Weekly North Carolina Standard

ANOTHER FALSEHOOD EXPOSED.

The readers, especially of the Know-Nothing papers, are familiar with the statement, that previous to the late Presidential election propositions were made by Bishop Hughes to Gen. Scott and Gen. Pierce to the effect that the Catholics would support either who would agree to confer the most offices on Catholics; that Gen. Scott agreed to confer a Cabinet appointment in consideration of the transfer, and that Gen. Pierce engaged to go "one better" by conferring both a Cabinet and a foreign appointment. The result was,—as stated, that the bulk of the Catholics and so-called foreigners voted for Gen. Pierce.

This statement, we felt confident from the first, was an infamous falsehood, and we are enabled now, on the word of Gen. Scott himself, to brand it accordingly. We copy as follows from the last Washington Union:

"Lieutenant General Scott Bombards a False Hood. Hon. William S. Damrell, the anti-slavery know-nothing member of Congress from Massachusetts, having asserted in his lectures in Cheshire county that the Catholic vote was offered to Gen. Scott at the late Presidential election, several persons who heard him determined to get at the truth of the matter, and therefore addressed a letter to the distinguished veteran, who returned the following reply. It is a clincher:

New York, March 1, 1855.

GENTLEMEN: I have just received, through the Hon. Mr. Hibbard, M. C., at Washington, your joint letter dated the 24th ultimo, in which you say to me that in some recent political address, delivered in your neighborhood and in your presence, the speaker declared substantially that in the last presidential canvass

"Bishop Hughes, of New York, proposed to Gen. Scott to sell the Catholic vote, who hesitated to reply; when the proposition was made to Gen. Pierce and accepted, and a Jesuit was placed at the head of the Post Office Department.

"That Bishop Hughes's demands were assented to by the party to whom he first proposed, except that it demanded a cabinet officer, upon which you hesitated; and the proposition was made to Gen. Pierce, and he assented."

And your letter to me is thus concluded:

"Believing the statement to be false and basely calumnious of the fair fame of yourself and the other distinguished gentlemen implicated thereby, we would respectfully request of you to inform us at your earliest convenience whether the statement of Mr. —, so far as it relates to you, is true."

I hasten to say that the statement or statements I have quoted from your letter, as above, are, in respect to myself, ABSOLUTELY FALSE, and I have no doubt they are equally so in respect to my political friends and opponents in the canvass alluded to.

I remain, gentlemen, with great respect, your obedient servant,

WINFIELD SCOTT.

This deliberate falsehood has for months been going the rounds of the opposition press, and is still one of the prime arguments of those now engaged in the war upon Democratic candidates and principles. The miserable slander, that the present Postmaster General, Hon. James Campbell, was appointed by President Pierce as a consideration for the Catholic vote, has already been sufficiently and triumphantly contradicted, but we cannot too highly honor that gallant soldier, General Scott, for contradicting an almost similar accusation in regard to himself, and at the same time for expressing his contempt for, and his disbelief in, the same charge against the President of the United States and the Democratic party.

Will the Know Nothing papers of this State, which have circulated this falsehood, now come forward and take it back? We venture to predict, from a knowledge of their character and past course, that they will not. What sort of a cause must that be which can be sustained in no other way than by direct and unblushing falsehood?