New Orleans Daily True Delta, October 12, 1860

The complexion of the news of the elections on Tuesday, placed before our readers this morning, seems to vary little from that of Wednesday evening, and consists of nothing more than a general declaration by the reporter for the associated press that Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have gone by various majorities for the abolitionists. We shall accept this report as correct, subject to such modifications and explanations as the future may furnish, and, in doing so, we shall not attempt to disguise the real importance and seriousness of the condition of political affairs it reveals. We cannot, however, accept the result of the elections just held as decisive of anything, save the utter mischievousness of running Mr. Bell as a presidential candidate; for, however much democratic divisions may inspire hopes of some electoral success in the south, it is made painfully apparent that his running can have no other possible effect than to enable the foes of the Union, north and south, so to co-operate as to defeat the only candidate having the prestige of a great name, a spotless record and a powerful political organization to sustain him. We do not doubt the honesty of the intention which we are sure animates Mr. Bell and the mass of his supporters, nor question their patriotic disposition in the event of their electoral strength being necessary or requisite for the election of Douglas to give it to him freely, frankly and ungrudgingly; but as true Union men they must now see clearly that under no possible circumstances can Mr. Bell obtain a single northern state, and that consequently the only effect of his running will be to divide the strength of the national parties and make those who regard the maintenance of the Union as above all other considerations antagonistic to each other. That the administration has done all in its power to bring about the disasters just recorded there can be no doubt, and that it will up to the last incessantly endeavor to secure the election of Lincoln there cannot be a question. Is it not the part of common prudence, then, to take into consideration whether it is not better to withdraw the Union candidate, who is unconquerably weak in a national point of view, and combine all the conservative elements upon him who brings popular strength to our common cause, and who, if elected, will have the great conservative elements of the whole nation united to support his administration? The retention of Breckinridge in the field will of course be persisted in, because the object of his candidacy was not the defeat of the deadly enemies of the south, but the destruction of the Union democracy, which his running, combined with the administration’s secret and open hostility, it is hoped will effect; therefore, it seems to us, if the good sense and patriotism which we believe animate the main body of Mr. Bell’s friends, are in the ascendant, that he will be withdrawn, and the field thus made more manageable against the disunionists who apparently unconnected work assiduously to a common end.

The south is now rapidly drifting into the fatal embrace of her most implacable enemies. The insanity or the malignancy of her prominent public men has impelled them to assume the position which, of all others, will be most fatal to her political importance and strength as an integral section of the confederacy. They have sought to separate her, not from the north, with which perhaps it is not of much consequence to maintain alliance, but from the west, and in pursuit of the most selfish purposes, and the gratification of the meanest vindictiveness, have repelled the offer of fraternization with it, without which, in the future, we can neither have political strength nor national consideration. We are not of those who believe that Lincoln, as president, will either overthrow our constitutional rights, or conspire against our DOMESTIC institutions; we neither believe he has the capacity to do the one, nor the motive to attempt the other; but so far as the south can be dwarfed, cramped and shut in from healthy intercourse with the world, and such

Will New York prove herself equal to the occasion? Will she now come forward, as the largest and most powerful State of the Union, and save us (and herself) from the consequences—social, political and commercial—of Lincoln’s election? Will her chief city, built up to colossal proportions by the commerce of the whole Union, permit that Union to be endangered, if not destroyed, by the fanatical folly and madness of her own people? Are there not enough conservative men in the city and State, if they will only postpone their petty disputes and combine in solid mass, to save the State from the grasp of that party whose triumph will still further embitter the South—already fearfully exasperated—against the continuance of our Federal Union?

Whether this is so or not, one thing is certain—that New York is now our only hope of escape from the dangers that environ and the evils that threaten us. To New York alone the South now looks for effective resistance to the sectional foe. We undertake to say, in behalf of the people of the South of all parties, that New York is the only remaining hope of our people for deliverance from the evils that are impending over us.

So far as the South is concerned, we differ only in regard to candidates. Upon the common ground of hostility to Lincoln, there is no disagreement of opinion. We may vote for Mr. Bell, for Mr. Breckinridge, or Mr. Douglas—but the solid vote of the South will be against Lincoln. If Lincoln be elected, then, it will be by a sectional party and a sectional vote—and by a sectional party having as the basis of its organization a sentiment of hostility to a domestic institution of the South which in no respect concerns them. We will not undertake to say what will be the consequences of Lincoln’s election. That the very mildest result would be to make the Union more objectionable, and to increase the number of positive and unconditional disunionists, no one will deny. New York has it in her power to avert that result. As the greatest member of the Confederacy, she can now strengthen or impair it as she may decide. Upon the great Empire State, alone, we repeat, the hopes of the South now rest for the preservation of the peace, the security, and it may be, the Union of the States.