The Conservative Men, and the Union Meetings of the North [pp. 514-523]

THE CONSERVATIVE MEN, AND THE
ART. I[.-THE CONSERVATIVE MEN, AND THE UNION MAEETINGS
OF THE NORTH.
TIME was, and there must be men not yet middle-aged, who
can well remember, when the Abolitionists of the North were
simply regarded as a small band of noisy, brawling factionists,
whose weakness in numbers and influence was a sure guarantee against their effecting aught of mischief. Periodically did
these crazy agitators send up their wild howls against the Constitution and the rights of the States, but for a time they were
content with this idle vaporing of words,which may have served
in some measure to allay their internal inflammation, and which,
while entertaining to them, was not in any wise dangerous to
the stability of the government.
It was not until the Presidential contest of 1840, that the
Abolitionists ventured to enter the political arena, and to issue
forth as a distinct party organization. Then, emboldened,
probably, by the stand taken in Congress in 1837, by that
arch-agitator, Slade, of Vermont, and his confederates, they
appeared with James G. Birney, of Michigan, as their candidate for President. The reception which this ticket met,
obtaining but 7,000 votes, would seem to have been naturally
somewhat of a check to further exertions in this line; but in
1844, they again brought forward Mr. Birney, who now received
62,000 votes. In 1848, the Abolition party, joined by a large
number of the New-York Democracy,who were irritated because
of the refusal of the National Democratic Convention of that year
to nominate Martin Van Buren as President, brought him forward upon the "Buffalo Platform." He received 291,000
votes; Gerrit Smith, nominated by the ultra Abolitionists,
receiving about 5,000. In 1852, with John P. Hale, of N. H.,
as their candidate, the Abolitionists cast 157,000 votes. It
must not be thought, from the smallness of this vote, as com pared with that for Van Buren, in 1848, that the Abolition
feeling was growing weaker at the North. Many men voted for
Van Buren simply, as being the best mode of defeating'the regu lar Democratic ticket, who in 1852 cast their vote for Franklin
Pierce. As a proof of this, in the State of New-York, where
Van Buren received 120,000 votes, and Cass 114,000, Hale,
four years later, received but 25,000, and Pierce 262,000.
Up to this timne the Abolition ticket, although at times
receiving a strong support in some of the States, had never
been able to obtain a single vote in the Electoral College. In
the interval between 1852 and 1856, however, various causes
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