LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 v>>. > 

 
 THE 
 
 SONS OF THE SIRES; 
 
 A 
 
 HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND DESTINY 
 
 gmmcait 
 
 AND ITS PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON THE NEXT 
 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED A REVIEW OF 
 
 THE LETTER OF THE HON. HENRY A. WISE, 
 
 AGAINST THE 
 
 KNOW-NOTHINGS. 
 
 BY AN AMERICAN. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO. 
 
 1855.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 
 LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO., 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 
 for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY PAGE 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 CAUSES OP ITS ORIGIN 23 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 PRINCIPLES STATED, ILLUSTRATED, AND EN- 
 FORCED 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE OBJECTS WHICH THIS ORGANIZATION AIMS 
 TO ACCOMPLISH 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NECESSITY OP SUCH AN ORGANIZATION 
 EXAMINED 81 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE EXIGENCIES OF THE TIMES DEMAND AN 
 
 AMERICAN PARTY 97 
 
 vii
 
 Vlll . CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE TRUE POSITION OF THE PARTY ......... PAGE 112 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 THE RAPID PROGRESS AND WIDE EXTENT OP 
 ITS INFLUENCE AN ARGUMENT FOR THE EX- 
 CELLENCE OF THE AMERICAN PARTY ............ 137 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PLAN OF OPERATION ADOPTED BY THE 
 AMERICAN PARTY .................................... 148 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PROBABLE INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN 
 PARTY ON THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 160 
 
 A REPLY 
 To THE LETTER OF THE HON. HENRY A. WISE 
 
 AGAINST THE KNOW-NOTHINGS 183
 
 THE 
 
 SONS OF THE SIEES 
 
 /\*^\/^/WX^\/\ -WtSWl/V/VV/X^N/NSWN^SV 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 AMONG the clashing schemes and conflicting 
 interests which have agitated our social system 
 to its profoundest depths, a fact of startling im- 
 port has recently been evolved a fact transcen- 
 dently important on account of the scope of its 
 bearings, and momentous on account of its form- 
 ative influence upon the future destiny of our 
 nation. That fact is the "Know Nothing" 
 organization. 
 
 Like a clap of thunder from a brilliant sky, 
 it has waked up millions of native-born citizens 
 from their slumbers, to contemplate the dangers 
 which threaten their altars and their hearths. 
 Startled from that repose of security which a 
 conscious integrity of purpose and action inspire, 
 they look with horror upon the uncovered snares 
 which a stealthy foreign hand has framed to 
 strangle the foster-mother that shelters and nou- 
 rishes those outcasts who fled to her bosom for 
 
 (9)
 
 10 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 protection. "While the honest and patriotic 
 have been roused to a true perception of their 
 duty, it has also sent ominous tremors to the 
 hearts of truckling demagogues and corrupt 
 politicians. These tremble for their places, and 
 struggle to retain their power. This organiza- 
 tion is remarkable for the suddenness of its 
 birth, and marvellous for its unparalleled growth 
 and expansion. When this new star loomed 
 out in our political firmament, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, in its full-orbed brilliancy to guide 
 our destinyj, multitudes labored to obscure or 
 quench it ; but it laughed at their fruitless at- 
 tempts, and moved onward to its day of glory ; 
 or, to change the metaphor, it was scarcely born 
 before Herods sent their murderous confederates 
 to strangle it in its cradle. But having no notion 
 to be dispatched so unceremoniously, it had 
 grown to a giant, and set out on the march of 
 its destiny, before the executioners arrived. Hav- 
 ing eluded their grasp and escaped from the 
 knife, they labored to circumscribe it to some 
 isolated spot, or cut short its operations by 
 exiling it from their favor. People were duly 
 warned against the young monster ; the faithful 
 were drilled to an obstinate resistance on its 
 first approach, and commanded to scout, to 
 curse, and to crush it. Yet notwithstanding the 
 formidable antagonists which it everywhere en- 
 countered, it lived in the fire, and its successes
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 11 
 
 were still reported, and each recurring day chro- 
 nicled some new victory. Such was the extent 
 of the alarm which it created, that for a season 
 our national councils were partially deserted, for 
 their members had gone to wage a crusade 
 against this formidable enemy. If they could 
 only catch it, they would call a national jubilee 
 to its immolation ; but while they looked for it 
 here, it was yonder, and there, and everywhere ; 
 and behold, the Know Nothings, though not 
 known, sprang up thick and fast. Cities were 
 carefully fortified, armed sentinels guarded every 
 avenue that led to the road of public patronage 
 and power ; but, as invisible as it is potent, it 
 moved unseen amid the arena where aspirants 
 for official stations were contending, defeating 
 the well-organized parties, and spreading con- 
 sternation among the mighty. 
 
 It is a queer thing, but it is a thing of life and 
 power. It is invincible, for it has stood un- 
 blanched amid the hottest fires; and weapons 
 that never before failed in conquering, were 
 shivered upon its breast, and fell in broken 
 fragments harmless at its feet. After it survived 
 the keen blades of argument, shafts of ridicule 
 and the canister of executive displeasure were 
 poured from the great" guns with which the 
 batteries around our Metropolis are mounted; 
 and these were caught up, and re-shot by the 
 smaller calibre; but still it maintained its po-
 
 12 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 eition, and smiled that it should be the harm- 
 less occasion of firing up so many brains, 
 until they glowed more fiercely than Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's furnace. And now the anathemas of 
 the Vatican are thundering about its head, and 
 the powers that be will not acknowledge it as a 
 legitimate offspring of Republicanism ; but for 
 all that, its shrine is sought, and offerings more 
 precious than India's gems or California's gold 
 are lavishly poured upon its altar the affections 
 of hearts true to the great interests of the country, 
 and the energies of minds free from the bondage 
 and blight of the papacy. An organization so 
 recent in its origin, yet so wide-spread in its in- 
 fluence so silent in its operations, yet so potent 
 in its action, has drawn upon its movements not 
 only the eyes of this nation, but also of that 
 foreign despotism which had already laid the 
 foundation deep in the structure of our govern- 
 ment, whereon it hoped to rebuild its falling 
 throne an organization so commanding in 
 importance to others, deserves our study and 
 demands a record of its history. 
 
 A nation may be born in a day ! The thun- 
 ders of an hour may rock it into a heap of 
 ruins ! To guard their national existence during 
 its infancy, was not the whole duty of the Ame- 
 rican people ; but to have walls of true hearts, 
 beating around it through all its progress to- 
 wards its high destiny. Despotism exists so long
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 13 
 
 as the iron heel can keep under its quivering 
 and bleeding hearts ; but wo to the tyrants, when 
 crushed humanity begins to pulsate with aspira- 
 tions for freedom. He knows, and therefore 
 fears, that the throne of the oppressor reposes on 
 an explosive mine, which needs but the match 
 to shiver the most powerful despotism to atoms. 
 Happily for all, our government requires none 
 but bloodless revolutions. It carries within its 
 bosom the elements of its own permanency. 
 These elements are endued with the requisite 
 power to correct any irregular tendencies to 
 which the body politic may be liable. Every 
 system which aims at stability and hopes to be 
 crowned with perpetuity, must have incorporated 
 this corrective means. With us, not the one, 
 nor the few, but the many, are the individuals 
 in whom the governing power resides. The 
 people are the elements of permanency in our 
 political system; and when any irregularities 
 occur, or any manifest departures, by those 
 whom they have elevated to official stations, 
 from the principles of our constitution, are seen, 
 they must correct them ; they are the sovereigns, 
 and it is their prerogative to guide the interests 
 of the nation. 
 
 The American party had its origin, therefore, 
 not as its opponents affirm, in defective views 
 of our government; nor is it the child of dis- 
 appointed politicians, nor of the spirit of in- 
 2
 
 14 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 tolerance ; but it is the offspring of those self- 
 adjusting principles, and those elements of per- 
 manency found in our civil structure; or, in 
 other words, it is the child of the people. It is 
 not a bastard republican, but a born sovereign 
 a prince of freedom ; an heir legitimate, rapidly 
 passing to his maturity, who will present him- 
 self on the 4th of March, 1857, at the Capitol 
 of Washington, to assert his prerogatives to the 
 Chair of State, and his right to rule the nation 
 of freemen who have given him existence. He 
 is now a youth of rare capacities and of glorious 
 promise ; so attractive, that his personal charms 
 daily captivate thousands and tens of thousands 
 of hearts. He is possessed of such attributes, that 
 men everywhere confide to him their dearest 
 interests such gentleness, that the most timid 
 venture under his protection; and exhibiting 
 such energy, that those trembling under the 
 feebleness of age lean upon his arm for support. 
 If I were to draw a portrait of this youth, and 
 analyze the properties of his character, I might 
 commence by saying that he is very much in 
 appearance like the pictures of the manly Wash- 
 ington ; i. e. assuming that which no one doubts, 
 that the spirit of man externalizes itself in the 
 person of the man. He is unassuming, yet . 
 great ; with an eye calm as the ocean in repose, 
 but penetrating as a sunbeam, while it gleams 
 with an energy more powerful than the earth-
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 15 
 
 quake. With a brow of towering majesty, 
 where thought and hope repose in communion, 
 and in which the destiny of an injured nation 
 resides, clothing the countenance with an air of 
 that sublime self-reliance, which conscious wis- 
 dom and strength inspire. 
 
 The first time I saw him was in the city of 
 Brotherly Love. It was on the evening preceding 
 the first great election of the consolidated city. 
 It was one of those charming nights when the 
 voices of nature appeal to the human spirit, to 
 draw it forth from the busy throng, to those se- 
 clusions where man may commune with his 
 thoughts, and those invisible powers that move 
 around him. On such a night I strolled into 
 Independence square, musing upon the exciting 
 scenes I had witnessed during the fortnight I 
 had tarried in that beautiful and busy city. In 
 my rambles, I had carefully observed the various 
 places of note. One thing struck me as singu- 
 lar, shortly after I had set out on this exploring 
 tour, and that was, that nearly all the officials 
 were of foreign birth. In the custom-house 
 and in the city government, and indeed in 
 nearly all places of trust and profit, were per- 
 sonages, whose brogue betrayed their nativity. 
 I wondered how it could happen, that in a 
 crowded city, where so many sober, honest and 
 industrious native-born citizens were toiling in 
 the shop, and from the cellar to the garret, that
 
 16 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 none of these sons of the soil could be trusted 
 with the keeping of the peace and safety of the 
 city. As I entered the beautiful enclosure, preg- 
 nant with so many stirring memories, and hal- 
 lowed by the most sacred associations, the old 
 clock pealed out the hour of ten. From the 
 same point issued, seventy-eight years ago, 
 those notes of liberty which swept on angel 
 wings over this land from that sacred place 
 the proclamation went forth, that no foreign 
 despot should oppress Americans. It seemed 
 as though there were something mournful 
 in those vibrations which announced the 
 hour ; and I almost imagined that the faithful 
 chronicler of time was conscious that true pa- 
 triotism had sadly declined as if it knew the 
 powerful sway which a despot beyond the ocean 
 had acquired over this nation. This impres- 
 sion had previously forced itself upon my 
 mind ; and, however unwelcome, will establish 
 itself in the mind of even the most careless ob- 
 server of that which daily transpires around 
 him. For what, does he behold ? At our poli- 
 tical gatherings every foreigner is pressed into 
 service to promote the interests of that party 
 which has been most lavish in its promises of 
 reward. Not only are the huzzas at our hust- 
 ings foreign, but the polls have frequently been 
 under the special charge of drunken aliens, with 
 no other object than to exclude all citizens whose
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 17 
 
 nerves are inadequate, and whose character for- 
 bids their participation in a row. The intrigue 
 and rowdyism which have characterized almost 
 every recent campaign, have been gotten up by 
 foreigners; and to look at them, a stranger 
 would suppose that they are the sons of the soil, 
 and enjoyed all the prerogatives to let or hinder 
 others in the exercise of their rights. I had 
 scrutinized these public movements, looked into 
 the secret conclaves where high officials were 
 bidding, and prelates were selling, the suffrages 
 of their spiritual subjects to the highest bidder. 
 I had also looked into the cabinet, and saw the 
 gifted and competent American thrust from a 
 high position, to make room for one who would 
 conciliate and command the foreign element. 
 It was, while musing on this state of things, and 
 meditating on that cunningly devised and wide- 
 spread net-work of Jesuitism, the deep corrup- 
 tion which exists among politicians, and the 
 base prostitution of power and influence on the 
 part of those who fill the high places of our 
 republic ; to this masked enemy of freedom, that 
 I involuntarily exclaimed, Shade of Washing- 
 ton ! whither will all this tend ? I was in that 
 particular frame of mind when our thoughts 
 become a burden, and the anxieties of the heart 
 cause us to long for a companion to share our 
 solicitudes, when there stood in my path a per- 
 sonage of commanding appearance, and thus 
 2* .
 
 18 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 addressed me: "Sir, you seem troubled a 
 weighty care has cast its dark shadow upon your 
 brow can you trust to another a knowledge 
 of the secret which disquiets your spirit?" Ex- 
 cellent sir, said I, for your language and ap- 
 pearance do not deceive me, I was pondering 
 the strange condition of things among us. I 
 have passed through this city, and travelled ex- 
 tensively through this land I have watched 
 those popular movements which now and then 
 disturb society I have traced the actions of 
 public men to their hidden sources, and have 
 discovered that those whom I followed, whom I 
 trusted and believed to be the noblest patriots, 
 are heartless and selfish, and labor for personal 
 exaltation, rather than for the advancement of 
 our country's interests. I have studied the 
 springs which keep the political machinery in 
 motion, and vainly tried to solve the problem 
 why millions of freemen suffer themselves to be 
 controlled in the choice of their rulers, by a su- 
 perstitious and tyrannical power a power be- 
 tween whose seat and us the ocean rolls, but a 
 system so cunningly devised, that the pulsations 
 of its authority are as distinctly felt at Wash- 
 ington as at Rome. A power which fills almost 
 every office with its menials, that controls our 
 state and national legislation makes our go- 
 vernors, elects our presidents, and constructs 
 our cabinets a power courted, feared, and flat-
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 19 
 
 tered by all who aspire to honorable and influ- 
 ential positions; and I wondered whither all 
 this tends. Are we to realize the predictions 
 of despotic powers, and prove by our overthrow 
 and the prostration of our liberties and hopes, 
 that man is not capable of self-government? 
 Are we to witness the abhorrent thing a des- 
 potism born from a Republic ? Shall we see a 
 many-headed monster springing from the womb 
 of the virgin of Liberty? "Sir," said my in- 
 terrogator, "these are neither strange nor sin- 
 gular thoughts which have disturbed your peace 
 they are feelings evoked by the genius of 
 liberty that attends the meditations of true pa- 
 triots apprehensions which had a home in the 
 mind of Washington, when he said to his staff, 
 "Put none but Americans on guard to-night." 
 Emotions that agitated his great heart, while its 
 holy pathos and earnest yearnings flowed from 
 its profound depths into that Farewell Address, 
 in which he so affectionately warns the Ameri- 
 can people against foreign intrigue and alliance. 
 They are not singular nor isolated thoughts, but 
 such as were present to the meditations of the 
 ablest statesmen of the past, and such as now 
 disturb the heart of our glorious confederacy. 
 These questions have been asked and answered, 
 and invested with that power derived from those 
 whose right it is to bestow it, I am now on my 
 mission to restore America to Americans. I am
 
 20 THE AMERICAN PAETY. 
 
 instructed to break the coils of that serpent which 
 infolds the public body, and whose fearful pres- 
 sures already cause the national heart to quiver 
 and palpitate with alarm. I will sever the mon- 
 ster's folds before his poison impregnates and 
 darkens with death the fountains of liberty. I 
 have already achieved victories, and to-morrow 
 I shall triumph here. I will carry new energy 
 from this field, and will, ere long, complete the 
 conquest of the land, and restore to the sons of 
 the sires who consecrated this soil by their blood, 
 the dearly purchased inheritance of their fathers." 
 Who are you then, I asked, that you utter such 
 purposes, and speak with such confidence, even 
 in a cause whose justice I acknowledge ? " My 
 name, though honourable, must not now be re- 
 vealed. I am hated by those who have corrupted 
 the land persecuted by those who, in their 
 infatuation for honorable distinction and self- 
 aggrandizement, have allowed themselves to be 
 duped and blinded by a foreign foe that now 
 digs a chasm about the throne of freedom. I 
 am cursed from the seats of power hunted and 
 hated anathematized in the palaces of the 
 great, and defamed in the dens of the vile but 
 I am approved by the man of honest toil, hailed 
 as a deliverer by him who would have his acres 
 protected against foreign rule, by the intelligent 
 and order-loving by patriots and Christians. 
 For although they "know me not," they know
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 21 
 
 that I am their friend, and have come to their 
 help. They understand that my mission is to 
 purify and strengthen ; to build up and fortify 
 our noble institutions, that unborn millions may 
 rejoice over them as the impregnable refuges of 
 freedom. They know that it is my high com- 
 mission to keep clear from corruption, those 
 channels through which the life of this nation 
 flows, and to aid the brave and the good to per- 
 petuate our glorious Union. I am slandered and 
 calumniated, but that harms me not. They say 
 that I was born in the night, and speak it to my 
 reproach ; but the learned Greeks declared the 
 midnight hour the hour of golden thought. 
 Chosen sometimes by the wicked for deeds of 
 evil, but to the good it yieldeth jewels. But I 
 am not just born long have I kept my vigils 
 over the land of the free and the home of the 
 brave. I sat by "Washington in his deep medi- 
 tations ; I lodged with him by the camp-fire, and 
 bowed by his side under the spangled canopy 
 of heaven, when he prayed for Divine succor in 
 the day of peril. I was closeted with Jefferson 
 and Madison, and was the companion of that 
 noble band whose motto was " Give us liberty, 
 or give us death." I was born, not amid 
 scenes of revelry or darkness, but in the quiet 
 beauty of that hour when good spirits bring 
 messages to mortals from the world of light and 
 love. Then and amid the blending glory of
 
 22 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 heaven and earth, I was born and commissioned 
 for my exalted destiny. But go now, for a great 
 conflict is waging between thy brethren and 
 aliens, and demands thy energy ; but mark as 
 thou goest, that those great prerogatives of the 
 Magna Charta, "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit 
 of Happiness" are jewels whose keeping must 
 not be confided to those who are the slaves of a 
 despot. He vanished, and my cares had taken 
 wing, and as I looked into the silent glory of 
 the starry firmament, it seemed as though the 
 spirits of the fathers of Liberty and founders 
 of our institutions, smiled approvingly on the 
 utterances of my unknown companion, and hope 
 kindled afresh in my heart, that the stars upon 
 our glorious banner would not only retain their 
 position and lustre, but that they would yet shed 
 their radiance over the earth's wide circle, and 
 wake its oppressed millions to a grand universal 
 jubilee of freedom.
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CAUSES OP ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 WHEN we behold a great popular movement 
 carrying society in a certain direction, sundering 
 the ties of party, and, like the resistless torrent, 
 rolling its weight of waters onward, and sweep- 
 ing away from their deep foundations rocky 
 barriers which vainly oppose its progress, we 
 instinctively ask, Whence has it come ? Whither 
 does it go ? How has it originated ? And what 
 are its elements of power ? A great variety of 
 causes, primary and secondary, remote and proxi- 
 mate, might be offered as operative in creating 
 this popular movement. Here opinions and 
 sentiments circulate and conflict, as freely and 
 as violently as the elements of nature; and 
 while free discussion is viewed with dread by 
 the despot, and the agitation of great political 
 questions is ominous only of evil to crowned 
 heads, in our system, where there are self-adjust- 
 ing principles, we behold this conflict of opinion 
 as a means of healthful prosperit}^. As the 
 agitations of the sea and air, and the commotion 
 in the organism of nature, are productive of
 
 24 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 ultimate good results, thus also in a form of 
 government like ours we anticipate no evil from 
 a war of principles. In this land, where the 
 freedom of speech and of the press is enjoyed in 
 the most extended amplitude, intellectual war- 
 fare constitutes no unusual phenomena. As 
 common as they are spirited, they cease to occa- 
 sion surprise. But when such an amazing result 
 is witnessed as the product of this freedom, 
 which we have in the existence of the Know- 
 Nothing organization, an inquiry into the causes 
 which have produced it, is eminently rational. 
 It is worthy of our regard it demands our at- 
 tention, for it can neither be scouted nor laughed 
 out of existence. It is an order possessing those 
 attributes which challenge the high regard of all 
 men. Its numerical strength, considering its 
 recent appearance, is without a precedent. It 
 has spread with astonishing rapidity, and num- 
 bers among its members men from all profes- 
 sions and pursuits, and these, for the most part, 
 our best citizens ; highly respectable, whether 
 we consider the intellectual or moral character 
 of its adherents. And so far as the organization 
 has had opportunity to unfold itself to the public 
 eye, its deportment has been such as to commend 
 itself to the favorable consideration of good 
 citizens. 
 
 From the character it presents to our scrutiny, 
 it is no unreasonable assumption, that the emer-
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 25 
 
 gency which called it into being was one deeply- 
 felt in the bosom of society, and one which called 
 into play the higher impulses of humanity. The 
 nature of that emergency will be fully unfolded 
 as we progress in these pages, and for the pre- 
 sent therefore only a few of the causes which 
 contributed to call it into being will be touched 
 upon. 
 
 One of the remote causes, and which has been 
 operative for many years and has at last materi- 
 ally contributed to bring into existence the 
 American party, is to be sought, in the frequent 
 assaults upon Protestantism. He who has care- 
 fully watched the workings in the social system, 
 must know that for a number of years there have 
 been systematic, but in many instances veiled 
 efforts made, to create a train of influences which 
 might gradually weaken and ultimately destroy 
 the Protestant element in our country. This 
 could only be accomplished by a variety of 
 means, and these used clandestinely. Our nation 
 being a complete amalgam of the leading nations 
 of the earth, the Jesuitical maxim, " divide and 
 conquer," could play with more hope of success 
 than where such circumstances did not favor. 
 One great object was therefore to adopt such a 
 line of policy as to create of the Catholics, an 
 " imperium in imperio," and to sow as much dis- 
 sension as possible among the remainder of the 
 citizens. To accomplish the end aimed at, they 
 3
 
 26 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 must, as far as possible, prevent the fusion of 
 these different representatives into a bona fide 
 American character; and therefore they tried to 
 raise new issues without end, in order to preserve 
 distinct nationalities among us. 
 
 This was not difficult, among a people made 
 up of a number of races and so many nations, for 
 there were necessarily found among us opposing 
 elements and conflicting opinions. Just so far 
 as they could succeed in this, they would make 
 room for their own growth, and hope to weaken 
 the Protestant element by dividing its adherents 
 into hostile parties. But they were not satisfied 
 with this, they exerted their influence upon the 
 action of our civil institutions, and had, to some 
 extent, succeeded in causing the political economy 
 of the nation to swallow up its theology. This 
 would necessarily be a slow process, for the de- 
 scendants of the Puritans, of Luther, of Qalvin, 
 and Penn. could not readily be induced to lay 
 aside their old-fashioned ideas of morality and 
 government. 
 
 First the cry was everywhere raised that this 
 is a free country, that we must tolerate error as 
 well as truth, and when they had as they thought 
 prepared the public mind for it, they made the 
 first bold attempt to strike from our political 
 firmament its sun, by an advocacy of the banish- 
 ment of the Bible from the public schools. The 
 opinion of our strait-notioned fathers, and
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 27 
 
 that of some of their children, though not claim- 
 ing their sterling virtues, that the Bible was the 
 best book to expand the human mind, to culti- 
 vate the heart, and to form a character of solid 
 virtues, was controverted. It was asserted in 
 the presence of a nation of purer statesmen, and 
 nobler philanthropists, than any other can boast, 
 and in the face of a most thriving and virtuous 
 population, and in defiance of these monuments 
 of the worth of bible-influence on the mind of 
 youth, the vain philosophy of the age, nay 
 rather Jesuitism in disguise, dared to affirm that 
 the Bible was not adapted to the purposes to 
 which it had been so long and so successfully 
 applied. There were appeals addressed to Pro- 
 testants that they must be tolerant, that they 
 must respect the scruples of Catholics, and ac- 
 commodate the school system to suit the views 
 of all, even three or half-a-dozen in a commu- 
 nity of thousands. And these kind souls in the 
 abundance of their liberality, or in compliance 
 with the suggestions of an easy virtue, but with 
 politicians from a desire to conciliate the favor 
 of the Jesuits, after a little show of resistance 
 yielded the point, and God's word was banished 
 from our schools. And now in these intellectual 
 laboratories, where the future citizens and rulers 
 are to be fashioned, they have in many instances 
 no book whose influence alone is adequate to 
 the formation of a virtuous citizen or an upright 
 and wise statesman.
 
 28 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 I regard, therefore, as among the most promi- 
 nent causes of the origin of the Know-Nothings, 
 the encroachments of foreigners on the sacred 
 rights of American citizens. Our government 
 was established to meet the wants, and secure 
 the happiness of the largest possible number of 
 its subjects. While it repudiated the intolerance 
 of despotisms, it granted the amplest liberty 
 compatible with the peace and safety of the 
 state to its citizens, native and adopted. The 
 Roman Catholic power, accustomed to rule both 
 Church and State, and animated with that arro- 
 gant spirit which exalts itself above all other 
 institutions, both human and divine, could not 
 fraternize with other subjects, nor be long con- 
 tented with an equality of privileges, but aimed 
 at the supremacy not simply in the religious in- 
 stitutions and educational machinery of the land ; 
 but also labored for the possession of civil 
 supremacy. Short of the highest pinnacle to 
 which it could ascend, i. e., of absolute and un- 
 limited power, it could never rest in peace. 
 
 Whatever be the space of time through which 
 its plans reach, or however Herculean the efforts 
 necessary to compass its ends, it rests not, flags 
 not, in its pursuit of the coveted good. To 
 mature their schemes they wrought silently, yet 
 effectually, in the pulpit, in the seminary of 
 learning, in the confessional, but much more in 
 the political caucus, and at the polls. Their
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 29 
 
 operations were conducted under the guise of a 
 mock humility, and their purposes so adroitly 
 concealed, that few believed that their vast 
 machinery had been planned and kept in motion 
 with a view to the attainment of power. If a 
 note of alarm was occasionally sounded, the 
 secular press with a unanimity that indicated the 
 strong anxiety of both political parties to pro- 
 pitiate the papal influence, denounced those who 
 uttered their apprehensions concerning the ulte- 
 rior designs of Rome. 
 
 The American people born with the most 
 generous impulses, and instinct with the princi- 
 ples of toleration, measuring others by the dis- 
 positions and integrity of their own hearts, were 
 slow to believe that any class of men either in 
 their individual or united capacity, could be 
 laboring for the attainment of such power as 
 would enable them to annul the charter of our 
 rights, and substitute for our noble Constitution, 
 the arbitrary and bloody code of the Inquisition. 
 Partially through ignorance of the dark history 
 of Papacy, but much more because of their 
 implicit confidence in the wisdom and integrity 
 of party leaders, they gave their support to 
 Jesuitical aspirants to office, which showed their 
 unlimited confidence in those who professed the 
 most ardent love for those institutions which 
 their creed would bid them curse. The success 
 of Catholics was as marked, as their progress 
 3*
 
 30 CAUSES OP ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 was rapid. In many places they held the balance 
 of power, and it was the too free exercise of 
 this power, and their growing demands for 
 favors, that first awakened suspicion in the 
 minds of the reflecting, and which finally resulted 
 in serious apprehensions of this dangerous class. 
 Had Catholics, like other citizens, fallen into the 
 ranks of the two great parties, and exercised the 
 right of suffrage as individuals, without respect 
 to the religious associations, or tendencies of the 
 candidate, the "Know-Nothings" would never 
 have sprung into existence. But it became 
 manifest to Americans that the Bishops and 
 Archbishops held absolute control over the minds 
 of their spiritual subjects ; and by this combina- 
 tion, this distinct politico-religious organization of 
 a large body of men, this " imperium in imperio," 
 which is now falsely charged upon the American 
 party, ready to cast their votes in that direction 
 which would most effectually tend to the ad- 
 vancement of their Church ; it was this which 
 created the emergency that demanded a rising 
 of the people against these encroachments upon 
 our peace and safety. The Archbishop of New 
 York seems to have been the very soul of this 
 movement. Emboldened by his successes, and 
 calculating too strongly upon the sympathy 
 which he found among politicians, he quickened 
 his march towards power. His encroachments 
 upon cherished American interests which he
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 31 
 
 would blight with his vandal hand, were in such 
 quick succession, as to occasion alarm. As their 
 policy was gradually unfolded, it unveiled the 
 atrocious purposes which had been so long con- 
 cealed from public scrutiny, until he formally 
 announced in his Chapter of Catholic history, 
 that republicanism was incompatible with the 
 interests of the Church. Feeling himself strongly 
 entrenched in the affections of his people, and 
 overrating his influence over the American mind, 
 he dared to vindicate the government of Tuscany 
 in its oppressions of a hapless family, for no 
 other crime than that of reading the scriptures. 
 He denounced the thousands who had assembled 
 to give expression to their sympathy for the un- 
 fortunate Madiai. And as if determined with 
 one effort to silence Americans, and to cause 
 them, nolens volens, to yield submission to Papal 
 dictation, he ventures on a reply to the great 
 speech of Senator Cass, on religious toleration, 
 attempting to convince the people that freedom 
 is an inalienable and inviolable right of con- 
 science, and that however the body may be tor- 
 tured, it retires to its impregnable fortress and 
 defies all the horrid implements of torture which 
 Eome knows so well how to apply. The Ameri- 
 can people rightly judged that if such were the 
 views of religious toleration which Rome pro- 
 mulgates and maintains, we had better keep her 
 within such limits, as to prevent her from indul-
 
 32 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 ging us with such religious freedom. Followed 
 up by Brownson's expositions of the Divine right 
 of the Church to dictate law and to rule rulers, 
 they showed too clearly what might be expected 
 when these modest gentlemen attained the end 
 of their wishes. Then, too, the " Shepherd of 
 the Valley," published under the auspices of an- 
 other Bishop, stoutly maintained the right of the 
 Church to burn heretics, and vindicated the 
 horrible slaughters by which Rome crimsoned 
 the soil of every land where she exercised undis- 
 puted authority. This same monster, or spirit 
 from the dark ages, denounced our educational 
 systems, denied the right of laymen to read the 
 Bible, and boldly affirmed that the masses ought 
 not to be educated. And all this parade of 
 Catholic abominations was designed probably to 
 prepare the way for the Pope's Nuncio, who 
 doubtless had plenary powers to take possession 
 of President, government and all, provided that 
 the work had sufficiently progressed to bring the 
 Americans into quiet submission to His Holiness 
 Pius IX. Or if some few thousands might make 
 a show of resistance, was not Bedini, who had 
 butchered the noble Bassi, and whose hands were 
 yet crimsoned with the blood of those who dared 
 to aspire to be free, the very instrument to dis- 
 pose of those misguided and refractory persons 
 who might still suppose that they had a right to 
 object to his dictation ?
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 33 
 
 Such was the state of things which gave rise 
 to the American party. Was there not abun- 
 dant occasion to create alarm ? "Was it not time 
 for the people to rise in their majesty, and with- 
 stand these enemies of our rights? Is it not 
 just, is it not a duty imposed hy heaven, seconded 
 by conscience, and impressed by the most hal- 
 lowed associations, to show these usurpers of 
 authority the constitutional limits, and say to 
 them, "hitherto shall ye come, but here shall 
 your proud waves be stayed ?" They had found 
 the word of God the most formidable obstruction 
 in the way of progress for Romanism, and there- 
 fore their ingenuity was first taxed to displace 
 from the schools this fosterer of religious and 
 civil freedom. They would take it from the 
 young they would conduct the rising genera- 
 tion from the fountain of living waters, to broken 
 cisterns from the study of the science of im- 
 mortality and its God, to the sickly legends of 
 pretended saints. Their complaints of an injured 
 conscience because the Protestant Bible was read 
 in schools, had two objects in view first to. 
 withdraw its influence from the minds of the 
 young, for that Church has always regarded the 
 scriptures as hostile to its interests and dangerous 
 to its existence. The priests fear nothing so 
 much as an open Bible ; for it teaches on many 
 points the very opposite of what that Church 
 teaches.
 
