
v,nr,n.
1t is generslly believed among the rank and
file of the disorganized democracy, that IN lSoV
| t,e Charl ston Convention will extinguish all
heir xisiiog dissepsioos, heal all their disor-
ders, and restore discipline, unity and harmony
throughout the camp, in the PRONUNCIATION OF q
uck, and q laiform which will rally all the
cliqoes. clans and factions of the party to the
rescue Starting from this idea, thes questions
recur: Who is most likely to be the candidate
and what may we most reasonably expect a. the
platform of the Charleston Convention.
Let us first consider the ticket. Prominent
among IL G aspiraats for The Charleston nomine-
ton me Vice President Breckenridge; Governor
Wise ard Senator Hunter, Of Virginia Senator
Douglas, Of Illinois; Senator Sidell, u Louisi
ana; S, majors Davis and Brown, of Missis-
sippi; Secretary Cobb and Hon. Alexander
H. Steph,ns, of Georgia; and Hon. James
Guthrie, of Kentucky, late Secretary Of the
Treasury. Each of these men has his friends,
managers ard wirepul!ers hard at work; aud
among these conflicting cliques, factions aud
5, otions the democratic patty has been reduced
from the integrity of regular army to loose
distribution Of guerilla camps, each operating for
Itself, aud all operating against each other
Now the strength of the democratic party lies
in the Southern States. All that the interested
leaders of the party desire or expect from the
North is that balance OF power which
will turn the scale, as the scale was
turned in 1885, Acting, therefore, upon
the gva, cardinal principle of the spoils, it
will be the policy and the object of the Charles
ton Convention to nominate that mau for Presi-
dent who will be most likely to command this
Northern balance of power, while holding fast to
the present ascendaucy Of the ,rty in the South
ern States We presume that nothing more than
this will be attempted by the Convention, for
fear of Southern reaction, which may kick the
beam in that direction.
The friends of Mr.. Douglas are sauguine that
he, and he alone, will be found competent to re-
unite and save the party in the North without
sacrificing the party in the South and his shib-
boleth is popular sovereignty" in the Terrific
ries. The pipelayers of Governor Wise are
equally sangu ne concerning his superior claims;
as the democratic st. George who slew the dra-
gon of Know Notbingsm-as the first, boldest
and most conspicuous Southern democratic oppo-
nent of the Kansas Lecompton constitution, and
as the leading champion of strict construction
against the whole forei N and domestic policy of
Mr.. Slidell expect to make his Cuba scheme the
winning card. The managers in behalf of Mr.
Guthrie count upon tina Pennsylvania balance
of power which his policg Of inc denial home
protection, they think, will command. Mr..
has the advantage of fattering
and widely difused personal popularity; while
Jefferson Davis, Senator Grown, and Messrs.
Hunter, Cobb and Stephens, look to the CON-
handing power Of the Southern rights wing of
the party.
But among all these conflicting candidates, in
terests and factions, we cannot recognise the
Neither Wise nor Douglas viii answer for the
South; and there are Northern or Southern i'm
pediments against all the rest of the schedule
enumerated, which will set them all aside
What, then? Why, then the Convention will be
compelled to fall back upon some new man, in
nocent Of any Of these family quarrels, and thus
qualified to be adopted as the common peace
maker. This plan of operations in 1914 re-
suited in the nomination and election of Mr.
Polk, and in 1852 in the triumphant reunion Of
all the odd and erds of the party upon Pierce.
The same game, we think, must be played at
- he
be defnitively and permanently disbanded in the
abrupt dissolution Of the Convention.
In this view, and assuming that the tenacity ofal
the factions and sections Of The party to the spos
will be equal to all emergencies, we may expect
to witness in 1860 at Charleston the shelving of
all the outstanding and conflicting candidates for
the succession, as in 1874 and 1852, and the
nomination Of some such available, uncommitted
unofiending and popular man as General Wool
or General Twiggs, or, peradventure, some "old
line whig' turned dc ocrat, with all the mo-
deri improvements Short Of some such alter
native as this at Charleston, we may expect,
from the existing discussions. divisions and dis
locations in the party, its final dissolution and
the reorganization Of its broken fragments into
two or three sectional camps.
In the meantime the aspirants and Presidential
pipelayers Of the democracy for the next ad.
ministraton, in Deglccting ignoring or repudi-
ating their duties and responsibilities to the pre-
sent administration, have reduced the demorali-
cations of the party to the most deplorable con-
dition Of helplessness. Nothing but general
return Of the factious and rebellious chiefs and
cliqucs Of the democracy to the safe, conservative
and popular landmarks of the administration, in
the interval to 1860, will pave the way to the re-
union Of the party at Charleston. All attempts
to discriminate in that Convention between the