Washington Sentinel

THE NEXT PRESIDENCY.

We hope neither our readers nor Presidential aspirants, nor their partisans, will be frightened at the caption of this article. We are not going to lead off in favor of any candidate. In fact, were the power of nomination in our control--as fortunately it is not--the exercise of it would be a matter of great difficulty, and to which we would devote much consideration.

There are in the Democratic ranks so many distinguished statesmen of eminent services, admitted capacity, and elevated patriotism, that there would be much difficulty in the selection.

While, however, we have neither the wish nor the right to dictate the candidate, yet there are certain considerations connected with the question in which all true Democrats should feel a deep interest, and to these general considerations we propose to call attention.

In the first place, the next Presidential election will be one of far greater importance than any which has taken place since the memorable conflict of 1800. It may even be doubted whether that contest, in its immediate results, involved higher or more vital consequences.

The Alien and Sedition laws were dangerous infractions of the Constitution. The general tendency of all the movements of the Federal party were to consolidation and the destruction of the reserved rights of the States, but it may well be questioned whether the immediate effects of their success would have been as disastrous as would be the success of the fusion which is now arrayed against the Democratic party. In the one instance, the wrong done, admitted of a remedy. Legislative usurpations might be revoked--rights of the States invaded might be reinstated. In the present case, the wrong contemplated by the Fusionists, banded under the name of Republicans, is of a character which, once perpetrated, admits of no remedy. Like applying fire to a magazine, the explosion becomes a necessary consequence. Nothing can prevent it. The success of the objects avowed by the Black Republicans would produce a feeling in the South which could not be controlled. An alienation would be produced between the two sections disastrous to both, and which could not be modified.

There is, with the most conservative Southern men--we make the declaration with sorrow and regret--a growing fear that the power of the Federal Government is destined to be used, at no very future day, for the destruction of their institutions. Recent developments have contributed much to produce this belief. The success of the Black Republicans in the coming Presidential election would change that fear into conviction: and when that is effected, it is as idle to talk about Union as it would be to arrest the course of the "live lightning," when it once leaps from the cloud. Black Republicanism openly avows means and ends, to which one section of this Union has no more idea of submitting than it would of submitting to a change of the government into a monarchy. The corollary from this plain fact and undoubted state of things is, that the triumph of the Fusionists would involve the peace and harmony of the country. The only party which holds out the slightest prospect of a triumphant contest with this dangerous organization, is the Democratic party. Upon this great party--a party which has saved the Constitution in so many trying periods--now rests the solemn responsibility of again rescuing it from what we honestly regard as the fellest peril which has ever yet menaced it.

It is readily seen from this brief synopsis of matters that the harmony of the Democratic party is a desideratum of the most important character, for, without that harmony, Black Republicanism may succeed. We do not believe that upon any matter of civil or religious liberty, or even of constitutional construction, there exists among us such a diversity of opinion as is at all likely to produce disorganization. If there be any dissensions, they will result from the struggle between the friends of the different leading statesmen for the Presidential nomination. This is the only rock upon which the Democracy are in the slightest danger of splitting. And we appeal to the friends of all the expectants not to suffer their zeal for their respective favorites to mislead them into a position jeoparding the harmonious action of the party. If the Democratic army remains united, various and apparently dangerous as are the combinations against it, we feel absolutely certain of its triumphant success. But, if in advocating the claims of special favorites, they permit their personal or local attachments to seduce them into assaults upon other aspirants, and thus produce crimination and recrimination, the consequences must be serious not only to their special pets, but also to the Democracy, and more than both to the peace, harmony, and quiet of the country. The elevation of a particular personal or political friend is unquestionably an object which appeals to the instincts of generous natures, and is well calculated to elicit the energies and exertion of such. But it should be remembered that the interests of the country are of vital moment--that the good of the country is inseparably interwoven with the harmony of the Democratic party, and that it should not be jeoparded causelessly or from any motive of advancing individual aspirations.

Let the Democratic party remain united--let bickerings and criminations be avoided--let the struggle for the Presidential nomination be conducted in a kind and brotherly spirit--and, above all and paramount to all, let the great, leading, and cardinal landmarks of principle be uncompromisingly adhered to, and we have an abiding confidence that victory will perch upon our standard--that the interests and honor of the country, the peace and union of the States, now at serious and alarming hazard, will be preserved. But if a contrary spirit should actuate the friends of the different Presidential aspirants--if the Democratic party should permit itself to become disorganized--we wish not to lift the veil, and those who contribute to it will ever regret the calamities their misguided conduct produced.