 34 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 In the Bible the soul is brought directly to the 
 fountain of blessing without the intervention of 
 any human being, which is adverse to the interests 
 of the papacy, because it diminishes its revenues. 
 And just in proportion as they could bring the 
 reading of the scriptures into disuse, they would 
 aid in the advancement of their principles. An- 
 other object, however, was to obtain possession 
 of the public funds to carry forward their private 
 operations. They claimed it as a right, if not 
 a constitutional yet a moral right, a portion 
 equal to the amount of taxation assessed upon 
 Catholics. Had any efforts been made to prose- 
 lyte their children, or had they been compelled 
 to read the Protestant version of the Bible, there 
 might have been some cause of complaint ; but 
 such were not the facts. But their exertions in 
 relation to this subject, may be regarded as a 
 feeler of the public pulse. It may have been 
 designed as the beginning of a bad end. Gould 
 they have prostrated the public school system, 
 the noblest institution ever devised to form 
 American citizens out of the different nations 
 represented among us, could they have stormed 
 this fortress of our freedom, they might then 
 have more readity carried their devastations to 
 the very citadel of Liberty. 
 
 Of a like character were all the other demon- 
 strations from these modest dictators. From the 
 period when the Catholic chapter of American
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 35 
 
 history made its appearance, there commenced a 
 declaration of Catholic prerogatives, and an un- 
 folding of their tyrannical system, that perfectly 
 astounded all classes. It was unquestionably 
 the infatuation of the directing power that 
 opened the eyes of the people, and changed the 
 current of popular sympathy into feelings of 
 distrust. For if according to the showing of 
 this prelate, republicanism and Romanism are 
 antagonistic in their elements and tendencies, 
 and cannot co-exist in the same place in harmony, 
 then the apprehensions of the people were not 
 unfounded, and they acted judiciously when they 
 determined to dispense with the favor of a power 
 that was confessedly hostile to our institutions. 
 They said if the highest Roman ecclesiastic in 
 this country avows the hostility of his creed to 
 all that we cherish, and if he sanctions the an- 
 nouncement of others that when Rome becomes 
 dominant, religious toleration must terminate, 
 we are justified in believing that such are the 
 intentions of the Catholic powers, and we do 
 right to rise up, to silence these insolent minions 
 of the pope. 
 
 The most far-seeing and judicious minds, had 
 often expressed it as their conviction that foreign 
 despots were co-operating with the Jesuits to 
 subvert, if possible, our government. For it is 
 known to those crowned heads, that as long as 
 this Union stands, so long their thrones must
 
 36 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 tremble. Guard as they will their kingdoms 
 against the inroads of liberal principles, and do 
 what they may to shut out the spirit of freedom, 
 their subjects catch the inspiration from the very 
 air, and cannot and will not lie quietly under 
 the wrongs which crush their spirits to the dust. 
 To overturn and cover with disastrous ruin our 
 institutions is a purpose which lies near their 
 hearts. And it is therefore not unreasonable to 
 suppose that they would do all in their power to 
 advance a system amongst us, which aims at the 
 destruction of republicanism, and the establish- 
 ment of a spiritual despotism. And if any 
 organized body any human combination could 
 bring about such a disastrous result, the Romish 
 hierarchy would do it. 
 
 The policy which governs their action provides 
 for all contingencies which may arise in the pro- 
 secution of their labors. They are permitted to 
 press all manner of instrumentalities into their 
 service, and as with them the end accomplished 
 justifies the means, they are fully authorized to 
 commit any atrocities which are deemed neces- 
 sary to effect their purpose. They are carefully 
 educated for their work, prepared by a long 
 course of training for endurance, for intrigue, 
 and, if necessary, for self-immolation, to give 
 success to their ambitious aspirings. There is 
 not a country upon the globe where Jesuitism 
 has reigned triumphant that has not been de-
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 37 
 
 spoiled of its noblest blessings, and swept as 
 with the blight of death, through their instru- 
 mentality. 
 
 It must therefore be obvious to every unpre- 
 judiced mind conversant even to a limited extent 
 with their efforts to widen the range of their 
 influence and to rise to absolute power, that 
 their arrogance and consequent encroachment 
 upon American interests were mainly instru- 
 mental in bringing into existence the Know- 
 Nothing organization. It originated in the 
 state of things which those produced, who 
 are now so loud in their denunciations of 
 the new order. Apart from this, as one of the 
 originating causes of the American party, there 
 are others of an incidental character, which have 
 helped to call it into life. These will unfold 
 themselves as we proceed, and their importance 
 will be apparent from the nature of the sources 
 from which they flowed. The origin of the 
 Know-Nothings, although so sudden in its mani- 
 festations, w r as for a long time maturing for its 
 birth. It is palpably evident from its character and 
 potency, that it has not arisen from the troubled 
 surface of society, caused by a gale of popular 
 feeling, but has sprung from the profoundest 
 depths of the social body. The causes were of 
 long standing and had acquired great force, else 
 the reacting power of this movement could not 
 have been marked with such terrific energy. 
 4
 
 38 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 The pressure had been felt at all points, and 
 wide spread as the Union, and the reaction haa 
 been co-extensive with the circle of influence 
 which produced it. 
 
 We regard this great movement as a spon- 
 taneous rising of the people in their majesty. 
 And while we would deprecate popular out- 
 breaks, and deplore combinations of men to war 
 against the interests or the peace of society, we 
 rejoice in the presence of this vast multitude 
 who are actuated by noble purposes, and toiling 
 for an exalted end. 
 
 It is not a blind movement, nor a misguided, 
 irresponsible power, but a gathering of most ex- 
 cellent materials a coalescing of the best citi- 
 zens, formerly divided in political sentiment 
 on unimportant points. A few years ago who 
 would have predicted such a change in the aspect 
 of the political world ? Wisely controlled, and 
 judiciously directed, it will prove to our country 
 a political salvation from corruptions which have 
 long been festering upon the body politic. Their 
 mode of operation will enable the organization 
 to keep clear of those excesses and extravagances 
 which were so painfully present in the old parties. 
 For a while the object of scorn and ridicule, it 
 is now feared and respected. Untrammelled by 
 the vassalage of the others to Rome, we behold 
 an American host in the field, occupied in the 
 execution of a mission as glorious as it was
 
 CAUSES OF ITS ORIGIN. 39 
 
 urgent. There is now no slumbering over the 
 great interests of freedom, men are beginning to 
 realize that each one forms a part of this republic, 
 and that high responsibilities rest upon the 
 humble as well as the exalted. If a corrupt 
 partizan press and a designing spiritual power 
 go into paroxysms of rage, because the citadel 
 of their strength is tottering, and their power is 
 in its death-throes, the bitterest of all reflections 
 will be, that their insolence and ambition have 
 caused the people to throw off the yoke of party 
 bondage, and roused them to a true perception 
 of their duty a duty which they are now dis- 
 charging by filling official stations with honest 
 Americans.
 
 40 PRINCIPLES STATED. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRINCIPLES STATED, ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 
 
 THE distinguished publicist Montesquieu has 
 said, that monarchies are preserved by honor 
 and republics by virtue. The father of our 
 country has more truthfully observed, that virtue 
 and intelligence are the great safeguards of our 
 liberties. But virtue and intelligence are the 
 offspring of principles, and since these underlie 
 all private and public action, we may truly affirm 
 that as a nation we are controlled more by 
 inward principle, than by outward constraint. 
 There must, therefore, exist first a public con- 
 science to create just sentiments, before we can 
 reasonably expect their legitimate virtues among 
 citizens. Ideas which are influential upon public 
 action may be of slow growth, but when pro- 
 perly rooted in the social structure they will 
 acquire the needful strength to reproduce them- 
 selves. If we scrutinize the actions of men, or 
 rather subject to a rigid examination the results 
 of individual and social life, we may with absolute 
 certainty pronounce upon the character of those 
 sentiments which actuate the individual or the
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 41 
 
 community. In like, manner, when we know the 
 principles upon which action is based, or to 
 which the conduct is to be conformed, we may 
 infer the results that may be expected. 
 
 In regard to the organization now under con- 
 sideration we must adopt the latter method, 
 if we would ascertain its probable effects 
 upon the public welfare. We know the princi- 
 ples of this party, and therefore cannot mis- 
 apprehend the consequences which will flow 
 from a conformity to them. One of the leading 
 dogmas of the new order is, that Americans 
 should rule America. A principle so easily 
 understood requires but little illustration; yet 
 as it may wear an aspect of exclusiveness to 
 some minds, it may not be inappropriate to offer 
 a few considerations to show the justness of this 
 article of their creed. Seeing that the govern- 
 ment was managed in many instances by per- 
 sons of foreign birth, who were reared under 
 influences widely different from those under 
 which the American mind matures, they believe 
 that those men cannot sympathize with American 
 interests, since they are not actuated by those 
 sentiments which thrill the native bosom. To 
 guard our country against a mal-administration 
 of our laws, they hold the opinion that we shall 
 most likely escape those evils that would militate 
 against our prosperity, and be ruinous to our in- 
 stitutions, by elevating none but native born to 
 4*
 
 42 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 official stations. That there is more or less danger 
 in committing the government into the hands 
 of adopted citizens, and that sad consequences 
 either immediately or remotely might be antici- 
 pated, is not an idea of recent growth. The 
 framers of our constitution did not regard it in 
 harmony with our interests or safety, to allow 
 the eligibility of a foreigner to the Presidency 
 of these United States. And if in the wisdom 
 of those noble patriots, it would be impolitic and 
 perilous to the peace of our country to select 
 one of foreign birth to fill the chair of State, 
 may we not, upon the same ground exclude 
 them from all minor trusts ? May we not urge 
 the force of their example, as an irresistible 
 argument as touching all other offices ? Granted 
 that the responsibility may be less and the ability 
 of doing mischief comparatively circumscribed 
 in lower grades of office, still, if 4n the former 
 there is reason to exclude them by a provisional 
 act, there must be, though in a diminished de- 
 gree, danger to trust them with any official 
 stations. 
 
 That this maxim of the American party has 
 been violently assailed we are fully aware, but 
 that the wisdom and soundness of this policy has 
 been disproved, we do not grant. Of plausible 
 declamation and a show of misguided sympathy 
 we have seen enough, but it is so common for 
 men who have certain interests at stake to have
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 43 
 
 their judgments clouded and warped by their 
 passions, that charity constrains us to ascribe 
 their efforts in favor of foreigners, not to their 
 good sense, but to a love of distinction. A 
 conviction not hastily formed constrains us to 
 believe that the justness of the principle can be 
 demonstrated to the satisfaction of all candid 
 minds. Wherein lies its injustice ? There are 
 only four sources from, which the opposers of 
 the new order have attempted to draw their 
 arguments against this dogma. From the in- 
 stincts of humanity, from the teachings of 
 reason, from the example of other nations, and 
 the early practice of our government. The 
 instincts of humanity only require us to afford 
 them protection and to give them scope for the 
 promotion of their happiness, and therefore 
 none of its impulses or laws are contravened by 
 this principle. The dictates of reason are mani- 
 festly in favor of it ; and the example of other 
 nations amply sustains the views of the American 
 party. There is no other nation so recreant to 
 its interests, as to allow aliens to bear a part in 
 the administration of its government. Those 
 indeed from whom our foreign population comes, 
 do not even allow an expression of opinion con- 
 cerning their laws and institutions, on the part of 
 those who might wish to make their country a 
 place of residence. Citizenship may not be ob- 
 tained in many instances on any probation or at
 
 44 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 any price. And if there were no other ground upon 
 which to defend the principle that Americans 
 should rule America, the example of other na- 
 tions would warrant the practice of this pre- 
 cautionary measure. 
 
 It is granted by the highest authority that a 
 nation has a natural and moral right to form its 
 own internal regulations, provided its laws do 
 not conflict with international law. No nation 
 has a right to dictate to another, what form of 
 government to adopt, or who its rulers are to be, 
 or how they shall be chosen ; how they shall 
 make citizens and what immunities are due to 
 aliens. It is manifest that foreigners have no 
 right to dictate our laws, and therefore have no 
 just ground to complain if Americans see proper 
 to exclude them from offices of trust. It is a 
 great privilege and as much as the most ambitious 
 should expect, if they are permitted to become 
 naturalized citizens after a suitable residence 
 among us ; for it is assuredly in the power of 
 government to withhold this boon altogether, 
 and in its bestowment the nation recognizes no 
 rightful claim to it, on the part of applicants, 
 but confers it as a free gift. 
 
 The justness of this principle which would 
 exclude foreigners from office, is again apparent 
 from the consideration that office is not indis- 
 pensable to a man's happiness and prosperity. 
 The honors and responsibilities of an official
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 45 
 
 position seldom promote a man's comfort, but 
 more frequently multiply his cares. Instead, 
 therefore, of doing a positive wrong to the alien 
 by shutting him out of these places, we would 
 save him from a probable evil. It would seem 
 enough to a reasonable man who has fled from 
 oppression, to be permitted to pursue some 
 honorable avocation through which he may 
 provide a comfortable subsistence for his family. 
 And it is a fact not to be overlooked here, that 
 the better portion of our immigrant population 
 do not desire nor seek stations of trust. They 
 are content with the quiet employment for which 
 they are fitted and in which they contribute to 
 the wealth of the nation, and though much more 
 competent intellectually and morally for office, 
 than those brawling politicians of foreign birth, 
 they agree with us, that their measure of good 
 is full to overflowing, by the civil and religious 
 freedom they enjoy. "We regard, moreover, the 
 principle that Americans should rule America 
 a just one, for the reason that, circumstances 
 being equal, Americans are better qualified to 
 rule. The opposite maxim we have already 
 seen was viewed as dangerous by our fathers, 
 who have forever excluded all but the native born 
 from the highest office in the gift of the people. 
 And the great object which all true members of 
 our glorious commonwealth should have at heart, 
 is to get the most competent rulers.
 
 46 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 It is of minor importance whether Whig or 
 Democrat, or any other party should be in power, 
 but it is of the highest moment, to have wise 
 and able statesmen. Not all are born to govern, 
 and comparatively few possess the high attributes 
 that should characterize a ruler or law-maker. 
 This consideration has been too much over- 
 looked, and it is a notorious fact that both the 
 old parties had lost sight of it altogether. Can- 
 didates were selected, and their election urged 
 on the ground of their devotion to the party, or 
 taken because some outward prestige made 
 them the most available. Availability was the 
 prominent item, and by that was meant, his 
 ability to secure the foreign vote. If it could 
 be made to appear that Bishop Hughes would 
 endorse him, and that the Catholics would sup- 
 port him with unanimity, he was considered 
 worthy to bear the standard of the party. If he 
 had an ear for " the sweetness of the German 
 accent, and the richness of the Irish brogue," 
 he was put upon the course of the Presidential 
 race. If, unfortunatel} 7 , he could not command 
 the Catholic element, he was laid aside, since for 
 the lack of this nothing could atone. Bishop 
 Hughes has made and unmade governors, legis- 
 lators, and Presidents. He and his coadjutors 
 have, in a political sense much more than in a 
 spiritual one, borne the keys, and had power to 
 shut and no man could open, and open and no
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 47 
 
 man could shut, the door of political preferment. 
 This cringing to the papacy on the part of our 
 public men, and their dread of giving offence in 
 this quarter, has for years placed them in subjec- 
 tion to hierarchical dictation, and made them 
 the pliable instruments of officious prelates. 
 
 But to return to the point, I ask who will 
 venture to affirm that a man, reared under a 
 monarchical or despotic form of government, is 
 better fitted to administer the affairs of state 
 than an American ? Is it not unpardonable 
 presumption to maintain such a monstrous pro- 
 position ? Look at the case in the light of 
 reason ; the one has grown upon a foreign 
 soil, and the peculiarities of his nationality are 
 interwoven with the very texture of his being. 
 He is easily recognized by his language, by his 
 habits and mode of life, so much so, that even 
 a child may tell us the country that produced 
 him. And if these national characteristics are 
 so visible in the outward man, if the whole ex- 
 terior glows with the distinctive features of the 
 land from which he hails, will not his intellectual 
 and moral natures present the same peculiarities ? 
 These can no more be American than the man 
 himself. He is a stranger to those instincts and 
 that expansive spirit which are purely American. 
 He is totally unlike the son of the soil, he can- 
 not unmake himself, reconstruct his nature, 
 nor people his mind with new sentiments and
 
 48 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 tendencies, and until he can do that, he cannot 
 compare with a native citizen in his qualifica- 
 tions, much less claim superiority. We utterly 
 deny, we scout the idea, and pronounce it a 
 tibel upon American citizens ; nay, we affirm 
 without the fear of contradiction, that the sons 
 of the soil are the only men who should be 
 entrusted with the weighty affairs of state, either 
 at home or abroad. These are the more com- 
 petent, because familiar from childhood with the 
 great interests of the nation : their sympathies, 
 their education, the influences under which their 
 minds matured all are favorable to make them 
 competent, efficient and honest rulers ! If, there- 
 fore, any regard is to be had to the fitness of 
 men when selecting our rulers, we must give 
 the preference to native born. With such men, 
 truly American in their feelings, we are con- 
 scious of a security which we cannot cherish 
 when men not reared on the soil are placed over 
 us. To our own we can give our confidence, 
 for we are assured of their patriotism. This 
 principle of the new party we think sufficiently 
 vindicated. As I write for the people, I have 
 given a plain, common sense view of the subject, 
 and doubt not that my fellow-citizens, whatever 
 their party predilections may be, will pronounce 
 this feature in the new creed eminently just and 
 patriotic. It is a principle shadowed forth by 
 the founders of this republic, and fully brought
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 49 
 
 out by the emergency of the times. There is 
 a numerous body of men impelled by a fanatical 
 zeal, who love nothing but power, and who will 
 never rest so long as civil and spiritual freedom 
 cover this land with their blessings and make 
 each man a sovereign ; and these men can only 
 be kept within appropriate limits by bringing 
 into force the principle here advocated. 
 
 Another dogma of the new order is, to pro- 
 tect American interests. It is an ancient maxim, 
 "first be just before you are generous." This 
 maxim applies here with peculiar force : Ameri- 
 cans owe duties to themselves in an individual, 
 as well as in a collective capacity ; which they 
 are bound by every dictate of reason to discharge, 
 before they seek other objects upon whom to 
 bestow their generosity. The first great duty is 
 to preserve our glorious institutions in their 
 purity. We are bound to transmit them to our 
 posterity as we received them, untarnished and 
 uncorrupted. If we do not guard them, who 
 will? If Americans do not exercise "eternal 
 vigilance which is the price of liberty," who will 
 do it for us ? It is equally obvious, that in order 
 to retain them as they are, the same influences, 
 civil and moral, which have moulded the Ameri- 
 can character and made it what it is, must be 
 kept alive and exerted upon the rising generation. 
 What are these ? Chiefly those connected with 
 our educational institutions. Is there any danger 
 5
 
 50 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 that these influences may be weakened or coun- 
 teracted ? Most assuredly. And pray what or 
 who would war against things so sacred, and so 
 vitally associated with our very existence? I 
 reply the papacy, French infidelity, German 
 skepticism, and socialism have formed a tre- 
 mendous combination against these very inte- 
 rests. Our revolutionary sires held that the 
 Bible, the sabbath, and the common schools, 
 were the strong bulwarks of our national free- 
 dom and prosperity. 
 
 Whatever denominational distinctions may 
 exist, the nation cannot live and prosper without 
 the Bible and the sabbath. Look where you 
 will, you will see that where no sabbath recalls 
 men from the cares and agitations of worldly 
 pursuits, immorality and vice abound ; and 
 where no Bible restrains, a moral blight and 
 mildew settle down upon the energies of a 
 nation. 
 
 The experiment of France to live without the 
 Bible, without the sabbath, and without God, 
 was most disastrous in its consequences. Behold 
 Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, all melancholy 
 examples of national imbecility and oppression 
 all marked by the most abject moral and social 
 degradation ; and these are the legitimate fruits 
 of banishing the Bible and abrogating the laws 
 of the sabbath. Every American, whether prac- 
 tically a Christian or not, has an interest at stake
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 51 
 
 here a sacred trust worthy to be guarded with 
 a jealous eye, and to be defended with his last 
 drop of patriotic blood. The influences of the 
 Bible, and the sabbath, more than aught else, 
 have caused the path of our progress as a nation 
 to glow with glory. "What causes us to differ in 
 the elements of strength and the grandeur of 
 our prospect from the nations to which I have 
 just referred ? Why is New England compared 
 with Spain as a paradise to a desert ? Why are 
 the citizens from ocean to ocean in this republic 
 rejoicing in an affluence of rare and rich bles- 
 sings, while the subjects of Catholic countries 
 are perishing for lack of bread ? Why does the 
 light of knowledge stream from every cottage 
 here, while a dark cloud of ignorance covers, as 
 with the pall of death, those lands subject to the 
 triple crown ? Manifestly because the Bible, the 
 sabbath and the public school have imparted 
 life, energy, and happiness to our population, 
 while the absence of these intellectual and moral 
 luminaries among other nations have caused 
 them to decline until some of them are now 
 languishing on the very borders of an inglorious 
 destruction. 
 
 These, then, are precious interests, because 
 they restrain vice and promote virtue; vice 
 ruins, but virtue exalts a people. But behold 
 how these very pillars of our prosperity are 
 threatened by foreign hordes, who would change
 
 52 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 our sabbaths of devotion into days of riot, and 
 our sanctuaries into theatres. The influences 
 employed to corrupt and ruin our nation are of 
 an alarming character. Not only are great ex- 
 ertions made to effect this, but made by powerful 
 instrumentalities. While with the immigrants 
 we occasionally import some virtue and some 
 valuable material to nourish the life of this 
 nation, we also receive those elements which, 
 if unsubdued and suffered to gain the ascendency 
 will blight and desolate this far-famed and beau- 
 tiful land. Infidels, socialists, and Jesuits are 
 all pestilential fellows. These attempt to poison 
 the fountains of knowledge and literature. 
 Thousands of foul sheets are published and scat- 
 tered broadcast over the land, whose aim as well 
 as tendency is, to unhinge the public conscience, 
 to unsettle the virtue, and vitiate the morals of 
 the people. In waging their warfare against the 
 life of this nation, they are not choice in their 
 weapons. They assume any disguise that may 
 gain them access to the sanctuary of our homes 
 and the altars of our country. Philanthropy, 
 science, and literature, are all made vehicles for 
 disseminating their principles. But the most 
 dangerous, because the most subtle of all enemies 
 is, Jesuitism. It will overcome any obstruction, 
 and will penetrate any bulwark reared against 
 it. For there is not a garb from the most foul 
 and licentious abandonment, up to the most
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 53 
 
 refined and richly embellished dress of literature 
 and poetry, in which these enemies have not 
 assailed the pillars of our republic. Either the 
 principles handed down to us by our fathers, 
 or those of Jesuitism will prevail. Our sab- 
 baths, our bibles, and our public schools will 
 continue to be cherished as the great conserva- 
 tors of our national interests, or they will give 
 place to one dominant despotic spiritual power, 
 which, instead of sending our children to the 
 school, may send them to the inquisition. 
 
 While these remain unharmed, our nation will 
 stand ; when they fall, our nation with its glo- 
 rious blessings and hopes will fall ! This con- 
 flict of principles even now shakes the land. 
 If you will, you may hear a voice from our 
 homes, from our altars, and from the shrine of 
 freedom in our Metropolis, saying, arise freemen, 
 and to the conflict, for the cry of battle rings 
 through the land. The enemy is receiving con- 
 stant and powerful accessions and dare we 
 slumber? While they are forging chains to 
 bind our free spirits while they are kindling 
 fires to consume our bibles, and digging a grave 
 for Liberty, shall we look quietly on until the 
 deed is done ? Not if the spirit which animated 
 our fathers has descended to the sons not if the 
 blood which nerved their arms in seventy-six pul- 
 sates through our veins ! Nay, if a spark of that 
 patriotism that dared to resist British oppression 
 5*
 
 54 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 burns in our bosoms, and the lofty purposes of 
 our fathers thrill in our souls, we will, we must 
 cherish and defend the great interests of our 
 nation. 
 
 I have spoken of the Bible, the sabbath, and 
 the public schools as our great interests, and 
 assigned them this high rank because they lie at 
 the foundation of our past successes, are the true 
 secret of our present unexampled prosperity, 
 and must forever maintain an intimate connec- 
 tion with our progress and glory. For one, I 
 rejoice that the religious element pulsates strongly 
 in this new order. Not intolerance, but such an 
 appreciation of the exalted blessings of religious 
 freedom, that men within and without the en- 
 closure of the Christian church, are unwilling 
 to bow their necks to the yoke of spiritual 
 oppression. For these men, while they labor, 
 not for the ascendency of any denomination or 
 sect, are prepared to guard the rights of con- 
 science and liberty of worship for all. And while 
 many of them are not intimately nor profession- 
 ally associated with any denomination, they have 
 that religious consciousness which lives in the 
 bosom of every American, and they cannot and 
 will not quietly look on while infidels and Jesuits, 
 vandal-like, attempt to tear away the foundation 
 stones of the temple of freedom. "Washington 
 felt the need and insisted upon the cultivation 
 of that morality which has its source in the
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 55 
 
 Bible, and its centre in Xjkxl, as the only perma- 
 nent vitality of our system. 
 
 Daniel Webster and General Cass men of 
 master intellects, whose names will forever live 
 and shine in our country's glory, have given 
 us their testimony that Christianity is an integral 
 part of our government, and therefore as worthy 
 of protection in its free, untrammelled activity, 
 as any other element in our political constitution. 
 That there may be found occasionally fanatical 
 men who may be carried to extremes by a blind 
 impulse none will deny, and none will be more 
 ready to deplore and to punish lawless violence 
 than the party whose name and whose principles 
 they abuse in such acts , but surely no intelligent 
 and unbiassed mind will attempt to prove the 
 evil tendency of a creed by the errors of a few 
 of its adherents, for according to this rule they 
 might convict all Americans of treason because 
 among them was found a Benedict Arnold. 
 
 But these are not the only interests which the 
 American party seeks to promote and defend. 
 Our religious toleration and our educational 
 system, they will protect by their honor, their 
 fortunes and their lives, but while they do this, 
 they will also throw their protecting shield over 
 commerce and manufactures. They desire to be 
 just to our citizens, before they are generous to 
 other nations. They would suitably compensate 
 the man of toil, and encourage industry and
 
 56 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 enterprise. They do not recognize the principle 
 as just, to wound at home that they may heal 
 abroad, to impoverish those among us who ply 
 the loom, or spread the sail, that others may be 
 enriched at the expense of native sweat and 
 energy. They would first provide bread for our 
 own household, before they would send their 
 charities abroad upon a doubtful errand. They 
 hope to do this by such a regulation of the duties 
 on imports, as to afford a fair remuneration for 
 labor at home, in the production of the same 
 articles of trade. They would, as far as possible, 
 equalize the burdens and blessings of govern- 
 ment. Are not these principles just ? Is there 
 aught about them oppressive, or intolerant? 
 The answer from the sons of toil is an emphatic 
 no ! no ! Those who live sumptuously every 
 day and whose fortunes permit them to give 
 ample scope to their indulgence may theorize on 
 abstract questions but the poor mechanic, 
 whose arm is the only wealth of a numerous 
 family, does, and may justly expect some prac- 
 tical good at the hands of legislators. Such 
 men have long looked in vain for such 
 action, as might benefit the poor man from 
 those whom they placed in power. But they 
 have discovered that their, professed friends 
 seemed more anxious to legislate foreigners into 
 landed estates that they might secure their votes, 
 than to do justice to those whose profession ex-
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 57 
 
 eluded them from the henefits of a western 
 home. But now they take men from their own 
 ranks, conversant with the hardships and wants 
 of the people, and they will not disappoint their 
 expectations. 
 
 Another principle of the new order is, no 
 union of Church and State. Their opponents 
 have, either ignorantly or designedly, grossly 
 misrepresented them. The cry of proscription 
 for conscience sake, is the figment of disordered 
 brains and lacerated hopes and is supposed to 
 be efficacious in bringing back those who have 
 passed from the old ranks. Proscription bah ! 
 when a fundamental principle enunciated is 
 No UNION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. They 
 will cherish both, but will not suffer an amalga- 
 mation. Things were tending in that direction 
 so palpably, as to call up the American party to 
 stem the tide, and roll back the current of sym- 
 pathy which was bearing our political leaders 
 and our precious interests, to the unfathomable 
 bosom of Holy Mother Rome. That power, 
 ever ready for self-aggrandizement, looked with 
 a wistful eye to the dominion of this broad land. 
 The Mississippi valley would have made more 
 than a second Italy. It would have been a 
 magnificent seat for the sovereign Pontiff, and 
 then it would have been not only far more beau- 
 tiful and extensive than the states now subject 
 to the triple crown, but it Vould have yielded
 
 58 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 such handsome revenues. The Pope of Rome 
 could have made it quite convenient, to shift the 
 seat of his dominion from the seven hills to 
 that broad valley, seeing that he would not 
 have broken the hearts of his people by leaving 
 them. And though danger, perhaps disaster, 
 might have befallen that venerable relic, the chair 
 of St. Peter, in its transit over the waters, or 
 like Peter himself, might have gone down into 
 the waves, yet as he professes to be invested with 
 the attributes of Deity he might have com- 
 manded the sea to yield up the treasure. And 
 then, too, that noble stream the father of rivers 
 would in point of majesty, have accorded 
 much better with the boasted extent and magni- 
 ficence of the Catholic Church, while it might 
 have been a practical illustration by the filth 
 gathered from afar and near, of the corruption 
 of that mammoth mother of pollution. And 
 while it would have been much more convenient 
 for Arch John to go for his red cap, it would 
 have been in all respects rather a desirable change 
 from the narrow limits of the present papal 
 sovereignty, to the possession of a country 
 washed by the Atlantic and Pacific and filled 
 with invaluable treasures. 
 
 But as an old tutor used to tell us when he 
 interposed his respectable proportions between 
 us and some fondly planned enjoyment "Boys 5 
 there is many a slip between the cup and the
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 59 
 
 lip ;" or as the old nurse would have it, "Don't 
 count your chickens before they are hatched." So 
 these scarlet-robed counsellors were making their 
 calculations without paying proper attention to 
 what Paschal terms for them, proximate and not 
 proximate causes. Their leaders in this country 
 were cunning, but not cautious. They became 
 too ardent in their hopes, and by a premature 
 bound dashed to atoms the fair fabric of 
 Catholic supremacy, which had already loomed 
 out to their excited fancy in all the wealth of its 
 magnificent proportions. The war proclamation 
 of Hughes, and the premature visit of Bedini, 
 spoiled all their plans. The American eagle was 
 not so firmly chained as they had anticipated, 
 and when the noble bird felt the pressure of an 
 iron hand, it scorned the touch, and bursting its 
 fetters soared once more with outspread pinions 
 towards the sun. 
 
 Though much had been conceded to the Cath- 
 olic power, many leading politicians were under 
 obligations to its priesthood, and things had 
 reached such a point, that a little more success 
 would have formed a connecting link between 
 the Church and the state; but that sleepless 
 angel of Liberty, that has poised with outspread 
 wings over our republic from its infancy to the 
 present hour, averted the terrible disaster with 
 which we were threatened. 
 
 A mysterious power brooded over the minds
 
 60 PRINCIPLES STATED, 
 
 and played amid the emotions of Americans. 
 One man expressed his fears, and proposed the 
 plan which he had conceived absolutely essential 
 to save us from foreign domination and behold 
 his neighbor had the same thoughts and appre- 
 hensions, and another, and another coincided 
 so that it appeared that the patriotic all over this 
 land had the same convictions and like feelings 
 as to their duty ; and hence this spontaneous 
 and universal rising to resist papal aggressions. 
 We fearlessly assert, that the man who would 
 not join his exertions with his brothers to pre- 
 vent such a calamity as the union of Church and 
 State, is not a true citizen, and not worthy of a 
 grave in the soil that he would not defend from 
 the blight of the worst of all curses, that ever 
 emptied their woes upon our wretched race. 
 
