REVELATIONS OF THE HONOURABLE A. G. BROWX, TILE Presidential election
of the United States is a most unpopular institution. All the world is tired of its recurrence. Those who understand it complain much : and those who do not undersand it complain more. As for us English, the grievance need. amount in a general way only to a certain portion of the newspapers being occupied with matter that we do not want to be troubled with : but in the United States, and 'wherever there is an interest in its fortunes, it is a grief and vexation to be haunted by the de- tails of the great election for two years and a half in every four years ; and never to know what to believe and expect till the very last minute. It seems but the other day that all the world was talkinab about Fremont and Buchanan, and now, before the na- tion has begun to enjoy the calm and settled condition promised by Mr. Buchanan, the turmoil has begun again ; and we know that for a year and a half the conflicts of American parties will form a regular part of the news of the day. The peculiarity of the Presidential election of 1860 is that, for once, and whether we will or no, we in England must attend to the struggle and its re- sults. Our own prospects are so deeply implicated in the issue that we cannot be indifferent to it. Future trouble or peace with the United States depends largely on the decision of this election ; and our access to our own far western colonies, and to eastern Asia ; and the prospects of the West Indies, and our duties and liabilities in regard to the slave-trade ; and our engagements with Mexico, with Spain, and other powers,—to say nothing of our varied relations with American society, commercial, literary and friendly, as well as political ! It is a fact, and a very im- portant one to us, that the considerations on which the Presiden- tial election will turn are such as European nations, and the British in particular, have a very grave interest in.
There is uo use in parading a set of names before the English public, and calling such a catalogue an account of political prospects in America. There is no interest here about un- known men, or about men whose names, familiar or otherwise, may be shifted and pushed forward and withdrawn half-a-dozen times before the day of election. But there must be some use, and there may be some interest, in ascertaining what it is that will be decided by the choice of the next President, and how we are concerned in it. The present moment is favourable for arriv- ing at such an understanding ; a member of the Senate having inaugurated the great move by a speech of such extraordinary frankness and decision as must compel avowals more or less com- plete from every other party engaged in the struggle. The Honour- able A. G. Brown, of the United States Senate, addressed a public assembly at Hazlehurst, in Mississippi, on the 11th of September, on the principles concerned in the next choice of a President.
The first great item of news is that Mr. Buchanan is again a candidate. go we are told; and it is certainly taken for granted at public meetings, and by men who address their constituents. Mr. Buchanan was probably sincere when he assured the World in 1856 that he should retire at the end of the four years' term. He is old.: he had gained. the object of his life's labours when lie entered. the White house ; and there seemed to be no reason why he should undertake double toil, at his years, merely to enjoy a longer continuance of honours already acquired. But his reign has not been what he expected. and intended. He might, or he might not, be sincere in holding out the promise of political peace within the union ; but he undoubtedly expected to have annexed. Cuba before the four years were over, and to have obtained. the command, if not the property, of the Central American territory, with its great transit route. He expected also, as he avowed at his entrance on office, to solve the contro- versy about the ground-law and constitutional principle of his country in regard to slave-institutions ; and he spoke and acted at that time as if he really supposed that the Dred Scott decision would settle the business. As things have turned out otherwise, he may easily persuade himself that the security of the Union re- quires his continuance in office, as a compromise, or as an expe- dient ready provided, till means are taken to prevent the North and South tearing their compact to pieces. If, then, Mr. Buchanan really is a candidate, the conditions of his second reign are these. The Honourable Senator who has laid open the administration policy declares, that in what he says he knows he has Mr. Bu- ohanan's concurrences—that he is "sustaining
views of the President." The President desires the prosperity of Southern institutions, but is apt to be embarrassed. by influence from the North the President was in perfect agreement with Walker about Nicaragua, and will be so again ; but is just now " all wrong," in consequence of remonstrances against a the well-settled
States, filibus-
tering policy ; but the advantage of having two outlying like Nicaragua and Cuba, to back up slavery is so manifest that, in Senator Brown's opinion, international treaties, and European; protection of Central America will no more deprive the United States of the benefit than similar interference on behalf of Choc- taws and Chichasaws and their territories. These states on00
obtained, "Potosi, Tamaulipas, and one or two other Mexican states," will become less valuable to other Powers, and will be more easilyobtained. The object is, on the one hand, to extend the area of slavery directly ; and, on the other, to give such a decided preponderance to the pro-slavery policy as to permeate the whole Republic with it, and settle the question for ever. At unseat, the reopening of the African slave-trade must be de- ferred, and all mention of it discouraged, because the traffic could not now be reestablished except upon the ruins of the Union. The right process will be to acquire more territory first ; then to make more Slave States, and thus obtain the command of the Senate ; this would be followed by the extension of a thorou"hly pro-slavery policy and law over the whole country ; and then, when that was done, the African slave-trade might again become a national institution. " Whether we can obtain the territory while the Union lasts, I do not know. I fear we cannot. But I would make an honest effort; and if we failed, I would go out of the Union, and try it there. I speak plainly." And the Senator proceeds to lay down as a reason for dissolving the Union, the re- final to acquire territory for the purpose of establishing slavery in it. This may suffice, though it is not the whole programme.
