POSITION OF PARTIES. 229 "to agree to disagree" would no longer do, after the modification of it attempted by the Baltimore convention, to give the candidate to one fraction of it and the platform to the other, had led to such a result. But the recognition of this fact was the dissolution of the party, even if that dissolution was not effected in a day, and an intermediate stage had to be passed through. The conservatives might continue the old name and in defiance of the unceasing, progressive development of actual affairs, hold to the old absolute party programme with its finality appendage, but they were not on that account, after the defection of the liberals, the old Whig party any longer, but only a lifeless stump. The disruption of the Whig party on account of the slavery question, was the beginning of a new formation of parties on the basis of the slavery question, and this formation was the beginning of the end of this Union. An unpleasant feeling that this was so stole over those of deepest insight. The masses, indeed, would have looked upon the man who considered the Union imperilled more than before, by the result of the election, as a fool. How could they help looking upon it as a contradiction in itself, to speak of danger now that the finality policy had celebrated a triumph, such as no one had supposed possible. Of course, no threats of secession were heard for a generation; only the slavocracy had spoken of secession, and had it not every reason to be satisfied? Apparently so, certainly, but only apparently. Its wonderfully acute instinct of selfpreservation did not desert it now. Immediately voices from its ranks were heard which did not answer that question with an unconditional yes, because its victory had been so complete. The first complaints of the conquered were soon drowned by their contentions with one another; in the jubilation of victory, on the other hand, of the con querors, there was soon mixed the notes of a very surprising but only too well grounded complaint. The internal separation of the Seward Whigs from the old party had proceeded so far that they were the first to declare the defeat to be an annihilating one, although a comparison of votes did not at all justify that declaration; and the conservatives even expressed some satisfaction at the great victory of their opponents, because its necessary consequence would be the purification of the party from the poison of abolitionism. 1 But the Democrats openly confessed that it would be a hard blow for them, if the days of the Whigs were really numbered, since then an opponent would rise up against them with whom the struggle would have to assume a totally different character. This it was 1 The Albany Register declares: "We have no hesitation in saying, that, for our elves, we derive great consolation under our defeat, from the conviction that it has been caused by an honest instinct of the people, by their love for their country and their determination to maintain the constitution in all its integrity and its honest spirit. "Nor do we hesitate to say, that we find another source of great consolation in the fact that abolitionism and rebellion, their instigators and promoters, and particularly their high priests in this state, Seward, Greeley and Weed, have received a death-blow from which they never can recover. They have played out their desperate game, with the aid of others who detested their principles and their objects, and yet they are in a hopeless minority, in a political oblivion." Ib. We have 2 John S. Barbour, one of the electors of Virginia, said after the victory: "While rejoicing over the victory that has been achieved, let us not forget that new battles have yet to be fought, and new victories yet to be won. Let us not hand ourselves over to any delusion, and permit our weapons to rust amid festivities and congratulations. routed the enemy, not destroyed him. He did not believe that the Whig party would disband. We have meliorated Whiggery very much in the recent contest, but we have not yet brought it to the point of extermination. As a party, it still stands with opposing array upon the field of political fight. He was right glad it was so; for he believed that it was best for us to keep that organization alive. We can whip them with more ease than any new organization that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 231 that made the victory which the slavocracy had achieved by Pierce's election, the sure pledge of its eternal annihilation. The triumph of the finality policy with the disruption of the Whig party conditioned by it, gave birth to the Republican party, and the Kansas-Nebraska question, which is commonly looked upon as the cause of its origin, served it only as accoucheur. would be substituted for that party. It was the weakest organization that could be framed out of the material in the country that was opposed to the Democratic party." The N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 6, 1852. G. W. Julian, said in a speech of the 25th of May, 1853, in the Free Soil state convention at Indianapolis: And could we extort from them (the Democrats) to-day the honest truth, they would tell us they did not intend to beat the Whigs so badly, and make them sick unto death; that they are sorry they have done so; that their own family broils can only be quieted by a concentrated animosity against such a foe as the Whig party; and that they pray for its reorganization, and dread nothing so much as a new party, built upon its ruins, which shall stand unswervingly by the principles of real democracy, and invite, from all quarters, the intelligence and worth of the land. They understand this perfectly. See how the Washington Union shudders at the idea that the Whig party is dissolved, and its mission ended; see how it spurns the fraternal words and repels the friendly advances of the Republic! . . . Why, just look at the present attitude of the so-called national Democracy, and tell me if there is any bond of union within itself that can atone for the loss of that external pressure which has hitherto hooped it together?" Speeches on Politilal Questions by G. W. Julian, p. 87. CHAPTER V. THE BEGINNINGS OF PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. The political calm which nearly always prevails during the last months of a presidential term, set in earlier than it was wont to, after the electoral battle of 1852, and was unusually deep. The noise of the politicians stopped, as it had no longer any object, after the decision, and when they ceased that violent stirring of the dying embers of their old party differences, it immediately became apparent to what a high degree the apathy of the people had really risen. But it was necessary for them correctly to understand the nature of this apathy, if the politicians did not wish to be led by it into the most dangerous mistakes. The defeat had, in more respects than one, promoted the self-knowledge of the Whigs. Where people had learned to judge rightly of the intrinsic untruth of the party in relation to the slavery question, is was admitted, that the very observable corruption in the party contributed largely to the catastrophe. Public opinion, indeed, was not in a paroxysm of reform. The carrying out of the principle of the spoils in the bestowal of public office, regardless of the consequences flowing therefrom, and the bold intrigues of which certain officials in high places had been guilty, had indeed, created a sensation, but had not called forth the deep moral indignation which might inquire what were the ultimate causes of the evil, and imperatively demand a change. That the Democratic politicians were not more unselfish and more virtuous, the thinking circles of the people knew well enough. But, naturally, the more recent scandals appeared in fresher colors than the older ones, and the provoking self-complacency with which the Whigs had promised reforms, made them doubly prominent. From a craving simply for a change in party government, which had once brought them to the helm, the Whigs had nothing more to expect. Like the old Federalists they had never been a really popular party, and hence any moral delinquency injured them much more than it did. their opponents. Experience had taught that they were not better than the Democrats, and that sufficed to keep away from them the fluctuating elements which turn the scales in party contests. The optimistic indifferentism with which the people looked upon the lax ethics of the professional politicians was much too great to cause the Whigs to be despised, because they had turned out to be wolves in the clothing of sheep. They were no longer listened to because their most powerful sermons were looked upon as words, and only as words. Where people endeavored, in all honesty, to form an idea of the situation. as it had been discovered by the course and issue of the electoral campaign, they still hoped to be able to do some good, at most, by dropping the old firm, in order, in the modest position of assistants, to lead the triumphant competing house into their own ways.1 1 "We may, as heretofore, occasionally carry the presidential election, to be followed by a remorseless scramble for the spoils, and ultimately by defection and treachery such as we witnessed during the late presidential canvass. In addition to this, the painful fact stands revealed that we have many in our midst who have no more honesty than they should have. During the late administration our people, or rather many of them, seem to have gone in for stealing on a large scale. I consider the party disgraced by Galphinisms and Gardnerisms and other isms which will ere long be brought to light. If there are not |