 These then are the great, and leading princi- 
 ples of the American party. "What man can 
 object to them? Will an American in whose 
 heart burn the fires of a lofty patriotism? 
 Surely not. They are sound maxims, consonant 
 with the genius of our constitution and in har- 
 mony with the sublimest deductions of reason. 
 The last principle stated is of such vital impor- 
 tance and of such infinite magnitude that we 
 might fill volumes with illustrations of the evils 
 that flow from the unnatural blending of civil 
 and ecclesiastical power, which the new party 
 labors to prevent. Although I may not enlarge
 
 ILLUSTRATED AND ENFORCED. 61 
 
 on this point, I cannot pass without suffering 
 another who was reared amid the influences 
 where the Church rules the state, to present one 
 form of these evils. Helvetius, while considering 
 in his philosophy the constitution of the Jesuit 
 order, as it relates to their ambitious aspirings, 
 remarks "The Jesuits sought credit, power 
 and importance, and obtained them in the 
 Catholic courts. What means did they employ 
 for this purpose ? Terror and seduction. What 
 rendered.them formidable to princes ? The union 
 of their will with that of their general. The 
 ancients could not have solved the following 
 political problem, 'How one man from the 
 centre of a monastery can rule an infinity of 
 others, dispersed over different climates, and 
 subject to different laws and sovereigns ? How 
 this man, often at immense distances, can pre- 
 serve an authority over his subjects sufficient to 
 make them at his pleasure move, act, think, and 
 constantly regulate their conduct by the ambi- 
 tious views of their order ?' Before the institu- 
 tion of monasteries, this would have appeared 
 the problem of a madman. It would have been 
 ranked with the Platonic chimeras. This chimera 
 has however been realized." This dreaded order, 
 this terrible combination of men is in our midst. 
 In our government, they are moulding public sen- 
 timent, and their hellish plots to subjugate this na- 
 tion to the papacy, are silently laid and resolutely 
 6
 
 62 PRINCIPLES STATED, ETC. 
 
 carried forward toward their consummation. 
 This same writer, though reared in the bosom 
 of that church, says again, "In the Catholic 
 Cantons of Switzerland, want and stupidity 
 reign ; in the Protestant cantons, plenty and 
 industry; popery, therefore, is destructive to 
 empires." 
 
 It is not the purpose of the American party 
 to persecute or extinguish this system, but to 
 keep it within its appropriate limits. They may 
 worship as they please, and proselyte as many 
 bishops, and senators or citizens, as they can ; 
 but they shall not grasp the reins of government 
 for while we allow them freedom, we mean to 
 remain free ourselves. After an impartial ex- 
 amination of this new creed, I can see nothing 
 but that which will foster virtue, promote the 
 happiness of the people, and therefore the in- 
 terests of the nation. He alone can oppose 
 useful reformation in the state, who, founding 
 his grandeur on the debasement and misery of 
 his fellow-citizens, would usurp an arbitrary 
 power over them. But the honest man, the friend 
 of truth and of his country, can have no interest 
 contrary to that of his nation. When we are 
 happy in the happiness of the nation, and glo- 
 rious in its glory, we ardently desire the correc- 
 tion of every abuse. A science is not annihilated 
 by being improved, nor a government destroyed 
 by being reformed.
 
 THE OBJECTS, ETC. 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE OBJECTS WHICH THIS ORGANIZATION AIMS TO 
 ACCOMPLISH. 
 
 
 
 AMONG the objects which the American party 
 proposes to pursue and accomplish, we place first 
 a change in the Naturalization laws. Intelligent 
 men, whether identified or not with the new 
 party, have long since felt and acknowledged 
 the disastrous evils which flow from the sudden 
 transformation of foreigners into citizens. So 
 marked and wide-spread are the evils complained 
 of, that they are the frequent theme of comment 
 among our reflecting citizens. That they have 
 not been modified before, is to be partly ascribed 
 to that noble characteristic of the American 
 mind, its reluctance to touch a thing that has 
 become sacred by time-honored and eventful 
 associations. It is an instinct of human nature 
 to cling fondly to that which has originated with 
 our fathers ; and this feeling, though it cherishes 
 even an insignificant relic, is to be commended. 
 
 Men are slow in changing their customs, and 
 still tardier in making a change in their laws. 
 But we are endowed with reason as well as
 
 64 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 feeling, and when the importance of an emer- 
 gency demands it, the former must triumph over 
 the latter. In regard to the Naturalization laws, 
 they are venerable, not simply because they are 
 the enactments of our patriotic ancestors, but 
 also because they are co-existent with our re- 
 public. The nation has grown and prospered. 
 For more than half a century, it is maintained, 
 that those statutes have worked well, and we 
 admit that the evils incident to their operation 
 have been modified and subdued by other influ- 
 ences, so that no irreparable disaster has yet 
 issued from their abuse. Our nation has gone 
 forward and in its growth has incorporated into 
 its own system the foreign elements that were 
 continually flowing into its bosom without pro- 
 ducing any far-reaching injury. But that no 
 very disastrous results have been realized from 
 the great facility with which aliens are invested 
 with the prerogatives of citizenship, should not 
 blind us to the fact that the laws unchanged 
 may prove' ruinous in the future. The human 
 body may inhale a large amount of pestilential 
 atmosphere, and still continue to throw off' its 
 debilitating effects ; but there is a point when, if 
 kept in contact with the noxious elements, it 
 can offer no more resistance, but must yield up 
 its health and life ; and in like manner may the 
 body politic for a long period receive into its 
 system elements destructive to its health without
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 65 
 
 giving way ; but if it becomes surcharged with 
 these, it may have its strength gradually ex- 
 hausted and finally yield to the power of cor- 
 ruption. While we regard the laws under dis- 
 cussion in this light, and look upon them as the 
 means of introducing into our system much that 
 is detrimental to a sound and lasting national 
 prosperity, we are clearly of the opinion that 
 unless some radical change takes place in rela- 
 tion to the admission of foreigners to citizenship, 
 they will work disastrous ruin to our institutions. 
 Men frequently rely too much upon the past, 
 for the character of the future, and in nothing 
 may we be more deplorably deceived than in a 
 case like this. They tell us that these laws have 
 worked well, that it was a wise political measure, 
 and that a judicious execution of them will con- 
 tinue to work good. Here we raise an issue. 
 I maintain that laws may and justly do receive 
 their complexion from the circumstances of the 
 times in which they are framed ; nay, that the 
 condition of the people may not only have dic- 
 tated the character of legislative enactments, 
 but a change of those circumstances may as 
 peremptorily demand a modification of those 
 laws to suit their altered condition, and some- 
 times a total abrogation of statutes when they 
 prove hostile to their interests. Now what were 
 the circumstances under which the Naturaliza- 
 tion laws were formed ? In regard to ourselves 
 6*
 
 66 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 manifestly these we were an infant nation, 
 standing in need of men, with an immense 
 territory and a long line of unprotected coast, 
 and a powerful kingdom in a threatening attitude 
 towards us. Our very existence was in peril, no- 
 thing was therefore more important to us than the 
 rapid growth of our numerical strength. It was 
 an object of paramount importance at the time, 
 to have our lands occupied, our solitudes peopled, 
 our roads opened, and our cities built. Such is 
 not our condition now. There is at present no 
 common danger whose external pressure can 
 unite men of different nationalities in one body, 
 to resist the encroachments of a terrible enemy. 
 Much of our territory is peopled, our wide 
 domain is rapidly filling up, our coasts are pro- 
 tected, our cities built, our roads and canals 
 constructed, and we should now guard against 
 the evils which do accompany the unparalleled 
 influx of foreigners ; so that they may not be 
 prematurely invested with that power which in 
 unskilful or designing hands might convert this 
 asylum for the down-trodden of earth into a 
 despotism of oppression. 
 
 But there has been another change wrought 
 in our condition worthy of consideration. In 
 the infancy of our national existence there was 
 nothing to appeal to the ambition of strangers, 
 nothing to kindle hopes of gain, nothing to in- 
 Aflame those powerful passions in human nature,
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 67 
 
 the love of power and pleasure. Neither could 
 a love of ease or indolence have any hope of 
 gratification in a comparatively new country. 
 Pickpockets would not promote their interests 
 by coming where the pockets were all empty, 
 and convicts were not then released and sent 
 here to try their fortunes. The immigrants of 
 those times were men who came with a view to 
 enter the various pursuits of human industry. 
 They came to seek a home for themselves and 
 their children. And from men who felled the 
 forest, turned up the virgin soil, huilt their cabins 
 along the borders of civilized life, or entered 
 some other laudable vocation, and thus con- 
 tributed to the strength and wealth of the nation, 
 no danger could be apprehended. 
 
 The vicious and the idle had no inducements 
 to leave the old world to seek subsistence in the 
 new. They would fare better in the old cities, 
 or in the more populous countries of Europe, 
 for there they might possibly live without toil, 
 but here it was work or die. Those, therefore, 
 who would fly to our shores then, were essentially 
 different in their principles and character from 
 the vast majority of those who now form that 
 unbroken current which is pouring its millions 
 upon our soil. They were men in whom the 
 love of liberty was predominant, and whose souls 
 throbbed with aspirations after freedom men 
 who fled from civil and religious oppression
 
 68 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 men who either came for conscience sake, or in 
 obedience to those noble impulses which inclined 
 them to a nation of freemen. But the state of 
 things is materially altered. Now while there 
 are doubtless noble and excellent persons among 
 those coming into our midst, a large proportion 
 are unquestionably totally destitute of those 
 elements of character, which our laws should 
 require before adopting them as citizens. Some 
 are idlers, who would subsist on the industry of 
 others; others prove themselves the most infa-- 
 mous characters, adepts in all that is base, and 
 proficient in villany. Paupers sent over at the 
 public expense, to be nourished in our alms- 
 houses or prisons. Criminals, who, instead of 
 being transported to Botany Bay, are sent to 
 America. It is a notorious fact that European 
 governments have furnished passports and means 
 to their refuse and pestilential population to emi- 
 grate to the United States. Recently a few of 
 these were sent back from Boston, but thousands 
 and tens of thousands remain. It was never the 
 intention of the founders of our government to 
 make citizens out of criminals or to invest such 
 with the glorious, but in vile hands, dangerous 
 right of suffrage, when they adopted our Natu- 
 ralization laws. 
 
 Those enactments were adapted to the then 
 existing state of things, to the nature of the 
 times and the character of the men of that age,
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 69 
 
 and while we readily grant that they were then 
 wise, just, and patriotic ; the times and the peo- 
 ple for whose benefit they were intended, are so 
 altered that there is no longer that adaptation 
 which existed at that period. We cannot be so 
 unjust to the memory of those noble patriots as 
 to entertain for a moment the idea, that if they 
 were to legislate now upon the subject they would 
 adopt the same provisions. No ! it would be a 
 libel on their wisdom, their patriotism, and their 
 statesmanship, to maintain that, if living, they 
 would leave these laws unaltered. 
 
 There are in all wisely constituted govern- 
 ments, some elementary principles which are 
 permanent and admit of no change, while there 
 are laws and regulations which are not immuta- 
 ble, but must undergo modifications to suit the 
 necessities of the age, or the advanced condition 
 of the nation. And while we regard the prin- 
 ciples which make this land a home for the 
 oppressed, as immutably fixed and perpetual 
 elements in the charter of liberty, we resolutely 
 maintain, that the laws relating to citizenship 
 must in the very nature of things be subject to 
 such reformations as the emergencies which do 
 arise may dictate, as best suited to promote our 
 prosperity and happiness. It is as clear as a 
 sunbeam to a large majority of the people of 
 this country, that the time has fully come when 
 the safety, the peace, and the perpetuity of this 
 Union demand the change already indicated.
 
 70 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 There are persons who object to a change in 
 these statutes on the ground that it would be 
 unjust and oppressive to the better class of im- 
 migrants, to exclude them for a long period from 
 the rights of citizenship, because some of their 
 number are in an unfit state for such privileges. 
 To this objection, I reply that it is not oppressive 
 or unjust to guard the rights and blessings of the 
 whole even if such a measure would in some 
 instances seem to aggrieve the individual. It is the 
 duty of every member of this great commonwealth 
 of freemen, whether fully invested or not with 
 the prerogatives of a citizen, to sacrifice his per- 
 sonal good for the good of the public, if the case 
 is such that one or the other must suffer. 
 
 If, therefore, the objection were founded in' 
 fact, the individual himself so aggrieved would 
 by his complaint clearly establish his unfitness 
 for the privilege for which he contends, because 
 he is destitute of patriotism if he is unwilling to 
 surrender what he conceives a personal benefit, 
 for the greater advantage of the public. But 
 the objection is destitute of truth. What claim 
 has a foreigner upon our government? None 
 whatever, except those of humanity or such as 
 international law gives him. But who would 
 have the presumption to maintain that the in- 
 stincts of humanity make it the duty of govern- 
 ment to invest him with all the immunities of 
 citizenship, before the judgment of the nation
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 71 
 
 should pronounce him qualified? The obliga- 
 tions which humanity imposes are more than 
 met and discharged when we give him a place 
 and a habitation, and extend over his person and 
 his property the shield of our laws, that he may 
 be secure in all his interests as a man. In many 
 instances these men never enjoyed the right of 
 suffrage in their native land, and hence there 
 can be no sacrifice on their part if denied the 
 privilege of voting for a longer term of years,' 
 because they never were in possession of the right 
 anywhere, and therefore could not surrender it. 
 There are numerous other and weighty reasons 
 which may be urged for a change in the laws 
 relating to this subject. It may be successfully 
 urged that persons reared on a foreign soil, fre- 
 quently with little or no mental culture when 
 they arrive here, cannot possibly possess the 
 needful qualifications of citizenship after the 
 few years' residence which is now the only con- 
 dition. It is not unreasonable to maintain that 
 even a residence of fifteen or more years is 
 absolutely essential in most instances before a 
 man can vote intelligently. Granted that a few 
 are educated, yet their ideas of government have 
 been formed under such adverse circumstances, 
 that their opinions need to be recast before they 
 could intelligently participate in public affairs. 
 Others have no intellectual culture whatever, 
 and have such occupations, tendencies, and im-
 
 72 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 pulses that they do none of their own thinking, 
 nor are their votes governed by a conviction of 
 the excellence of the men and measures they 
 support. It is no disparagement to them to 
 assume this fact: the same might be equally true 
 of Americans in reversed circumstances. That 
 our adopted population is guided by the will of 
 others can be easily demonstrated, nay we have 
 ocular demonstration of it at every election. 
 They move in a mass, they vote in the same way, 
 think alike, and act alike, thus giving conclusive 
 evidence that they are the pliant instruments of 
 subtle politicians, or the obedient executioners 
 of the will of their spiritual superiors, "Where 
 the priest uses no influence, which is rarely the 
 case, they barter their votes to the highest 
 bidder. The man who can present the most 
 magnificent promises which he never intends to 
 fulfil, or minister most abundantly to their ap- 
 petites, he is their man. If I were disposed to 
 record scenes which carne under my observation 
 where this foreign vote has been cast without 
 intelligence or will on their part, I could multiply 
 most shameful abuses of the right of suffrage. 
 ' A change in our Naturalization laws is abso- 
 lutely demanded by considerations of our safety. 
 It is an incontrovertible fact, that a large majority 
 of these foreigners range themselves under the 
 banner of socialism, of freethinkers, or Jesuits. 
 All these classes are hostile to the interests of
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 73 
 
 this land. Their principles are in conflict with 
 those of a sound morality, and subversive of 
 civil government. Their peculiarities and their 
 designs will be more fully unfolded as we pro- 
 gress in this discussion ; at present, I will only 
 state that their numerical strength is such as to 
 inspire the thoughtful with apprehensions for 
 our safety. A writer from the "West recently 
 stated in a communication to a leading periodi- 
 cal, that in a certain city there are 60,000 Ger- 
 mans, and an equal number of Irish in a popu- 
 lation of 200,000. These, though divided in 
 their religious sentiments, manifest a singular 
 unanimity in their hostility to all the leading 
 interests of America. Suffer this influx of 
 foreigners to continue for ten years, and clothe 
 them as rapidly as they arrive on our shores with 
 the right of suffrage, and no man may predict 
 the result. Certain it is that the Catholic power 
 joined with those who are hostile to the Bible, 
 to the Sabbath, and to public schools, could ere 
 long place it beyond the power of Americans to 
 control the government of this land. It would 
 inevitably pass under foreign rule, or if a native 
 citizen should hold the reins of government, he 
 would be subject to the dictation of this very 
 material. 
 
 The reflecting and more sterling part of both 
 the great political parties, have long seen and de- 
 plored the subserviency of their prominent men 
 7
 
 74 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 and leaders to the foreign element. The people 
 waited patiently and long for such independent 
 and patriotic action on the part of our legislators 
 as would keep these intruders in their appro- 
 priate position and rid the country of those 
 abuses in our government which have grown 
 out pf the Naturalization laws in their present 
 form, but their expectations were disappointed. 
 Indeed, all hope of remedying these evils through 
 the old parties was relinquished, for aspirants to 
 official stations were too anxious to conciliate 
 the good will and secure the votes of foreigners, 
 even to propose a modification of these laws. 
 
 There was therefore no other alternative but 
 to break loose from party restraints and unite as 
 Americans to resist foreign aggression, by 
 choosing their own men without the aid of con- 
 gressmen or demagogues, and electing them to 
 office. It is the only way in which the proposed 
 change can be accomplished. And it is their 
 only safety, and therefore they wisely determined 
 to seek out the most competent men for rulers. 
 If we look at the men who have recently been 
 elected to responsible stations, we cannot but 
 admire the sound judgment which was exercised 
 in their nomination and election. The Mayors 
 of Philadelphia and Baltimore are sterling men, 
 eminently fitted to assist in creating a sound 
 public sentiment, and to originate and carry out 
 measures that will elevate and strengthen our 
 social system.
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 75 
 
 As in reference to all the other objects which 
 the American party proposes to accomplish, so 
 also against this has the cry of proscription been 
 raised ; but as I shall have occasion to examine 
 this subject more thoroughly in my reply to the 
 letter of the Hon. H. A. Wise, I will then weigh 
 the merit of this charge and dispose of it as it 
 deserves. 
 
 But another object of this organization is to 
 cultivate and promote true patriotism. This 
 exalted object, in the estimation of the wisest 
 statesmen and most renowned philosophers, can 
 only be attained by a well-digested system of 
 popular education. Such a system must not be 
 purely intellectual, but also moral. While they 
 do not presume to imitate the arrogance of the 
 papists by setting themselves up as intolerant 
 dictators of the faith of these millions, they 
 would yet insist on such a course of instruction 
 in our public schools as will improve the intel- 
 lect, while it inspires the hearts of the young 
 with sentiments of Christian morality. We are 
 a Christian nation, so recognized by others, and 
 so regarded by the ablest statesmen that our 
 country has produced. And how is this char- 
 acter of the nation to be perpetuated by what 
 means is this feature to be kept alive ? Mani- 
 festly by the means employed in the education 
 of the young. Our children are to be the future 
 citizens and rulers of this great country, and if
 
 76 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 the principles which we now cherish and the 
 national Christian sentiments are to be perpetu- 
 ated, the seed must be sown in the minds of the 
 young. 
 
 The conservators of the public morals are 
 sometimes admonished by those politicians who 
 have arrogated to themselves the sole right to 
 mould public opinion, not to pass from the 
 sphere of their appropriate office by venturing 
 an opinion concerning political or educational 
 measures. These gentlemen impose the respon- 
 sibility upon the -clerg}', and others, to keep clear 
 the current of popular feeling; but why com- 
 mand that class of men to filter the waters of 
 the foul stream, and not exercise the necessary 
 precaution to keep the fountain pure. The pub- 
 lic schools are indeed the true fountains of our 
 national life. If corrupting influences are at 
 work there, the nation will soon have flowing 
 through all its vast channels those vitiating 
 elements, and through all its vast proportions 
 the blighting power of corrupt sentiments will 
 be felt. The American party would not make 
 the public school a nursery for sectarianism, nor 
 introduce into it text-books of a denominational 
 cast of doctrine ; but they will maintain with the 
 fathers of this land, that the Bible is not secta- 
 rian, that it is designed for all mankind, that it 
 contains the best morality, the loftiest wisdom, 
 the noblest examples for youth to copy, and
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 77 
 
 inculcates those virtues which exalt the indi- 
 vidual and the nation, and is therefore the Book 
 which ought to be read without note or com- 
 ment in our schools ; and they are constrained 
 to regard those who are opposed to the reading 
 of the Scriptures in the schools as alike the 
 enemies of our Republic and of God. Its vast 
 historical stores enrich the mind of the child 
 as no other book can. Its unexplored and 
 unfathomable depths have gems of wisdom far 
 more brilliant than those which have shone in 
 the works of the most distinguished philoso- 
 phers. Eloquence, poetry, narrative, literature 
 and morality such as we find nowhere else. " It 
 is the Book of Books its author, God its 
 theme heaven, eternity." To shut out the youth 
 from this mine of intellectual and moral wealth 
 would be tyranny of the worst form this a 
 PROSCRIPTION that might be mourned in the 
 crash of a falling republic, and cursed in the 
 funeral dirge of a nation of freemen. 
 
 They would morever be judicious in the selec- 
 tion of such other books as may be necessary to 
 imbue the youthful mind with healthy patriotic 
 sentiments ; but they would not consent to have 
 pages expunged, because there may be a chapter 
 on Luther and the Reformation, or because 
 another contains the speech of "William Pitt, as 
 has been done through Popish influence. There 
 are books now in existence that have been thus 
 7*
 
 78 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT 
 
 mutilated, to gratify these uneasy persons. And 
 there existed no conscientious objection to these 
 parts ; and that it was done for a different object, 
 has been proved by a committee who visited the 
 Romish schools and discovered those very books 
 in use without any of those changes. 
 
 If, then, we would sum up the objects for which 
 this organization is contending, we would find 
 that their efforts are directed to a reformation of 
 existing evils, and the promotion of pure patriot- 
 ism. They are laboring to effect precisely what 
 the purest and ablest men among Democrats 
 and "Whigs regard as patriotic and worthy ob- 
 jects of legislation. The leading political organs 
 for example, the Washington Union have 
 so far admitted the correctness of the views of 
 the new order in regard to the Naturalization 
 laws, as to say, that if the general sentiment of 
 the people should demand a modification of 
 those laws, the requirement should be conceded 
 by the general government. Such an intima- 
 tion has been thrown out by leading periodicals, 
 and is now on the wing, and will soon be echoed 
 through the land. But whether it was uttered 
 with sincerity, or designed simply as a soporific 
 to those in the ranks who were waking up to 
 the importance of the measure promulgated by 
 the American party, it is not my office to decide ; 
 still, it wears a. doubtful aspect, and even if such 
 are their present views, it seems like an attempt 
 to steal the thunder of the new order. ">
 
 BY THIS ORGANIZATION. 79 
 
 And as to the other objects contemplated by 
 the organization, they will be found, upon exa- 
 mination, truly American in sentiment and spirit 
 they are thought to be exalted and worthy, 
 blending with all the great interests of a free 
 people, and fitted to strengthen and perpetuate 
 our glorious institutions. What American heart 
 could wish any of our privileges jeoparded or 
 subverted by foreign influence ? "Who would 
 not break through the trammels of party, and 
 with heart and mind assist in breaking the snares 
 which have been laid to bind and destroy this 
 nation ? Who that feels the stirrings of a noble 
 spirit, that appreciates and glories in the bless- 
 ings purchased by the blood of our venerated 
 sires, would falter or hesitate when called upon 
 to defend and preserve the bulwarks of freedom ? 
 It is not to inflict a wrong upon foreigners 
 not to injure a hair upon the head of the most 
 devout papist, or any other citizen, that Ameri- 
 cans are summoned to the scene of conflict 
 but to rear a wall of living hearts around our 
 glorious confederacy, and avert those crushing 
 calamities which are now impending. The true 
 patriot would turn back the tide of corruption 
 that threatens desolation to his land he would 
 hold back the iron hand that is read} 7 to grasp 
 the helm of government. He looks with a calm 
 eye, and with an unquailing spirit, upon the 
 storm of passion which has been rolling up its
 
 80 THE OBJECTS AIMED AT, ETC. 
 
 dark masses and marshalling its artillery for an 
 onset upon the citadel of Liberty ; for he knows 
 that the voice of Americans, as it will thunder 
 from the ballot-hox, will disperse these water- 
 less clouds in our civil firmament, and our sun 
 of prosperity will bathe the land of "Washington 
 with a quiet glory all the more brilliant, because 
 in contrast with the retiring gloom. 
 
 They are noble objects for which the new 
 party toils, objects which have in view the peace, 
 harmony and stability of this Union and hearts 
 true to the altars of their country, and the glory 
 of the nation, will arise to vindicate her honor, 
 and herald to the ends of the earth, the decree 
 of our fathers, that no other flag but that 
 of the stars and stripes shall float over American 
 soil, as long as the originals of those on our en- 
 sign shall flame in the quiet heavens above.
 
 THE NECESSITY OF, ETC. 81 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH AN ORGANIZA- 
 TION EXAMINED 
 
 AN association of honorable men invariably 
 presupposes the existence of an emergency or 
 want at the time of its formation which it is in- 
 tended to meet. Indeed we can only vindicate 
 the propriety of keeping up any organization on 
 the ground that it subserves a good purpose. 
 Does this new party provide for any wants in 
 the social state heretofore neglected? Does it 
 propose the advocacy and the carrying out of 
 such principles as will prove beneficial to the 
 public? These questions we shall attempt to 
 answer. The question has frequently been 
 asked, why organize an American party, when 
 the old parties could so modify or enlarge their 
 platform as to admit any new principle that 
 might be deemed necessary to accomplish the 
 ends which the new one promises to effect ? But I 
 reply that there is much in the old organizations 
 to constitute a necessity for an entirely new 
 order. We readily grant that the originators 
 of the two leading political parties were honora-
 
 82 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 ble men and useful citizens honest in their 
 convictions, and acting from principle, not from 
 impulse. They ranged themselves under the 
 different banners according to their predilections 
 for one or the other form of national policy 
 proposed. So that the parties sprang from that 
 difference in sentiment in relation to great poli- 
 tical measures which good citizens are bound to 
 respect. Doubtless sincere in their convictions 
 and honest in their exertions to gain the mastery 
 in their conflicts, the one would acquire the 
 ascendency over the other in proportion as their 
 respective measures were popular or unpopular 
 with the masses. But however well they sub- 
 served the purposes contemplated at the time 
 of their organization, and however much both 
 contributed to the prosperity of the country, 
 and to the advancement of the great interests 
 of a free nation, they have long since, like all 
 humanly devised things, given unmistakable 
 signs of corruption. Political organizations need 
 repairing, and sometimes reconstruction, just as 
 much as any other structure of which man is 
 the author. Sometimes the building lacks a 
 good foundation, or if it be of long standing, 
 the dry-rot may so impair its timbers as to ren- 
 der it unsafe for those whom it was designed to 
 shelter. Now whether it was owing to a doubt- 
 ful foundation, to the dry or wet-rot, I do not 
 affirm ; but this is certain, that many of their
 
 I 
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 83 
 
 inmates were seriously impressed that their safety 
 and the security of those great interests they 
 were intended to protect, were endangered, and 
 therefore fled from the tottering structures to a 
 new refuge. This impulse of self-preservation 
 has sadly reduced these old families ; and while 
 I would not appear officious in giving advice, it 
 strikes me, as " discretion is the better part of 
 valor," that those who continue faithful to the 
 old structures had better cease scolding their 
 friends who have withdrawn, and institute a 
 thorough examination of the materials to which 
 they trust their all, and save themselves, if not 
 their edifice, from ruin. These two political 
 structures may not have suffered so much from 
 the storms and tempests which have swept our 
 land, but even the long and burning rays of the 
 sun of prosperity have no doubt seriously warped 
 and otherwise damaged many of their timbers 
 so that while here and there you may find a 
 block not moss-grown, or a beam that has 
 escaped the rot, there are doubtless many 
 darkly shaded, while others are alive with 
 vermin, or have become the refuge of the moles 
 and bats. 
 
 The most careless observer of passing events 
 must have known, that for a number of years 
 there has been- a most shameful prostitution of 
 valuable time to political intrigue and corrup- 
 tion. The whole year prior to the nomination
 
 84 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 for the Presidency, Congress has been a scene 
 of conflict between rival expectants or their 
 friends, to the neglect of public business, and 
 not unfrequently to the detriment of good man- 
 ners and morals. Every speech, whatever its 
 ostensible object may have been, was burdened 
 with this absorbing theme, this one idea, until 
 the whole land was thrown into a furor, and the 
 desire came up from the humblest, as well as the 
 most exalted, that the assembled wisdom of the 
 nation might disperse and quiet be restored. 
 The people, though they " don't know," as well 
 as politicians the people began to think that 
 their money might be more profitably spent, and 
 their wishes more legitimately carried out, if 
 these gentlemen were occupied in such legisla- 
 tion as would promote the interests of com- 
 merce, of agriculture, of manufactures, of edu- 
 cation, and such other things as might form 
 appropriate objects for the consideration of their 
 representatives. Buncomb speeches and occa- 
 sional fights are perhaps well enough, just as 
 bull-fights are in Spain, if the public taste cor- 
 responds with such amusements; but "not 
 knowing" any better, the people were rather 
 disgusted than pleased, and spoke to each other 
 about reform. Another thing seemed to occa- 
 sion a difficulty to their minds - they had been 
 accustomed to hear themselves called " the dear 
 people," "my fellow-citizens;" but somehow or
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 85 
 
 other, these officials soon forgot those endearing 
 relations after they had received their votes. 
 They were also called the sovereigns, in whom 
 the powers of government resided ; but it seem- 
 ed, after all, that they had but little to do in 
 electing rulers. The caucus at "Washington 
 decided the choice of the Presidential candidate, 
 and this once fixed, he was labelled for the conven- 
 tion, and from thence sent out through the land, 
 and the adherents of the party whipped into his 
 support. The people, though they " did not 
 know," began to think that it would be more 
 honorable, and would make it possible to give 
 their support to the man of their choice, if the 
 custom of President-making at Washington 
 were abolished, and the business of nominating 
 a candidate for this high office were left to the 
 delegates sent up to a convention by the people. 
 Believing that this evil had attained to such a 
 growth in both the leading parties that it could 
 not be remedied by remaining in connection 
 with them, they concluded to exercise their so- 
 vereignty in such a way as would effectually 
 remove the wrong which they felt. The noble 
 Clay had been sacrificed at a period when he 
 might have been triumphantly elevated to the 
 chair of State; and the venerable Cass, and 
 others in both, parties, among whom were the 
 most eminent statesmen and purest patriots, 
 were immolated on the altar of faction, and
 
 86 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 made the victims of political intrigue, while 
 men of moderate capacities, almost wholly des- 
 titute of the necessary qualifications, and with 
 no merit as statesmen, were preferred. 
 
 But it is not my intention to specify to any 
 great extent, the various and deep-seated cor- 
 ruptions which had gained the mastery over 
 patriotism in the old organizations. There was 
 scarcely a redeeming trait left in the character 
 of those who ruled the old wigwams. It will 
 be seen that they put a price upon every aspirant 
 to office, and the great objects that ought to be 
 influential in the choice of rulers were entirely 
 lost sight of amid the dark corruptions which 
 prevailed. 
 
 Whatever good the Whigs and Democrats 
 may have done in former days, it was high time 
 that an organization standing in immediate con- 
 nection with the people should arise to vindicate 
 our character and to rid the country of these 
 abuses. Let us bring briefly under review some 
 of the means which were employed to carry out 
 their measures, and to secure their ends. It is 
 a notorious fact, that the most barefaced corrup- 
 tion was practised every state committee and 
 vigilance committee was freely supplied with 
 money to promote the success of the party. The 
 candidates for office were expected to contribute 
 an assessed sum, and every good member of the 
 fraternity, and particularly every expectant of
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 87 
 
 future favors from the party dare not withhold 
 his material aid, for the furtherance of the inte- 
 rests of the party. In the State of Maryland, 
 prior to the adoption of the new constitution, 
 votes were sold in some places at public auction, 
 and since this open prostitution of the noblest 
 right of a citizen is not allowed, the same is 
 carried on secretly. 
 
 During an election a year ago, a certain class 
 of men were loitering around the polls, and 
 being asked, Have you voted? They replied, 
 ]S"o ! our rent is not paid ; or, I need some flour, 
 and can't vote until the rent is paid, or the flour 
 procured. Of course these rents are always paid, 
 and these other demands all met before the polls 
 are closed. Is it not humiliating to a truly 
 American spirit to witness such scenes, and is 
 not the honor which attaches to official station 
 of a doubtful character, when procured not by 
 the intellectual or moral worth of the candidate, 
 but for certain considerations agreed upon by 
 the parties. Hence one of the most important 
 items in the character of an aspirant is the 
 amount of available means which he can bring 
 with him into the field. Napoleon once said 
 "that every man had his price," and while we 
 believe that many of our fellow-citizens would 
 spurn the man and his impious bribes, there are 
 victims of ambition who can be bought and sold 
 like asses. Is it not high time to reform this
 
 88 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 abuse ? Do we not owe it to the memory of 
 those distinguished and great departed men, 
 who founded this empire of Liberty, as well as 
 to our own character, to purge away this foul 
 stain ? 
 
