The New York herald., 1866-12-14

II
Beware Of Calhoun" said General Jackson
in bis day Of power, "bevare Of Calhoun. He
means mischief We have bailsd him on the
tariff and nullifcation; but his next move will
be to break up the Union on the slavery
agitation. Let the democracy beware Of
Calhoun" 1t was against the intrigues Of Cel-
houn that "Oid Hickory" engineered the nomi-
| nation and election Of Van Buren in 1886,
| pledged to walk ain the footsteps Of his illus
trious predecessor" But in 1910, in advance
| Of Van Buren's nomination for another trial,
the Southern Calhoun wing Of the democratic
party, Notwithstanding the pressure of the
money question from the sweeping financial
crash of 1887, brought the Little Magician"
to the pledge, II put to the test, Of vetoing any
bill which Congress might pass Involving the
abolition Of slavery in the District of Columbia.
This was the entering wedge of the Calhoun
faction on the slavery issue; but it effected
nothing in 1910 in consequence Of the over
whelming financial reaction in that campaign,
which, with the force Of . tornado, swept the
democracy out Of power.
| But they soon rallied again, from the efforts
Of Mr. Clay in Congress to establish another
national bank and from the crippling Of the
whig party by President Tyler's vetoes and
his expulsion from the church. Then, as
the campaign Of 1874 drew near, the Southern
Calhoun pro-slavery managers resolved upon
the test OF the annexation Of the slaveholding
republic of Texas, war or no war with Mexico,
and Van Buren,, still the favorite democratic
candidate, was, some months in advance
of the Baltimore Convention, put to this
test in letter from North Carolina.
His answer was in accordance with jack
sons warning against Calhoun. Assured Of
a majority in the approaching conven-
ton, Van Buren, deliberately replied to this
aforesaid letter that the suggested unconditional
annexation of Texas would be hazardous
step; that he could not approve 1t; that from
a careful consideration of the subject he was
satisfied that the proper course in this matter
was first to await a definite treaty Of peace be
tween Mexico and Texas; for that otherwise
the annexation proposed would involve the
annexation of q war. The same letter thus
answered by Van Buren was sent TO Henry
Clay, the anticipated whig candidate, and q
similar answer was the result in that quarter.
We may safely say, then, that had that contest
Of 1874, emitting the Texas annexation ques-
tion, been between Clay and Van Buren, the
impotent Northern anti-slavery faction Of that
day would have remained so for many years
to come, while at the same time the Southern
Calhoun proslavery faction would have been
baffled again.
But this was not to be. The Southern pro-
slavery democracy, finding in the Baltimore
Convention majority for Van Buren, hit upon
Che bold device Of demanding two-thirds vote
to secure q nomination. The resolution was
adopted, Van Buren was thus ousted, and Polk,
Of Tennessee (asa peace offering TO Jackson),
and as the champion Of the unconditional
annexation of Texas, peace or war, was nomi-
mated. Thus the national democratic party fell
into the hands of the late Southern pro-slavery
oligarchy. And what folloYed? The war
with Mexico, the acquisition d new empire,
the detection OF Van Buren, with his free soil
movement in 1s4s, which defeated General
Cass; the compromise measures Q85O of Henry
Clay on slavery, which elected poor Pierce in
1852; the repeal, in 1854, Of the old Missouri
Compromise under poor Pierce, at the demand
Of JEFF Davis, Mason, Slidell and their clique;
the Kansas border war, the narrow escape OF
Buchanan in 1856, the Dred Scott decision,
"Old John Brown" the irrepressible conflict
with Douglas at Charleston in 1860, the break
up of the democratic party, the first election Of
Lincoln, Southern secession, the Southern con-
federacy, Fort Sumter, the rebellion, the extinc-
ton thereby of slavery and the slayeholding
oligsrchy.
Such is the chapter of accidents resulting
| from the sale of the Northern democracy
10 the Southern pro-slavery Calhoun Goa
| liton at the Baltimore Convention of 1874.
The Northern democracy, thus shorn of their
| Southern balance of power, after sixteen years
Of blind devotion to the Moloch Of Southern
slavery, were left very much in the condition
of community of African slaves suddenly
emancipated and turned loose upon the world.
| They still hankered after the feshpois of Egypt.
Thus they hardly dared to raise a hand to help
themselves in 1861; and though they rallied,
and, under the popular cry of "a more vigor-
ous prosecution Of the war;" carried the
Northern Central States in 1862, they recoiled
at once from these successes, as IL ashamed OF
their trcachery TO their Southern masters, and
proceeded to bow down again before them in
humble abasemcnt The relapse Of Horatio
Seymour viii tell the whole story Of the return
of the Northern democracy to their heathenisi
worship Of their broken Southern idols. A
group Of Hindoos, prostrated before broken
Juggernaut, is not more debasing picture.
SO IL has come to pass that the Northern
democratic party, in each succeeding chain OF
elections from 1862 to 1866, have been more
and more ignominiously chsstised. until al last
they lie covering and quailing In the dust