Public Quiet Broken by John Brown's Raid: Southern and Democratic

By a series of resolutions, the Republican Convention took a position in direct antagonism to the avowed principles of the friends of the slave-system and the extra-judicial opinion of Chief-Justice Taney. They declared that each State had absolute control over its own domestic affairs; that the new political dogma, averring that the National Constitution, of its own force, carried slavery into the Territories of the Republic, was a dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country; that the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom, and that neither Congress, nor a Territorial legislature, nor any individuals have authority to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the Union; and that the reopening of the African slave-trade, then recently commenced in the Southern States, as we have seen, under cover of the National flag, was a crime against humanity, and a burning shame to our country and age.

There were now four candidates for the Presidency in the field. The Democratic party was hopelessly split in twain. The Douglas wing made no positive utterances concerning the status of slavery in the Territories; and the party led by Bell and Everett, declined to express any opinions upon any subject. Their motto was--The Constitution of the Country, the Union of the State, and the Enforcement of the Laws. Only the earnest and determined wing of the Democratic party led by Breckenridge, and of the Republican party led by Lincoln, showed a really aggressive spirit born of absolute convictions. The Southern portion of the former had resolved to nationalize slavery or destroy the Union; the latter declared that there was "an irrepressible conflict between freedom and slavery," and that the Republic could not exist "half slave and half free." This was the real issue; and after one of the most exciting political campaigns ever witnessed in our country, from June until November, Mr. Lincoln was elected Chief Magistrate of the United States by a large majority over the other candidates, with Mr. Hamlin as Vice-President. An analysis of the popular vote showed that three-fourths of the whole number were given to men opposed to the extension of slavery. This significant fact notified the friends of the slave-system that the days of their political domination in the councils of the nation had ended, perhaps forever, and they acted accordingly.

Such is a brief outline history of the conspiracy of Southern politicians to divide the Democratic party; give victory to the Republican party; cause the election of a "sectional President," and so afford a plausible pretext for a premeditated attempt to dissolve the Union and destroy the Republic. Thus far their schemes had worked to their satisfaction; it now remained for them to "fire the Southern heart" and produce a "solid South" in favor of emancipation from what they were pleased to call the tyranny of a "sectional party" led by a "a sectional President." This accomplished, they would be ready to raise the arm to give the fatal blow to the existence of the Republic.

The leading men who brought upon the Southern people and those of the whole country the horrors of a four-years Civil War, with all its terrible devastation of life, property and national prosperity, were few in number, but wonderfully productive of their kind. They were then, or had been, connected with the National Government, some as legislators and others as cabinet ministers. They were not so numerous at first, said Horace Maynard, a loyal Tennesseean, in a speech in Congress, "as the figures on a chess-board. There are those within reach of my voice," he said, "who also knew them, and can testify to their utter perfidy; who have been the victims of their want of principle, and whose self-respect has suffered from their insolent and overbearing demeanor. No Northern man was ever admitted to their confidence, and no Southern man unless it became necessary to keep up their numbers; and then not till he was thoroughly known by them, and known to be thoroughly corrupt. They, like a certain school of ancient philosophers, had two sets of principles or doctrines--one for outsiders and one for themselves; the one was 'Democratic principles' for the Democratic party, the other was for their own and without a name. Some Northern men and some Southern men were, after a fashion, petted and patronized by them, as a gentleman throws from his table a bone, or a choice bit, to a favorite dog; and they imagined they were conferring a great favor thereby, which would be requited only by the abject servility of the dog. To hesitate, to doubt, to hold back, to stop, was to call down a storm of wrath that few men had the nerve to encounter, and still fewer the strength to withstand. Not only in political circles, but in social life, their rule was inexorable, their tyranny absolute. God be thanked for the brave men who had the courage to meet them and bid them defiance, first at Charleston in April, 1860, and then at Baltimore, in June ! To them is due the credit of declaring war against this intolerable despotism."