The Daily Union

For the Union,

THE KNOW-NOTHINGS.

With God there is no past, no future; with Him "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Man, His creature, though as an individual a free agent, at perfect liberty to choose between good and evil, but responsible for his choice, is in his collective capacity subject to the designs of the Ruler and Governor of the world. The career of the human race opens in the Paradise of creation, and will end in the Millennium; but between Eden and the Messianic kingdom intervenes a long tract of time, over which the race of man must perform a long pilgrimage in order to undergo an individual, social, political, and moral discipline. The vicissitudes of his march already performed are recorded in history; the coming future is foreshadowed in prophecy, intimating further changes, sounding trumpets of sorrow and trumpets of joy, until the prophetic curtain shall drop in the fall blaze of millennial glory.

This individual, social, political, and moral discipline—the means to carry out the designs of God with regard to the human race—is called civilization.

It would be here out of place to enlarge upon the origin or the universality and continuity of civilization. Chinese, East Indian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Arabic, and Aztec civilization are left behind us, mere records of the past, whilst the civilization of the cyclus of nations of the Germanic family predominates in the present with no ephemeral effulgence. Its basis is Christianity, the product of immediate Divine revelation; it is hence exempt from the laws which govern merely human productions. Germanic civilization will not pass away like the civilizations of past ages, which were based upon Paganism, but last till time shall be no more! I am, however, not maintaining that this civilization shall not change. It must pass through various stages of advancement; it already has passed through several periods of development. Our own country, the United States, where each member of the Germanic family of nations has its children; the Frenchman, the German, the Hollander, the Spaniard, the Briton, the Swede, and the Dane, is a branch plucked from the tree of Germanic civilization, transported hither, where, planted by the wisdom of good men, and nourished by the blood of patriots, it has already produced finer fruit than ever grew on the parent stock. And what is the improvement in civilization made by the American branch of the Germanic family? We have separated the political from the ecclesiastical government. Christianity lies at the foundation here as in Europe, and is recognised as the guide and governor of our individual, social, and political conduct; but its maintenance is left to the bounty of the people, untrammelled by State establishments. The democratic element is another improvement. True, antiquity had its democracies, but they were based upon Paganism. Modern Europe had its republics—Holland, Switzerland, the Italian republics; but they were either oligarchic or aristocratic. Ours is the first Christian democracy, whose government was created by the popular masses, and is managed for their own benefit. Here the Germanic civilization has entered a new stadium upon the principles of democracy and free religion. God preserve and bless the Christiano-democratic republic of these United States!

As the life of each individual member of the human family is a constant warfare to overcome adverse influences which impede his own development, yet keep him in activity, and increase his strength and self-reliance, and which he will overcome if he adheres to the fundamental principles of virtue and the Bible; so have nations to meet with trials and adverse circumstances in their onward career of civilization and national education; and blessed is such nation, if her fundamental principles clothe her with the necessary strength to meet and overcome her foes! The fundamental principles on which the social compact of the people of these United States is based have stood the proof for more than sixty-five years, monuments of strength in times of great danger and sore trial. The constitution of our country is a rock, against which even the fury of faction will spend its force in vain—a tower of strength which will shield her citizens against every foe!

The present time is one of danger and of trial, sent by Providence to try the strength of our nation; but who can doubt of victory as long as we see her armed in the panoply of the constitution?

I intend to treat of the secret society of the know-nothings, and,

I. Of the causes which called it into existence.

II. Of its designs.

III. Of the means to frustrate them.

I.—The causes which called know-nothingism into existence.

