The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-02-08
The Real Issue I'm tho National Crisis
Ranging OF the Political Elements.

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The Real Issue In tho National 0risis-
Ranging OF the Political Elements.
Congress having organized, and the time for
the meeting of the national conventions being
rapidly approaching, the political parties are
getting fairly into the field, and ranging their
forces on the great issue that is presented to
the people.
The question of candidates is but minor
matter in the coming fight, and the eleventh
hour professions of the several aspirants have
little to do with the great issue before the coun-
try. Each party has list of prominent men,
all of whom are striving to obtain the nominal
ton, and they speak accordingly. But these
speeches are addressed in reality to the party
conventions, and the conventions are made up
of Office beggars. Their duty is simply that of
naming the candidates, and they have no inhu-
ence whatever in forming the issue. 1t is folly
to suppose that Mr.. Douglas, with his labored
speeches, can change this from the practical
| and vital question that has come up, into an
| empty abstraction such as he proposes; or that
Mr.. this or Colonel that can soften down
| wild fanatcism that believes in Seward,
applauds Wendell Phillips, and cano-
nizes John Brown. 1t is, therefore, mat
ter of little Importance who are the candidates
named by the respective conventions. They
will be but the representatives Of party ideas
and the central point for party afinities; and
the discourses of prominent candidates will be
fashioned more with view of securing the
votes of the Office beggars in convention than
with the hope of modifying the real issue pre-
sented to the country.
The result of the battle lies between two
great parties, which respectively represent the
positive and negative principles of American
politics. The black republican party has as
sumed the positive position of the abolition of
slavery, immediate or prospective, gradual or
violent, as either of the several schools of doc
trine among its partisans may prevail in case
of triumph in the election. 1t is the legatee of
the abolition societies that have for quarter
ola century been working upon the Northern
masses; of the priest politicians who have been
striving to mislead the moral sentiment of the
people into fanaticism; and of the debris of old
party leaders disappointed in the past, and
hungry and clamorous for the future. They all
unite in one great aim-the ultimate abolition
of slavery, which forms the cohesive element
of the party organization. Between Seward
and Sumner the difference is but q step, Ho-
race Greeley is only degree below Wendell
Phillips, Sherman and Grow are merely shade
more moderate than Theodore Parker, and the
brutal and bloody speech of Seward at Ro-
chester, the incendiary book of Helper, and
the abolition stump speeches now being deli
vered by Phillips and Giddings, are the hand
books of the black republican party for the
coming fight.
Around the opposite political pole gather
the conservative elements of the country,
the various factions of the democratic party,
O portion Of the remains of other disin-
tegrated political organizations, and the great
commercial, manufacturing and mining in
terests Of the Central States Whether all of
these accept the nominee of the Charleston
Convention or not, their aim will be the same,
and that is, the defeat Of the nominee of the
Chicago Convention, the standard bearer of the
radical revolutionists who would overturn the
existing order of things. sensible and
logical letter from the pen of Mr.. Rives, of vir-
gina, which we publish in another column,
exhibits in a graphic manner the true ten
denotes of the political elements which
are rising into strength everywhere, and
that will operate with overpowering force
against the fanaticism that would involve every
thing in ruin.
The true field of the fight will be in the
Central States, whose material interests will be
more Immediately affected by the result.
Commerce, manufactures and mines are
directly dependent on the harmony and friendly
intercourse between the North and the South.
In these extreme sections of the Union the old
parties will probably throw their usual respec-
tive majerities, because the people have not q
practical knowledge of each other, and are led
to act through imaginary antipathies. But in
the Central States the question comes home to
every mans tangible interests, and there the
issue, if rightly understood, will shape the re-
suit. The press, the pulpit and the platform
already resound with this issue. The abolition
orators are taking the field at this early hour,
and the lectures of Wendell Phillips and Gid
dings the eulogies of John Brown, the stimu-
lated circulation Of Helpers book, the obsti-
nate clinging to Sherman as the black repub
lican candidate for Speaker, and the labor
ed attacks upon slavery, are all parts of the
programme of the black republican propa-
randa. Their object is the abolition of slavery,
immediate or Interior, according to their several
grades of fanaticism. Their success will involve
the whole country in civil wal, break up the
foundations of credit and commerce, stop the
busy hum of our manufactures, close our coal
and iron mines, and spread general ruin and
desolation over the lard.