 To corroborate the foregoing statement of the 
 deep-seated corruption in the political world, I 
 might quote the declarations of the leading 
 papers of both political parties. Let us hear 
 what a few of these say. A New York editor, 
 commenting upon the recent election in that 
 state, says : " More people were disappointed 
 and grieved, than were pleased with the result 
 of the election last week. It comes to pass that 
 a governor is chosen by less than one-third of 
 the people, and to whom more than two-thirds 
 are opposed." The Albany Register holds the 
 following language in the issue of November 9. 
 
 " There was never in a country with a free 
 constitution, such utter tyranny as has existed 
 in this State for the last twenty-five years. A 
 tyranny that was just as potential in the sup- 
 pression of popular sentiment, that controlled 
 the political action of men just as effectually, as 
 would a decree of the Russian Czar the senti- 
 ment or action of his serfs. The instrumentalities 
 by which that tyranny was supported too were 
 of the vilest kind. The great motor was the 
 primary meetings, and these had come to be 
 made up in the main, of the vilest and most
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 89 
 
 worthless people, in our cities especially men 
 that were never seen except on the recurrence 
 of those meetings, and possibly on the days of 
 election ; men who were fished up for the pur- 
 pose from the stews of debauchery, from the 
 grog-shops and filthy alleys; men of violence 
 and disorder, steaming with licentiousness and 
 shouting blasphemies. "With such a class decent 
 men would not associate in the primary meetings, 
 and as a consequence did not frequent them. 
 Yet just such men, as a matter of fact, controlled 
 nominations, and dictated as to who should be 
 our public officers. Everybody knew this. Po- 
 litical knaves gloried in it because it was the 
 basis of their power. Yet such was the degree 
 of moral courage required to break up such a 
 stupendous system of corruption, that few would 
 venture upon the experiment. Those who. did 
 thus venture were set upon and hunted down. 
 The same vile instruments, the same despicable 
 pack that controlled the primary elections, were 
 let loose upon any man who ventured to question 
 the potency of caucus dictation, and like hungry 
 hounds were put upon his trail, and they followed 
 him with open mouths and ravenous jaws until 
 his influence was utterly destroyed, and he was 
 worried into submission or political death." 
 
 The New York Observer in commenting upon 
 this language, remarks " This is not a confes- 
 sion or complaint of one party only. It is not 
 8*
 
 90 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 denied that the same abuses have become com- 
 mon to all political parties of this country at the 
 present day, that the abuses have become 
 intolerable and ought to be redressed. The 
 Reform Committee, on the eve of the late elec- 
 tion, put forth a circular stating the means by 
 which nominations are obtained, and disclosing 
 a degree of profligacy that fairly causes a shudder, 
 when we think that our lives and property are 
 in the hands of men thus foisted into high office. 
 After exposing the bribery and corruption be- 
 tween candidates of opposite parties in different 
 wards, who sell to each other the votes of their 
 friends at the primary meetings, where Whigs 
 vote in Democratic boxes, and vice versa, the 
 committee proceeds to say : 
 
 " Under this system of Primary Elections, there 
 have grown up a large class of men known in 
 the slang of the city as 'suckers' and 'strikers.' 
 The 'strikers' are a bold class of marauders, 
 who ' come down ' upon a candidate for a place, 
 and demand of him money, with threats that if 
 he does not give it, they will be down upon him 
 in the Primary Elections, or in the Nominating 
 Conventions, and who generally frighten timid 
 or corrupt men into pay. These ' strikers ' and 
 ' suckers ' make it their trade to get upon the 
 Nominating Committee, and in connection with 
 outside forces, they generally succeed. The man 
 who does not wish to be known as taking money
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 91 
 
 in person, puts into' these nominating committees 
 these 'strikers' and 'suckers,' and they noto- 
 riously sell their votes not alone to the highest 
 bidder, but often over and over again to all the 
 bidders ; and hence it is well known that the 
 Nominating Committees are more or less as 
 marketable as cattle, or slaves in the slave-pen 
 not for one sale, however, as are cattle and 
 slaves, but over and over again, at the same 
 moment, to different buyers, according as they 
 find dupes to dupe, or aspirants to buy them." 
 
 This and much more of the same sort is given 
 as an exposition of New York politics. The 
 Courier and Enquirer said a few days before 
 their recent election "We have it from Mr. 
 Wood's own lips, that his majority is to be at 
 least five thousand, and that he is in a position 
 that enables him to put his enemies at defiance. 
 In his own strong language, he might even 
 commit a murder in his own household without 
 endangering his success at the polls next Tues- 
 day." 
 
 The Evening Post of nearly the same date, 
 according to the N. Y. Observer, says: "His 
 (Mr. Wood's) motives for making the extraordi- 
 nary exertions which he has made, and for en- 
 countering the obloquy which was sure to follow 
 his nomination for the office of Mayor, if cor- 
 rectly communicated to us, and we have no doubt 
 they were, are creditable to him, and aid in some
 
 92 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 measure to reconcile us to his success. He felt 
 oppressed by the weight of suspicion that was 
 resting upon his character, and concluded that the 
 best way to be relieved was to set to work and 
 build up a new one." There that may be suffi- 
 cient for the present. If this be a fair represen- 
 tation of the condition of the old parties, no 
 wonder that Mr. Douglas protested so strongly 
 against the entering of the New England cler- 
 gymen into the "muddy pools of politics." 
 We join with Mr. Douglas in this protest, though 
 we should rejoice if these divines could exert 
 some purifying charm upon " these dirty pools," 
 and change them into pure fountains. Alas ! 
 what acknowledged degeneracy in these once 
 pure organizations ! Who can look upon their 
 fall without sincere regret ? and who that has a 
 spark of patriotism within him but earnestly 
 longs for their purification ? 
 
 But the purity, the rectitude and honorable 
 course of action of former days can only be 
 restored by a new organization, in which no cor- 
 rupt or unworthy principle shall be tolerated. 
 There are enough pure men in both the old 
 parties to form a new one that will not sanction 
 such abuses. And we have entirely misappre- 
 hended the elements of character in those who 
 compose the American party, if they would not 
 indignantly spurn from their ranks such as would 
 inflict a stain upon the national honor by such
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 93 
 
 abuses as those to which I have already referred. 
 . No ! we trust that if an unworthy member does 
 occasionally appear, he will be instantly removed, 
 for by this means alone will they be able to bring 
 back those ancient but stern virtues, which shone 
 in the characters of our fathers, and were justly 
 the glory of the American people. They will 
 select those for rulers who are properly qualified, 
 and whose instincts are truly republican. There 
 has been already too much corruption among 
 office-makers, and it is time that the infamous 
 business of buying and selling should be stopped. 
 The people have too long endured this truckling 
 to a foreign power, by submitting to that class 
 of men spoken of above and they desire no 
 more exhibitions of sympathy on the part of 
 venerable Senators for the Pope's Nuncio. They 
 were deeply grieved to witness the efforts of 
 those loaded with the highest honors of their 
 country, to add another leaf to their chaplets, 
 and that, too, of foreign growth, by their defence 
 of the brutal and infamous Bedini. "While the 
 American party will doubtless extend to all 
 mankind the privilege of locating among us, and 
 of enjoying equal rights as to the protection of 
 property and life, they will not suffer the exal- 
 tation of ambitious foreigners to the detriment 
 of American citizens. 
 It is therefore manifest, that there are those
 
 94 THE NECESSITY OF SUCH 
 
 things in both the great political parties which 
 made it absolutely essential for those not par- 
 taking of their corruptions, to come out from 
 among them and exercise their rightful indepen- 
 dence in the choice of rulers. A large number 
 of the most respectable men in both parties, for 
 years past refused to pronounce the shibboleth 
 of their respective organizations, and would not 
 support nominees irrespective of their fitness. 
 These have usually made selections from both 
 tickets, and have supported those whom they 
 considered the most capable and worthy. If 
 their former friends complain of the new order, 
 if they are confounded and irritated if they 
 look with sad hearts upon the utter ruin of their 
 schemes, and deplore the extinguishment of their 
 fond hopes concerning some of their idols 
 the bitterest of all reflections associated with 
 their defeats is that they have dug their own 
 graves, and must now sing their own political 
 funeral dirge ! 
 
 They presumed too much upon the ignorance 
 or forbearance of the people. If they " did not 
 know" all the unfaithfulness and corruption that 
 reigned in the councils at Washington and else- 
 where, they knew enough to disgust them with 
 many of their proceedings, and to convince them 
 of the absolute necessity of a new organization. 
 The time, moreover, for its formation could not
 
 AN ORGANIZATION EXAMINED. 95 
 
 have been more auspicious : old party issues had 
 passed away, and there was scarcely anything 
 left but the name to divide the people. Political 
 science had reached that stage of development, 
 when, those who were actuated by principles of 
 pure patriotism could coalesce without sacrificing 
 any of their cherished sentiments. Indeed, they 
 were prepared to cast away those principles in 
 both platforms that were useless, and retain such 
 as were sound. In thus rejecting the worthless 
 and uniting the excellent, they may constitute 
 the best political basis ever formed. This fusion 
 of Whig and Democratic principles, acknow- 
 ledged to be just and patriotic, they offer to the 
 American people as a creed made up of senti- 
 ments approved by the wisest statesmen of the 
 past, and advocated by the most exalted of the 
 present day. 
 
 In other words, it will be a collection of 
 jewels, a combination of those brilliant dogmas 
 evolved by the powerful intellects of Washington, 
 Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Calhoun, Webster, 
 and others. The creed of the American party 
 is their best vindication against the charge of 
 fanaticism and weakness, for it is, after all, no 
 new theory of government which they propose, 
 but a carrying out of those patriotic sentiments 
 which have, from time to time, been thrown 
 oft' for our country's history by her noblest
 
 96 THE NECESSITY OF, ETC. 
 
 intellects, and whose valuable influence would 
 have been lost amid the rubbish of the old party 
 distinctions. The fact, I think, is therefore 
 clearly made out and established beyond the 
 possibility of doubt, that an American party 
 was loudly demanded by considerations of policy, 
 and became unavoidable from the condition of 
 the old parties.
 
 THE EXIGENCIES, ETC. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE EXIGENCIES OF THE TIMES DEMAND AN AMERI- 
 CAN PARTY. 
 
 HUMANITY, in its existing state, must produce 
 the most serious reflections in thoughtful minds. 
 The aspects of the world plainly indicate that 
 a momentous era is at hand that events preg- 
 nant with tremendous realities are about to burst 
 upon mankind. The journals in all climes are 
 chronicling the most startling occurrences. The- 
 nations of the earth are in a highly excited 
 state. There are scenes of commotion wherever 
 we look ! Agitations that reach to the pro- 
 foundest depths of the social structure, and 
 causing kingdoms to vibrate to their centres. 
 Hoary despotisms are lifted from the foundations 
 of centuries thrones are trembling like aspen 
 leaves in the gale. Turning to the old world, 
 we behold scenes of carnage and blood ! The 
 human family is like a sea, on which the passions 
 of men are blowing from every point, lashing it 
 into terrible commotion, while the maddened 
 billows of power are here and there engulfing 
 some cherished interest, or some brilliant hopes. 
 9
 
 98 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 China has been waked from the repose of cen- 
 turies, and is now heaving upon waves of passion. 
 The conflict between the crescent and the cross 
 has involved in its issues the most powerful em- 
 pires of the old world. There is not a kingdom 
 that is not agitated with painful apprehensions, 
 or that is not now contending for its existence. 
 Though we are far removed from those scenes 
 of foreign conflict, we cannot remain unaffected 
 by them. "We are united to those nations not 
 only by those bonds of sympathy which make 
 the interests of humanity common, but com- 
 merce, with all its facilities for intercommunica- 
 tion, makes us partakers of the elements which 
 enter into their conflicts, and sharers in the 
 issues to which they will give rise. We live in 
 no ordinary times. This period of our world's 
 history is intensely interesting. It is a period 
 of great struggles. Not only is the din of arms 
 and the shock of contending armies echoed 
 through the earth but there is a mighty collision 
 of principles involving the highest and most 
 sacred interests of the race. 
 
 A war of principles is the most exciting and 
 the noblest of all conflicts. It is one which calls 
 forth and ranges on the sides of the combatants 
 our liveliest sympathies. Who does not now 
 feel an intense interest in that struggle going on 
 between despotism and freedom? Between 
 error and truth? Between superstition and
 
 OFTHETIMES. 99 
 
 religion ? As these principles aim at a universal 
 influence in their dominion and bearings, they 
 must affect all mankind. It cannot be a matter 
 of indifference to us whether one or the other 
 triumphs, forasmuch as the result must exert an 
 influence beneficial or adverse upon us. If the 
 old despotisms are re-established, they will be- 
 come more impregnable than ever, and it will 
 become more difficult for this nation to execute 
 its mission of diffusing the principles of liberal in- 
 stitutions and humane laws throughout the world. 
 If the aspirations for freedom which are now 
 throbbing through those empires shall be trans- 
 formed into glorious realizations, the contribu- 
 tions from those countries to our population will 
 more readily become Americanized when once 
 upon our shores. Every victory of truth over 
 error wherever achieved, will add force to the 
 efforts made here for its advancement and 
 supremacy and the triumphs of an uncorrupted 
 Christianity over superstition, will infuse fresh 
 energy into those benevolent schemes which 
 contemplate the universal prevalence of pure 
 religion. 
 
 In view, therefore, of these plain but incon- 
 trovertible facts, I am clearly of the opinion that 
 the exigencies of the times imperatively demand 
 an association of American citizens, truly pa- 
 triotic and Christian in its character. I am 
 aware that there has been a singular and decided
 
 100 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 aversion on the part of many to the blending 
 of civil and religious influences. It has some- 
 times formed a powerful objection to a popular 
 movement, because Christianity has been re- 
 motely associated with it. Politicians seemed 
 to dread contact either with the Gospel or those 
 who espoused it, for what reason they knew 
 best. For some years the national tendencies 
 seemed strongly towards infidelity but happily 
 there is a change working in national sentiment 
 on this subject. It is one of the most agreeable 
 features of Mr. "Wise's recent production, (to 
 which we will in due time pay our respects,) that 
 he attempts to vindicate some of the positions 
 assumed by the principles of the Gospel. 
 
 But while the religious aspect assigned to the 
 American party is avowedly the most objection- 
 able feature to its opponents, I am disposed to 
 regard this element in the new order as its most 
 admirable virtue, and one which will not only 
 commend it to the ablest and best men, but 
 will secure for it an immortality which none 
 other can boast. And why should it be consi- 
 dered an improper departure of the Gospel from 
 its appropriate sphere when it exerts its elevating 
 and purifying influences upon an association of 
 intelligent men, so that they respect its teach- 
 ings and regulate their conduct in civil life by 
 its precepts? Even a theory of government 
 drawn from it would honorably compare with
 
 OF THE TIMES. 101 
 
 those of the ablest statesmen that ever lived. 
 Are not the finest gold and the most precious 
 gems in our noble Declaration of Independence 
 from the Gospel mine? "Where else, and in 
 what code of ethics is the equality and unity 
 of mankind taught? What other system can 
 be compared with it, in clearly apprehending, 
 in forcibly stating, and justly requiring the du- 
 ties which we owe to each other as members of 
 the same social fraternity, as well as to those in 
 authority over us ? This affected horror of an 
 influence so ennobling and so healthful in a 
 party is simply ridiculous, not to apply a harsher 
 epithet. Why should not the religious element 
 which regulates all the springs of action be asso- 
 ciated with the political ? It cannot impair the 
 ability of citizens rightly to discharge their du- 
 ties. Was there ever a purer patriot, an abler 
 warrior, a profounder statesman, or a better 
 citizen than George Washington ? And if 
 prayer and the principles of the Gospel did not 
 disqualify nor corrupt the father of our country, 
 but guided and preserved him while shaping and 
 presiding over the interests of the nation, will 
 not these influences have a like efficacy upon 
 those who are his worthy successors ? If Web- 
 ster has left it as the conviction of his lofty in- 
 tellect, that Christianity forms an integral part 
 of our political system, why should it not be 
 
 suffered to influence our action as citizens, and 
 9*
 
 102 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 beautify and strengthen our noble institutions ? 
 If Cass uttered it as the deliberate conviction 
 of his master-mind and richly-stored intellect, 
 that our Republic can only be preserved by a 
 pure Christianity, why raise a cry of horror, as 
 though some fatal innovation were set on foot, 
 when men claim as a political right protection 
 in their religious interests ? The American party 
 asks no legislation for Protestantism, and will 
 suffer none for Catholicism, but demands what 
 the Constitution of this great confederacy gua- 
 rantees to all its citizens, untrammelled freedom 
 to worship God according to the dictates of con- 
 science, or, if any choose, not to worship at all 
 where then is there room for censure ? 
 
 I contend that the circumstances which brought 
 about the present issue, and the very nature of 
 the conflict to which the new order has risen, 
 make it eminently proper that the religious 
 element, and those views of free religious wor- 
 ship already indicated, should enter prominently 
 into the contest. This freedom of conscience, 
 and the rights of the ministers of religion, have 
 been threatened and denounced. On the one 
 hand, Bishop Hughes, in his reply to General 
 Cass on religious toleration, would make liberty 
 of conscience consist in its inherent or natural 
 properties. He maintains that the freedom of 
 conscience can never be violated that none can 
 penetrate the fortress that it is free amid the
 
 OP THE TIMES. 103 
 
 fires of the stake, or when the body is galled 
 and wasted by chains, or starved amid the filth 
 of a dungeon. But, however these views of 
 religious freedom may suit Home, and however 
 significant and pregnant with meaning this ex- 
 position of the inalienable prerogatives of con- 
 science may be, should the papal power become 
 dominant in this country, Americans would not 
 relish such freedom, and what is obvious, will 
 never consent to it here, nor endorse it any- 
 where else. The case, then, assumes this aspect; 
 if the high functionaries of that spiritual des- 
 potism, with all the power they can wield, if the 
 entire Catholic communion occupies the same 
 position as its leaders, if they act as one man, 
 because impelled by one will, and having one 
 aim, the subjection of our country to the Pope, 
 is it not right, is it not just, is it not a sacred 
 duty on the part of Americans, whether prac- 
 tical Christians or not, whether ecclesiastics or 
 private members, so that they only love equal 
 rights and religious toleration, and deprecate 
 such views of religious freedom as Bishop 
 Hughes oifers, to unite their exertions against 
 the enemies of our liberties? Nothing could 
 be more just. But it is not from Catholics 
 alone that danger is to be apprehended, but 
 socialists and infidels; those men who would 
 paralyze the arm of public authority, when it is 
 extended to prevent their impious deeds men
 
 104 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 who would tear our noble charter into fragments, 
 and shiver our social structure to atoms, if they 
 could command the power, as they have the 
 will. They are impatient to abolish every sab- 
 bath law, consume every sanctuary, break every 
 marriage tie, and turn this land into a brothel 
 and Pandemonium. Shall not the friends of 
 order, of purity, of virtue, of humanity and 
 religion, unite to silence these impudent fo- 
 reigners? Ay, if we should refuse to do so, 
 the very soil hallowed by the blood of our noble 
 sires would cry out against us. If we would 
 not rise to vindicate their principles and our 
 country's honor, we would deserve the reproba- 
 tion of mankind and be forced to reproach 
 ourselves, for suffering those dire calamities to 
 darken and oppress the land, which these 
 leagued powers would bring upon us. 
 
 One reason which causes men to look with 
 distrust upon any combination of political and 
 religious elements, .or to suspect a political 
 dogma which may have sprung from the reli- 
 gious sense of the people, is, no doubt, owing to 
 the instinctive dread which every American has 
 of the union of church and state. Such a 
 result, however, could never take place from 
 any combination of Protestant men, for the 
 obvious reason that, if sufficiently powerful to 
 control the public mind, the movement would 
 necessarily comprehend a great variety of reli-
 
 OF THE TIMES. 105 
 
 gious creeds, none of which would accept of 
 civil power, nor allow it in any that might. It 
 is idle to imagine such a result, for it could not, 
 in the nature of things, occur. It is even one 
 of the fundamental principles of the American 
 party, to oppose all tendencies of this kind, 
 wherever found. If it be said that such mon- 
 strous unions exist between the temporal and 
 spiritual powers in Protestant as well as Ca- 
 tholic countries, such a combination of causes 
 could never take place in a republic as to pro- 
 duce such a result. It never has taken place 
 where distinct denominations have existed ; it 
 never can, unless all men of different creeds 
 would become subject to one, which is totally 
 out of the question. So far, therefore, from 
 deprecating the religious element in the new 
 party, we regard it as an auspicious feature, 
 commending itself to the judgment of good 
 citizens. 
 
 But there is another view of the subject 
 deserving our consideration. Many distinct 
 nationalities flow together, and must blend into 
 one, to insure harmony and permanency to our 
 government. But which of all these is to pre- 
 dominate and absorb all the rest? Most assu- 
 redly the American. Having received contri- 
 butions from all nations, they must give up 
 their peculiarities and become American in 
 feeling, in thought, and in devotion to our
 
 106 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 republic, before they can be considered good 
 citizens; and, made up of so many and essen- 
 tially different materials, our nation has most to 
 fear from the resistance which these offer, in this 
 process of assimilation, which must go on, as 
 long as this influx of a foreign population con- 
 tinues. We find, however, among those who 
 profess to be citizens, men who are still subject 
 to a foreign potentate and sworn to render him 
 absolute obedience ; and how they can be faith- 
 ful to two sovereigns at the same time, would 
 require the most skilful Jesuitical sophistry to 
 show ; to us it is an absurdity. In view, there- 
 fore, of these different nationalities which are 
 found amongst us, it is absolutely necessary to 
 have an efficient American organization, so as 
 to give the appropriate prominence to those 
 peculiarities which pertain to us as a republican 
 people, that the influence exerted upon the 
 various classes who shelter under our banner 
 may so transform them as to become thoroughly 
 imbued with our nationalities. It is only in 
 this way that we can hope to benefit them, and 
 protect ourselves. Our true interests as Ameri- 
 cans must be thoroughly understood by our- 
 selves, if we would be prepared to defend them 
 when occasion requires. That such a period 
 has dawned, I think, is too obvious for any one 
 to doubt. It is true, no appeal to arms is ne- 
 cessary, for we possess the requisite civil and
 
 OF THE TIMES. 107 
 
 moral force to avert such a calamity ; but then 
 \ve may not, with impunity to our interests, 
 withhold that influence which it is in our power 
 to wield. The politician may find ample secu- 
 rity against all real or supposed dangers in our 
 laws, and regard our constitution impregnable 
 against all attempts to subvert our liberties; but 
 the statesman and philosopher, who have care- 
 fully studied the beginning and progress of our 
 national existence, will only rely upon our laws 
 while these derive their potency from the virtue 
 and intelligence of the people. Republics are 
 not so much governed by outward constraint as 
 by inward principle; and such has been and 
 is still the experience of mankind. This nation 
 is indebted to .Christianity, more than to any- 
 thing else, for its existence, its growth, and 
 prosperity. It was under the force of those 
 motives which Christianity inspires, that a few 
 men, without wealth or ample resources, first 
 reared the standard of freedom. " That great 
 event," says a distinguished writer, "the Ame- 
 rican Revolution, would never have been 
 achieved, but for Christianity. Political soci- 
 ety moved on the axis of religion." The 
 religious movement gave birth and character 
 to the social : " men, who knew that there could 
 be a church without a bishop, knew that there 
 could be a state without a king." On that 
 memorable occasion, when the delegates from
 
 108 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 the different colonies were assembled to form a 
 declaration of rights, such was the conflict of 
 opinion, that there was imminent danger of a 
 dissolution of the assembly, without framing a 
 bond of union against their oppressors, when it 
 was proposed by one of their number that 
 prayer should be offered; and, after imploring 
 the wisdom which cometh from above, they 
 succeeded in forming that basis upon which our 
 political edifice has grown and expanded, until 
 it has become the admiration of the world. As 
 in its origin, so also in its growth, is our nation 
 mainly indebted to the instrumentalities of the 
 gospel. It gave rise to that system of education 
 which has made our population more generally 
 intelligent than that of any other nation, except 
 Germany. The same agency produced all those 
 benevolent institutions where the unfortunate 
 find comfortable homes. "We are indebted to its 
 influence for the consecration of those great intel- 
 lects which have illumined the high places of our 
 Republic to the interests of patriotism and vir- 
 tue. And what shall we say of its moulding, 
 guiding, and restraining agency upon our vast 
 population ? You cannot govern a free people 
 without religion, and the motives of eternity 
 which it inspires. A religious sentiment among 
 the people is indispensably necessary to carry 
 out the designs of civil government, and motives 
 which lay hold on the world to come are needed
 
 OF THE TIMES. 109 
 
 to restrain men from disturbing the peace and 
 happiness of society. The history of the past is 
 prolific in proofs of the weakness and utter 
 inefficiency of human laws, where these are not 
 associated with the retributions of eternity. It 
 is, therefore, not simply impolitic, but suicidal, 
 to attempt to neutralize or destroy the religious 
 element in our political system ; for this would 
 strike away the strongest pillars of our Republic. 
 But this is precisely what many of these 
 foreigners are aiming to effect. They have 
 labored long and assiduously to create a train 
 of influences which might weaken, and ulti- 
 mately extinguish, those religious sentiments of 
 our people which now mould the public con- 
 science. And while such efforts are put forth, 
 shall we not rise up to plead for and to defend 
 our altars ? If there can be an emergency to 
 justify the origin of an association under an 
 existing pressure or an impending evil, such 
 a necessity called the American party into 
 being. The great conflict of those everlasting 
 and inestimable principles which is now raging 
 over the earth, must unquestionably be de- 
 cided here. In this land will the fate of 
 humanity be determined. The scene is happily 
 chosen for the final struggle there is a fitness 
 between the magnificence of this country and 
 the vast and far-reaching issues which are here 
 
 to be decided. Behold this land! Is it not 
 10
 
 110 THE EXIGENCIES 
 
 great in all its features ? Look at its natural 
 greatness ! "What an area of territory ! what 
 magnificent rivers, mountains, lakes and seas ! 
 Examine the business operations of this country ; 
 they are all on a large scale, which is ever wi- 
 dening and enlarging. The commercial inte- 
 rests of this nation have, from the beginning 
 of its existence, been rising, until every sea is 
 whitened with our sails ; and they will doubtless 
 progress until we shall surpass all our rivals. 
 From these and other considerations, not only 
 the wise of the present day, but the judicious 
 and far-seeing minds of other times, have pre- 
 dicted the coming of this warfare and the field 
 of decisive action. The conflict is at hand 
 and the American party may be looked upon as 
 the offspring of Providence, just as much as it 
 is the child of the people. We look upon it as 
 the chosen instrument to bear us through the 
 responsibilities of the day, and as an association 
 freighted with the needful energies to secure for 
 the principles of truth over error, of freedom over 
 despotism, of religion over superstition, and of 
 tolerance over intolerance, a triumph that will 
 bathe the entire world in light and glory. Con- 
 stituted for a noble end, and toiling for sublime 
 results, they are now marching onward to the 
 conflict, with hearts brave and true ; their spirits 
 are animated with the conviction that theirs 
 is the cause of right, of man, and of God, and
 
 OF THE TIMES. Ill 
 
 thus pressing forward in the path to new vic- 
 tories, under the inspiration of the recollections 
 of the glorious past, they are sustained by the 
 hopes of a yet more glorious future. The po- 
 sition assumed in this chapter is vindicated ; 
 and such a judgment we await at the popular 
 tribunal.
 
 112 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE TRUE POSITION OF THE PARTY. 
 
 ALL things possessed of excellence are doomed 
 to meet with resistance in their origin and pro- 
 gress. A sunbeam in its passage to our world 
 must overcome obstructions. Systems, whether 
 philosophical, moral or political, must expect to 
 encounter influences adverse to their success. 
 If destitute of those properties necessary to sus- 
 tain life and to give an internal force superior 
 to the outward pressure, they perish as soon as 
 they are born. It is not singular, therefore, that 
 an organization which has proved very trouble- 
 some to scheming politicians and ruinous to their 
 hopes, should draw upon itself an unusual share 
 of odium. The peculiarities of the new order 
 have given it a wonderful notoriety, and secured 
 for it a more than ordinary degree of defamation. 
 It is really amusing to look over some of these 
 effusions of those party journals that have so 
 long directed the masses without let or hindrance ; 
 but which are now all at once brought against the 
 wall. Having for years found the people whom
 
 OF THE PARTY. 113 
 
 they commanded, ready to execute their wishes 
 and to cast their suffrages as they were instructed ; 
 they were not prepared for this sudden revulsion 
 in the political current. We are not disposed to 
 blame them for showing a degree of feeling 
 under circumstances so provoking. Eeason can- 
 not always be in the ascendant passion will 
 sometimes reign. "We would not even more 
 than smile when we see a man beating the rock 
 that has crushed his toe, or getting angry with 
 the wind that comes freighted with dust to the 
 discomfort of his eyes. Such things will happen, 
 and should not be mentioned to the disparage- 
 ment of the individual's fortitude, but viewed 
 simply as incidental evidences of the weakness 
 of human nature. It is no slight annoyance to 
 the mariner when his full-rigged vessel droops 
 its wings on a waveless sea; or when driven 
 back by opposing winds and tides ; and it is no 
 small chagrin to these political schemers when 
 in sight of the anxiously longed-for port, they 
 are carried on reefs and shoals by an adverse 
 current. Blame them because they swear, and 
 stamp, and foam ? Never ! It is human nature 
 to be thus fretted and chafed in spirit when 
 great hopes are blighted. But there is hope that 
 their temper will improve and that these men 
 now so alarmingly agitated as they pass along 
 in the "via dolorosa," may regain their equa- 
 nimity. It is said that some distance up a cer- 
 10*
 
 114 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 tain river, the saline properties of the atmosphere 
 are admirably suited to reduce the circulation in 
 fevered systems, and that many whose symptoms 
 were similar to those which manifest themselves 
 in these gentlemen, were entirely restored in 
 those regions. It might be worth white for some 
 of our friends to try the effects of an excursion 
 to that cool retreat, more especially as the people 
 seem to think that they can dispense with their 
 services for the present. But as this is more 
 particularly a business which concerns their own 
 comfort, we will pass on to the subject of this 
 chapter. 
 
 The position, like the character and objects 
 of the American party, has been grossly mis- 
 represented. They have not complained of this, 
 for they know that those who are hostile to 
 their exertions have been accustomed in their 
 political warfare, to traduce and defame each 
 other: neither does the new order beg for a 
 cessation of , hostilities, nor insist upon their 
 enemies using the same weapons wliich they 
 employ, but this vituperation and abuse impose 
 the necessity upon some one to define the true 
 position of the party. This privilege will, I trust, 
 be the more cheerfully conceded, since it has of 
 late years become quite fashionable for parties 
 and public men to define their position ; they 
 have thus given us the force of their example as
 
 OF THE PARTY. 115 
 
 a justification, to place the much abused order 
 "rectus in curia," before the public. 
 
 The American Party is denounced as fostering 
 hostility to foreigners. This assertion is often 
 presented under such colorings and with such 
 statements of facts as, when examined, are 
 not facts, that an air of plausibility is thrown 
 over the portraiture drawn by the disordered 
 fancy of its opposers. But where is the evidence 
 that the new party is enkindling and fostering 
 hostile feelings against foreigners ? 0, it is pal- 
 pable, because they will not allow them to hold 
 office you proscribe them for their religion, 
 because you would exclude Catholics from official 
 trusts. With such premises, we are not surprised 
 at their conclusions, for the former are as barren 
 of intelligence, as the latter are destitute of logic. 
 Could you conceive of a more indefensible and 
 absurd assumption, than that I am hostile to a 
 citizen and prejudice others against him, because 
 I do not conceive him qualified to legislate or 
 rule, and therefore would not consent to his 
 elevation to an official position ? There could 
 not be a more stupid assertion. Upon the same 
 ground, it must then be maintained, that who- 
 ever is not possessed of the needful qualifications 
 to make or administer law, and therefore not 
 placed in a responsible office, becomes an object 
 of distrust and hate on the part of those who 
 withold from him their suffrages. So that, if
 
 116 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 you regard an Irishman or German a useful 
 citizen, because he has strength to dig canals 
 and construct railroads ; or because this one is a 
 mechanic, and that one a farmer or merchant, 
 and contributes to the general good, by pursuing 
 that vocation for which he is fitted ; but if you 
 do not nominate and elect him to some office, 
 you are fostering hostile feelings against him 
 and all other classes under like circumstances ? 
 
