The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-18

I gagged al 4os. and oil cake at 25s.
The Vote or New York ON the Presiden-
tiaI Question.
With the official returns before us Of our late
election upon the Stale ticket, 1t is proved,
from the divided honors between the republi-
cans and the democrats, that the vote Of the
Empire State on the Preside ntial question is by
no means secured to the republican party. On
the contrary. believing, as we do, that q direct
test between w. II. Seward and his Rochester
platform on the one hand, and any respectable
national democrat on the other would disclose
an overwhelming majority Of our popular vote
against the republican champion, we suspect
that either Seward or New York must be given
up in the republican calculations for 1860.
The democracy may compel them to this choice
between the man and the State
Upon an examination of the Presidential vote
of New York since the organization of the pre-
sent democratic party, we find the State stead
lastly adhering to the mantle of Old Hickory
until the memorable financial revulsion Of 1897
which brought about the sweeping political
revolution of 1910. In that campaign the vote
of New York was carried for Gen. Harrison by
$4,000 majority over Van Buren,. The death
OF President Harrison, a month from his
Inauguration, advanced Vice President Tyler
to the White House; and the bank vetoes of
Tyler resulted, FIRST in his expulsion from the
wing party by q Congressional manifesto; and
secondly, in the loss to the wings Of all the
spoils and oficeholders Of Tyler's admiais
tration.
Thus shorn Of the srews of war, the whig
party took the field in 1874, under the banner
of g the gallant Harry Clay" against the re-
united democracy and their candidate, Mr..
Polk, of Tennessee; and yet, notwithstanding
the democratic war cry of "Texas and Ore
| gon,' Mr.. Clay would have been elected but
for the diversion of $4,000 anti-slavery and
anti Texas votes in this State to the abolition
candidate, Birney. Those votes. if cast for
| Clay, would have given him the vote of New
York by ten thousand majority; but cast for
Birney, they gave the State to Polk by FIVE
thousand plurality, and thus he was elected
Thus, for the first time, an abolition political
balance ofpower was brought to bear sufficient
to decide the Presidential election. 1t may ap-
pear somewhat singular that the abolitionists
should thus deliberately operate in favor of the
pro-slavery democracy; but Mr.. Clay had writ
ten an Alabama letter or two which offended
his defeat.
In 1913, however, the New York anti-slavery
faction, in their Van Buren, Buffalo movement,
split the democratic party into two nearly equal
parts, which gave the State of New York and
the Presidency to Gen. Taylor Thus, by this
New York anti slavery diversion, Southern
| STAKEHOLDER was elected over Northern man.
Gen. Cass. So. for the second time, the Presi-
| dental issue was determined by the anti
slavery balance of power controlling the vote
Of New York.
The compromise measures of 1850 on the
| slavery question gave peace to the country and
prostrated the aati-slavery agitators. Upon the
platform Of those measures the wing party
and the democratic party took their stand in
| 1852. But the association Of w. H. Seward
with the wing cause, and the general suspicion
that Seward and his anti-slavery principles
would control the federal administration if
Scott were elected, broke down the wing party,
never to rise again. Such was the result of
| the wholesome reaction of the conservative
public sentiment of the Union against Seward
| in 1852, that Gen. Scott, the true patriot and
the most distinguished soldier of the land, was
| defeated by the almost unanimous vote of the
| several States, North and South, for a little
| Ham ali hot az A.
vote of Pierce in New York was an absolute
majority, completely extinguishipg the previ.
ously existing abolition balance Of power.
! Thus, in March, 1853, there was hardly the
shadow Of an opposition party remaining in the
country; and thus under full sail, with an
overwhelming majority in both branches Of
Congress, poor Pierce set out upon the voy-
4 age of his administration. Before the end OF
the summer, however, he ran foul OF his New
York Collector on the slavery question and the
spoils, and the result was the division again OF
the democracy of the Empire State into two hos
tile factions. This trouble might have been
remedied but for that most disastrous and
revolutionary electioneering pro.slavery ex-
eriment in 1854 Of Douglas and Pierce, the
kansas-Nebraska bill The instantaneous re-
suit OF that bill was political revolution,
which supplanted the democrats in Congress BY
an opposition House Of Representatives, and
which broke the Northern democracy to pieces,
from the Penobscot to the Mississippi. From
this terrible anti-slavery reaction, thus invoked
by Pierce, Douglas and their Southern assist
ants the national democratic party would have
been crushed out" in 1856 but for the personal
popularity Of Mr.. Buchanan. In this instance,
however, it was not New York but Pennsylvania
that decided the elections and it was not an abo-
lition but conservative balance Of power (thc
Fillmore partly that enabled the democracy, in
the name of Mr.. Buchanan, to recover Pcnnsyl-