The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-07-16

The Ups ANA Downs or Our Political Par
ties On the slavery Question.
The present revolutionary condition oil our
political parties is but the natural result OF
series of sectional agitations of the slavery
question, all tending to sectional construction
of parties, each more violent than the last pre-
ceding it, until at length we find the hitherto
national democratic party cut in twain by Ma
son and Dixon's line.
20 was followed by the Presidential scrub race
of 1924, of the four personal parties of Jack
son, Adams, Crawford and Clay. The old fede-
raj party had gradually died out under Mon
roe's first term. 90 that in his election for Sc
cond term, out of 2S2 there was only one cleo
toral vote cast against him. Thus by the year
1924 the old federalists and republicans were
so intimately intermixed that the politi-
clans at that day we're described as ''all
federalists and all republicans" But from the
election of Mr.. Adams as President by the
House popular reaction followed, which, in
1928, brought General Jackson triumphantly
into power, and finally inaugurated the late great
democratic party and the late wing party. Very
little appears upon the surface indicating the
pressure of the slavery question in those days;
but it is only necessary to look little
into the details to discover that slavery was the
underlying element which controlled the elec-
ton Of "a and that of '2S. The Missouri agi-
tation had raised the issue, and the Missouri
compromise only removed it from the front
into the back ground, where it still exercised
its power.
From 1928 to 1874, through the two terms of
General Jackson, the one term of Van Buren,.
and the one term made up by Harrison and Ty
Ter, the money question ruled the roast But
in lS44 the slavery question again raised its
horrid front, with the issue of the annexation
of Texas. Upon this issue the democratic party
again came into power, though ii had been
nearly annihilated upon the money question in
ls4O. But its success in 1874 was the result of
radical anti-slavery diversion from the whig
camp, whereby some fifteen thousand opposi-
ton votes in New York were thrown away upon
Birney, the abolition candidate, thus giving this
State to Polk by q plurality of five thousand,
and thus deciding the election in his favor.
From this point the poison of this abolition
wing party and the democratic party. In 1s4S
Martin Van Buren,, upon his Independent Buff
falo anti-slavery platform, carried off the New
York balance Of power from General Cass, the
regular democratic nominee, and thus elected
the wing candidate, General Taylor. But in
1852, upon the compromise measures of Henry
Clay, who was the embodiment of the whig
party, the democracy laid that party in the
dust. II was the result of conservative re-
action among the people against the insidious
and mischievous antislavery programme of
W. H. Seward, who, it was feared, would be
''the power behind the throne greater than the
throne ITSELF" in the event of the election of
General Scott.
The repeal of the Missouri ompromise, in
1854, came very near overwhelming the demo-
cratic party in 1856, under the Northern anti
slavery revolution thus excited. The party in
question would have been destroyed but for the
lucky Intervention of the Know Nothing sectari-
an organization-ap party which, in saving the de-
mocracy, was itself ground to powder under the
wheels of this anti-slavery crusade. A terribly
fatal engine to nearly all concerned has been that
Kansas Nebraska bill. Recovering from the
shock under q candidate who could plead an
alibi in 1856, the democracy have been broken
to pieces In being compelled to face the music in
1860 Before the late Convention at Charleston,
they had always contrived to "whip the devil
around the stump to keep the word Of prom
Use to the earr of the North and the South; but
the loss Of Kansas to the South under that squat
ter sovereignty, which had promised them a
slave State, broke up the whole concern in
bringing Douglas and Davis face to face.
Thus the Almighty Niger has built up and
pulled down all our political parties of the last
forty years, except that 1t has not pulled down
this new anti slavery republican party. But
this party has not yet secured o Judgment in the
White House. Should it find its way opened to
that treacherous domicile through this contest 1t
will not be long before the historian will be
called to write the decline and fall Of the black
republicans, from the corrupting and demoraliz-
ing influences Of the spoils. Powerful as has
been the Almighty Niger in calling up and put
ting down our political parties, he could have
done nothing without the spoils. But with the
spoils he can create and destroy. And as the
outside pressure Is as ten to one against the
holders Of the spoils, we may henceforth look
for new party in power at Washington from
every Presidential election, until the niger and
the spoils shall have been reduced TO something
like permanent settlement
|
Orr COLLEGE commemorative exhi-
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