 Palpably absurd as such a mode of argumen- 
 tation must appear to a man of good sense, it is 
 all that can be alleged in support of the assertion 
 that the American party engenders and nurses 
 malevolent feelings against foreigners. The 
 members of this association are fully satisfied 
 that however useful many foreigners are in the 
 various departments of human industry, they 
 are totally unfit to occupy official stations. 
 Some of the reasons of their disqualification to 
 rule, have already been assigned under the dis- 
 cussion of the principle that Americans should 
 rule America. Here it is only necessary to 
 recur to these observations. But if we keep in 
 view the education of these men, the peculiar 
 influences which were active in maturing their 
 character, and the unavoidable predilections 
 which the form of government under which they 
 grew up produced in their minds, and the evi- 
 dences found in each and every one of them 
 that their distinctive nationalities are interwoven
 
 OF THE PARTY. 117 
 
 with the very texture of their being we will 
 assure ourselves of the wisdom of the policy, which 
 aims to exercise that precaution in the choice 
 of rulers necessary to avert the evils of a mal- 
 administration of the government. So far from 
 being actuated by feelings of hostility towards 
 foreigners, it can be demonstrated to the satis- 
 faction of all whose minds are open to conviction, 
 that whatever of apparent illiberality there may 
 seem to be in this creed, it is after all the soundest 
 and most liberal policy towards them. It is be- 
 cause we love them and the interests of our 
 country, that we would give them no higher 
 political position than citizenship, and that only 
 after they are duly prepared. As such, they can 
 be happy and useful, unless they are victims of 
 unholy ambition ; and if those fires are burning 
 within them, they offer the most irrefragable 
 proof of their own unfitness for an office of trust. 
 Those in our midst of foreign nativity, must 
 agree with us as to the wisdom of this position, 
 when they calmly look at the peculiar circum- 
 stances of our nation. The immense influx of 
 foreigners has something alarming in its aspect. 
 "We grant that many come with the best inten- 
 tions, but could the nation confide in their 
 loyalty, should an emergency arise to endanger 
 our liberties? However high our estimate of 
 the immigrant population may be in general, it 
 is notorious that a large number are of very
 
 118 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 questionable reputation, and others are tar- 
 nished with the deepest crimes. How are 
 they to be distinguished? Or will those who 
 had become obnoxious to the laws of their 
 native land, be wise and just administrators of 
 law here ? To whatever extent the sympathies 
 of others for aliens might carry them in the way 
 of granting favors, we cannot hazard such a 
 perilous experiment. 
 
 To exalt them to office would only tend to 
 strengthen that inbred disposition to keep up 
 their distinct nationalities, and thus retard the 
 fusion of those antagonistic elements which 
 agitate the social body, into one truly American 
 character. Let them be contented with the tens 
 and hundreds of thousands of native born who 
 fill the various occupations of life, and who never 
 aspire to official stations. Let our foreigners 
 first learn to obey, before they would rule. Let 
 them teach their children that obedience and 
 love due to the government that protects their 
 persons and property. "What then is the hostility 
 fostered against aliens by the new order ? It has 
 no existence save in the heated brains of those 
 who court that influence for vile political pur- 
 poses. It is a cry raised by those who have long 
 since been accustomed to barter for the foreign 
 element. 
 
 You may call that parental solicitude which 
 a father displays by restraining a refractory
 
 OF THE PARTY. 119 
 
 child, hostility to the offspring; but those who 
 understand the relations which the parties sus- 
 tain to each other, will regard it an act of the 
 highest consideration for the youth's welfare ; 
 our government sustains a parental relation 
 towards its legitimate and adopted children, and 
 may with the greatest propriety, and without 
 infringing any right circumscribe the privileges 
 of the latter, if the interests of all are thereby 
 promoted. 
 
 Another objection offered against the Ame- 
 rican party, is its alleged tendency to stir up 
 persecution against the Catholics. It would 
 appear somewhat singular that such a charge 
 should gain currency even among Catholics, 
 who have had so many evidences of the sleepless 
 jealousy with which the American people guard 
 religious freedom, did we not know something 
 of the cunning and treachery which are put in 
 requisition whenever their fortunes are waning. 
 The cry of persecution has so often been raised 
 to create sympathy for suspicious parties, that it 
 may have been deemed very useful, at this time, 
 for them. That they really apprehend such an 
 evil, is as idle as the wind. When and where 
 have they been persecuted ? On what occasion 
 has the American party proclaimed such a de- 
 termination ? Who does not know that, during 
 the excitements which attended the street- 
 preaching in New York and elsewhere, these
 
 120 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 men protected the freedom of speech ? Though 
 not sympathizing with these misguided fa- 
 natics, they defended them in what they con- 
 ceived to be the privilege of American citizens. 
 Dr. Duff, in his account of those scenes, 
 says : " There were persons in the crowd dis- 
 posed to molest these preachers; but in that 
 crowd were also mixed up 'Know-Nothings.' 
 Well, the Protestant man went on expounding 
 Popery, while the Papists, as usual, began to 
 hoot. Suddenly every Papist got a firm thwack 
 on the side of the head, with the most thorough 
 American gravity, coupled with such words as 
 these : ' Sir, this is a free country ; every man is 
 entitled to speak; and, sir, when the man is 
 done, if you want to answer him, we will see to 
 it that you get justice.' ' This is their uniform 
 course ; and they would just as certainly protect 
 a Catholic in his right of speech as they would 
 a Protestant. Knowing these facts, it is some- 
 what singular that their opponents will continue 
 to circulate this slander. But it indicates to 
 what extremities they are driven ; for it is inva- 
 riably a sign of the weakness of a cause, when 
 true issues are avoided, and men attempt to 
 manufacture sympathy by the cry of persecu- 
 tion. Let them bring forth their strong reasons 
 let them show up the odious character of this 
 new order, if it is such an abhorrent thing. 
 Let them grapple with the dogmas of the new
 
 OF THE PARTY. 121 
 
 creed, and, by clear, cogent reasoning, establish 
 tbat viciousness of these doctrines, of which they 
 complain so much, and if it be successfully 
 proved that these principles contravene the 
 genius of our institutions, and conflict with the 
 rights of the humblest, this organization will 
 of itself fall to pieces; for nothing unworthy 
 will be sustained by the people. But here lies 
 the great difficulty; they cannot substantiate 
 their charges. They dare not meet the Ameri- 
 can party in open field, nor fight it with honor- 
 able weapons ; it is the guerilla warfare which 
 is waged against the new order. 
 
 While it is proper here to avow the utter 
 abhorrence with which all true Americans look 
 upon the persecution of any sect or religious 
 denomination, they are determined to guard 
 against such a contingency in any case. They 
 will not persecute Catholics, but they will take 
 care that the Catholics do not persecute Protest- 
 ants. That the Romish church would become 
 intolerant, if she had the power to dictate our 
 civil and religious laws, there can be but one 
 opinion. If true to her instincts, and consistent 
 with her doctrines, she must persecute and de- 
 stroy, where she can command the necessary 
 power. There may be no immediate possibility 
 to have everything in her own way; but that 
 she aims at supremacy is an undoubted fact. 
 Men may ridicule the thought of danger, and 
 11
 
 122 THE TEUE POSITION 
 
 ascribe such generosity and liberality to the 
 Papists as to believe that, even if they had the 
 power, they would not oppress those who reject 
 her authority but then the records of the past 
 are fiction. Such a supposition is at variance 
 with the entire history of that Church, and 
 would subvert her entire structure; for it is 
 held as one of the boasted prerogatives of Cath- 
 olicity, that Rome is unchangeable in spirit, in 
 doctrine, and in practice ! That, as she claims 
 infallibility, so is she also unchangeable in her 
 teachings and usages. Like the laws of the 
 Medes and Persians, according to her own show- 
 ing, she changes not. 
 
 Taking, then, the nature of this system, a3 
 set forth by her theologians, there must be uni- 
 formity of action, where the circumstances or 
 the power of the Church will warrant such 
 action. This granted, it is one of the easiest 
 things in the world to determine with mathe- 
 matical accuracy how they would act here, as 
 we have authentic knowledge of their course 
 towards those, in former times, who resisted 
 their claims, and as we see the Papacy is now 
 manifested, where it controls the civil as well 
 as the religious government of a country. They 
 change not ; but history tells us that they have 
 made it a capital offence for their subjects to 
 read the Bible. They change not, in doctrine 
 or spirit ; but they established an Inquisition for
 
 OF THE PARTY. 123 
 
 heretics, and, if her infallibility is worth any- 
 thing, it will teach that there is a necessity for 
 similar institutions, where public sentiment will 
 allow it. Thousands of innocent, but helpless, 
 beings were immolated on the horrid altar of 
 the Inquisition. John Anthony Llorente, a 
 Spanish ecclesiastic, and general secretary of the 
 Inquisition of that kingdom, says, "-that during 
 the period from 1481 to 1808, the number of 
 victims that fell into the hands of the Inquisi- 
 tion amounted to 341,021. Of these, 31,912 
 were burnt, 17,659 burnt in effigy, and 291,456 
 were subjected to severe penance." The Span- 
 iards established one in America, and the Por- 
 tuguese one in India; and wherever they had 
 the power these horrid institutions were created. 
 As the doctrines and usages of Rome are immu- 
 table, they would, as certainly as they would 
 obtain the power, create an Inquisition on 
 American soil, and fatten this land with Ame- 
 rican blood ! Rome changes not ; but she 
 butchered 30,000 Huguenots on the Feast of 
 St. Bartholomew, and "the Pope ordered a 
 jubilee and a procession to the church of St. 
 Louis ; cannon were discharged in honor of the 
 event, and a Te Deum chanted." The Papists 
 change not ; no ! for the imprisonment and 
 torture of the Madiai for reading the Scriptures 
 is still fresh in the minds of the public. They 
 change not ; no ! for the Pope has still in his
 
 124 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 employ the blood-thirsty executioners of his 
 wrath, and loads them with honors, as he did 
 the infamous Bedim, the murderer of the noble 
 Bassi and others, and who came on a grand 
 mission to the United States, and journeyed 
 through our country canopied by the ensign of 
 his tyrannic majesty. They change not ; no ! 
 for a letter, dated "Lausanne, Switzerland, Sep- 
 tember 18th, 1854," after remarking on the 
 persecuting character of the Papists, quotes, in 
 proof of its statements, the trial and condem- 
 nation of two citizens of Tuscany. "Louis 
 Baldi, a mason, thirty-four years of age, and 
 Michel Manguoli, a barber, aged thirty-one 
 years, both of them living at Sesto, a town situ- 
 ated two leagues from Florence, have been 
 recently arrested, under pretext that they had 
 committed an impious act, in the way of prose- 
 lytism. The procurator's address is worthy of 
 mention. The two delinquents are accused, 
 1st. Of having invited their neighbors to unite 
 with them in reading the Bible, and even of ex- 
 plaining it, erecting an impious altar in their 
 houses (catedra d'empieta] ; 2d. Of having at- 
 tacked the religion of the state, in denying the 
 usefulness of the mass, the confession, prayer 
 for the dead, absolution given by the priest, and 
 even faith in Jesus Christ; 3d. "With having 
 read anti-Catholic books, and seeking opportu- 
 nities for propagating their detestable doc- 
 trines, etc.
 
 OF THE PARTY. 125 
 
 "The accused indignantly rejected the charge 
 of having denied their faith in Jesus Christ. 
 As to the other facts, they sincerely acknowledged 
 that they believed neither in the mass, nor in 
 the necessity of extreme unction, nor in the 
 worship of the Virgin, &c. They have been 
 condemned to ten months' imprisonment and to 
 pay the expenses of the trial. The places which 
 the Madiai have vacated in the dungeons of 
 Tuscany are therefore now filled by the faithful 
 Baldi and Manguoli." 
 
 Rome changes not. No ! if her doctors and 
 the Pope have rightly understood her character, 
 and have given a true exhibit of the prerogatives 
 she claims ; if her own organs, such as the 
 Shepherd of the Valley, the Freeman's Journal, 
 Brownson's Review, and others, are any authority 
 in the case, then Popery would act here precisely 
 as it has in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Ger- 
 many and England, in days whose history is 
 written in blood. That terrible power, if once 
 exalted to the headship of this country, would 
 kindle the fires of the " HOLY auto da f6," on the 
 high places of our republic, and deluge our 
 blooming plains with American blood ! Taking, 
 therefore, a dispassionate view of the subject, we 
 must admit that the American party acts wisely, 
 and deserves the commendation of all good men 
 for guarding the high places of our republic 
 against the intrigue of this insidious enemy of 
 11*
 
 126 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 spiritual and religious freedom. And that I 
 have studiously refrained from all exaggeration 
 in what I have presented concerning the Papal 
 power, I might abundantly prove from writers 
 of their own communion, and from those raised 
 under their influence and thoroughly acquainted 
 with their system. 
 
 Pascal, one of those men who was devout and 
 holy in spite of the errors in which he grew up, 
 has given a full exposure of Jesuitism in his 
 Provincial Letters, and any one curious to know 
 the deep and dark abominations taught and 
 practised by that influential and ubiquitous 
 order in the Romish Church, will be well repaid 
 by the perusal of that work. This author, who 
 has triumphantly substantiated every proposition 
 condemnatory of the Jesuits with ample quota- 
 tions from their own authors, says in one of his 
 letters : " They" (the Jesuits) " have got maxims, 
 therefore, for all sorts of persons ; for benefici- 
 aries, for priests, for monks ; for gentlemen, for 
 servants ; for rich men, for commercial men ; 
 for people in embarrassed or indigent circum- 
 stances; for devout women, and women not 
 devout ; for married people, and irregular people. 
 In short, nothing has escaped their foresight." 
 And these maxims constitute a grand license for 
 all grades of crime " from a servant robbing 
 his master, if he believes that his wages are not 
 sufficient, a man or woman practising adultery
 
 OP THE PARTY. 127 
 
 if their passions so dictate, to the assassination 
 of a king, if the good of the Church is thereby 
 promoted." 
 
 In the introduction of the Provincial Letters, 
 the plan of operation of the Jesuits is thus 
 stated " The policy of the Society, as hitherto 
 exhibited in the countries where they have 
 settled, describes a regular cycle of changes. 
 Commencing with loud professions of charity, 
 of liberal views in politics, and of an accommo- 
 dating code of morals, they succeed in gaining 
 popularity among the non-religious, the dissi- 
 pated, and the restless portion of society. 
 Availing themselves of this, and carefully con- 
 cealing in a Protestant country, the more ob- 
 noxious parts of their creed, their next step is 
 to plant some of the most plausible of their 
 apostles in the principal localities, who are in- 
 structed to establish schools and seminaries on 
 the most charitable footing, so as to ingratiate 
 themselves with the poor, while they secure the 
 contributions of the rich ; to attack the credit 
 of the most active and influential among the 
 evangelical ministry; to revive old slanders 
 against the reformers ; to disseminate tracts of 
 the most alluring description ; and when assailed 
 in turn, to deny everything, and to grant nothing. 
 Rising by these means to power and influence, 
 they gradually monopolize the seats of learning, 
 the halls of theology; they glide with
 
 128 THE TKUE POSITION 
 
 noiseless steps into closets, cabinets, and palaces 
 they become the dictators of the public press, 
 the persecutors of the good, and the oppressors 
 of all public and private liberty. 
 
 "At length, their treacherous designs being dis- 
 covered, they rouse against themselves the storm 
 of natural passions, which descending on them 
 first as the authors of the mischief, sweeps away 
 along with them, in its headlong career, every- 
 thing that bears the aspect of that active and 
 earnest religion under the guise of which they 
 had succeeded in duping mankind." 
 
 Had the author from whom we have quoted 
 the above, written a history of the operations 
 and progress of Jesuitism in this land, he could 
 not have drawn a more life-like picture of their 
 movements, than he has done in the language 
 which he employs. But it could not be otherwise 
 according to their dogmas, for they are the ser- 
 vants of one master, and execute with scrupulous 
 exactness their instructions, and having but one 
 object for which they toil with sleepless vigilance, 
 whether in the frozen north or the burning south, 
 their mode of action in all countries is uniform so 
 far as circumstances will admit. Their great object 
 is to gain a supreme influence over the public 
 mind, and as true philosophers, they commence 
 with the lower classes and work upwards. That 
 which gives them an immense advantage over 
 those who oppose fiem, and which would make
 
 OF THE PARTY. 129 
 
 it impossible for men of strict integrity to suc- 
 ceed is that favored arid omnipotent maxim, 
 " that the end justifies the means." Before this 
 maxim every thing that stands in the way of 
 their progress must fall. However sacred the 
 object that obstructs their way, it loses its 
 inviolability in the presence of this maxim. 
 For what are human and divine laws, what your 
 life or property,, your reputation or your family, 
 when these come between the "Holy order of 
 Loyola" and the high places of power ? They, 
 under the force of this maxim, might hew their 
 way to a throne, and pave their path with 
 crushed and bleeding hearts they may confis- 
 cate estates, imprison or kill their owners, blast 
 the hopes of men and blight the happiness of 
 families, build up or subvert kingdoms, so that 
 they may acquire supreme power in the State 
 "for," say they, "the end justifies the means 
 employed to secure it." 
 
 And is this maxim current among our Ame- 
 rican Jesuits ? Does Rome change ? Can the 
 Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his 
 spots? They just as certainly act upon this 
 principle here, as they do elsewhere. Their 
 efforts to educate the rising generation, to 
 obtain commanding positions, and to work 
 always nearer to the heart of the nation and 
 the centre of power, are as ceaseless as they are 
 stealthy. According to their maxims, it is even
 
 130 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 allowed for them ostensibly to renounce Popeiy, 
 and to enter a Protestant church, if by such a 
 course they can make more converts to Roman- 
 ism. There are, no doubt, many Jesuits among 
 us, but so disguised as to escape the knowledge 
 of those among whom they labor. Their great 
 principle, however, directs them to obtain, at all 
 hazards, the control of the educational systems 
 of the land. When Loyola, the founder of this 
 order, debated with his associates . the rules 
 which should govern them, they differed in 
 opinion as to the prominent and ruling element 
 of their constitution some proposed that they 
 should preach, others that they should write. 
 When contending whether teaching or preach- 
 ing would best promote the interest of the 
 society, one of their number uttered the memo- 
 rable sentiment, "Let me teach the children, 
 and I care not who preaches to the people." 
 This became the governing principle of the 
 order, and their unparalleled success in every 
 country of the globe shows its profound wisdom. 
 In our land, they open colleges for boys and 
 seminaries for girls ; and many Protestants send 
 their children to these, for two reasons: first, 
 because they give a high reputation to their own 
 schools; and next, because they may educate 
 somewhat cheaper than others. And having 
 taught the children of Protestants, they are, in 
 many instances, also permitted to preach to
 
 OF THE PAKTY. 131 
 
 them when they are grown ; for such are the 
 seductive charms of their pompous forms of 
 worship, such the gorgeous imagery which ap- 
 peals to the sensibilities of the youthful imagi- 
 nation, and such the show of sanctity on the 
 part of the ruling spirits in those establish- 
 ments, that few young minds come away from 
 those seats of learning without being thoroughly 
 Catholic in sentiment. Those pupils are with 
 them, say from three to four years, and from 
 twelve to sixteen, an age, of all other periods in 
 life, the most impressible by outward drapery ; 
 for it is the season of golden dreams, of the 
 building of aerial castles, when the imaginative 
 and sensitive faculties of our nature are in the 
 ascendency, and often darken reason and pervert 
 the judgment. 
 
 But, to return to the point from which we 
 started, the danger to be apprehended from 
 Jesuitical influence in our republic might be 
 further substantiated, by quoting the opinions 
 of the ablest writers and profoundest philoso- 
 phers. But the limits of this work will not 
 permit us to argue this subject at length ; nei- 
 ther do we consider it necessary to present more 
 proof of this position, in this treatise, than to 
 show the reasonableness of the action of that 
 respectable portion of our citizens who opposes 
 the election of Catholics to offices of trust. 
 But, before dismissing the subject, I must be
 
 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 permitted to present a few extracts from a 
 writer, whose nativity, education, and position 
 enabled him to make accurate observations, and 
 to speak intelligently on the subject: "Popery," 
 says Helvetius, "is the worst religion in the 
 world." "Nothing could be farther apart than 
 the morality of the Jesuits and the religion 
 of Jesus." As proof that he did them no injus- 
 tice, he refers to their most eminent writers on 
 morals. And, as a case in point, we may here 
 give an extract from the commentaries of St. 
 Thomas. In treating on government or politics, 
 he says : " For the preservation of tyranny, men 
 of great power and riches must be destroyed ; 
 for such, by their power, may rise against the 
 tyrant. It is also expedient to destroy men of 
 talents; for such, by their talents, may find 
 means to expel tyranny. Nor should schools be 
 permitted, or other assemblies, by which learn- 
 ing may be acquired ; for learned men have 
 great dispositions and are magnanimous, and 
 such easily rebel. For the support of ty- 
 ranny, it is proper that the tyrant contrive to 
 make his subjects accuse each other of crimes, 
 and molest each other, so that friends may attack 
 friends, the mean people the rich, and the rich 
 one another; for by their divisions they will be 
 the less able to rise against him. It is also 
 necessary to impoverish the people; for they 
 will thereby be less able to rise against the
 
 OP THE PARTY. 133 
 
 tyrant. Taxes should be established ; that is, 
 exactions, which should be great and in great 
 number; for thereby the subjects will be the 
 sooner impoverished. The tyrant should excite 
 wars among his subjects or strangers, so that the 
 people may have no opportunity of conspiring 
 against him. . It is expedient that a tyrant, for 
 the support of tyranny, do not appear severe or 
 cruel to his subjects; for, by appearing cruel, 
 he will render himself odious; but he should 
 render himself respectable, by an excellence in 
 some eminent virtue. If Tie have no virtues, let 
 him so deceive his subjects that they may think he 
 has, that they may respect him." 
 
 Such are the teachings of St. Thomas in his 
 treatise on politics ; and we agree with an emi- 
 nent writer in opinion, that "these are very 
 strange sentiments in the mouth of a saint." 
 And yet far more atrocious doctrines we might 
 cite from the Jesuit fathers, such as Escobar, 
 M. le Moine, Vanquez, Bauny, and a multitude 
 of others. And, whatever may be affirmed as 
 to the independence of Catholics in this country, 
 and their freedom from the influence of such 
 casuists as those mentioned, it is enough for us 
 to know, that the father-confessors of this coun- 
 try are nearly all Jesuits, and that Rome does 
 not change ! Den's Theology, which abounds 
 in monstrous doctrines, such as justifying the 
 killing of heretics, and various other great 
 12
 
 134 THE TRUE POSITION 
 
 crimes, is used as a text-book in some of the 
 most noted theological schools belonging to that 
 Church. The Church of Rome is the most op- 
 pressive and tyrannical despotism on the face 
 of the globe. It humbles its subjects to the 
 meanest vassals, allows them neither individu- 
 ality, nor a single element, either intellectual, 
 moral, or physical, over which its iron rule does 
 not extend. It is emphatically, as M. Guizot 
 says, in his " Cours d'ffistoire Moderne" con- 
 cerning the demands of Rome : " Whatever we 
 possess most intimate, most individual and free 
 conscience, thought, and interior life is con- 
 cerned ; to abdicate the government of one's self, 
 to deliver one's self up to a foreign power, is a 
 true moral suicide, a servitude a hundred times 
 worse than that of the body or the soul." 
 
 From these considerations it is sufficiently 
 manifest that the American party has under- 
 taken no bootless enterprise, nor is it fighting a 
 man of straw. They would guard the land from 
 the influence of such morality, and they would, 
 above all, defend the altars of liberty from the 
 touch and rule of those whose confessors would 
 readily absolve them for exciting civil discord, 
 for burning heretics, for oppression, or any other 
 flagrant crime, the commission of which might 
 be thought necessary to the establishment and 
 aggrandizement of the papacy in this land. Do 
 you still ask where is the use of an. American
 
 OF THE PARTY. 135 
 
 party ? Do you still denounce them for assuming 
 a defensive attitude ? Is there not a call for 
 resisting the encroachments of the Papal power 
 and guarding our holy things against foreign 
 influence ? 
 
 Behold the exertions made for the advance- 
 ment of Popery ! Look at the vast number of 
 their establishments the various positions in 
 the social and political circles to which they 
 have gained access ! What mean these national 
 councils ! Is there not something arrogant in 
 the name does not the manner in which they 
 are convoked scent of former domination ! And 
 why these provincial councils ? What means 
 that grand gathering of ecclesiastics from Europe, 
 Asia, Africa, and America, at Rome ! 0, it is, 
 say they, to determine the question of the im- 
 maculate conception. Yes, the ostensible occa- 
 sion is this childish question but matter far 
 weightier to the interests of Home, are the sub- 
 jects of their earnest discussions, and among 
 these, American politics. While these prelates 
 are scheming and plotting, it is our duty to 
 watch ! 
 
 I repeat, therefore, that the true position of 
 the American party has been grossly misrepre- 
 sented. They will not persecute Catholics, but 
 they will see to it that Rome does not persecute 
 us. With no disposition to injure any, but with
 
 136 THE TRUE POSITION, ETC. 
 
 a desire to accord to all such immunities as they 
 shall have capacity to enjoy, this party will pur- 
 sue the even tenor of its way, until the network 
 of Jesuitism is fully exposed, and our institutions 
 forever secured against its fatal power, and our 
 land from the withering blight of the anathemas 
 of Rome !
 
 AN ARGUMENT, ETC. .137 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE RAPID PROGRESS AND WIDE EXTENT OF ITS 
 INFLUENCE, AN ARGUMENT FOR THE EXCELLENCE 
 OF THE AMERICAN PARTY. 
 
 are taught, among the first principles of 
 philosophy, that there must be a correspondence 
 between the cause and its effects. The magni- 
 tude of the one controls the extent of the other. 
 It is a principle of universal application in regard 
 to the operation of the laws of nature, and holds 
 good in the moral and political world. There 
 can be no disproportion between a cause and its 
 effects. This is more especially the case in a 
 popular form of government like ours. Here 
 the power to produce political changes resides in 
 the people, and whenever an adequate cause 
 calls this power into play, and concentrates its 
 exertions it will manifest itself in such revolu- 
 tions in public sentiment as we have recently 
 witnessed in the different States of this Union. 
 We regard the rapid diffusion of the principles 
 of the new order as a conclusive argument of 
 their potency. 
 
 They must have those properties which com- 
 12*
 
 138 AN ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 mend them to the good sense of thinking minds, 
 and do address themselves to the noblest instincts 
 of a cultivated intellect. A delusion may gain 
 friends for a day, but they will melt away 
 before the public sentiment, as the mist before 
 the morning sun. Something that is real and 
 substantial will attract men of like character. 
 The law of affinity acts with as much force 
 in the moral, as in the material world. In 
 this movement are found many of the most 
 sterling men that our country boasts. Men who 
 have not been conspicuous in party strife, nor 
 prominent actors in those political scenes, which 
 have at different times agitated the social state. 
 They are, for the most part, our quiet, order- 
 loving, practical citizens, who never rise in the 
 majesty of their strength, unless some powerful 
 motive seizes their minds, and, whenever they do 
 exert themselves, their action is entitled to re- 
 spect. There is nothing more clear then, than, 
 that the cause which waked up so many pure men 
 in our wide-spread confederacy to change the po- 
 litical aspect of the nation carried within its bosom 
 a tremendous energy the results of its exertion 
 are now spread out before us for examination. 
 
 And here we may state another rule by which 
 to estimate the nature of a cause, or the charac- 
 ter of an organization, i. e., by the effect which 
 it produces. Applying this rule when gradua- 
 ting the inherent excellence of the American
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 139 
 
 party, we shall have no difficulty in vindicating 
 it from those aspersions which have been cast 
 upon it, nor in refuting the calumnies that have 
 been so freely uttered against it. They have 
 given rise to effects that have amazed and con- 
 founded their enemies. They have elected their 
 nominees, and have thus taken the government 
 out of the hands of the old parties, and entrusted 
 it to others. Such changes are not only attended 
 with good, but sometimes become absolutely 
 necessary. Human nature is too weak not to 
 be corrupted in a long uninterrupted enjoyment 
 of power. Whatever party may be favored with 
 a frequent succession of victories and remain for 
 a long period in power, is liable to have its 
 officials corrupted. There are so many ways in 
 which men may make their offices tributary to 
 large gains, that few have a sufficient stock of 
 virtue successfully to resist for a long time, the 
 temptations so repeatedly offered. With all the 
 natural desires for that influence which affluent 
 circumstances never fail to command, stimulated 
 by the force of example and the pressure of ex- 
 ternal things, they gradually imitate the acts of 
 some .corrupt predecessor. The conviction, that 
 long official prosperity to the individual or the 
 party, is not fitted to promote the highest 
 national prosperity, had gained a strong hold 
 upon the public mind, and the frequent delin- 
 quencies of those in responsible situations had
 
 140 AN ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 fully prepared them for the change, which they 
 are now working through this new order. 
 
 The manner, moreover, in which the old 
 parties conducted their business afforded ample 
 opportunity for the most unprincipled men to 
 slip into lucrative offices. Why, the President, 
 in his message to Congress, December, 1854, 
 calls for legislation to secure to the government 
 the books of its public officers, which, it appears, 
 the incumbents claimed as private property, thus 
 affording the best means of preventing the de- 
 tection of frauds committed. These corruptions 
 are therefore not imaginary, but real and wide- 
 spread, and so palpable that the people could 
 not be ignorant of them. Perhaps nearly all 
 this perversion of the public funds to private 
 uses, may be traced to the manner in which the 
 elections are conducted, legislation secured, and 
 the appointing power influenced. The whole 
 fraternity of officials, all over the country, is 
 manufactured at Washington. Everything de- 
 pends upon the success of an individual or 
 measure in a small caucus. Colonel Benton, in 
 a letter to his constituents, speaking of the Ne- 
 braska bill, says: "You have all heard of the 
 measure, but you do not know that it is the 
 work of a caucus of eight, who had the bill 
 changed after it had been brought in, and did it 
 to substitute geographical for practical parties, 
 and to govern the next Presidential election."
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 141 
 
 It is, no doubt, true, and it is by no means an 
 isolated illustration of the manner in which a 
 few men make the President, or carry an im- 
 portant political measure. This has acted to the 
 injury of the country, by giving us incompetent 
 or unworthy rulers. This party machinery was 
 so skilfully arranged and worked by a few 
 ruling spirits, that the election of men was sel- 
 dom an expression of the choice of the people. 
 This was an evil so generally felt, as to produce 
 a simultaneous rising of the people against 
 this monstrous prostitution of their privileges, 
 and this infamous game, so long and so success- 
 fully played. And here is one reason why so 
 many thousands were ripe for the movement 
 that has planted its standard so suddenly in 
 every State. And if the new order has done 
 nothing more than to defeat some of these 
 scheming politicians, it would deserve the gra- 
 titude of honorable men. But it has transferred 
 official authority into new hands ; and we believe 
 those whom it has invested with power are, as 
 far as we know, competent, honest, and ener- 
 getic men. 
 
 The progress, therefore, of the American party 
 has thus far been highly beneficial ; it has not 
 merely effected a change in the powers that be, 
 but its reflex influence upon the old parties will 
 be healthful. They must view this spontaneous 
 rising of the people as a severe rebuke upon
 
 142 AN ARGUMENT FOB 
 
 their conduct ; and, seeing that it was so effec- 
 tually and faithfully administered, it is to be 
 hoped that they will profit by the lesson. 
 
