New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-06-26
DEMOCRACY AT THE SOUTH.

markable era in the internal political struggles
OF the Southern States. a.,
Though for the past sixty years the Union has
been governed in the nams of democracy by
Southern political leaders, it has only been in the
Northern States that the IDEAS interests and senti
ments OF the mass Of the people have had any de-
cided weight in the political scale. Indeed, it may
be truly said that there has never yet existed in
any Southern State democratic party in the
sense in which that word is properly understood,
viz: political combination aiming to give to the
ipternsfs ideas end foei-so &c the many pre-.
dominance over those of the few. Though the
slaveholding planters form in all the Southern
States but small numerical proportion of the popu-
lation, it is they and they alone, who for all prac-
teal purposes have composed the body polite. II
is they and they only who have done the political
thinking. 1t il they and they only who have as
pred to ofiee or even to party leadership.
Such parties as have existed in those States have
been schisms in the body of planters ON political
OF personal questlons seldom, and only to very
limited extent, struggles between the planting
body on the one side and the mass Of the nom
slayeholdipg voters on the other. These nom
slayeholding voters have taken their political cue
almost entirely from the planters. This has es-
peciay been the ease for the last twenty years or
more during which siavehoding has been put for
ward as the chief matter of political interest for
the South.
II seems likely that the struggle now about to
- - fnrf hat tor al do hat
the partisans of Douglas on The one hand, aud of
Breckenridge on the other may actually create
in the Southern States, and that for the first
time, a real democratic party. 1t has been
assumed by some who specialized on fins double
nomination before it WAS made, that the South
ern candidate would run only at the South, and
the Northern candidate at the North. 1t il evil
dent however, that both candidates will have tick
cts in all the States and that far from quietly
yielding up the South to Breckenridge, the friends
of Douglas viii contest those States with great
est vigor. Breckenridge is the planters or slave
holders candidate. The split in the Baltimore
Convention and the nomination OF Breckenridge
grew out of the determination Of the body Of the
shareholders TO reduce the Northern section of
the Democratic party to the same political
insigni6cance in which they have long
held the non-slav eholders of the South
They were determined to dictate the platform and
to dictate the candidate; and not being allowed to
do that, they left the Convention, and made plat
form and nominated candidate of their own, in
the expectation that the whole South, at least,
will follow their lead. If the appeal were TO be
made only to the shareholders these seceders would
seem to have every chance OF success There can
be scarcely doubt that 10 every Southern State
very decided majority of the shareholders will vote
against Douglas. If this contest is to be fought
out on the idea on which political contests at the
South have been hitherto conducted, OF making it
friends might as well give mp at once. Their only
chance is in appealing to the non-slaveholdiDg
voters, and in giving to them a much
greater prominence than they have ever
yet had in any Southern party struggle.
1t will be in appeals TO their devotion TO the
Union, rs against the seceders-so largely made
up of old nullifers, former Wings, and modern Sc
cessionsts-and to their hereditary attachment to
the Democratic party, of which Douglas will
claim to be the regular nominee, that alone can
the means be found of neutraizing the influence
which the planting body have SO long exercised
over the ball0t-box at the South The friends Of
Douglas must, and no doubt will, play over in the
Southern States the same game BY which, through
skilliul appeals to tine feelings and the preiudces
of the less wealthy but more numerous portion Of
the voters, the political influence which the pos
session of capital gives has at the North been to
so great an extent cOunterbalanced
Not that any direct attack will be made on the
shareholders rs body, or OIL sayeh0ldmg AZ an ILL.,
stituton. That would never answer, since every
white man in .Le Southern States, no matter how
poor and worthless, is accustomed to regard him
self ~ of NIL events a possible and prospective
stakeholder. The nOn-slayehOldeIs will be rallied
on other grounds but it tx evidently among them
that the partisans OF Douglas must mainly look for
support as against the slavehoding phalanx which
will be- arrayed the other tide. Ii Douglas is to
be sustained at all it must be by appealing from the
weight of planter influence, hitherto irresistible in
Southern politics, to the yet untried force of num-
beers. This appeal skillfully made by stump
orators who may find in Douglass own efforts
in that line some valuable hints, will
be likely enough to produce an effect
upon which the secessonisis have not calculated
At all events, it will raise mp throughout the South
what has never been there before-a political
party composed mainly of non-sayeholders, and ar
rayed in opposition to that supreme control over the
politics of the Southern states which the slayehod
ing interest has always enjoyed. Such o party,
fairly organized, and successful in several Of