The know-nothings are a society of native citizens of the United States, which has only lately sprung into existence. Their organization, principles, and measures are enveloped in mystery, for the know-nothings are a secret society; but their existence is an undeniable fact. Their society is not a mere handful of obscure fanatics, circumscribed within a limited space; but we have reason to believe that it is extended over the whole Union, numbering among its members large masses of our fellow-citizens, if not a majority of the entire people. Whole States have enrolled themselves under its banners; even in the halls of our national legislature its influence has been felt, its voice has re-echoed. This phenomenon on the horizon of our political world has a deep significance. This subject must not be treated lightly, nor rashly, but calmly and thoroughly. What can have caused this almost incredible velocity with which this secret order has drawn its triumphal (?) car all over the country, uniting the most discordant elements to, so far, harmonious action? Are the causes which have produced these effects in their turn products of an evanescent excitement, or of legitimate conviction?

We will perhaps be able to solve these problems if we consider, first, the proximate, and then the more distant or auxiliary causes (for I disdain to use the epithets real and feigned) which produced know-nothingism.

1.—The Proximate Cause.

It is plausible, and, in some measure, true, what a member of Congress from South Carolina said in a speech a few days ago, that there could be essentially only two national parties in this country; the one which gives to the constitution a close construction—i. e., the democratic; and the other, which gives it a liberal one—i. e., the federal or whig party.

That legitimately only two national parties can exist we admit; but on grounds widely different from those adduced by Mr. Keitt. Both parties acknowledge the binding efficacy of the constitution; both agree that its principles rest on the axiom: the people are capable of self-government. In theory their principles are identical; but as soon as they enter upon the field of action they disagree as to the mode of applying them. The democratic party chooses the whole earth as the field of its operations, and becomes cosmopolitic, radical, and progressive. The whig party chooses the United States, and becomes legitimate and conservative.

The Democratic party embraces the whole world, endeavors to spread the blessings of liberty among all nations, and becomes, as the propaganda of universal brotherhood, cosmopolitic. Meeting in its onward career with obstacles in the settled policy of other nations, it tries to overcome them, and adopts, necessarily, a progressive foreign policy. Spurning to acknowledge aristocratic rights and a settled policy in its foreign relations, declaring them to be relics of a past and barbarous age, it attacks both at home, and carves out a new and hitherto untrodden path and thus becomes radical in its home policy.

The whig party insists, in its foreign policy, upon fair dealing, honesty, and peace; at home adopting the adage, "All our knowledge is derived from experience," it enters upon no bold experiments, but endeavors to advance the best interests of the country by the artificial development of its natural resources, and resists every radical deviation from what is well enough. This stamps it conservative.

Hence its measures: Protection of home industry; a national currency; internal improvement whenever and wherever the wants of commerce demand it; peace, and no further acquisition of foreign territory.

The democratic is considered the party of daring action tending to endanger the country by the superabundance of its vitality, if it were not constantly checked by the cautious circumspection of its whig opponents. The whig party would, on the other side, plunge the country into the stagnant pool of selfishness, if it were not unceasingly moved and exercised by the restless vigor of its antagonist. The two parties being a constant check upon each other—being, indeed, the active and reactive, the positive and negative popular powers impelling the state ship of our confederation on its onward course in the fulfilment of our national destiny—are, on this very account, the only legitimate national parties of this country. The proper position of the democratic party is to impel, guide and command the ship; of the whig party, to superintend its machinery and tackle. Democrats must be at the helm; whigs on the lookout! In short, the democrats must be the dominant party; the whigs are always most powerful as the OPPOSITION.

Such are the characteristics of the two great national parties within their legitimate spheres; and it is true as gold when Mr. Keitt says that there can essentially only be two national parties in the United States. Factionalisms—will occasionally arise, and fall unhonored and unsung! But it is a well-established fact, that, whilst the whig party was ever ready to listen to the syren voice of expediency, clasping to its bosom to-day anti-Masonry and nativism; to-morrow Wilmot provisoism and anti-Nebraskaism, even not eschewing hard cider and that old coon; the democratic party did never swerve or one moment from its straightforward course, but marched with a stern resolve and with a defiant brow to battle and to victory.

This proclivity of whiggery to amalgamate with the isms of the day has given rise to the opinion of many that it neither is nor ever was a national party.