 Another cause, which has contributed to the 
 rapid diffusion of the principles of the new 
 order, we rank as very efficient the abrogation 
 of the Missouri Compromise. The fact is un- 
 questionable, that it was unexpected, and there- 
 fore shocked the sensibilities of the nation. 
 The people, North and South, had not forgotten 
 how the birth-throes of that compromise had 
 rent the national system with keen anguish, nor 
 the joy which caused the nation to forget the 
 pangs, when it was received as a mediator be- 
 tween the conflicting sectional opinions. The 
 author of that bill which ejected this child from 
 the national family, must indeed have supposed 
 us an easy prey, and overrated our stupidity, 
 when he thought that we could not penetrate 
 his shallow sophistry. We might have respected 
 him for honest intentions, if the bait by which 
 he meant to catch us Southerners had not been 
 so superficially gilded. The reflecting portion 
 on this side of Mason and Dixon's line are 
 not carried away by empty sounds, nor regard 
 that as an advantage to their interests, which 
 can only operate to their hurt. We plead 
 guilty to a sort of pleasure (though not ma- 
 licious), when that dead, but honored, com- 
 promise inflicted such a blow upon the little
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 143 
 
 giant who undertook its demolition, as to 
 stun him effectually. Though so eloquently 
 pronounced dead ! dead ! dead ! I suspect 
 that some of the energy of its distinguished 
 framers lingered within it; for it has really 
 shown signs of resuscitation, and done a vast 
 deal of mischief to those who dealt so unmer- 
 cifully with it. Ay, it is a thing of power ; for 
 it was a household deity of the nation, and no 
 wonder it has paralyzed the hand that irreve- 
 rently touched it. But its end is not yet; for it 
 will unquestionably blight the hopes and cool 
 the ambition of him who figured so conspicu- 
 ously at its immolation. The author of that 
 bill, which has so seriously impaired the na- 
 tional faith in compromises, boasted, in his 
 speech delivered in Philadelphia, July 4, 1854, 
 at a meeting got up to kill off the Know-No- 
 things, that he would teach them to know some- 
 thing I A very immodest boast ; but since then 
 the parties have changed positions, and the self- 
 constituted teacher has become the pupil, and, 
 I trust, has been taught a wholesome lesson by 
 those whom he kindly volunteered to instruct. 
 
 Alas ! for the mutability of human things, 
 and human hopes ! A despicable insect may 
 sink the proudest vessel, or prostrate the noblest 
 monarch of the forest ; and so a little too much 
 ardency, to make assurance doubly sure for the
 
 144 AN ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 Presidency, has, I fear, unshipped the game. 
 Though thoroughly democratic in sentiment and 
 sympathy, I cannot, with all the recollections of 
 the past, bring a single tear to the political grave 
 of this self-constituted champion of the Democ- 
 racy. The Democracy is truly a rock, impreg- 
 nable, as he recently affirmed in the West ; but 
 his ship has broken loose from its moorings, 
 and has become the sport of the waves. Though 
 professing no special fondness for black-coats, 
 his assault upon those clergymen who protested 
 against the passage of his favorite bill, struck 
 me as very unstatesman-like. I have no par- 
 tiality for that class of citizens above others, and 
 I think they may sometimes busy themselves 
 too much with the affairs of Csesar ; still, when 
 a man pronounces a body so highly lauded by 
 Daniel Webster for their intelligence, learning, 
 piety, etc., stupid, ignorant, and fanatical, I am 
 tempted to infer, that one who characterizes his 
 fellow-citizens, who oppose a political measure 
 in a legitimate way, by such epithets, may pos- 
 sess these commodities to a larger extent than 
 those upon whom he so liberally bestows them. 
 But, not to enlarge on this point, I would 
 simply remark, that we have a forcible illustra- 
 tion, in the progress and triumph of the Ameri- 
 can Party, of the fact, that w r hen the voice of 
 the people is disregarded by legislators, they will 
 be heard at the ballot-box. When representa-
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 145 
 
 tives cease to respect the wishes of those from 
 whom they derive their power, and manifest a 
 determination so far to transcend the business 
 of legislation, as also to dictate to the people 
 the opinions they are to hold, or carry their 
 measures in the face of popular remonstrances, 
 they hazard their places ; for an intelligent con- 
 stituency will claim the privilege of regarding 
 their legislators as their servants. And here it 
 may not he amiss to notice the great good which 
 the new party is destined to accomplish. Since 
 the honored compromise has been set aside, the 
 national convention of the "Know-Nothings" 
 has made the integrity of the Union a funda- 
 mental principle in its creed; it therefore will 
 bind in harmony this glorious republic, and do 
 what politicians have failed to do, restore confi- 
 dence and good-will between the different inte- 
 rests of this land. 
 
 This party has displayed an energy for which 
 partizans could not account but it is not diffi- 
 cult to understand why its influence is so wide- 
 spread, and its strength so irresistible, when we 
 keep in view the source of its origin and suste- 
 nance. The people are penetrated with a con- 
 viction of the justness of its principles, and of 
 the exalted character of its objects. "While I 
 would not fully endorse the sentiment "Vox 
 populi, vox Dei," I do not hesitate to declare 
 that as a general principle, it contains much 
 13
 
 146 AN ARGUMENT FOR 
 
 truth. The reflecting members of communities 
 do neither create, nor sanction a popular move- 
 ment not justified by the circumstances in which 
 they are placed, or which the good of the coun- 
 try does not demand. "We are bound to respect 
 a great popular movement. And more particu- 
 larly when, as in this instance, its energy comes 
 from that class in society which is not tossed 
 about on the fluctuating waves of passion. Such 
 we regard the individuals who compose the new 
 organization. 
 
 After carefully studying the character of those 
 who have been elected to offices of trust, I am 
 satisfied that if the future candidates of the party 
 are as judiciously selected, the country will have 
 reason to be grateful for the change in its rulers. 
 This feature in the new order has exerted a 
 powerful influence in its favor. It has aided in 
 making its advancement visible and glorious ! 
 
 In contemplating the ubiquity of this new but 
 numerous party, and the immense influence 
 which it has acquired, we are amazed at its 
 achievements. Here human exertion rises to 
 grandeur because linked with the great interests 
 of the nation, and its efforts are as lofty as they 
 are glorious, because glowing with the spirit of 
 a pure patriotism ! Its progress has been with- 
 out a parallel rapid, sure, triumphant ! In this 
 we find the best evidence that it is possessed of 
 those properties of excellence which commend
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 147 
 
 it to the good sense of men. It cannot be a 
 delusion it lias nothing of fanaticism about it. 
 And possessed of such characteristics as already 
 indicated, and made up of sterling men, it must 
 be as permanent in its influence, as the causes 
 which have given it existence are durable. 
 Should the party ever deem it expedient to dis- 
 solve, after its work is accomplished, its princi- 
 ples will live ! Live ! and remain operative in 
 our government, while the purpose lives in 
 American heart, that the ensign of the Stars 
 and Stripes is the only one that ever dare kiss 
 the breezes which fan the graves of our noble 
 sires. These principles will rise and grow in 
 importance, as our population increases, and 
 blending with all the great interests of our 
 nation, they will constitute a permanent part in 
 our history, and interwoven with all that we 
 cherish, the conservative influence of the Ameri- 
 can party will be as perpetual as the glory of 
 this Republic.
 
 148 THE PLAN ADOPTED BY 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PLAN OF OPERATION ADOPTED BY THE AMERI- 
 CAN PARTY. 
 
 IT is the privilege of every party to dictate the 
 plan of its operations. Against this none has a 
 right to object, so long as the rules adopted are 
 honorable, and do not conflict with individual 
 or social rights. But their mode of action is 
 perhaps the most objectionable feature in the 
 American party, to those who are pledged to crush 
 it. Not to enter into that acrimonious warfare to 
 which our politicians have been so long accus- 
 tomed, is in their' estimation an unpardonable 
 offence. They have, therefore, resorted to every 
 species of tactics to bring the " KDOW-Nothings" 
 out upon the public arena, and engage in those 
 conflicts where passion triumphs over reason. A 
 peculiarity of the new order, in contradistinction 
 from the old parties is this, that every man does 
 his own thinking, informs himself of the questions 
 at issue, and the character and qualifications of 
 the different candidates, and then like a sensible 
 man goes to the polls and votes according to 
 the convictions of his judgment. Now this pro-
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 149 
 
 cedure is so novel compared with the practice 
 formerly in vogue of preparing the tickets, after 
 having done the thinking of their satellites, that 
 we marvel not that those important gentlemen to 
 whom this work was specially intrusted, should 
 grumble because of this innovation upon what 
 they conceived to .be their legitimate prerogative. 
 
 "We are sometimes amused when looking at 
 the flounderiugs of those who work themselves 
 into paroxysms of distress because they cannot 
 rout these invisible agents. "Well, it is provoking 
 to be conscious of a present evil, and yet not 
 able to lay hold of it. They find themselves in 
 a like condition with the Irishman tormented by 
 a flea, he put his finger upon it, and it was not 
 there. 
 
 Among the many doleful notes which are 
 echoed from the organs that are out of tune, I 
 may here submit a few choice extracts. They 
 are taken from an old Democratic organ, and I 
 will do the gifted editor the justice to say that 
 his organ makes less discordant music than 
 many others. As I always had an aversion to 
 presenting the worst features of a man's creed, or 
 circumstances, I have felt bound in the exercise 
 of charity, to cull from the most elevated and 
 dignified journals which I could find among the 
 party press. These appeals to the people have 
 assuredly one property that should make them 
 effective, they undoubtedly come from the heart. 
 13* "
 
 150 THE PLAN ADOPTED BY 
 
 It is an established opinion among men who 
 have studied the science of language, that at first 
 it consisted mainly of interjections, because these 
 express the sensations of the emotional nature of 
 man. It is, therefore, on no slight grounds that 
 we accord this high attribute to the appeals of 
 this editor. Let us hear him while he calls 
 attention to the letter of the Hon. II. A. Wise, 
 against the Know-Nothings : 
 
 ""We repeat then that we appeal to your 
 honesty, and in all sincerity and candor, to read 
 and resist conscientiously if you can, the irre- 
 sistible conclusions arrived at by Mr. Wise, before 
 that tribunal which sits to decide upon all your 
 mental operations, your own judgment. We 
 make this appeal to you as honest and upright 
 men ; as men of common integrity, as men who 
 desire to see the right and to be guided by it, 
 as men who do not possess and practise that 
 which they do not know to be right." 
 
 All very honest and sincere, and we do 
 earnestly hope that all who may have the oppor- 
 tunity will attentively read Mr. Wise's letter, for 
 it will assuredly greatly fortify them in their 
 convictions already formed of the necessity of 
 entrusting for awhile into other hands the affairs 
 of government. But it seemed that as many 
 of the Democrats broke loose from the traces 
 where they had long worked under the lash, they 
 may have felt as though they could dispense
 
 THE AMERICAN PAKTT. 151 
 
 with the weekly catechism of politics, and dis- 
 continued their papers, and on this point he is 
 also eloquent. He continues : " We have been 
 advised, we have been warned, and that, too, by 
 those whom we had reason to believe were our 
 friends, to be lenient towards the ' Know-Noth- 
 ings,' 'for,' say they, 'they will stop your paper.' 
 
 * * * Are we then to be proscribed for 
 daring to do what we conceive to be right? 
 Must we too be proscribed for holding and daring 
 to maintain honest opinions of our own ? Will 
 we be proscribed for our non-proscription ? If 
 so, then where is the liberty of the American 
 press ? Is that too gone ? Will you seek to de- 
 stroy it too, together with the right of expatria- 
 tion, and the liberty of conscience ? God forbid ! 
 O liberty ! O sound once delightful to every 
 American ear ! glorious principle of religious 
 toleration ! O sacred privilege of American 
 citizenship ! Once sacred, now trampled upon ! 
 But what then ! is it come to this ? Shall an 
 American citizen be proscribed for his religion ? 
 Shall he cease to worship his God according to 
 the dictates of his conscience, or be deprived of 
 his civil rights ? O beware how you attempt to 
 destroy the most sacred of human rights !" 
 
 There now, is not that from the heart ? Is it 
 not the profound of human pathos ? It is touch- 
 ing and eloquent, and it only lacks one thing to 
 sway every American heart, as the unchained
 
 152 THE PLAN ADOPTED BY 
 
 hurricane sways and prostrates the forest it 
 lacks the force of truth. 
 
 If my honorable brother is cool, I will reason a 
 bit with him. On the first point we are agreed : 
 we think all the " Know-Nothings" should read 
 Mr. "Wise's letter, for Mr. "Wise is a smart man, 
 and should be heard, and as he is the representa- 
 tive of a district of which it is said he once 
 boasted, " that not a single paper was published 
 within its limits," we would recommend that his 
 constituents be furnished with a few notes and 
 comments on his letter at the expense of the 
 " Know-Nothings." 
 
 As to the next point, our brother labors under 
 a slight misapprehension, when he supposes that 
 every paper discontinued is an expressed or 
 avowed effort to proscribe the American press. 
 It is a kind of proscription very commonly felt 
 by editors. There is a rascal who has not paid 
 his subscription for ten years; his bill is pre- 
 sented, and he is offended and discontinues 
 and proscribes you, eh ? Why, my good sir, it 
 is one " of the most sacred of human rights," 
 to discontinue a paper, when it does not edify, 
 instruct, or suit the taste of the reader. " I do 
 not know," but it strikes me that it is not very 
 modest to proclaim a discontinuance an act of 
 proscription ; for, if so construed, then it must 
 be implied that, all things considered, your paper 
 is the most reliable exponent of the public senti-
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 153 
 
 ment, and the best guide to public policy, and 
 the undoubted model after which every man's 
 opinion should be formed. "I don't know," 
 but it occurs to me that this principle, no doubt 
 hastily annunciated, will react with disastrous 
 effect upon its author ; for, according to his own 
 showing, he proscribes every merchant, me- 
 chanic, farmer and others, whose commodities 
 he does not purchase, because he finds better 
 supplies elsewhere. 
 
 Another, no doubt unintentional, error, is his 
 implied charge, that the American party aims 
 to abolish religious toleration, or freedom to 
 worship God according to the dictates of a man's 
 conscience. Why, my dear sir, they are the 
 friends and defenders of this glorious principle 
 of our Constitution ; they will have nothing to 
 do with proscription, farther than, by legitimate 
 means, to prevent such an abhorrent consumma- 
 tion. But for these slight errors, he might be 
 taken for one of the party, and the composition 
 would have been almost faultless ; and we really 
 regret the waste of so many beautiful interjec- 
 tions. The O is always pretty, whether from 
 the notion of Hogarth, that curved lines are the 
 most beautiful, or from the fact that they fall on 
 the paper like round drops of the heart's sym- 
 pathies, it is not now necessary to determine. 
 We really lament this waste of piety and pa- 
 triotism ; for both are sacred, and should not be
 
 154 THE PLAN ADOPTED BY 
 
 prostituted to maintain a crooked or unjust 
 proposition, that has sprung from a clouded 
 brain. The conclusion of this able editorial is 
 a quotation from a gifted author, on the horrors 
 of oppression, and so inappropriate to the use 
 which this gentleman has made of it, that it is 
 like Hudibras's blunderbuss, which, 
 
 " Whether aimed at duck or plover, 
 Always knocked its owner over." 
 
 But it is time to dismiss this analysis of edito- 
 rials finding fault with the order and the mode 
 of its operations; for this specimen is quite 
 sufficient to form a just opinion of the grounds 
 of complaint against the American party. The 
 unpardonable oifence is, that these new converts 
 do not come back, like dutiful children, and tell 
 their mammas that they have fallen in love with 
 that youth whom I have introduced to the reader, 
 and who has already so greatly distinguished 
 himself, and in such a quiet way. But they 
 ought to be generous and pardon this slight 
 delinquency, in consideration of their former 
 obedience and service. Let them try their for- 
 tunes ; they may, after all, have made a good 
 choice, in taking this quiet attend-to-your-own- 
 business kind of companion, and their life may 
 be quite as sunny and conducive to the public 
 good, as it would have been if linked with that 
 old stern-knock-down and kick-out sort of fellow.
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 155 
 
 Seriously, this quiet mode of conducting their 
 business is something which pleases the people 
 amazingly. " They don't know," but they were 
 really " tired of hickory-poles, pokeberry-stocks, 
 coons, and log-cabins,'.' and they think it is time 
 to stop this insult to their intelligence. The 
 ladies, too, (may the angels live forever !) have 
 sober gallants and husbands, as well during 
 an election campaign and after as before, which 
 was not always the case. The people "don't 
 know," but they have a notion it is not neces- 
 sary to ignite the passions, until the whole land 
 is like a seething and boiling cauldron, and then 
 gather from its steaming bosom their chief ma- 
 gistrate. They " don't know," but they have a 
 notion that they can act rather more wisely 
 when cool, and vote perhaps more intelligently, 
 after they have quietly considered what they 
 should do. They " don't know," but they seem 
 to think they should carry those business habits 
 which they have found good and practicable in 
 the various vocations of human industry, into 
 the exercise of their political privileges. The 
 merchant does not select the coffee-house or the 
 exchange as a place where to project his 
 schemes, or to measure his resources to carry 
 them out, but the private study; and when 
 alone with his ledgers, he forms his plans ; and 
 when these show themselves in their affluent 
 revenues, it is time enough for the public to
 
 156 THE PLAN ADOPTED BY 
 
 pronounce upon the wisdom of his- measures. 
 There has never been any complaint against 
 this course of action on the part of individuals 
 is the principle vitiated when it is transferred 
 from the individual to the association ? Is not 
 : a well-organized society just as essentially and 
 philosophically a unit as man in his isolated 
 sphere ? 
 
 Well, this is the plan upon which the Ameri- 
 can party has acted ; they are governed by 
 similar rules and guided by like considerations, 
 which control the action of the successful mer- 
 chant or citizen. "Why should I work myself 
 into a frenzy, and turn this land into a scene of 
 commotion, until the clashing passions of men 
 boil and foam ; just as though a business of the 
 highest moment, and which should call into 
 requisition the sublime exercises of reason, 
 could be better accomplished amid painful agi- 
 tations, and strifes which rend holy friendships, 
 than in the calm and lofty exercise of my intel- 
 lectual faculties ? Ah ! but they say, " If we 
 could only see and know them" if they would 
 only thunder before they strike. But to see nor 
 cloud nor flash to hear no distant mutterings, 
 but to be startled and prostrated, by the flash 
 and the bolt at the same instant, and without 
 the privilege of saying softly this is too terrible 
 to bear ! But this is entirely as you take it ; it 
 need not necessarily be to you the desolating
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 157 
 
 artillery of heaven the thing is all in your own 
 excited sensibilities have a care to these, and 
 the votes of the "Know-Nothings," while they 
 fall as the quietly-descending dew, may be con- 
 templated with the same feelings of satisfaction 
 as when we look out upon the tearful landscape 
 flashing in the morning sun, as though showers 
 of diamonds had been set upon every trembling 
 leaflet. This is positively a beautiful feature of 
 the party ; they do everything so systematically, 
 and withal so noiselessly, that no job of work 
 is neglected, no dinner spoiled no domestic 
 arrangement disordered no sour tempers no 
 broken noses, and no disruptured friendships 
 but all things move forward with their accus- 
 tomed regularity, and in beautiful harmony with 
 their feelings. Men are always safe in copying 
 from the operations of nature, for it is a perfect 
 organism ; and there seems to be a correspond- 
 ence between the plans upon which nature and 
 this association operate. The most amazing 
 processes are continually transpiring within the 
 veiled secrecies of this stupendous materialism, 
 and, when properly matured, they are external- 
 ized in the various products suited to the 
 manifold wants of all creatures. We may not 
 complain because we cannot go behind the 
 awful shrines of nature ; we ought to be con- 
 tented with the good wrought for us in her vast 
 laboratory ; and we have no reason to demand 
 14
 
 158 THE PLAN ADOPTED BY 
 
 access to the privacy of an association, and must 
 be satisfied with, whatever of public good it may 
 be doing for the country. It is useless to at- 
 tempt to bring them out into angry broils and 
 hot contentions ; and it will be an improvement 
 to those journals which are now denouncing 
 them, and vastly to the advantage of their 
 readers, if they lay aside their bitterness, and 
 cultivate a better temper, for that would greatly 
 improve their manners. They may rest assured 
 that the American party will remain true to 
 its principles and its plans of honest and quiet 
 resistance to the encroachments of foreigners 
 upon their rights. They may see proper to lift 
 the veil of secrecy even, and open to the inspec- 
 tion of the public their operations, more fully 
 than the other parties; but, whatever restric- 
 tions they may enforce or relinquish, they are 
 true patriots; so that, even those who may be 
 displaced from positions they love, may carry 
 with them into their retiracy the assurance that 
 strong arms, wise heads, and true hearts will 
 guard the throne of freedom and minister at the 
 altars of liberty. 
 
 May they continue to carry out their princi- 
 ples in the same quiet way in which they have 
 commenced, and may they never be allured nor 
 taunted into those party broils, so disgraceful in 
 the past, and -which induced a foreign minister 
 to ask of an American traveller, "Why do you
 
 THE AMERICAN PARTY. 159 
 
 always nominate the worst men for your Presi- 
 dents, for such your journals unquestionably 
 make them?" but may they persevere, like 
 conscientious and patriotic men, to toil for the 
 good of their country, and send blessings to the 
 habitations and hearts of those who now revile 
 them. Friends of our noble institutions, and 
 the ready helpers and sympathisers of all that 
 are oppressed, they will ultimately show the 
 fruits of their triumphs in a .well-regulated 
 foreign policy having none abroad as Jefferson, 
 and Baily in a recent speech, wished it, but 
 natives, and American interests protected at 
 home and a peaceful, happy, and free nation. 
 
 Having laid it down as a fundamental princi- 
 ple to interfere with none in their civil and 
 religious rights, and to act without ostentation or 
 constraint, they cannot be otherwise than suc- 
 cessful. For even now, their power nerves the 
 heart of the nation, and their influence though 
 gentle as the kissing zephyr, is powerful as the 
 gale that agitates the ocean to its profoundest 
 depths ; for it animates with lofty purposes and 
 guides to noble ends, thousands of thinking, 
 immortal minds.
 
 160 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PROBABLE INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN PARTY 
 ON THE NEXT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 
 
 AMID the many changes which we constantly 
 witness in this mutable world, it is a dictate of 
 reason not to be over-sanguine in our expecta- 
 tions of success in anything. The members of 
 the human family are constitutionally not more 
 frail than their opinions are fluctuating. To-day 
 some of the unstable are devoted to a system 
 which to-morrow they utterly repudiate. It is 
 upon this feature of instability in the constitu- 
 tion of man, that the old parties rely to retrieve 
 their reverses, and reconstruct their organiza- 
 tions. They feign to believe, whatever their 
 apprehensions may be, that the "Know-Noth- 
 ings" will, like a wave formed by a sudden 
 squall, soon spend itself, or at farthest be shivered 
 to fragments against the rocks which rise in the 
 way of its progress. It is upon such hopes that 
 they now nourish their failing strength, and 
 fortify their fainting hearts. Are their predic- 
 tions well founded ? Will the new party disap- 
 pear as suddenly as it sprang into existence and
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 161 
 
 power ? That it will have its ordeals to pass we 
 grant, but that its dissolution is near at hand we 
 do not admit. It is not the glaring meteor that 
 has shot athwart the political firmament to 
 startle and to dazzle for a moment, and then be 
 quenched in a thick gloom. It is not a bubble 
 waked upon the surface of the social bosom, just 
 to vanish into thin air. It has a foundation of 
 living principles upon which to repose, and is 
 constructed of self-evident truths, and will, per- 
 haps, exceed in durability and its power of resist- 
 ance, the expectations of those who have decreed 
 its destruction. It may prove more of a " Sebas- 
 topol" to its enemies than the great Russian 
 fortress does to the allied fleets. 
 
 Were it simply the offspring of feeling it 
 might be an easy prey, or a sentiment of such 
 force as to drive men for a season from the old 
 landmarks, it might be displaced or crushed, 
 but it is the offspring of reason and as deathless 
 as thought. Whatever amount of feeling it 
 may evoke, it is a structure of principles noui- 
 ished and sustained by the intelligence of the 
 people. At one time it was thought it could be 
 frightened, then ridiculed out of existence, but 
 when it withstood these assaults, misrepresenta- 
 tion and gross abuse were considered effective 
 weapons. A certain Philadelphia paper was 
 conspicuous in this dishonorable mode of war- 
 fare, and its lugubrations were huckstered and 
 14*
 
 162 PEOBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 hawked over the whole country. Forgetting 
 what was due to others and the proprieties that 
 attach to public journalists, it dealt in the most 
 atrocious misrepresentations. Week after week 
 that paper was teeming with professed reports 
 of transactions in councils of the new order, 
 obtained by disreputable means, naming indi- 
 viduals and ascribing to them sentiments which 
 they would abhor, and representing the society 
 as on the point of dissolution. But instead of 
 inflicting injury, or carrying destruction to the 
 object of its hate, that paper rather increased 
 their numbers by disgusting its own readers. 
 
 In my estimate of the probable influence of 
 the American party on the next Presidential 
 election, I shall not be guided by party journals, 
 nor rely upon any thing intangible, but deduce 
 such proofs and reach such conclusions as the 
 aspect of things and the state of political parties 
 may warrant. "We might argue the probable 
 triumph of the new order in the next Presiden- 
 tial campaign, from its past successes. There 
 have been few instances in which the issues were 
 distinctly brought before the people, where the 
 principles of the American part} 7 did not triumph. 
 But we may base our calculations upon things 
 more permanent, and sustain our convictions 
 that it will control the next election by proofs 
 more tangible and direct. The first reason for 
 this belief I gather from the disorder and feeble-
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 163 
 
 ness of the old parties. It is with great political 
 parties as it is with armies. When its chief 
 officers have fallen and its ranks are thrown into 
 confusion, it is difficult to rally a severely beaten 
 host and to restore order. And if even they can 
 be marshalled for battle and animated to a second 
 eifort, they contend with a feeble heart. There 
 is always a great disadvantage when no inspira- 
 tion of recent victories sustains the combatants. 
 
 Look at the two great parties. The Whigs 
 were sorely defeated in the last Presidential 
 election, and have not since been able to effect 
 a thorough organization of their scattered forces. 
 The Democrats suffered even a worse defeat in 
 the late state elections. Though they enjoyed 
 the advantage of that vast influence which office- 
 holders always bring into the field, yet with all 
 thia, coupled with most extraordinary efforts, they 
 suffered a complete rout. The old Democratic 
 State of Pennsylvania polled 30,000 majority for 
 the American candidate. In Baltimore, Md., the 
 stronghold of foreigners, and with the official 
 influence of the party, they were defeated by an 
 overwhelming majority. In Ohio, Illinois, Massa- 
 chusetts, and other States, like defeats were 
 experienced. 
 
 But the relations of the parties have now been 
 reversed, and in the next great conflict it will 
 be comparatively easy for the new party to elect 
 all their men. The Democratic party has greatly
 
 164 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 diminished even since the last .election. Many 
 have forsaken its standard and have come over 
 to the side of victory. Others are becoming 
 convinced of the justice of the cause and the 
 importance of the principles advocated on the 
 American side of the house. If at first they 
 hesitated about uniting with" the new party, it 
 was because they wanted time to examine its 
 principles and scrutinize the merits of its creed. 
 But now that they have had time for calm re- 
 flection they realize the importance of this 
 movement, and while large numbers may never 
 be initiated into the mysteries of the fraternity, 
 they may still feel it their duty to support those 
 candidates pledged to carry out the principles 
 of the new order. 
 
 The extraordinary exertions of those opposed 
 to the new order is the best proof of the growing 
 strength of the American party. Were it as 
 insignificant and as ephemeral as some flatter 
 themselves it is, they would not waste so much 
 exertion to fight the man of straw. They would 
 pity its feebleness and suffer it to die in peace, 
 but conscious as our politicians are that the 
 people have abundant reason to be dissatisfied 
 with their improvident administration of the 
 government, they very naturally dread an organi- 
 zation which has risen up to vindicate the wrongs 
 of American citizens. Already have they had 
 a foretaste of that which is to come, and the
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 165 
 
 premonitions of the terrible overthrow which 
 awaits them, is anything but soothing to their 
 irritated sensibilities. 
 
 But the question recurs here, would such a 
 result as the election of a President on purely 
 American principles be desirable ? Are Whigs 
 and Democrats justified in breaking loose from 
 party restraints, to cast their suffrages for the 
 candidate who may be offered by the new orga- 
 nization ? Under ordinary circumstances we 
 would reply, no! but in view of the present 
 aspect of things, and the great issues which are 
 to be decided, we cannot hesitate as to the path 
 of duty. We behold the country agitated as it 
 never has been, by a question which carries 
 within its womb results either the most glorious 
 or appalling which the human mind can con- 
 template. A question which has been violently 
 thrust upon the American mind, by the insolent 
 conduct of foreigners and the defiant tone of 
 Jesuitical Bishops and Archbishops of the 
 Roman Church in this country. Their assumed 
 superiority over all others, their haughty bear- 
 ing, their arrogance and intolerance, became 
 manifest, not only in the language and writings 
 of their dignitaries, but also in the violence of 
 those poor victims of their delusion who repeat- 
 edly attacked native-born citizens without pro- 
 vocation. The question is, whether they shall 
 be permitted to pursue this course of action, and
 
 166 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 constitute in our midst a band of Ishmaelites, 
 and not amalgamate or coalesce with the other 
 elements in our republic ? "Whether we shall 
 fold our arms and look on quietly, while they 
 are rising to power and command influence, 
 until they shall be competent to control our 
 home and foreign policy to dictate our laws, 
 and to bring about those scenes of oppression, 
 persecution, and blood, which have everywhere 
 marked the progress and dominancy of the 
 Roman power ; whether we shall surrender our 
 liberties, our property, our daughters, our con- 
 sciences, and our lives, to the tender mercies of 
 the Papacy? This is one side of the question 
 which should be carefully pondered. The other 
 is, whether our free institutions shall be perpe- 
 tuated men continue to worship God agreeably 
 to their conscientious predilections; whether we 
 shall preserve inviolate the prerogative of Ame- 
 rican citizens, to read the Bible and interpret it 
 for themselves ; whether we shall have free sanc- 
 tuaries, free schools, and free hearts; whether the 
 government shall be administered by the native 
 born or the champions of the Pope ; and whether 
 our civil and religious institutions shall remain 
 separate and distinct as now, or whether there 
 shall be a union of Church and State, con- 
 trolled by the iron despot who reigns on the 
 seven-hilled city? All these considerations, and 
 many others, are involved in the question at
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 167 
 
 issue, which the adherents of the Papacy and 
 the infidel and social confederacies of our land 
 have forced upon us for decision. Can an 
 American falter a moment, hesitate an instant, 
 when such commanding issues are presented? 
 Most assuredly not ! The question is too mo- 
 mentous, the interests involved too tremendous, 
 not to evoke every feeling of nationality, and 
 kindle into burning every spark of p.ure patriot- 
 ism. In whatever direction our party predilec- 
 tions may tend, we cannot forget, in seasons 
 when a common danger threatens, that we are 
 Americans ! 
 
 But there are other and yet weightier reasons 
 to influence the judgment of men in this junc- 
 ture of aifairs. To make our discussion a little 
 more formal and direct, we affirm that it is the 
 duty of Americans to suspend for a season the 
 operation of their sympathies for former creeds, 
 and sustain the nominee of the new party, that 
 the national honor may be vindicated. The 
 honor of the nation is a personal matter with 
 every true patriot, and cannot be insulted or 
 wounded without inflicting a like injury upon 
 him. He will, therefore, as promptly redress 
 the wrongs of his country as he would resent a 
 personal injury to his honor. This I regard as 
 perfectly just, for however averse to sanction 
 any sort of violence, and much as it is the duty 
 of all good citizens to exercise forbearance and
 
 168 PKOBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 love towards all men, there cannot be the 
 shadow of impropriety in giving such an expres- 
 sion at the polls as will effectually vindicate the 
 honor of our nation. Our constitution contem- 
 plates a fusion of the various members of this 
 republic into one common brotherhood, ani- 
 mated by one spirit, and laboring for one end. 
 And while it allows the amplest freedom to all 
 religious creeds, the force of its entire spirit is 
 against the blending of the religious and political 
 sentiments of any one denomination with a view 
 to exalt itself to supreme power. It is at war 
 with the genius of our institutions for a denomi- 
 nation to remain isolated from all others in its 
 political action, in its institutions, and works of 
 benevolence and education. It is an insult to 
 the nation to contravene its wishes and inten- 
 tions by rearing a power within its domain, 
 hostile to the liberty of the State. We need not 
 stop to prove that the Catholic Church is the 
 enemy of freedom in all its aspects. Her his- 
 tory, her doctrines, her spirit, her writers, and 
 her priests, have filled the world with monu- 
 ments proclaiming the truth of this assertion. 
 If the reader will turn to Balmes on Civilization, 
 p. 76, he will find the Catholic idea of liberty, 
 such as Bishop Hughes offered in his reply to 
 General Cass, and where he has borrowed the 
 phrase upon which he plays so dexterously "a 
 confusion of ideas." But when this confusion
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 169 
 
 of ideas is cleared up, liberty means a full sur- 
 render of body, soul, and all, to the domination 
 of the infallible successor of Peter. Who does 
 not observe the extent of the power which the 
 Roman Pontiff holds over his subjects. At his 
 bidding, they cast their suffrages en masse for 
 the men who will do most for the interests of 
 Rome. 
 
