REVULSION OF PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. WHEN we recently
called attention to the peculiar importance to Europe. of the great American election of next year, we had no conception of the progress even then made towards a decision of the mighty problem which next year's votes might be expected to solve. The march of events has been so much more rapid than quick-witted American citizens themselves anticipated, that we may be acquitted of any disgraceful deficiency in political fore- sight in treating of certain indications as likely to occur a year hence, when we might at that moment have reported them to our readers as facts, if the cable had been at our command. One of the wisest of American constitutional lawyers used to say, that " the near future of American politics could never be confidently anticipated, nor safely guessed, however clear the great ultimate issues might be." Other wise folk, in many countries, have been wont to say that the deepest darkness is just before dawn,— the dreariest discouragement just before success ; and the like. The events of last month in the United States remind observers of such sayings as these. All good Republicans have believed in the final establishment of liberty and law (worthy of the name) in that once free country ; but we doubt whether one in a thousand imagined that before Mr. Buchanan's inaugural speech had ceased to echo through his dominions, the entire body of the Free States might have pronounced against his administration, and the domestic and foreign policy which he has undertaken to establish. Amidst the multitudes who have mourned the irre- pressible advance of despotism, spreading slavery and its tyran- nies over more and more territory, and corrupting the plainest old institutions of political and social life, we may doubt whether there was one in a thousand who, within this year, has conceived of such a revulsion as should commit the powers of government, law, and order, into the hands of the opponents of that southern oligarchy which plays ducks and drakes with the rights of other nations, and the peace of the world. One of the best newspapers in the Union, the Pittsburgh Despatch, issued a remarkable leader just before those Pennsylvania elections took place which are likely to reverse the picture exhibited in the article.. The writer notices a proposal brought forward at a public meeting in Maryland, involving a demand that all post-masters should be authorised to open and detain all letters addressed topersons of colour, free or slave ; and that they should be bound to report .to masters or magistrates all suspicious matter contained therein. This is to put a stop to the wholesale escape of slaves, now become a fact incompatible with the prosperity of the planting intend. The Pittsburgh Despatch observes on the mani- fest unsoundness of a system, which requires for its con- tinuance such an arbitrary measure as interference with no t-office, and it proceeds to sketch the series of aggressions tl,l'aisch the old liberties of the republic have been extinguished, —end all for the sake of slavery. Legislatures have been intimi- da and corrupted till their temper and conduct have become the spectacle which the world now sees in Congress. The judi- ciary. has been tampered with till it has produced a Dred Scott
decision, and denied justice to a Sumner and many another vic- tim of lawless ferocity. The executive has long been at the
orders of the Southern oligarchy, protecting domestic filibusters, and insulting European allies, till its representatives have found it bard to hold their ground in society, at home and abroad. going used the Treasury and the Army for sectional purposes,
it is now, says the writer, to be authorized to play the spy throughout society by tampering with the post-office. It would not be possible to go much further ; and the only question is how long such a regime could last. There must come a time when the citizens would ask what could make it worth while to live on such terms, when they and their parents had enjoyed a political atmosphere so different. Evident as it must be to everybody that a state must be diseased which requires such a regimen of re- straint, brute force, and cunning, somebody must soon be asking
why the disease should be acquiesced in, with all its wretched consequences. Almost before this statement appeared, the prac-
tical answer was prepared. Pennsylvania is Mr. Buchanan's own state. Never was a community more complacent, —even intoxi- cated with gratified pride—than Pennsylvania was when her dis- tinguished son was made ruler of the great Republic : yet already, before his third year of office has expired, Pennsylvania has pro- nounced an emphatic condemnation of the man, his administra- tion, and the policy to which he has sold not only himself, but the interests of nine-tenths of his fellow-citizens.
And it is not only the demonstration of the President's own State which has created an intense excitement all over the Union where the news had spread. New York alone remained undeclared,—the elections undecided ; and all the rest of the Free-States,--the whole aggregate of the North,—had declared by jar r or smaller majorities against the Administration and its policy. Last week, the mails brought us accounts of twos and threes of the States in which the Republicans had carried all be- fore them: and at the end of the week the whole set, with the ex- ception of New York, was reported as tolerably secure ; and, for the first time, we believe, in the history of the Republic, they are unanimous.
