The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-01-24
The Charleston Convcntion-Who Is the
Mani


The Democratic National Convention, form.
ed according to the usages of the party, will
meet a. Charleston on the Sd of April next,
for the purpose Of nominating candidates for
the Presidency and Vice Presidency, to be
supported at the general election in November.
In view of this important political event, the
schemers and engineers and wirepullers of all
the various cliques of the party are busily at
work laying their plans for the accomplishment
Of the grand result-namely, the nomination Of
the particular candidate in whose cause they
are enlisted. The action of the democratic
members OF Congress- the debates in the State
Legislatures, the popular meetings throughout
the country, are all SO many preliminary feel
ers for the grand event at Charleston.
That event, in itself. has at this moment more
than Its ordinary deep significance The pre-
lmuary skirrnishes before Presidential CAM
paign, in which over four and half millions of
voters will come to the polls to elect a consti-
tutional ruler over great nation, are always
exceedingly interesting, but just at the present
juncture they become of vital importance.
And the plain fact Of the case is that
the coming Presidential election is, from
q variety of causes, the most important which
has taken place since that oflS32, when General
Jackson was reelected after a contest unpre-
cedented for its violence and malignity in the
annals Of partisan warfare. That contest we
remember very well. General Jackson was
obliged to combat not only against the very
powerful opposition of the supporters of a GER
tain moneyed institution known as the United
States Bank, but he met with treachery and de-
ceit at the hands of his own political friends.
But he secured support far more valuable than
that Of mere partisans. The country was on the
verge of q great commercial crisis The
traders and conservative classes Of the Middle
and Southern States, who were opposed to the
creation of a vast moneyed corporation, insist
ed upon the denomination of General Jackson,
because he was the only man, in their opinion,
who had the nerve and the ability to pilot the
ship of State out of the breakers and brokers
among which she had been driven. The tri-
umphant election Of General Jackson, the vim
dication of all his measures by the country,
and the lustre which yet surrounds his name,
u
mere mention at our hands. The point is, that
if General jackson in 1882 had relied on his
partisan vote he might have been defeated. He
went directly to the country; be had the con-
ldence Of the holders of the reserved vote
the people, after all, who, above all the politi-
clans, govern the rePublic-and they placed
him in the White House second time.
So much for 1882. Now for 1860. In what
condition does the country stand to-day? Is
not the impending crisis Of greater moment
now than it was twenty-eight years ago! Then
it was question of money and trade: now it
involves the actual existence of the nation
The conflict predicted by Mr.. Seward in his
bloody and brutal Rochester manifesto has
commenced. On one side we see q sectional
party actively engaged in fomcnting the worst
passions in the breasts of citizens of different
portions OF the Union. The black republicans
have forced the South to declare with an al
most unanimous voice that in the event of the
election of an ssitator like Seward they will
secede from the Union. And their grounds for
this decision are, that for the past few years
the republican party has circulated and en-
dorsed documents of an incendiary character.
speeches and books which advocate nterie-
renee in the institutions Of the South, In the
States where they exist by law, aud under con-
stitutional governments. 1t is fair logical de-
duction that, in this view Of the inter, it is not
the South, but the North, which rends the sa-
oed compact. And Ills makes .he present