The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-04-10

i've 70 minors upon grounds which equity and
common sense will alike sustain. Congress is
entrusted with the enactment of laws govern
ing the public service, and the less inter-
ference there is with its action on the part of
our State courts the better.
The Union Of Commerce, Industry and
Production Against the Black Republf-
can Fallaeies.
We publish in another column to-day a
letter from the Washington correspondence of
the Tribune, in which the writer, smarting I'M
der the results of the Connecticut and Rhode
Island elections, makes public acknowledg-
ment Of the fact that the black republican party
is at war with every great interest in the conn
try, and that merchants, bankers, manufactu-
Iers, mechanics, shipowners, and all their de-
pendent interests, are uniting in the common
cause Of selfpreservation from the destructive
fanaticism that threatens to overwhelm them.
This union of the great conservative inte-
rests against the destructives the Tribune wri.
ter calls " the natural division of parties" and
we confess that he is quite right. Nothing is
more natural than that men should fling away
all minor divisions when the great question OF
their very existence is brought to the issue, and
upon their acceptance or rejection of certain
impracticable theories depend the peace
of the State and the prosperity Of the families
who compose it. Never before in this country
have we witnessed the present 'natural divi-
sion" Of political parties Hitherto the mer-
chants ,nouufo ct,rors oh;rourorc roochap nc
and farmers have been divided on questions Of
policy for the better protection and increase Of
our material interests Of production COM
merce and manufacture. They have been di-
vided on the questions of high or a low
tariff, of a national bank or specie currency,
of the construction of harbors, roads, railways
and canals, and the clearing out of rivers by
the general government or by individual inte-
rest, and the general issue whether 1t be-
longed to government to intervene directly for
the promotion of agriculture, commerce and
the mechanic arts, or simply to confne the ex-
ercise of its powers to the protection of the
rights of every class and interest in the COM
munity.
1t was reserved for the year 1860, and for the
union of the abolition fanatics under Wendell
Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison, and the
political demagogues under Seward, to present
the issue of the destruction or the preservation of
every interest in the Union, and of the constitu-
ton which binds it in harmony and power. Be-
fore this terrific issue all others disappear.
There is no question Of protective or reve-
nue. tariff to stimulate trade; of national bank,
or sub-treasury to prevent fluctuations in the
currency; of the clearing out of natural and
the construction of artificial channels for COM
merce by government or by individuals, or Of
the division or employment of surplus re-
venue of the government. The issue presented
by the republican party is, simply, whether the
trade, currency, industry and revenue Of the
country shall be destroyed or not. A mania,
like those which have often been seen in the
history of mankind, urging whole communities
to destroy the very elements that gave them
life, has seized upon portion of the
people of the Northern States, and fana-
tics and demagogues are urging them
on to the work of destruction, just as the
Robespierres, the Marats, the Dantons and the
Jacobins urged on the French people, in their
moment of delirium, to destroy society in pur-
suit Of their abstract and moral IDEAS 1t is q
natural division of parties that the mer-
chants, the bankers, the manufacturers, the
mechanics, and all other great conservative
interests, should unite against the destructive
fanatics in the issue of selfpreservation which
is forced upon them.
The N'ibune's Washington philosopher tells
us that 'all these influences are gross, material,
sensual, devilish, and that "not one spark of
generous sentiment, not glimmer of lofty con-
viction, not suggestion that fayors the hope
Of lettering the condition of humanity, ever
penetrated the dense and leaden sphere" of the
influences of commerce, manufactures and pro-
duehon. 1t is on this mighty fallacy that the
black republican fanatics and demagogues
ground their attack against the material inte-
rests of society. And never was fallacy more
transparent. The development of human
knowledge is inseparable from the progress
Of industry and of national wealth, and igno-
rance and moral darkness are ever attendant
upon their decay. Our schools, our colleges,
our churches, and the acceptance by men of
the sacred principle Of our religion, that we
should return good for evil, and love our neigh
Dor as ourselves, depend upon the material
welfare of the community and Of the individual
man. In vain will philosophic abstractionists
call upon the wandering savage to establish
schools and attend churches; in vain will they
preach to millions Of starving mechanics the
duty Of love and obedience; in vain will they
call upon poverty. stricken communities to dis
card all considerations Of material welfare, and
cling only to moral distractions which sacri
fee the material good. Hunger must be salts
fed, nakedness must be clothed, and the physi-
cal needs of man must be supplied before he
will or can comprehend the niceties of distinc-
ton between right and wrong; and, in word,
n - 4 r.