 While all the efforts of Jesuitism have tended 
 towards the aggrandizement of Rome for years, 
 the nation has sustained injury on the part of 
 those public men who encouraged the preten- 
 sions of these emissaries of the Pope by offering 
 incense at his shrine. In their official acts, their 
 speeches and writings, they exhibited a degree 
 of deference to the papal hierarchy totally in- 
 compatible with their position as representatives, 
 and have unmistakably indicated their anxiety, 
 nay determination, at any cost, to conciliate the 
 favor of these ecclesiastics, and for the obvious 
 reason that they might secure the influence of 
 these among their spiritual subjects. The sub- 
 jects of the priest have less freedom of will than 
 the slaves on our plantations, and are, therefore, 
 totally incompetent to exercise intelligently the 
 elective franchise. This subserviency of some 
 public men to Romanism we are forced to 
 regard as the most humiliating feature in our 
 latter history. This has gone so far as to fill 
 many judicious minds with the most alarming 
 15
 
 170 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 apprehensions, and if suffered to continue un- 
 checked, it may acquire such energy that all 
 attempted remedies will prove fruitless. It has 
 frequently been the sad experience of individuals 
 and nations, that causes the most despicable in 
 their commencement have subsequently coa- 
 lesced with other influences, and acquired an 
 efficiency for evil totally beyond their control. 
 There is a time in the history of every vicious 
 public sentiment, or monstrous conception, when 
 it may be easily destroyed. This monster, born 
 in the bosom of our republic, should have been 
 strangled in its birth, but though it has grown 
 to be powerful, it may yet be crushed ; but if 
 suffered to linger, and to feed upon the vitals of 
 the nation, it will ultimately, like a malignant 
 passion in the human heart, destroy everything 
 exalted and good. 
 
 Now the manner in which it is proposed to 
 kill off this evil is as merciful as it is just. If 
 the case were reversed, so that we Protestants 
 were in a Papal country, and they had the power 
 as we have, there is not a Catholic kingdom 
 where the good of Holy Mother would not require 
 that we should be delivered over to the civil 
 power, and commended to its mercy, which 
 means that we should be sent to the stake, the 
 dungeon, or the wheel. Unchanging and un- 
 changeable Popery would soon rid this beautiful 
 land of its heretics if it only had the power. Is
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 1Y1 
 
 it not so, tender Shepherd of the Valley ? What 
 say you, Orestes ? Ah ! you have already given 
 your views on the duty of burning heretics, with- 
 out any equivocation. But the American party 
 has no such purposes, no feelings of vengeance 
 to gratify, no spirit of blood to satiate ; but it 
 has the good of the country at heart, which is the 
 good of all parties and creeds, and feels assured 
 that its success will be attended with high and 
 glorious benefits to the Catholic laity. The 
 American party cherishes the kindest feelings 
 towards all, but it has vowed to vindicate the 
 national honor from the imputations of servility 
 to the Roman power. 
 
 A nation, like a virgin, must sacredly guard 
 her honor ; and whenever a wily foe would de- 
 prive her of it, she must shake her garments 
 with a holy horror, and rebuke the effrontery 
 that would convert her into a courtezan for the 
 Pope. Every American heart swells with indig- 
 nation at the thought of transforming our insti- 
 tutions into instruments of oppression, and her 
 extended territories into a wide domain of cru- 
 eHy. These considerations will be pondered by 
 the American people they will forget all diffe- 
 rences in political sentiment, and will strike 
 with one heart a blow to vindicate the honor 
 of our Republic ; and these vampires, who have 
 been feeding upon the life of this nation only to 
 destroy her, will be taught a lesson that they
 
 172 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 will never forget. Let it be proclaimed at the 
 polls of the next Presidential election, THAT 
 AMERICANS SHALL RULE AMERICA that, while we 
 offer a refuge to the oppressed of all lands, we 
 shall expect them to conform to the letter and 
 the spirit of our laws, and to be content with 
 such blessings as " life, liberty, and the pursuit 
 of happiness." 
 
 It is vain for demagogues to contend that 
 foreigners have meditated and done no wrong 
 to the country; that they have not reflected 
 upon her honor, nor scouted the instincts and 
 sentiments of the nation ; and that it is, there- 
 fore, persecution and proscription that the Ame- 
 rican party aims at. Ignorance or presumption 
 only can prompt men to assert such unfounded 
 charges. Who could read Bishop Hughes on 
 religious toleration without being shocked by 
 the dogmas advanced by that prelate ? Impu- 
 dently charging the venerable and distinguished 
 Cass with "a confusion of ideas," when he 
 asserted the great American principle of reli- 
 gious freedom. The sentiments of that prelate 
 most violently clash with all the impulses of 
 American hearts, and are in direct conflict with 
 the teachings of the charter of freedom, and, in 
 the hands of the Bishop and those whom he 
 serves, mean a complete abrogation of all the 
 laws on religious toleration out of the Roman 
 Church. Such also was the tone of the Cath-
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 173 
 
 olic press, that all who are given to observation 
 have had abundant opportunity of witnessing 
 that the Papacy and our institutions are in 
 direct antagonism. They uttered their senti- 
 ments rather more freely than might now appear 
 prudent; and these were so hostile to our inte- 
 rests, and so pregnant with awful meaning, as 
 to put many citizens on their guard. The 
 boasted changes they contemplated were pa- 
 tented and sent through the land. Self-preser- 
 vation is the first law of nature ; and it is under 
 the force of this law that the American party 
 acts; and in obedience to the dictate of this 
 statute, written upon every loyal heart that beats 
 through this wide Union, thousands will be 
 ranged under its banner, and carry it trium- 
 phantly forward until it waves over the capitol 
 of this free nation. 
 
 Another consideration which will commend 
 itself to true patriots is, that the election of 
 President on the issue now made would admi- 
 nister a gentle, but greatly-deserved, rebuke to 
 meddlesome foreigners. They have carried them- 
 selves altogether too loftily, and have essayed to 
 discourse of American habits and institutions, 
 in a manner totally unbecoming in men who 
 profess warm attachment to our form of govern- 
 ment. Having scarcely touched upon American 
 soil, they set themselves up for our teachers, and 
 freely discuss all questions pertaining to the 
 15*
 
 174 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 social state, while they understand them as 
 little as would an imported Hottentot. It is 
 positively insufferable to witness such arrogance 
 and presumption. They have ahused American 
 generosity, and repaid their hospitality by gross 
 insults or by officious meddlings in our elections. 
 Having always been the victims of oppression, 
 they understand not the just limits of liberty } 
 and run to that other extreme, where they want 
 nothing but the power to become the worst of 
 oppressors. "When we recount the officious in- 
 terference of foreigners in our political aftairs 
 their bearing at the polls their dictation their 
 threats if their demands are not complied with 
 by our rulers, we are really amazed at the mea- 
 sure of forbearance exercised towards them. It 
 is high time to intimate to them, in a manner 
 not to be misapprehended, that we will not bare 
 our backs to the lash of a Bishop, or tamely 
 cringe to his bullying and blustering subjects. 
 Let this be done in an honorable way let Ame- 
 ricans give a united expression of their united 
 sentiments, and elect a man for the occupancy 
 of the chair of state, unpledged to bishop and 
 archbishops, and untrammelled by foreign influ- 
 ence. Let his election be decisive and trium- 
 phant, that every State of this Union may recur 
 to it with feelings of pride, and that its influence 
 may be appreciated by those who have raised 
 this issue between us.
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 175 
 
 The result of the next Presidential election 
 will be regarded at home and abroad as the true 
 exponent of the American and foreign elements 
 in our country. Foreigners are, in this issue, 
 posted against Americans ; it is not the strife of 
 parties, but of nationalities. Whether it is good 
 policy to bring about such a test, is not now a 
 matter for our consideration. Could it be 
 avoided, it would unquestionably have obviated 
 much unpleasant feeling ; but the period when 
 it might have been prevented has passed. The 
 question has been thrust upon Americans with- 
 out their bidding, and in the face of repeated 
 warning and solemn protestations on the part 
 of leading Protestant journals and statesmen ; 
 but our foreign population, especially the Cath- 
 olics, have been instrumental in making this 
 issue, and with them rests the responsibility. 
 The preliminaries of the great struggle are 
 already arranged I hear the sound of the mar- 
 shalling forces the influence of the American 
 party on the next Presidential election is dis- 
 cussed in the Grand Council in Rome it forms 
 a topic in the deliberations of the cabinets of 
 Europe it is debated in our halls of legislation 
 in our palaces and cottages it forms the con- 
 versation in the counting-house and the shop 
 it is talked over by our wives, mothers, and 
 children at the fireside while the prophetic 
 words of our Washington are whispered in
 
 176 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 every breeze by our guardian angel "Beware 
 of entangling alliances with foreigners." These 
 warning words are being understood in their 
 vast significance, and Washington will a second 
 time deliver his country from the vassalage of 
 despotism. Hundreds of thousands are waiting 
 with anxious hearts for the announcement of 
 him who is to bear the standard of the new 
 party, and unnumbered multitudes are watching 
 for the signal to march to the polls and seal 
 their devotion to the principle " that Americans 
 shall rule America." All over the land there is 
 a stirring of earnest spirits quiet in their de- 
 portment, but fixed in their purpose. And 
 among those who sympathize with the Ameri- 
 can party, I am proud to say there are many of 
 foreign birth, but of far different spirit from 
 those who threaten the peace and stability of 
 our Union. 
 
 On the other side, no efforts are spared to cir- 
 cumvent the plans of the new order and defeat 
 their intentions. The ablest minds are toiling 
 day and night to overcome the recent disasters 
 which have befallen the party in league with 
 Rome. All the intellectual force which can be 
 pressed into party service is freely offered, and all 
 this is united with the entire force of the Catholic 
 Church. Can we look out upon these vast pre- 
 parations without deep emotions ? without hav- 
 ing our sensibilities stirred to the profoundest
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 177 
 
 depths ? IMPOSSIBLE ! Ay, there is a grandeur 
 gathering about these rising multitudes to a 
 great issue ! And however fervently we might 
 wish that such an issue had never been raised 
 in this brotherhood of freemen, and however 
 much we deplore the fanatical zeal of foreign 
 Bishops and Archbishops for giving rise to this 
 question, we can have only one desire as to its 
 result. But this is no time for fruitless wishes 
 the contest is before us and we must meet it. It is 
 not the privilege of men to dodge this question, 
 they must show -the American people where they 
 stand. They will be made to declare without 
 equivocation, whether foreigners shall, or shall 
 not, rule the land of Washington. "Whether, 
 in addition to the walled convents (which no 
 Protestant denomination would be allowed to 
 have and to hold,) where the victims of Jesuitical 
 intrigue, and it may be lust, are pining away, 
 while there is no law by which an aggrieved Pre- 
 testant parent can recover his abducted daughter, 
 whether in addition to these strongholds of the 
 Papacy, the Inquisition is one day to be added, 
 and leave us to the tender mercies of those who 
 have crimsoned almost every soil with innocent 
 blood ! 
 
 In view, therefore, of the present state of 
 feeling, the commanding interests which are at 
 stake, and the high importance associated with 
 the results of the next Presidential election, I
 
 178 PROBABLE INFLUENCE ON 
 
 cannot be mistaken in the belief that our citi- 
 zens, cognizant of these things, will reflect as 
 they never have done, before they -cast their 
 suffrages at the ensuing election. And seeing 
 in all sections of the land the presence of a dan- 
 gerous power there can be no room to doubt 
 the success of the American nominee for the 
 presidency. May it be a Cass, a Fillmore, a 
 Houston, or Clayton, but may Tie be an American 
 in feeling, in thought, and in action. Such a 
 result would be contemplated with unmingled 
 satisfaction bv^ all true patriots, for after the 
 decision of this question, all may resume their 
 places on former platforms, or continue the or- 
 ganization ; but whether the American party 
 shall or shall not ostensibly exist after the next 
 Presidential election, its principles will be wide- 
 spread, permanent, and immortal as our glorious 
 and free commonwealth. 
 
 In submitting these considerations it may be 
 proper to state that they are the reflections of 
 one who has no ambitious aspirings. His spirit 
 is not chafed by disappointed hopes, or foiled 
 expectations. He has never sought nor enjoyed 
 official trusts, nor seeks them now. But standing 
 by the shrines of freedom he has uttered his 
 sentiments on a subject which it is the privilege 
 of all to discuss. He loves his country, and would 
 curse the hand and paralyze the arm that would 
 remove a single stone from the vast temple of
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 179 
 
 freedom. May that noble structure whose foun- 
 dations are in the hearts of the true and the 
 brave, remain immutable, amid the shocks and 
 convulsions that are now rocking thrones and 
 kingdoms into a heap of ruins ! May no enemy 
 at home or from afar, ever gain power to undo 
 the work of our Fathers; and may their sons 
 never want hearts to love, and arms to defend 
 the altars of this nation, whose glory is filling 
 the world, that our institutions may be as per- 
 petual and as glorious as the sun and the stars 
 whose light falls on the graves of our venerated 
 sires !
 
 REPLY 
 
 TO THE LETTER 
 
 OP 
 
 HON. HENRY A. WISE, 
 
 AGAINST THE 
 
 "KNOW-NOTHINGS." 
 
 10 (181)
 
 REPLY 
 
 TO THE 
 
 0f j0n. . . Mis*. 
 
 THE LETTER OF HON. HENRY A. WISE, THE DEMO- 
 CRATIC GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE OF VIRGINIA, 
 AGAINST THE KNOW-NOTHINGS. 
 
 THIS is perhaps the most extraordinary docu- 
 ment of an epistolatory form, that has ever been 
 issued from the American Press. I pronounce 
 it extraordinary, whether viewed as a whole or 
 in its separate propositions hut most of all ex- 
 traordinary, for its labored proof of that which 
 nobody denies ; and for its creation of a hideous 
 monster, and then expending the whole intellec- 
 tual force of an extraordinary man upon its 
 demolition. 
 
 The assumption is not less charitable than just 
 to Mr. "Wise, that the nondescript with which he 
 battles so terribly, arose from some of the Vir- 
 ginia swamps, for the Old Dominion is not 
 without its " dismal swamps." That the creation 
 which looms through his letter should have the 
 remotest resemblance to the Know-Nothings, we 
 cannot for a moment believe ; neither would we 
 cast such an imputation on the intelligence of 
 
 (183)
 
 184 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 its author, as to think, that he had the faintest 
 idea of drawing a portraiture of the party which 
 he denounces. The thing is sui generis, and is 
 evidently the offspring of a cloudy brain, or a 
 disturbed spirit. 
 
 If the question is therefore asked why a reply 
 is offered to this letter, in connection with the 
 foregoing pages, I would state for the informa- 
 tion of the inquirer, that there are a number of 
 urgent reasons why it should be answered. 
 
 1. First, the source whence it emanates is 
 respectable. It is not on all occasions that an 
 individual may rise to a self-vindication. The 
 source of those aspersions intended to injure or 
 totally destroy his reputation, may render a reply 
 a work of supererogation. Not only motives 
 of self-respect may forbid an answer, but the 
 censure of the maligning party may be more 
 honorable than its adulations. The same basis 
 of action is usually adopted by honorable asso- 
 ciations. It would be an endless and profitless 
 task for the American party, to defend itself 
 from all those insane attacks upon its character 
 with which partizan journals are teeming. Its 
 contempt could not even stoop so low as to repel 
 the many foul slanders, so abundantly manufac- 
 tured and vended by the evil-disposed. Neither 
 is it necessary, for their origin is their best 
 refutation. But here the case is different a 
 lengthy document is given to the public, abound-
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 185 
 
 ing in misconceptions, and misrepresentations ; 
 doing great injustice to an association of honor- 
 able men doing violence (it may be uninten r 
 tional) to truth, and all canopied by the powerful 
 influence of a great name. Mr. "Wise is the 
 Democratic oracle in the Old Dominion, and 
 thousands inquire at his shrine with child-like 
 simplicity, and receive his utterances with abso- 
 lute confidence. All those who are moulded by 
 his influence will regard this document against 
 the Know-Nothings as an impartial exposition 
 of their creed, and endorse it from beginning 
 to end. It is therefore eminently proper, to sub- 
 ject it to our scrutiny and make its darkness 
 light, and its crooked places straight. 
 
 2. The second consideration which invites a 
 reply is, the fact that it constitutes the sum total 
 of all that has been uttered against this unof- 
 fending class of men by the opposition press, 
 by stump orators in Congress and out of Con- 
 gress, and all over the land. It is, in the dialect 
 of Gotham, " an Omnium gatherum" of all they 
 can produce, or, as the lawyers sometimes say, 
 the arguments urged against the new party, are 
 here brought within the compass of a nut-shell, 
 and if it could be shaken, it would still rattle. 
 It is doubtless quite agreeable to the party 
 assailed to have all the ammunition loaded into 
 one and the same gun, for if it can withstand 
 this Paixhan, the ship is safe, " for there is no 
 16*
 
 186 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 more of the same sort." I trust suitable acknow- 
 ledgments will be made to the honorable gen- 
 tleman, for the wide scope which he has given 
 to his letter, so that all that is now requisite is 
 to expose his fallacies, the unsoundness of his 
 arguments, and the harmlessness of his decla- 
 mation, and the work of effectual vindication is 
 at once accomplished. 
 
 3. The third reason for answering this formi- 
 dable epistle is, that it has been extensively circu- 
 lated, and as it abounds in misconceptions and 
 erroneous statements, no doubt based on wrong 
 information, doing great injustice to a large and 
 respectable portion of his "fellow citizens," it 
 is the duty of some one to correct these, for I 
 agree perfectly with Mr. Wise, " that truth should 
 be left free to combat error." 
 
 4. A final consideration which demands a re- 
 sponse, is found in the fact that, Mr. Wise is 
 now the nominee for the high office of governor 
 in his state, and as he is too honorable a man 
 to desire or accept a political victory obtained 
 upon erroneous issues, or by misrepresenting 
 those who oppose him, I may do him a ser- 
 vice by removing any false impressions which 
 may have been made upon the minds of the 
 people. In view of these several considerations 
 I have concluded to subject this elaborate docu- 
 ment to a brief, but impartial examination. 
 
 The Honorable gentleman has, in this epistle,
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 187 
 
 given ample scope on the one hand to his fancy, 
 and to his declamatory powers on the other. If it 
 is a reliable index of his intellectual constitution, 
 it is very ohvious that the peculiarities indicated 
 greatly predominate over the reasoning faculties. 
 To such an extent is this manifest, that it is with 
 considerable difficulty, under the warfare of 
 words, to see the precise bearing of his argu- 
 ment it is like searching for isolated grains of 
 gold in a mass of worthless sand. That there 
 may be no room to complain of injustice, and 
 no appearance even of partiality, I will fully 
 state the propositions upon which he relies for 
 success in his great effort to demolish the 
 " Know-Nothings." 
 
 1. " There is no necessity, from either oppres- 
 sion or weakness of Protestants or Natives, for 
 such an organization." 
 
 2. "There is not only no necessity for this 
 secret political organization, but it is against the 
 spirit of our laws and the facts of our history." 
 
 3. " Know-Nothingism is against the spirit of 
 the Reformation and Protestantism." 
 
 4. " It is not only opposed to the Reformation 
 and Protestantism, but to the faith, hope, and 
 charity of the Gospel." 
 
 5. " It is against the peace and purity of the 
 Protestant churches, and in aid of priestcraft, 
 within their folds to secretly organize orders for 
 religious combined with political ends."
 
 188 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 6. "It is against free civil government, by 
 instituting a secret oligarchy, beyond the reach 
 of popular scrutiny, and supported by blind in- 
 struments of tyranny, bound by test-oaths." 
 
 7. "It is opposed to our progress as a nation." 
 
 8. ""What are the evils complained of to make 
 a pretext for these innovations?" 
 
 Here, then, are the propositions, the founda- 
 tion upon which this imposing paper edifice is 
 reared. The reader perceives that he has given 
 himself great amplitude of range, and doubtless 
 with a view of comprehending within its com- 
 pass everything that could be urged against the 
 new order. From the extent of the field over 
 which he ranges, it becomes a matter of neces- 
 sity to limit this reply to the most prominent 
 and plausible positions of this document, and in 
 as condensed a form as possible. 
 
 To establish his first proposition, he relies 
 upon the statistics of our native and foreign 
 population, and from these infers that there is 
 no existing necessity for an American party. 
 He estimates the foreigners in our country, at 
 this time, at 2,210,839. But this is at variance 
 with the census of 1850, considerably less than 
 that document makes it four years ago, and 
 making no allowance for the corresponding 
 ratio of increase since then. In answering this 
 part of the notable letter, I offer for the con- 
 sideration of the reader the statements of a
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 189 
 
 distinguished gentleman, who enjoyed peculiar 
 facilities for making an accurate report on the 
 subject. He says : 
 
 " I will show you by figures the progress of 
 immigration since 1790 ; it is as follows : 
 
 From 1790 to 1810 (20 years) 120,000 
 
 From 1810 to 1820 (10 years) 114,000 
 
 From 1820 to 1830 " 103,979 
 
 From 1830 to 1840 " 762,369 
 
 From 1840 to 1850 " 1,521,850 
 
 Total for the entire 60 years. . . 2,722,198 
 
 " The following table, obtained from the State 
 Department, conforms nearly enough to the exact 
 truth for the purpose of this illustration : 
 
 From June 1, 1850, to Dec. 31, 1851, the 
 
 number of foreign immigrants arriving was 558,000 
 
 In the year 1852 375,000 
 
 In the year 1853 368,000 
 
 In the year 1854, the returns for the first six 
 months warrant the estimate for the entire 
 year 500,000 
 
 The aggregate for the first four and a half 
 years of this decennial term is 1,801,000 
 
 " There is no reason for believing that the vast 
 immigration for this year will diminish ; in fact 
 there is no limit to its rate of progress, but the 
 means of conveyance. Now, then, we have, 
 upon this basis, an aggregate for the six years 
 and a half intervening between this period and
 
 190 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 1860 of 3,250,000 ; making for the current ten 
 years trie astounding aggregate of 5,051,000. 
 
 "The correctness of this calculation is self- 
 apparent. It shows, that during the first year 
 of this decimal period there will be thrown upon 
 the shores of the United States a swarm, from 
 heterogeneous sources, of 2,700,000 human 
 beings ; almost exactly equal to the entire immigra- 
 tion of the last sixty years. Estimating the rate 
 of immigration upon the basis of the returns 
 for the twenty years succeeding the adoption of 
 the Constitution, we find that, for the forty-five 
 years preceding the declaration of indepen- 
 dence, the number of immigrants that arrived 
 in the colonies was not far from 270,000 ; little 
 more than half as many as now land in our sea- 
 ports in six months I We were, therefore, at that 
 time a homogeneous people. All of our three 
 millions, except two or three hundred thousand, 
 who were nearly all Tories, were born upon the 
 soil, were Americans, native to the manor, with 
 souls to dare and hands to execute the mighty 
 plans necessary to a nation's redemption." 
 
 A gifted and cool editor of a prominent public 
 journal remarks upon the above: "Here is the 
 whole case presented ; the argument is begun 
 and ended. The admission of foreigners to un- 
 limited political privileges is not consistent with 
 the interests of society, with good government, 
 or the public peace. And the facts sufliciently
 
 OP HON. H. A. WISE. 191 
 
 prove why that policy in respect to foreigners, 
 which was perhaps not unadvisable up to a 
 recent period, has become intolerable, and de- 
 mands a complete reformation. We do not mean 
 to admit that the necessity for such a change 
 of policy (for his journal is not of the party) has 
 now for the first time arisen ; but the evils for 
 which a remedy is demanded have been ren- 
 dered too flagrant for endurance by the events 
 of the last fourteen years, and particularly by 
 those of the last eight." 
 
 As the whole argument on the first proposi- 
 tion discussed by Mr. Wise is founded upon the 
 relative numerical strength of the native and 
 foreign element in our political system, and as 
 we have seen his premises swept away by the 
 above statements, "leaving not a wreck be- 
 hind," all his words and logic are wasted. His 
 argument would have answered well enough 
 sixty years ago, but for 1854 it is sadly defi- 
 cient; for it can be readily seen by the ratio 
 of increase during the past existence of our 
 nation, that, upon the same basis of calcu- 
 lation foreigners, at no distant day, might out- 
 number the native born. But it is not even the 
 numerical strength of aliens that is most to be 
 deprecated, but rather the kind of material 
 which composes that body. A skilful Jesuit is 
 more to be dreaded than five thousand ordinary 
 citizens, so far as the power to do evil is con-
 
 192 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 cerned. We have seen that his creed allows 
 him a range of latitude, in moral and political 
 action, which is utterly abhorred by men of 
 integrity. With him " the end justifies the 
 means;" and, with this license, he is always 
 and everywhere a dangerous citizen; for<there 
 is not an enormity in the whole catalogue of 
 intrigue and crime which he may not commit 
 with impunity. 
 
 The honorable gentleman next proceeds under 
 this head to compare the Catholics with the Pro- 
 testants of this country, and infers from the con- 
 trast that there can be no danger from this 
 source. Here we perfectly agree, provided Cath- 
 olics adopt the same policy as Protestants. Did 
 their ecclesiastics encourage a blending and co- 
 operation on the part of their subjects with other 
 citizens, the contest now going on would never 
 have originated ; but while they act in a body, 
 and all their exertions in the Church and in the 
 State have for their object the destruction of 
 Protestantism, there can be no good reason 
 alleged why Protestants should not assume a 
 defensive attitude.* But it is not only this com- 
 
 * The following is the oath taken by the Jesuits on 
 joining the order : 
 
 I, A. B., now in the presence of Almighty God, the 
 blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael the Archangel, 
 the blessed St. John the Baptist, the holy apostles St. 
 Peter and St. Paul, and all the Saints and sacred host 
 of heaven, and to you my ghostly father, do declare from
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 193 
 
 bination among themselves, but the fact that 
 they lend themselves for a consideration to one 
 
 my heart, without mental reservation, that his Holiness, 
 
 Pope , is Christ's Vicar-General, and is the true and 
 
 only Head of the Catholic or universal church through- 
 out the earth : and that by the virtue of the keys of 
 binding and loosing, given to his Holiness by my Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose heretical kings, 
 princes, states, commonwealths, and governments, all 
 being illegal without his sacred confirmation, and that 
 they may safely be destroyed : therefore, to the utmost 
 of my power, I shall and will defend this doctrine, and 
 his Holiness' rights and customs, against all usurpers of 
 the heretical (or Protestant) authority whatsoever ; espe- 
 cially against the now pretended authority and Church 
 of England, and all adherents, in regard that they and 
 she be usurpal and heretical, opposing the sacred mother 
 Church of Rome. I do renounce and disown any alle- 
 giance as due to any heretical king, prince, or State, 
 named Protestants, or obedience to any of their inferior 
 magistrates or officers. I do further declare that the 
 doctrine of the Church of England, the Calvinists, 
 Huguenots, and of others of the name Protestants, to be 
 damnable, and they themselves are damned, and to be 
 damned, that will not forsake the same. I do further 
 declare that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of 
 his Holiness' agents in any place wherever I shall be, in 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, or in any other territory 
 or kingdom I shall come to, and do my utmost to extir- 
 pate the heretical Protestants' doctrines and to destroy 
 all their pretended powers, regal or otherwise. 
 17
 
 194 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 or the other of the great parties, to be used as 
 instruments to carry an election, that justly in- 
 spires apprehension concerning their growing 
 influence. They are no longer the three millions 
 of Catholics which we have to fear, but all the 
 forces of the Democratic or 'Whig party annexed 
 to Rome, that are brought against Protestantism. 
 Those who co-operate with them are virtually a 
 part of them, so far as the result of their exer- 
 tions is concerned. Where would be the differ- 
 ence, Mr. Wise ? If there were only three hun- 
 dred of Jesuits in this Union, and your party so 
 powerful in Virginia, and recently so triumphant 
 all over the land, carries out their wishes legis- 
 lates for their benefit grants them their de- 
 mands, and your whole political machinery is 
 worked by their chosen spirits ? In your esti- 
 mate of their numerical strength, you seemed to 
 overlook this important feature in the aspect of 
 the question at issue. But enough upon this 
 point your errors of calculation, and your mis. 
 conception of the true condition of things, are 
 too glaring to require further comment. 
 
 2. The next point raised in this marvellous 
 production is, that the American party contra- 
 venes the spirit of our laws. Here, as in the 
 former part, it is extremely difficult to follow his 
 ideas through a wilderness of words ; a wilder- 
 ness where often no sunlight visits those who 
 follow him. He commences with those inci- 
 dents in our history familiar to every schoolboy
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 195 
 
 how we all had, some time or other, either in 
 our parents, grand-parents, or great-grand- 
 parents, a foreign ancestry how we are all re- 
 lated to Adam and builds an argument upon 
 the relations which some of our forefathers sus- 
 tained to a foreign country, designed to show 
 that we should treat those kindly who now come 
 to our shores. But where is the necessity of 
 parading these things hefore us do not the 
 instincts of humanity, and the utterances of 
 Christianity, enforce these lessons far more effi- 
 ciently than Mr. Wise ? And is there an orga- 
 nization that strives to act with greater con- 
 formity to these Divine teachings than this new 
 party? Do they not resist all show of intole- 
 rance ? Does he not know that a fundamental 
 principle of the party is No UNION OF CHURCH 
 AND STATE ? Does he not know that they con- 
 tend for the largest liberty for all, consistent 
 with the safety of the republic? that they 
 welcome the oppressed from all climes ? that 
 they are pledged always to keep it a free asylum 
 for all classes and creeds? If he did not know 
 their principles, why write about them? why 
 denounce what he does not understand ? What, 
 in the name of Heaven, has the trial by jury to 
 do with such a discussion ? Never has a man 
 so signally failed in making out a case never 
 did effort so recoil upon its author as this letter 
 which attempts to traduce the character of an 
 association of which he is totally ignorant. The
 
 196 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 great body of them are men above suspicion, 
 and upon whose crest ten thousand knights, such 
 as the Virginian, might shiver their weapons 
 without inflicting a scar. 
 
 And now we come to his analysis of the 
 Declaration of Rights, where he attempts to 
 prove that the creed of the American party is in 
 direct conflict with it. There is not a particular 
 enumerated at this stage of his discussion which 
 may not be turned against himself with the 
 entire force of all his reasoning. As an illustra- 
 tion, I need but offer one of the several points 
 raised. He proceeds: "Is not this organiza- 
 tion an Imperium in Imperio against the" 14th 
 section of this Declaration, which says : ' That 
 the people have a right to uniform government, 
 and, therefore, that no government separated 
 from, or independent of, the government of Vir- 
 ginia, ought to be erected or established within 
 the limits thereof.' It is not a government," 
 he continues ; " but will it not, does it not, poli- 
 tically govern the portion of the people belonging 
 to it differently from the portion of the people not 
 belonging to it are governed by the laws of Vir- 
 ginia." Truly, a sage conclusion, and a very 
 naughty feature in the new organization, that it- 
 presumes to govern and direct its members, instead 
 of committing this business to Mr. "Wise. But it 
 is somewhat singular that this very feature, so 
 odious in his estimation, has not long since 
 driven him from the Democratic ranks, for do
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 197 
 
 they not acknowledge themselves the authors of 
 the dogma, " to the victors belong the spoils ;" 
 and in its execution, do they not govern " that 
 portion of the people belonging to them, differ- 
 ently from those who do not belong to them ?" 
 It is amazing that with his professed abhorrence 
 of the principle invariably carried out, and which 
 he must respect if elected, he should accept the 
 nomination. And this is a common feature in 
 all parties. Query, was it this feature in the 
 Whig party which caused him to leave that 
 standard some years ago ? 
 
