THE PARTIES IN AMERICA. [From the Times, November 20.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 802, 9 April 1853, Page 4

THE PARTIES IN AMERICA. [From the Times, November 20.]

The f-inJt of the Presidential election in the C'mwl Sute« h«d b««n urittcipnted from Vbtious nigft* of rfmfiluttftn in the Whig parly of that tf/Tift»ry, nnd p«j>eth)\y from th« proceedings ol fhff fonrcuriryT) at BaJrimore, which «er ved only nowiftite a tfandidaf*! whom tht parfy uovar cordially tdoptsrf, «nd (o increatt ib« diiientionu

which it ought to have terminated. The success of General Pierce and of the democracy party throughout the Union has been not only a victory but an unprecedented triumph. Twenty«even of the States which now compose that great confederation, represented by 21G votes in the Electoral College, declared for the democratic candidate ; while General Scott obtained only 42 votes from the States in Massachusetts, Vermont, Tennessee, and Kentucky. We believe that on no former occasion has the election been carried by so overwhelming a majority ; and the popular movement, which pieces General Pierce in ffe j highest office of the Union, has only raised the party with which he is connected to the highest pitch of strength and power, but seems for the time to bave annihilated its antagonists. " Tell him," said Daniel Webster but a few hours before he expired, "tell him as my dying message, that from the 2nd November the Whig party, as a national party, will bave ceased to exist. It will live only in history." That prediction seems to be already verified, and the political combination of which Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were the illustrious leaders and ornaments has scarcely survived the termination of their lives. They had followed in the footsteps of the Federalists, who laid the solid foundations of the Union, and gave it a place among nations, and the American Whigs of our day are all that remained of the Federalism of the last century. But the institutions of the country,are not favourable to the caution and moderation which marked their policy. The rising stream has overleapt the banks within which they attempted to confine it. The democratic principle* of Jefferson and Jackson have grown with the growth ,of the western States. The slavery questions have sill further divided and weakened the northern and southern Whigs. The election of 1852 has given the severest blow to the Whig party which it has yet sustained ; and unlesi its elements undergo some fresh transformation, it may be said* to have disappeared from the scene. Although little is personally known of General Pierce, we bave never entertained a doubt, from the time of his nomination, that be was the candidate best fitted to fill the office of President of the United States ; and there are several reasons which render the triumph of his party on this occasion a cause of legitimate satisfaction to this | country. Of all the political questions on which the election turned, that of Free Trade was by far the most prominent and important. The American Whigs had built their stronghold in the old fortress of Protection to native industry, and one of the chief causes of their discomfiture i was that their position became every day more incompatible with the growing industry of the American people, and with the commercial policy of other free nations. The triumph of General Fierce is essentially a triumph of Free Trade. It puts an end for ever to the attempt to raise the import duties of the American tariff of 1846, and it leads ns to hope that a new and more enlightened spirit will prevail in the new Cabinet with reference to its commercial relatious with ourselves and with tbe colonies of the British Empire. The motives that urge the people of the United States to adopt an unrestricted policy in trade, because it is obviously conducive to the interests of their vast territory and of their eager industry, are not less favourable to the maintenance of pe&ce, and especially of peace with this country ; for no gains of rapine or of i war can for a moment be weighed in value or in 1 amount against the results of the steady and pacific progress of a free people. But although these principles, which are in perfect accordance with our own, lead us to hope that the term of General Pierces administration may strengthen the relations of amity and good i will between the United States »nJ this country, we cannot participate in the enthusiastic confidence of the party which has just raised him to power, for we cannot overlook some of the darker elements in its composition, or some of the wilder influences to which this Government will be exposed. The most powerful of all the forces which are combined in this electoral achievement is that of the slave interest. The s>lave States have not stood in so commanding a position in the Union i since the Presidency of Jefferson as they do at this hour, for, under the plausible pretext of maintaining the indissoluble nnion of the confedeiation, they have succeeded in making the whole nation, including the freest States, submit in a manner to their influence and adopt their candidate. Hence the Tout of the Freesoilers, tbe Abolitionists, and the party opposed to tbe extension of slavery is even more complete than that of their allies, the old Whigs. The new Government will stand, then, dangerously committed on this ground to the demands of the slave holding States, opposed as they are to humanity, to good policy, aud to law. Further, General Pierce is the candidate of the masses, and he represents in tbe highest degree their spirit, their ambition, and their inordinate desire to increase the influence of the United States, not only at home but abroad. We read in one of the leading organs of his supporters : — " The democratic party have now a splendid career opened before them,, and if they fail to appropriate it to the proper advancement of all the great interests of the country, domestic and foreign, they will be held to their responsibility in due season. But we shall look to General Pierces administration for a domestic policy and a foreign policy which shall not only promote the internal glory and prosperity of the Union, but the extension of its power aud influence among the nations of the earth." Such expectations are naturally excited by an elective Government, fresh from the platform to which it has been raised by a proud and excited people, to whose vanity and ambition every slim* ulant has been uiucrupulously applied for several months ; but they are more easily excited than satisfied. The power and influence of the United States among the nations of the earth depend not on tbeir foreign policy, but on their internal freedom and prosperity ; but if there be one thing more than another which all their greatest statesmen have sought to avoid, it is inter feience in ioreign affairs. Of late, however, (he popular tide flows strongly in that direction ; the American people* bave become singularly excitable on these topics ; and before the next four years have expired, General Pier. a may expect to have io deal with some foreign questions of great difficulty. Then it is that the Government, of which he will be the head, will find reason to dread tbe overwhelming popular power which has cairied this election, and to regret ibat the balance of

the State is not more evenly trimmed by the presence and control of a strong ani able Opposition, In all free and representative States the power of the Opposition is alternately a most useful check or spur to the Government ; but that check is especially needed in the United States, where no other control exists at all, and where the less moderate of the two parties will soon be in office. It is impossible to reflect without anxiety that the Union has recently lost Ml the great men who stood forward on many a perilous occasion to brave popular excitement and to carry measures of conciliation and compromise on disputed questions, both at home and abroad; and now, in addition to the. loss of those eminent persons, even the party to which they belonged is broken up. There can be no greater danger for an American Government than to find itself strong to excess ia the confidence of its supporters, and driven along by their desires without the regulating influence of a competent Opposition ; for such a party is not easily taught the moderation which the responsibility of office commonly imposes even on the most headstrong and impetuous of popular leadets. That will be to some exten* General Pierces position ; and we await with interest the language in which he vsill first tddress himself to his adherents and to the country at large, for at present nothing of note has proceeded from him. It is a singular consequence of the institutions of the United States that although this election has virtually annihilated the principles and the party of the present Administration in the first week of November, yet Mr. Fillmore and his Cabinet j will continue to conduct public affairs till the 4th March, and that in the interval the President will as usual address Congress, and take all the steps he may think fit, in obedience to a system of policy which the nation has repudiated and condemned, la truth, such a condition of things must strike the Executive power with temporary paralysis, and its only care should be to expire with decorum. Three months are given it to wind up its affairs, and perhaps the same period of three months may serve to allay the heats of the late election, and to give a suitable interval of reflection to the inevitable inheritor of the power Mr. Fillmore still exercises ; but he has already lost the support of the country, since his successor is chosen for the opinions and intentions which are most opposite to those of the existing Government.