employed all the influence of
his high station to get the Tariff Bill of 1846 through Congress; and
Mr. Dallas, who had been nominated for the Vice-Presidency with the
express purpose of "catching" the votes of Protectionists, gave his
casting vote in the Senate in favor of the new bill, which meant the
repeal of the Tariff of '42. The Democrats are playing the same game now
that they played in 1844, with this difference, that the stakes are ten
thousand times greater now than they were then, and that their manner of
play is far hardier than it was twenty years since. Then, the question,
though important, related only to a point of internal policy; now, it
relates to the national existence. Then, the Free-Traders did not
offensively proclaim their intention to cheat the Protectionists; now,
Mr. Fernando Wood and Mr. Vallandigham, and other leaders of the extreme
left of the Democratic party, with insulting candor, avow that to cheat
the country is the purpose which that party has in view. Mr.
Vallandigham, who made the Chicago Platform, explicitly declares that
that Platform and General McClellan's letter of acceptance do not agree;
at the same time Mr. Wood, who is for peace to the knife, calmly tells
us that General McClellan, as President, would do the work of the
Democracy,--and we need no Daniel to interpret Mr. Wood's words. We mean
no disrespect to General McClellan, on the contrary we treat him with
perfect respect, when we say that we do not believe he has a higher
sense of honor than Mr. Polk possessed; and as Mr. Polk became a tool in
the hands of a faction,--being a Protectionist during the contest of
'44, and an Anti-Protectionist after that contest had been decided in
his favor,--so is it intended that General McClellan shall become a tool
in the hands of another faction. Mr. Polk was employed to effect the
destruction of a "black tariff": General McClellan is employed to
destroy a nation that is supposed to be given up to "black
republicanism." We do not believe that the soldier will be found so
successful an instrument as the civilian proved to be.

An ounce of fact is supposed to be worth a ton of theory; and the facts
of the last four or five years admit of our believing the worst that can
be suspected of the purposes of the Democratic party. It is not
uncharitable to say that the leaders and managers of that party
contemplate, in the event of their triumph in November, the surrender of
the country to