They have been a long time about it. They have imperilled the liberties, the reputation, and the political and social virtue of the nation by their worldly cupidity, their caution, their politi- cal vanity, or whatever it was that prevented their standing up for their rights, and insisting on the principles on which their re- public was founded. They have allowed the introduction of poli- tical and social vice which it will take long to purge out. They have ranged themselves on the side of despotism throughout the world by disappointing the hopes of all lovers of liberty, and sanc- tioning a policy of forced labour, with all the restraints which be- long to it. But they have at last pronounced on the right side. They have diesel). Republican candidates in an overwhelming majority ; and, if New York follows the lead of the rest, the north ar.11, for the first time, present an unbroken front to the saucy southern minority which has lived and ruled only by means of the desult- ory quality of the opposition. The purest opposition of all,—that which has never changed its aspect or shifted its ground for a quarter of a century,—the body of Abolitionists properly so called, has no connection whatever with politics. It has always refused to commit its principles and its claims to the agitation and risk of political action. This has been the one great security of the Republic. It could not be utterly lost while a body of citizens, however small, maintained great principles and lofty claims on grounds which could not be affected by political hazards. And at no moment can the tri- umph of Free-soil and Free-labour parties be so complete and so secure as to lessen the dignity and value of the garrison who hold the citadel in all times and seasons, of war and peace, of fair weather and foul. But, though the cause of liberty in the United States could never be hopeless while such a body existed, it is unquestionable that, en revanche, the aims of that body are prodigiously ad-
vanced by this great political unanimity against a Pro-slavery Administration. Thus far, every effort has been made to prevent
the establishment of a common understanding among the good citizens of the various States—now they are all brought face to lace at once. Hitherto, the northern millions have been dis- tracted by fear and interest, by conflicting appeals of all sorts
of influences ; but, once finding that a great majority are (lis- p-aka with the evils and vices of the state, and resolved
to reverse its policy, there is every facility for doing the right and abolishing the wrong. Instead of tens of thou- sands of post-masters, appointed for pro-slavery objects, there may now be men who have none but post-office objects to pro- na,?te• When this exchange of pro-slavery functionaries for ottiers unconcerned in politics is carried through in all depart- Ments, the chief impediment to a thorough free-labour policy will be removed. Even if the future functionaries should be creatures of the ruling power, as at present, their proclivity will be to some- thing else than slavery, and therefore to something comparatively harmless. If the promise of the present hour be fulfilled, a next year's elections are, as usual, prefigured by those of the pre- sent, the conflict is in fact over, and the Republic is saved.
separate States in the South may choose to maintain slavery as long as they can : but the national policy will exclude it. It will be simply excluded from the Congressional District of Co- lumbia,—an area of ten miles square ; and then, the American people will, as a nation, cease to have a pro-slavery policy,— whatever any of the separate States may choose for themselves. Already the agitation in Virginia, by which it is prepared for a junction with the North, is spreading from day to day ; and mea- sures are taken to ascertain the extent of its disposition to abolish slavery by gradual means. Already Mr. Buchanan must see the fate of his own pretensions, and of the policy of his Administra- tion,—that he cannot stand again, and that Southern must give way before Western extension.
As for us Europeans, our lesson is pretty plain. We must cor- dially hail the accession of the American Republic to the Anti- slave-trade policy to which we are pledged. When the Americans have carried an Anti-slavery President into the White House, they will carry the zeal of converts or antagonists into the sup- pression of the Slave-trade : and this will be a fair subject of re- joicing to England, and her faithful allies. Next, there will be, at least, time gained for Mexico, and Central America and Cuba ; precious time which may qualify these neighbours of the proud Republic to hold their own, and convince the citizens of that Re- public of the true grounds of their political welfare and national honour. Without rushing into any romantic speculation as to the future of a people who have not hitherto fulfilled the moral and political promise of their origin, we may safely say that the emphatic condemnation of an aggressive and despotic policy by a vast majority of American citizens is a great good : that the pro- spect of the repudiation of slavery as a national institution is a greater ; and that everything may be hoped from the enthusiasm of a people who can forget the Atlantic cable, and overlook Mademoiselle Piccolomini in the transport of feeling that the liberties of their forefathers are once more within their grasp.
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