Democracy And The Constitution

The struggle that'is uow going on betweea tho democratie and republiasu parties in New ÜTork and elsewhere, give8 us more iüsight into the state of opinión in tho Northern State than anything that has happened siuce Mr. Iincoln's triumph in 18G0. This is no mero scram blo tor place between Seymours and Wadsworths, er that of streng tb between General McClellan and the War Department at Washington, but a real and desperate political contest, with momentous issues depending on it. Through the bluster and sujoke of eleetioneering warfare we cateh the sound of anoient watohwords and diacern the shadowy outlines of great principies in conflict for the mastery. "The constitution as it is and the Union as it was" is the rallying cry of the demócrata. The moro moderate republicans accept the fjrst half of this formula, though with an important reeerviition, hut for the latter they substi tute, implicitly if net expressly, ''The Union as it ought to be." Practically they are a3 mueh at variance with their antagonists on the one point as on tije other They stand by the constitution as a matter of courso - no demagogue appealing to tho spirit of .mericaa loyalty could affoad to do etherwise - but it is not tlia constitution as framed by Washington, ïratfkhn and Jitfferson to which they pay tfiis homage. It is the constitution as it has been interpreted and defaced by President Jiincoln - a constitutjon under which the press is not freo, and personal liberty not safe- ra constitution whiah purports to guarantee the rights of slaveowners and the integrity of the Union, and is not infringed by a proclamation treating certain States as enemies and depriving them of these rights - that the republicans delight to honor. As for tho Union they do uot profess to desire a return to the state of things which preceded the seoession. They malse no secret of thcir resolution to bring about changes which shall secure the ascendancy of abolition for the future. It is this which jnstifies the demócrata in calling them "radioala," and claiming the title of "conservatives" for themselves. Ths democratie cotiventions really do represent the principies oí American democracy, as they have governed the pcilicy of the United States for some eighty years. - If they are finally beaten,lthe Northern republic will enter upon a new phase of political existence, whatever be the estenfc of the war.