The New York herald., 1868-06-30
Reconstruction and Restoration of the Dem.
Ocratic Parfv-Tho VO1co 0r Nevv

The approaching Democratic Convention
will be the most important general council of
the party since that of Charleston, in 1860, when
the national organization of that day on the
slavery question was broken up and scattered
to the winds. That Convention was one of
democratic disruption and dissolution /; this is
appointed for the task of democratic recon
struction and restoration. In 1860 the party,
having fallen behind the progressive ideas of
the age, was thrown aside and went down in
1868, after eight long years Of penance in
sackcloth and ashes, of fasting, humiliation
and prayer, in rising to its feet again, it has
fair prospect, on the living issues of the day,
of regaining the White House and another
lease of power. A brief glance behind us will
enable us to understand the battle before u.s.
We know nothing of what is to come and in
all human affairs we can only provide for the
future from the teachings of the past
There was but one political party, we may
say, although many factions existed in the
country, under Washington's administration
The old republican party, which blossomed as
an opposition party under the elder Adams,
came into power in 1900 with Jefferson. 1t
was the tree upon which the later democratic
party was engrafted under General Jackson.
The Virginia State rights resolutions of 1893
and 80" were the groundwork of the old re-
publican party, but its organization was largely
due to the leading Jeffersonian politicians of
New York. In 1924, the old federal party
having been entirely wiped out, the divid-
ing lines between it and the repub-
lican party also disappeared, and so
the people at that day were described
as ''all republicans and all federalists" The
consequences were, first Presidential scrub
race between Jackson, J. @. Adams, Craw-
ford and Clay; second, failure to elect by
the people; and, third, the election of Adams
by the House of Representatives by coalition
with Clay. Against this coalition of what
John Randolph styled 'the Puritan and the
Blackleg" the democratic party under jack
son was organized, as the lineal successor of
the old republican party against the elder
Adams. In 1928, Jackson's first election, New
York gave him her vote by only some five
thousand majority; but from that day for
twenty years the organization and the policy
Of the democratic party and its Presidential
nominations were mainly controlled by Martin
Van Buren and his associates of the Albany
Regency, speaking for the Empire State.
We come now to very important epoch
the Presidential election of 1S4S In that con-
test (Martin Van Buren, against his preten-
cin 20 hoe; hao
second time overslaughed in the regular demo-
cratic convention by the Southern oligarchy,
because they disliked him on the slavery ques-
tion) there was a regular split Of the New York
democracy. Van Buren,, having resolved to
be trifed with no longer, boldly took the field
as an independent candidate. He was nomi-
mated by the famous Buffalo Free Soil Con-
vention, of which the present Chief Justice
Chase was the ruling spirit, and the result was
the defeat of Cass, the regular democratic
nominee, and the election of Taylor. This
was in 1s4s, and upon this very
Van Buren, Chase free soil platform-''no
further extensions Of slavery"-Seward
became the great apostle of the repub-
lican party, organized six years later, and
upon this identical platform Abraham Lincoln
was first elected in 1860.
Here the remarkable fact appears that
Salmon p Chase, of all living men, is entitled
to the distinction of the founder of the repub-
lican party in providing the platform and in
opening the way for its advancement to the
possession Of the government. But the main
thing to be remembered is this, that this
breaking up Of the old Southern slaveholding
oligarchy and of the democratic party as II
was began with Van Buren, the right hand
man of Jackson, and with the elite Of the
Jacksonian democracy of New York. The
vote of New York in 1S4s was:-
For Lewis Cass regular democrat. ......... ia, 81,
For Martin Van Buren, free soil democrat. -. l2o5
Total democratic and free soil vote. .. 234, s2'
For Zachary Iaylor, wing. g................. 2ls60;
Majority against Taylor. lor.................... 16 22
But Taylors plurality gave him the electoral
vote of New York and elected him. In 1874
the boot was on the other leg for Henry Clay
was then defeated by the diversion of som,
fifteen thousand New York whig abolitonist
over to Birney, when, If they had votet
the Clay ticket, they would have given Cla.
New York by ten thousand majority and mad
him President.
In 1852, on Clay's great compromis
measures on the slavery question, the Ne,
York and national democracy were set righ
side up, as it was supposed, in the electio
Of poor Pierce. Unfortunately, however, poo
Pierce, under the influence of JEFF Davis, Maso