The democratic party, with its cosmopolitical principle, is the recipient of all emigrants from abroad, and by them is it maintained in its legitimate position—in power. The whig party, with its national principle, is only recruited by natives. If you would divide native-born citizens according to party predilections, the whigs would be in the majority. Scott, the whig presidential candidate, received in 1852 1,383,537 votes; whilst Pierce, the democratic candidate, who received almost the entire vote of the adopted citizens, received only 1,585,545 votes—being only a majority of 202,008 votes; whilst, at the same time, Hale received 157,296—mostly native votes.

The whigs are fully conversant with these facts. Hence the cry, "Americans must rule America!" Alas! they mistake their legitimate party position as opposition. They desire to establish themselves as THE DOMINANT PARTY. The disorganization and destruction of the democratic party is their aim, their desire. They expect to achieve this by the repeal of all naturalization laws, and thus to deprive their opponents of the necessary supplies, which only can enable them to maintain their legitimate position. They little dream that by advocating American nationality in their compressed sense, they destroy that universality which the Americo-Germanic civilization is destined to obtain all world over. The question thus raised is a contest between the cosmopolitic principle of the democratic party and the national principle of the whig party, and, so far, perfectly natural. The contest would be fair and honorable if the means employed were open, manly, and aboveboard; if its aim to be attained was the elicitation and establishment of truth and the enhanced happiness of man. But the means are shrouded in secrecy, the blows are struck in the dark, and the aim of the whole movement is the attainment of power.

Am I wrong by assuming that whigs are at the bottom of the know-nothing movement? Senator Thompson, who fired the first gun in this new contest, is a whig; his colleague (Dixon) followed suit, and Clayton disclaimed only the name, but avowed the principles of know-nothingism in pathetic strains; whilst Sollers, another whig, has established himself as the leader of know-nothingism in the House of Representatives. It must not be overlooked that all these gentlemen are southern whigs. The Nebraska Kansas bill was brought forward as a democratic measure. Northern whigs opposed it to a man, whilst southern whigs embarked in its favor. Northern whigs in the Senate declared the whig party to be defunct, dead and buried, and entered into a movement for the establishment of a new, the republican party. This led to a counter-movement of southern whigs, and they established the know-nothing organization.

The northern whigs aimed, in the establishment of the republican party, at the organization of a party on sectional issues, expecting that the whole people of the North, agitated to the very bottom by the passage of the Nebraska Kansas bill, would join and enable them to form a great northern party to oppose the slave interests of the southern half of the Union.

The southern whigs perceived at once that their principal aim must be the establishment of a party which should not be circumscribed by a geographical line; which should demolish the designs of their seceding northern fellow-whigs, and at the same time disorganize their old antagonist, in order that the scattered fragments of the democratic party should furnish materials to rear their new structure and enable them to establish themselves as the party in power. If they had presented themselves and their designs openly before the country, they would have been received with sneers, ridicule, and shouts of laughter. Hence secrecy became a necessary ingredient of their organization.

I have now given the proximate cause which led to the establishment of know-nothingism, and proceed to the more distant and auxiliary causes, which will strengthen and further illustrate what I have asserted above.

2.—The Auxiliary Causes.

The northern democracy was in some measure disaffected towards the present democratic administration on account of the passage of the Nebraska-Kansas bill and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in many States going over to the new republican party with flying colors.

Again: the increasing luxury of our people and the expenses incurred for our railroads and other corporations, whose stocks had found their way to Europe, had caused an immense foreign indebtedness, and last summer large calls were made by European creditors on our people. In consequence thereof ensued scarcity in the money market; banks, corporations, and individuals broke down; factories were compelled to stop work; public works were suspended, and thousands of workmen were thrown out of employment or their wages were curtailed.

These were the auxiliary causes which inspired the projectors of know-nothingism with hopes of success, and induced them to launch forth the new party into existence.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]