Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-06-18

TIse Influence OF Personal QaarreIs
70 Upon bur Presidential Politics.

Upon bur Presidential Politics.
From the New York Herald, june Il.
II is interesting and instructive at al
times 10 note how in all ages the vieissi.
tndes and the fate Of dynssties, empires and
republics have been. shaped by the In
tFigues Of disappointed aspirants for place
and power. The Presidential politics Of
/ she United States, for instance, since the
retirement Of Washington, have been very
largely shaped aud controlled By these in
huepoes. Beginning, however, with the
stormy administration of General Jackson,
we. think il can be very readily shown that
the drift Of American politics and the ups
and downs Of our political parties since
that day have been shaped through the dis
| appointments and revenges Of less than a
/ dozen individuals. .f, sr.c.f E;rI 4;,aB a..l
With. General jackson as President, ia
his first election, Calhoun came in as Vice
President and as, the rightful heir to the
mantle Of cold Hickory" But Martin
Van Buren,, as Secretary Of State, contrived
to supplant him. How Jackson's first Cab
met came to resign en- Dsasse ; how Van
Buren,, sent out as Minister to England,
was compelled to, return, rejected BY the
Senate through the casting vote of<Cal-
hoan how Van Buren, thus became by the
win of Jackson 1882, Vice President on
the jackson ticket, and IN 1886 President
Sin the footsteps of his illustrious predeces-
sor," we need not here detail. Ii is enoughto
know that in being supplanted by Van Bu-
rem in the regular Democratic line of sue
cession Calhoun actively began to lay the
foundations of purely Southern political
organization, first as a balance ofpoWer and
lastly as the machinery for Southern Con-
federacy. This Interior design sharply
cropped out an angle of forty-6Ve degrees
in the South Carolina notification. move
ment Of 1928, Calhoun at that time be-
ing member of the United States Senate
and at daggers' points with Jackson's adj
ministration. In 1882, under Calhoun's |
Influence against Jackson and Van Buren,, |
South Carolina cast her Presidential vote
for John Floyd, of Virginia, and in 1886 |
for Willie ?. Mangum, of North Carolina |
but in 1910 she came round to Van Buren,,
on his promise that if elected and Congress |
should send to him a bill aboIishing slavery 1
in the District of Columbia he would give |
it his veto. Thus, apparently, the feud be-
tween Calhoun on the one side and Jack /
son and Van Buren, on the other was COM
promised on the slavery question but we /
shall presently see that the truce was a short
one.
In 1914, failing TO come up to the requi-
sition of the Southern Calhoun pro-slavery
on the Texas annexation, Van
Buren, was over-slaughed by them in the
Democratic Convention with the introduce
ton of the two-thirds rule, and Polk was
Van Buren, consenting with
the understanding that he should have
another trial in l848. But in the conven-
lion of that year Cass was chosen, and Van
Buren,, notdisposed to trifle any longer, took
the field as an Independent candidate on the
free soil platform-no further extensions of
slaVery-and thus Cass was defeated. This,
loo, was the beginning of the breakup of
the old Northern Democracy on the slavery
question. In 1852, the compromise meas
ares of Henry Clay being the platform of
both parties and General Scott being the
Wing candidate, the Wing party was de-
3troyed, from the distrust among the con.
3ervatives of the Abolitionist Seward. as
he head of the Wing party, and from the
lisgust of the anti-slayery men with SCOTS
platform. 1914 Clay would
doubtless have been elected but for his
quarrel with President Tyler, whose inhu-
snee was thus turned over to the demo-
ratio party, az Cass would have been
elected in 1S4S but for the quarrel with
md detection of Van Buren,.
In 1856 FillmOre's independent ticket
and Fillmore had his grievances TO rec
ify) took away sufficient strength from
Fremont to give the election to Buchanan,
md in 1860 an old quarrel in the spoils
irm of Seward, Weed and Greeley, result
ID in the shelving of Seward at Chicago
md in the nomination of Abraham Lin
,Oln. In 1860, on the other side, in retail
Ition for his rough treatment in the Senate
It the hands of JEFF. Davis, BENJAMIN, Ma
on and Slidell, we find Douglas taking
uch position of antagonism on slavery
IS to break up the Democratic Convention
mi the Democratic party, the results being
1incoln's election, secession, 4 Southern
Joniederacy, the greatest rebellion in his
DRY, and the greatest political revolution
# modern times. In 1868, in their VIC
ent regulations and denunciations of
jhief Justice Chase, the Republicans have
ost their best and greatest statesman, while
n the nomination of Grant and Colfax on
heir twO-faced platform, they have SO in
ensed cold Ben Wade that he is ready
o repeat the lesson of Van Buren, at the
rst invitation.
Thus it will be seen that since the time
f Jackson, our Presidential politics and
he destinies of this great country have
zen shaped and directed by the personal
lights and wrongs, and intrigues and re-
enges of less than dozen men. We see,
DO, that while Jackson, a strong and reso-
ate man, was in power over it, the Demo
was held together intact against
II personal defections and assertions that
hen he withdrew from its management,
he party began to break to pieces
We see that it wac the same with the Wing
arty, under Henry Clay, and the same
hay be said of Lincoln and the Republi-
an party. A political party, to hold to-
ether, requires recognized master, Just
s a ship requires a captain. Without one,
n either side, we find the great parties of
he present day all az sea.