Now, it must be remembered that the possession of slaves is, in that country, the possession of votes to the amount of three-fifths of the wages so held. It is the slave constituency that is wanted by the South, even more than the land, and the human chattels on it. This is the point on which the leaders of the other parties,— especially the Republican party,—are warning the northern citi- zens. It is enough to ask them what is to become of their country if, through apathy or disgust, hundreds of thousands of real citizens stay away from the polls, thus permitting the elec- tion of men under whom three-fifths of the slaves will count as voters in the slave-holding interest. The danger speaks for itself. What then, are the principles and the forms of the antagonism ? Next to the President, we hear most of Mr. Douglas as a can- didate. For the moment we cannot attend to the man, or his re- relations with the President, or his transactions with the demo- cratic party, The point which concerns the world generally, as the Union hangs upon it, is his doctrine of popular sovereignty, in conjunction with the pro-slavery legislation actually achieved. Till recently, it was held that slavery had no normal and legal existence in the territories which were to become states ; whereas, the Bred Scott decision declared that slavery had a normal and legal existence in the territories, unless it was excluded by legis- lation. Under this very settlement of the matter, as it assumes to be, Mr. Douglas and his supporters preach popular sovereignty; —that is, that the question of slave or free labour shall be left to the people of the territories ; whereas the Supreme Court has de- prived them of the power of any such choice, till the territory be- &Imes a state : and the training of a territory determines the ohm- meter of the state, as the education of childhood does that of the man. There is little to choose, indeed, between Mr. Buchanan and Mr..Douglas ; for, if Mr. Buchanan's policy be the more openly aggressive, Mr. Douglas is, on the other hand, the greater favourite with the South,—as a candidate, if not as a ruler. The South expects the free states to throw out Mr. Buchanan, but be- lieves that Mr. Douglas has a good chance, through the vastness of the Democratic party. The administration seem to be of the same opinion, by the virulence of their hostility to Douglas. The gnat object is now to oust him from the Senate ; as this would in all probability spoil his larger game ; and Mr. Buchanan is work- inhard at it.
What is doing in opposition to all this, by the Republican party, and the American party, and good citizens generally ? Their newspapers point to Kansas as saved, and stimulate faith and energy in the party which has, as they say, saved the North- west. The American party cries out against the admission of vile Cuban Romish voting, as well as sham slave-votes. Candidates, Republican, and Free-soil, are named and followed ; and the venerable Gerrit Smith and the able abolitionist Seward, are much discussed, and invited, and observed. But these, and several more of differing views, do not appear to have the slightest chance of success. Time will show whether any effectual agreement will be arrived at. Thus far, the Republicans are supposed to be sure ()_.f *muss to the last hour, in virtue of their higher aim and prin- ciple; whereas the Democratic candidates always carry the day, in virtue of their better organization, and more steady purpose. The world would take for granted diet it would turn out so now bet for two or three considerations. The idea and the name of -Disunion have become very common since the last election. The North has nearly ceased to shiver and shudder at it, while still disposed to put down the slave-trade and on that con- dition to preserve the Union : and the Southern States find it dangerous now to talk so much of secession, lest they should be taken at their word, or compelled to remain on Northern flouted by Again, the frontier States are indisposed
uted by the North as Slave-states, and held at arm's-length by the South as suspicious, and fit only to be inade a police of for Southern security ; and Virginia leads the Way in proposals to join the North, in case of a split. The free men of colour, we see, are holding conventions, to obtain an agreement about voting for State governors, as a means of in- .
the great Federal elections. Remonstrance and appeal al'e freely used, in newspapers and elsewhere, to rouse the North- mn citizens from the discouragement of apathy which gives the Southern policy a most needless and vexatious advantage. Some months hence, we shall see the results of these movements.
And strong will be our interest, and that of all Enrope, In contemplating the issue. Will the great Republic remain entire, or fall asunder? If it remains entire, will it be by the loss of its liberties of speech, and labour, and political action ? If so, will it be a military despotism, or a ohanee-medley of adventurers that it will be governed by ? If it splits what is to become of the feeble and arrogant South? What will the European Powers have to do about their alliances with the Republic—about their colonies in the Western hemisphere FL-about their intercourses in the Pacific ?—about the slave-trade ? about the Transit route ? He would be a bold man who would prophecy about the state of things two or four years hence ; when the election is new, and when it shows its fruits : but the one point on which all manner of people seem to be agreed is, that the next Presidential election will determine, as the last introduced, the crisis which will effect all the polities of the civilized world.
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