 But it is so far from abetting, that it is against 
 this "Imperium in Imperio," that the whole 
 force and significance of the American party 
 wars. Let us see where this charge may be 
 legitimately laid ? Is it not at the door of the 
 Romish Church, and at the feet of those who 
 are aiding her with the force of their intellects 
 to accomplish her purpose ? Has not that orga- 
 nization been toiling with sleepless energy to do 
 this very thing ? And has not such a measure 
 of success attended their efforts, that that spiri- 
 tual despotism is rising as a powerful Imperium 
 in Imperio, within the limits of our republic? 
 I have elsewhere shown that they are a combi- 
 nation sworn to act in concert, and that too for 
 the upbuilding of Eomanism until it rises above 
 all opposition, and its shadow darkens this 
 whole continent. Is not their whole machinery 
 17*
 
 198 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 evidence of this truth? Behold the influence 
 which they already command ! Does not the 
 silence of legislators, when the grossest outrages 
 are committed by Catholics, afford the most 
 tangible proof of the influence which this Impe- 
 rium has acquired over the minds of public 
 men? Does not this Roman Imperium assert 
 prerogatives at variance with " the spirit of our 
 laws ?" Have they not established their monas- 
 teries and convents in the very shadow of the 
 Throne of Freedom ? And for what purposes 
 are these prisons constructed ? Do they not 
 there hold, against their will, helpless females ! 
 often enticed or abducted from Protestant fami- 
 lies, while no legislator has yet dared to propose 
 the enactment of a law to authorize a parent to 
 recover the child of his bosom ? May they not, 
 do they not, defy you ; and is this no infringe- 
 ment on the civil and religious rights of Ameri- 
 cans? Has it come to this, that American 
 parents must furnish virgin daughters to glut, 
 for all they know, the lust of foreign priests ? 
 Has this apologist for foreigners no sympathy 
 for the daughters of American mothers ? !No 
 word of denunciation, though a daughter from 
 his own State was detained against her will in 
 St. Joseph's, and escaped, at the peril of her life 
 at night, from that dungeon of corruption? 
 No invectives, because these strong-holds fill 
 the land, and all their victims and doings are 
 covered with that impenetrable veil of secrecy,
 
 OP HON. II . A. WISE. 199 
 
 which massive walls, and bars, and bolts con- 
 stitute ? 
 
 Is it not a fact incontrovertibly established by 
 history, that monasteries and convents are the 
 pillars and bulwarks of the Romish imperium 
 in all the countries that have been cursed by its 
 presence ? And lo ! here there is not simply a 
 government rising up within our government, 
 but it has already established its strong-holds, 
 and the eye of the law may not look upon the 
 veiled abominations that transpire within these 
 fortresses of the Papacy ! Recently a Miss 
 Bunkley, from Norfolk and of Protestant pa- 
 rents, yielding to the arts of fascination with 
 which a serpent knows so well how to decorate 
 the entrance of its den, was induced to enter a 
 convent near where I write ; but such was the 
 revelation of the interior life of that establish- 
 ment, as to shock her moral sensibilities, so that 
 at all hazards she made her escape. The Lady 
 Superior's letter to the public is full of blandish- 
 ments, while she asserts that Miss B. could have 
 withdrawn at any time, and that there was no 
 occasion for escaping at night from a second 
 story window. Such declarations, with all the 
 aid of that aspect of injured piety which she so 
 adroitly throws around them, contradict them- 
 selves. Would a girl of seventeen, timid and 
 modest, risk her life by a descent from a second 
 story window, scaling the wall of the enclosure,
 
 200 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 and running, for her life and honor, to a town 
 seven or eight miles distant, and that in the 
 darkness of the night, when she could have 
 come away at her pleasure ? The very proposi- 
 tion is an insult to the good sense of our people. 
 
 It is against this dangerous power, against 
 this imperium in imperio, that the American 
 party has assumed an attitude, not offensive, 
 but defensive. They will not countenance any 
 indignity offered to Roman Catholics, nor injure 
 a hair upon their heads they will not abduct 
 Catholic children, but they will defend them- 
 selves against the cunning of this terrible power 
 they will guard their homes and their chil- 
 dren from the machinations of these tyrants 
 they will ask for such legislation that none 
 may be imprisoned in a convent against their 
 will, and that parents may have the right to 
 explore those dens into which their offspring 
 have been enticed. 
 
 But not to leave my reader simply with my 
 own assertions respecting the pretensions of the 
 Romish Church, as Mr. Wise did, when dealing 
 out his invectives against the Know-Nothings, 
 I will here present the views of the most emi- 
 nent ecclesiastics of that Church, in relation to 
 what they conceive to be the legitimate preroga- 
 tives of the Pope. Her own doctors ought to 
 understand her doctrines. Hear, then, the dis- 
 tinguished Bellarmine, the prince of their theo-
 
 OF HON. n. A. WISE. 201 
 
 logians, and the most eminent controversialist 
 of his age. In his work, "De Pontiff," vol. i., 
 he says : " The first opinion is, that the Pope, 
 by Divine right, hath supreme power over the 
 WHOLE WORLD ! both in ecclesiastical and civil 
 affairs. This is the opinion of Augustinus Tri- 
 umphus, -^Evarus, Pelagius, Panomitamus, Hos- 
 tiensis, Sylvester, and many others." Thomas 
 Aquinas, another celebrated author of that 
 Church, says: "The Pope, by Divine right, has 
 spiritual and temporal power, as SUPREME KING 
 OF THE WORLD ; so that he can impose taxes on 
 all Christians, and destroy towns and castles for 
 the preservation of the Church." A multitude 
 of other arrogant pretensions might be quoted; 
 but these may suffice. If the Roman Imperium 
 which has been rising within the circle of our 
 glorious Union is not strong enough to give a 
 practical illustration of these arrogant preroga- 
 tives, it finds in Mr. "Wise an able apologist of 
 her pretensions, and an efficient co-worker to 
 rear to completion the superstructure of that 
 despotic Imperium, which has laid its founda- 
 tions broad and deep within the American 
 Imperio, reared by the sweat and cemented by 
 the blood of our venerated fathers. 
 
 The next point of his argument is against the 
 supposed opposition of the "Know-Nothings" 
 to the naturalization of foreigners. " So far as 
 it opposes our naturalization laws, it is not only
 
 202 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 against state policy, but against Americanism 
 itself. In this it is especially anti-American. 
 One of the best fruits of the Revolution was to 
 establish, for the first time in the world, the 
 human right of expatriation." In addition .to 
 the statements made in a previous chapter on 
 the subject of naturalization, it may be neces- 
 sary here to correct the misapprehensions of our 
 honorable friend. He has expended much of 
 his logic on this point, which might have been 
 more judiciously used in doing justice to the 
 American party. But as he seems to be a tho- 
 rough Know-Nothing, so, far as a knowledge of 
 the principles of that order are concerned, this 
 perversion of the truth is the more pardon- 
 able. Who has ever heard, but from their ene- 
 mies, that they demand the abrogation of the 
 naturalization laws ? What proof has Mr. Wise 
 that they are prescriptive in sentiment, or the 
 enemies of expatriation ? Why then so posi- 
 tively affirm that they are about to revive the 
 "feudal dogma, once a citizen, always a citi- 
 zen ?" Should not shame mantle the counte- 
 nance of those who so grossly misrepresent 
 their fellow-citizens? What is the American 
 party contending for, in relation to this subject? 
 An abrogation of all laws relating to this 
 matter a total exclusion of foreigners a 
 withholding of the right of citizenship altoge- 
 ther and the closing of every door of this 
 asylum against them ? Such would be the le-
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 203 
 
 gitimate inference of the reader of this singular 
 letter, if not otherwise informed. And these 
 monstrous sentiments, created by Mr. "Wise, and 
 draped in all the dark colorings with which a 
 disordered fancy could invest them, are ascribed 
 to the new order ! Is it not amazing that men 
 of high intellectual and social position should, 
 even under the momentary excitement of de- 
 bate, so far forget the proprieties that are ob- 
 served between respectable combatants, as to 
 give utterance to the foulest calumnies that a 
 delirious and clouded brain can invent! It 
 may be alleged, as an extenuation of his guilt, 
 that the cry of "proscription," " exclusiveuess," 
 and "intolerance," which floated upon every 
 breeze, so misled him as even to fill his mind 
 with all those hobgoblin ideas of the new order 
 to which he has given utterance. But if in the 
 judgment of some it may mitigate the wrong 
 committed, it cannot atone for the unpardon- 
 able neglect of not seeking information in the 
 right quarter, before he attempted to instruct 
 his constituents in the mysteries of the " Know- 
 Nothings." ~~"~ 
 
 The American party asks that the period of 
 naturalization may be extended, not prohibited ! 
 They maintain that it is dangerous to transplant 
 a man without a suitable probation from a des- 
 potic or monarchical form of government, into 
 the immunities of full American citizenship.
 
 204 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 They are willing' to accord to all such privileges 
 as they may have capacity to enjoy but opposed 
 to the policy that would thrust responsibilities 
 upon raw foreigners, which they neither compre- 
 hend nor know how to discharge. Our laws forbid 
 the exercise of the elective franchise to all young 
 men under the age of 21 years is that proscrip- 
 tion ? Looking to their qualifications, it would 
 be a far worse proscription, for our boys of 12 
 and 15 are much better informed in the duties 
 and responsibilities of citizenship, than most 
 foreigners of as many years' residence. Yet this 
 party does not fix any number of years, but 
 demands such a modification of the Naturaliza- 
 tion laws as the wisdom of Congress may deem 
 expedient, so that none may be invested with all 
 the prerogatives of citizenship, but such as are 
 suitably prepared sacredly to guard and wisely 
 to enjoy this high trust. What then becomes 
 of the gentleman's beautiful exclamations ! what 
 of his touching pathos and wasted patriotism ? 
 It may be matter of regret that these precious 
 things are so injudiciously thrown away ; for they 
 might have served some great occasion ; but they 
 are gone, and none can rescue them from their 
 inglorious doom ! An extension of a privilege 
 is not understood in our latitude as annulling it 
 nor is a modification of a law equivalent to 
 its repeal. 
 
 It may be that since the appearance of this
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 205 
 
 letter, which Balmes would call " a confusion of 
 ideas," that words have acquired a confused 
 meaning, where it has circulated. For the benefit 
 of Mr. Wise and his friends, with whom the 
 cry of proscription has become as familiar as a 
 child to its mother, I will submit a brief quota- 
 tion from an editorial of the New York Courier. 
 The only positive provision which the Constitu- 
 tion contains with regard to foreigners, is a pro- 
 scriptive one. "We must be pardoned for re- 
 calling the very language of the Constitution, 
 for this progressive generation is fast losing 
 sight of even the plainest features of that docu- 
 ment." 
 
 Section 5, Article IE., of the Constitution 
 says : " No person, except a native lorn citizen, 
 or a citizen of the United States at the time of 
 the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligi- 
 ble to the office of President." 
 
 That is proscription. 
 
 Section 3, Article All., says: "No person 
 constitutionally ineligible to the office of Presi- 
 dent, shall be eligible to the office of Vice 
 President of these United States." 
 
 That is proscription. 
 
 Section 3, Article I., says : " No person shall 
 be a Senator, who shall not have attained the 
 age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen 
 of the United States." 
 
 That is proscription. 
 18
 
 206 
 
 Section 2, Article I., says : " No person shall 
 be a Representative, who shall not have attained 
 the age of twenty-five years, and been seven 
 years a citizen of the United States." 
 
 That is proscription. 
 
 These are disabilities imposed upon foreigners 
 after they have been made citizens. But more 
 than this, the Constitution leaves it discretionary 
 whether to make them citizens at all. It simply 
 confers the power, simply permits. Section 8, 
 Article L, says : " Congress shall have power to 
 establish a uniform rule of naturalization, &c." 
 
 Nothing whatever requires Congress to exer- 
 cise this power, or restricts its range in either 
 direction when it is exercised. Congress may 
 require two years' residence, as was required by 
 the act of 1790 ; of five years, as by the act of 
 1795, and 1802 ; or of fourteen years, as by the act 
 of 1798 ; or of twenty-one, as some now demand, 
 or it may withhold naturalization altogether." 
 
 It is true that naturalization confers not the 
 right of voting, for it is the privilege of States 
 to confer this right, and varies as to time in 
 different States, so that each State is sovereign 
 in that respect. The great object then to which 
 the American party strives to awaken the atten- 
 tion of the nation, is such an extension of the 
 period of naturalization as will afford a suitable 
 time for applicants to become thoroughly Ame- 
 ricanized. This accomplished, local and state
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 207 
 
 laws will naturally adapt themselves to the pro- 
 visions of National legislation on the subject. 
 From this impartial view of the case, it will be 
 Been that there is not a single vestige left of the 
 Honorable gentleman's mountain which was 
 intended to crush the Know-Nothings. It be- 
 comes perfectly harmless and would not discom- 
 fort a mouse by its weight ! All his logic rests 
 upon sand, and is doomed at the slightest touch 
 to fall into a mass of ruins. His declamation 
 and his invectives evaporate into thin air, and 
 he is found beating his head against the wall ! 
 Alas, for Honorable Henry, may he do better 
 next time ! 
 
 One more item in your remarks, my dear sir, 
 demands notice, and I will pause. " If we let 
 foreigners be naturalized and don't extend to 
 them equality of privileges, we set up classes 
 and distinctions of persons wholly opposed to 
 Republicanism. We will, as Rome did, have 
 citizens who may be scourged. The three alter- 
 natives are presented our present policy, liberal 
 and just, and tolerant, and equal ; or the Euro- 
 pean policy of holding the nose of native born 
 slaves to the grindstone of tyranny forever ; or 
 odious distinctions of citizenship tending to 
 social and political aristocracy. I am for the 
 present Naturalization laws." 
 
 The gentleman is quite eloquent in his plea 
 for equality he scouts the idea of setting up
 
 208 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 distinctions among citizens ! They must be on 
 an equal footing, and enjoy like privileges. 
 Now what will the reader think of this ebullition 
 of fine patriotism, when told that this former 
 champion in the "Whig ranks, but now the stan- 
 dard-bearer of the Democracy, tolerates and 
 advocates the distinctions which he denounces ! 
 JN"ot the distinctions which exist between the 
 master and the slave, but among bona fide citi- 
 zens of the Old Dominion ! There is a class of 
 men whose intellectual and moral character 
 place them in the highest social positions, but 
 between whom and the humblest citizens he 
 builds up the "odious distinctions" which he 
 feigns to abhor. According to the revised con- 
 stitution of the State of Virginia, " no minister 
 of the gospel" is eligible to an office. The 
 question here is not whether they should or 
 should not aspire to office, for as to this, I w r ould 
 agree with the gentleman ; but by what rule does 
 he claim equality for all, and yet proscribe as 
 pure and intelligent a class of men as his State 
 can boast ? 
 
 What does this holy horror of "setting up 
 distinctions" amount to, when he imposes a dis- 
 ability upon men not for crime, but because they 
 are ministers of religion ? Say what you will, 
 you throw a dark and damning suspicion over 
 their character as men of integrity. Nay, you 
 do far worse, for while you withhold from them
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 
 
 privileges which you grant to gamblers, drunk- 
 ards, libertines, or the most infamous men in 
 morals, you place clergymen in the only other 
 class excluded from official stations, viz. : "duel- 
 lists, or persons who have been convicted of great 
 crimes, and been the inmates of the State prison." 
 What value shall we put upon his patriotism, 
 when, during the long sittings of the convention 
 that altered the Constitution of Virginia, of 
 which Mr. Wise was a leading member, he never 
 uttered a word or moved a finger to strike out 
 the odious, disqualifying clause, which shuts out 
 clergymen even from an humble Post-office. 
 Here he boils and foams with indignation, be- 
 cause the American party advocates wholesome 
 restrictions in regard to foreigners, but he has 
 no sympathy no patriotism for those at his 
 own door, who are the conservators of public 
 morals the instructors of the people, and an 
 example to the world. He would throw wide 
 open to raw foreigners, to intriguing Jesuits, 
 the door to political preferment, but though he 
 would regard these, or gamblers, or any others 
 fit subjects for the occupancy of official station, 
 he excludes forever and under all circumstances, 
 ministers, however respectable or competent; 
 though disabled by disease for their public func- 
 tions, he would not allow them the humblest 
 office to support a dependent family. 
 How will these gentlemen estimate his patriot- 
 18*
 
 210 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 ism? how will they esteem his clamors for 
 equal rights ? Can he hope for their votes and 
 influence in the present campaign or would 
 he apply that other part of his argument, that 
 it would he against the faith, hope, and charity 
 of the Gospel if they would proscribe him be- 
 cause he has proscribed them ? They will not 
 court the contempt of all just men by helping to 
 elevate this champion of equal rights and of 
 Rome, while he oppresses them ! And what, I 
 ask, have these ministers done to deserve this 
 legislation ? Why beset them and the Church 
 with the armed sentinels of law ? Who, Mr. 
 Wise, originates and carries on those benevolent 
 institutions whose charities wake melodies in 
 the abodes of wretchedness ? Who is most 
 occupied in labors for the amelioration of human 
 suffering, or for the advancement of education 
 and science ? Who has built your colleges and 
 seminaries of learning ? Who has educated 
 your Clays and Websters, your Casses and Bu- 
 chanans ? There is scarcely a profound scholar 
 or eminent statesman in the country who has 
 not received his intellectual and moral training 
 from ministers of the Gospel. You cannot even 
 govern your people after they have stored your 
 mind with classic lore, and taught you the 
 science of government, without the ministers of 
 religion and the motives of eternity. May I ask 
 you again, sir, what have the ministers of the
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 211 
 
 Gospel done to deserve this proscription at your 
 hands ? I will answer for you in the language 
 of that just and great man, Daniel Webster. 
 That immortal patriot and statesman gave 
 utterance to the following sentiments before the 
 Supreme Court : " I take it upon myself to say, 
 that in no country in the world, upon either 
 continent, can there be found a body of minis- 
 ters of the Gospel who perform so much service 
 to man in such a full spirit of self-denial, under 
 so little encouragement of any kind, and under 
 circumstances always much straitened and often 
 distressed, as the ministers of the Gospel in the 
 United States of all denominations. They form 
 no part of any established order of religion 
 they constitute no hierarchy they enjoy no pe- 
 culiar privileges in some States they are even 
 shut out from all participation in the political 
 rights and privileges enjoyed by their fellow- 
 citizens they enjoy no tithes no public pro- 
 vision of any kind. And this body of clergy- 
 men has shown, to the honor of their own 
 country, and to the astonishment of the hierar- 
 chies of the old world, that it is practicable in 
 free governments to raise up and sustain a 
 body of clergymen which, for devotedness 
 to their sacred calling, for purity of life and 
 character, for learning, intelligence, piety, and 
 that wisdom which cometh from above is in- 
 ferior to none, and superior to most others.
 
 212 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 I hope that our learned men have done something 
 for the honor of our literature abroad. I hope 
 that the courts of justice and members of the bar 
 of this country have done something to elevate the 
 character of the profession of the law. I hope that 
 the discussions in Congress have done something to 
 meliorate the condition of the human race to 
 secure and extend the great charter of human 
 rights, and to strengthen and advance the great 
 principles of human liberty. But I contend that 
 no literary efforts, no adjudications, no constitu- 
 tional discussions, nothing that has been done or 
 said in favor of the great interests of universal 
 man, has done our country more credit at home or 
 abroad than the establishment of our body of clergy- 
 men, and the general excellence of their character, 
 their piety, and learning" 
 
 Such are the men, iu the estimation of Daniel 
 "Webster, who are proscribed by the Hon. Mr. 
 Wise, while he prates for equality, and denounces 
 "the setting up of distinctions." 
 
 3. The third proposition which Mr. Wise dis- 
 cusses, is, that " Know-Nothingism is against 
 the spirit of the Reformation, and against Pro- 
 testantism !" To Know Nothing is certainly 
 against the spirit of the Reformation and against 
 Protestantism, for that is a spirit of inquiry and 
 reform which cannot exist anywhere without 
 imparting knowledge. But unfortunately for 
 Mr. Wise, the American party is the very embo-
 
 OP HON. H. A. WISE. 213 
 
 diment of that spirit which produced such a 
 wide-spread and profound revolution in eccle- 
 siastical and civil affairs in Europe. If the six- 
 teenth century stands out in European history 
 glowing and illustrious, so will the nineteenth 
 century constitute in American history an epoch 
 alike memorable for a Reformation to re-esta- 
 blish religious freedom and American nationality. 
 If the " solitary monk that shook the world" by 
 the exertion of his giant intellect, "toppled 
 down the fall-grown intolerable abuses of cen- 
 turies heaved the ground under the feet of a 
 bigoted faith and slavish obedience and the 
 roaring and dashing of opinions loosened from 
 their accustomed hold might be heard like the 
 noise of an angry sea," those who revere the 
 principles of the Reformer now contend in the 
 new party for free Bibles, for free consciences, 
 and free hearts ! With a few slight changes, 
 the learned quotations and able argument of the 
 gentleman may become most effective weapons 
 for those whom they were intended to destroy. 
 Hear him : " There was a mighty fermentation ; 
 the waters were out ; public opinion was in a 
 state of projection ; liberty was offered to all to 
 think and speak the truth ; men's brains were 
 busy, their spirits stirring, their hearts full, and 
 their hands not idle." He has made this lan- 
 guage his own, and by giving utterance to it, 
 could not more truthfully or graphically describe
 
 214 
 
 the effects now visible as the legitimate offspring 
 of the American party. Let us see. Has it not 
 produced a " mighty fermentation ?" Are not 
 " the waters out ?" Yes, the whole country is in 
 a state of fermentation, and the lees will soon 
 go to the bottom ; yes, the waters (by which I 
 suppose he means the people,) are out they 
 have burst their channels, and rushing beyond 
 their banks, are sweeping away many cherished 
 hopes with their authors, and will soon bear 
 them beyond the knowledge of the country; 
 yes, sir, the waters are out, and you would better 
 have a care to your " understandings." Let us 
 see ! Is not " public opinion in a state of pro- 
 jection?" Yes, sir; for it is projecting many 
 of the old politicians into those regions of for- 
 getfulness which lie about the Saline River. 
 Yes, sir ; yes, sir ; public opinion is in " a state 
 of projection," and you had better see to it, for 
 it will most probably project another into that 
 honorable chair, towards which you are now 
 laboriously toiling. Is not " liberty held out to 
 all to think and speak the truth?" Yes, sir; 
 and I fear will be detrimental to your hopes. 
 Let us see again. Are not " men's brains busy 
 and their spirits stirring?" Yes, sir; I believe 
 it all that your brain is busy, and that the 
 Know-Nothings have stirred your spirit to its 
 lowest depths, for the cloudiness of its outflows 
 witnesseth of this. Are not " their hearts full,
 
 OP HON. H. A. WISE. 215 
 
 and their hands not idle?" Yes, sir; yes, sir; 
 the new party has assuredly produced a great 
 fermentation in Mr. Wise's mind and in his 
 party. It has certainly quickened your brain, 
 and stirred your spirit. Yes, sir ; I believe you ; 
 "your heart is full," and may be yet fuller. 
 And your " hands not idle." I grant all. But 
 now I hold the honorable gentleman to his 
 argument, and to the rule upon which it is 
 based ; and he must, nolens volens, recognise in 
 the American party the very spirit he eulogizes 
 so highly. 
 
 Hear him again : " Their eyes were open to 
 expect the greatest things, and their ears burn 
 with curiosity and zeal to know the truth, that 
 the truth might make them free. The death- 
 blow which had been struck at scarlet vice and 
 bloated hypocrisy, loosened tongues and made 
 the talismans and love-tokens of Popish super- 
 stitions with which she had beguiled her follow- 
 ers, and committed abominations with the peo- 
 ple, fall harmless from their necks." It would 
 not be surprising if you would yet " sleep with 
 the Know-Nothings," for you so much resemble 
 them in your sentiments ; and seeing that the 
 effects of the Eeformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury have so enraptured your mind, and enlisted 
 the sympathies of your great heart ; for, without 
 controversy, the effects which you describe for 
 that period are the very counterpart to those
 
 216 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 now abroad in society, and produced by this 
 new order. Need I particularize ? Let us see. 
 Are not "the eyes of the people opening?" 
 Yes, and with amazement too, to behold the 
 abominations of Rome, and the corruptions of 
 political parties. Do not "their ears burn," to 
 listen to the unheard-of triumphs of the "Know 
 Nothings ?" Is not " the blow which they have 
 inflicted upon scarlet vice," &c., "and Popish 
 superstitions," sending the tremors of death 
 through that gigantic mother of corruption ? 
 Does not "her yoke," which she had placed 
 upon the neck of this nation, fall harmless at 
 her feet ? How then, excellent sir, can you com- 
 mend the effect which the spirit of the Refor- 
 mation produced, and reprobate the identical 
 effects of the American party ? Do we not, ac- 
 cording to Bacon, infer the nature of the cause 
 from its phenomena ? And if you object not to 
 this philosophy, will not consistency constrain 
 you to rejoice in the presence of the same spirit, 
 though veiled by a different exterior? The 
 name under which a principle is promulgated 
 cannot vitiate the principle itself nor does the 
 image on the coin change its current value. 
 
 But hear once more this eloquent but unin- 
 tentional defender of the "Know-Nothings." 
 Speaking of the Reformation, he says: "The 
 translation of the Bible was the chief engine in 
 the great work. It threw open the rich trea-
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 217 
 
 sures of religion and morality, which had been 
 locked up as in a shrine. It revealed the visions 
 of the Prophets, and conveyed the lessons of 
 inspired teachers to the meanest of the people. 
 It gave them a common interest in a common 
 cause. Their hearts burnt within them as they 
 read. It gave a mind to the people, by giving 
 them common subjects of thought and feeling; 
 it cemented their union of character and senti- 
 ment." Thank you, sir, for that. Could there 
 be a better exposition of the spirit and tendency 
 of the American party. The honorable gentle- 
 man had doubtless forgotten, when he penned 
 the above paragraph, that the Popish war waged 
 against the Bible, and copies of it having been 
 burned by some priests, and their efforts to banish 
 it from the public schools, where "the meanest of 
 the people" might read it, were among the first and 
 most powerful causes which called the new party 
 into existence. It was the apprehended danger 
 that the Bible might, in this free land, be a second 
 time sealed, ay and chained too, that caused 
 the American people to arise to defend their 
 rights, and wither the hand that would dare to 
 do this iniquity. The sentiment of not only 
 the people, but also of the children of this 
 nation, has been rung through the wide realm 
 of this Union "We won't give up the Bible, 
 God's holy book of truth." Yes, sir, the party 
 which you denounce is laboring to restore the 
 19
 
 218 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 Bible to its rightful position in the public school ! 
 They believe with you, sir, " that it contains the 
 richest treasures of religion and morality;" that 
 it gives "them a common interest in a common 
 cause ;" that it " gives a mind to the people, by 
 giving them common subjects of thought and 
 feeling;" that it "cements their union of cha- 
 racter and sentiment." Here, then, over the 
 Bible we shake hands with you, and thank you 
 for your unintentional service which you have 
 rendered to the party you meant to proscribe. 
 
 It is somewhat singular that the gentleman, 
 in all his declamation against what he conceives 
 to be the prescriptive attributes of the American 
 party, discovers nothing prescriptive in his own 
 labored effort. He proscribes with a merciless 
 tyranny this association, which numbers many 
 of the most respectable in the land ; he would 
 not allow them -to breathe a moment, if he 
 possibly could stop their breath. We are more 
 generous towards Mr. Wise and his party, and 
 foreigners and their allies let them live and 
 prosper, if they can ; we will proscribe none, but 
 hold inviolable in all, the glorious legacy of "life, 
 liberty, and pursuit of happiness." And now 
 we reach a point in the argumentation of this 
 ^extraordinary letter that sounds very pious. 
 
 4. " It (i. e., the American party) is opposed 
 not only to the Reformation, but to the faith, 
 hope, and charity of the Gospel." Have you
 
 OP HON. H. A. WISE. 219 
 
 ever noticed with what avidity politicians seize 
 upon some Scripture argument to clinch their 
 conclusions ? They flare up with a fierce spirit 
 and hot indignation to devour some black-coat 
 who presumes to touch ever so tenderly on some 
 political measure in his pulpit discussions, while 
 they never object to an approval of their course, 
 or of a measure they cherish, though the appro- 
 bation comes from those "who desecrate the 
 high designs of the sacred desk by politics;" 
 neither do they fail to avail themselves of such 
 arguments as the Gospel may seem to furnish. 
 Mr. Wise appears to have a special abhorrence for 
 Protestant priestcraft, and cannot acknowledge 
 the right of the ministers of religion to think 
 or speak on political subjects ; he would, there- 
 fore, have acted consistently with the doctrine 
 " Every man to his own sphere," had he busied 
 himself outside the pale of the Gospel, and not 
 attempted to render the ecclesiastical and theo- 
 logical fields tributary to his argument. But I 
 object not to the latitude which he has given 
 himself; for surely that is a desperate cause 
 which requires its advocate to ransack earth, 
 heaven, and hell in his attempts to sustain it. 
 Besides, the friends of the American party are, 
 not prescriptive, but stand up for equal rights, 
 and maintain that all may think or speak on 
 any or all subjects which challenge investiga- 
 tion ; so that I may not, and will not, complain
 
 220 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 when Mr. "Wise turns preacher. I can the more 
 readily grant him a free ahsolution for this sin, 
 if it be so regarded, (I do not,) because his 
 declamation requires no reply, since he has 
 failed to make out his case. He has only said 
 that the "Know-Nothings" are in conflict with 
 the faith, hope, and charity of the Gospel in 
 what particulars, he has left the reader's imagi- 
 nation to determine. But, although he has 
 failed to exhibit the points of collision between 
 the principles of this party and the sublime 
 teachings of the Gospel, it could be readily 
 shown, were it our business to prove this, that 
 the principles of the party are eminently con- 
 sistent with the exalted sentiments of the word 
 of God. But I weary of this examination of 
 this singular epistle ; for it is fatiguing to follow 
 him through the labyrinths which his excited 
 fancy has conjured up ; for we must remember 
 that his "brain was busy," his "spirit stirred," 
 and his heart full. I hasten, therefore, to notice 
 briefly his concluding position.' 
 
 5. His apprehensions expressed under this 
 head, that "it would lead to a proscription 
 among Protestants, and finally lead to civil 
 war," are as harmless as moonshine, and just 
 as cooling. Had I not had occasion to tell him 
 at every step of our progress in this examination, 
 that the American party does not proscribe, but 
 is pledged to prevent proscription, I would show
 
 OP HON. H. A. WISE. 221 
 
 that all the tendencies of this organization are 
 even now defeating the designs of Jesuits to 
 bring about a union of Church and State. It 
 is unmanly to ascribe principles and intentions 
 to an organization which it abhors, and against 
 which all its energies are directed in laborious 
 toil. 
 
 Finally, he characterizes the "Know-No- 
 things" as "a secret oligarchy, beyond the 
 reach of popular and public scrutiny." The 
 application of the term would have been far 
 more fortunate had it been made to the caucus 
 of the old parties, (which Mr. Wise says are 
 necessary,) for there the few do control all 
 things pertaining to their organizations ; but 
 there could not be a greater misnomer than 
 when applied to the American party. An oli- 
 garchy, indeed ! A few individuals combined 
 for the purpose of governing the nation, when 
 this "oligarchy" is so numerous as to fill the 
 land! Why, if they are the few deluded fa- 
 natics, as Mr. Wise asserts, make such tremen- 
 dous efforts to subvert their organization ? The 
 whole letter is a singular conglomeration of 
 things as distinct, and as foreign to each other, 
 as light is to darkness. Yet, after describing 
 this party as an "oligarchy," he continues 
 " Nobody knows who they are, where they are, 
 or how many of them there are. They exist 
 19*
 
 222 REPLY TO THE LETTER 
 
 somewhere in the dark ; their blows cannot be 
 guarded against." How, in the midst of this 
 ignorance which he confesses, can he pronounce 
 upon their numbers and characters ? What re- 
 liance can be placed upon the statements he 
 made concerning their designs, when, according 
 to his own showing, he knows nothing about 
 them. Had he first informed himself as to the 
 nature of the organization, its principles and 
 objects, he would not have wasted so much 
 argument and so many invectives, that have as 
 little application to the party as they have to the 
 people of China. 
 
 The remainder of this letter is made up of 
 materials similar to those already subjected to 
 an examination. It is proscription ! proscrip- 
 tion ! ! proscription ! ! ! destitute of force, be- 
 cause it does . not, and cannot, apply to the 
 American party. I will do him the justice to 
 say, that it would have been a highly respect- 
 able document in its composition, if it could 
 only have rested upon sound premises; but 
 these being destitute of the elements of truth, 
 his conclusions must necessarily wear the same 
 complexion. While there are many points of 
 character in Mr. Wise which I admire, I see the 
 predominant and, as I think, the unfortunate 
 characteristic of the man, through all this pro- 
 duction a fiery and impulsive spirit, scorning
 
 OF HON. H. A. WISE. 223 
 
 the checks of reason and the suggestions of the 
 understanding, and, with a dare-devil purpose, 
 rushing madly forward, whether he drives others 
 or himself over the yawning precipice ; or like 
 the infatuated pilot, who shivers his vessel upon 
 the UNSEEN AND UNKNOWN ROCK, and whose pri- 
 vilege it is not, to perish alone ! 
 
 THE END.
 
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