Alexandria Gazette

Plain Questions.

The following are respectfully proposed for the consideration of those Whigs who, like the writer, are opposed to Know Nothingism, and voted for Henry A. Wise in 1855:

1st. Did you not refuse to join the Know Nothing organization, and unite with your former opponents against it, because you thought its religious test, and its ostracism of adopted citizens unconstitutional, and its secrecy, at variance with the spirit of our institutions?

2nd. Did you ever hear Gov. Smith denounce either of these three things, or do you know anybody who ever did hear him denounce the Know Nothing project?

3rd. Did he not in a speech at the Lyceum Hall, assert that the Basis Principles of the American Party contained good Democratic doctrine, without qualifying his remark by intimating his dissent from a single clause?

4th. Did not this manner of speaking naturally lead everybody to believe that he agreed with them in every particular?

5th. Did he not address a crowd of Know Nothings from the balcony of the Marshall House, the night before the election, while a Democratic meeting was in progress at Lyceum Hall; and did he not on the succeeding day neglect to vote for Henry A. Wise?

6th. Does the fact that he did great service for the Democratic party, against Harrison in 1840, or does his course whilst occupying the Gubernatorial Chair, especially his County Court appointments, give him any especial claim on your confidence and support?

7th. Has he ever admitted that he was wrong in 1855, but does he not rather seek to justify his course then in his speeches now?

8th. If you vote for Gov. Smith under these circumstances, do you not endorse his former action, and admit that you were wrong in dissolving your former political associations, and voting with the Democratic party?

9th. Did not Mr. Snowden, on the contrary, urge on his party upon every occasion the abolition of secrecy, and the religious test?

10th. Is he not to be equally relied on with Gov. Smith for supporting the Administration, in all that concerns the protection of the South?

11th. Have you not in everything essential to anti-Know Nothingism, always agreed with Mr. Snowden, and has not his course, even in that regard, been far more worthy of approbation than that of Gov. Smith?

12th. Should you not, for these reasons, prefer the election of Mr. Snowden, and though your principles may forbid a straight vote for him, should you not decline to oppose him?

13th. Have you not in Col. John S. Barbour a candidate upon whom you can conscientiously unite, and who is eminently worthy of your suffrages?

CONSISTENCY