The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1844-05-23
THE PHILADELPHIA RIOTS.
From the Cincinnati Gazette

~ Cf1KII.-lH lie idte Oc-
%currences in Philadelphia, when men are
cool enough to reason about them, must
shock every sober, rejecting, mind.
The origin of this mob is we'll under
stood. However othes questions may hase
mingled in and influenced, the immediate
cause of it arose from a wanton and ruthless
attack upon an assembly Of Native Ameri-
cans by a party of Irishrnen.
We are 10th, at any time or under any
circumstances, TO palliate violence we
know of Nothing which could induce us to
defeGd a mob. Yet if ever men were ius-
iiied, in the first instance, in resenting and
resisting to the uttermost, the Native Amer
leans were. They stood on their own soil.
They met together peaceabiy, in the open
face of day, and under the protection oil
their laws. While thus acting, brute force
was exerted to route them;-that failing,
friends and brothers were shot dead; and
their flag, the flag of the country, torn be-
fore their eyes by alien and murderous
hands. This-if the best accounts are to
be relied on-is a true statement, and who
does not feel, if he had been present, and
had witnessed these outrages that, %stoutly
and promptly, he would have resented and
resisted them. For our parts, we do not
hesitate to say, that we should repel such
assailants as we would the invading foe who
trod our shoresl
So far, the Native Americans have our
full and entire sympathy. Much as we may
regret the necessity under which they acted,
we cannot condemn their action on the first
day of the assault. But on Tuesday and
Wednesday, a wilder and iercer purpose
controlled them and the city of Philadel-
phia, and the picture of those days presents
a bloody, %revengeful, revolutionary spirit, the
remembrance of which fills US with horror,
and brings 10 our lips words only of the bit
terest Condemnation. Among the most
savage wars Of Europe between civilized ma
tons, in these latter days, Doman, the tenn
pies of God, Libraries and the School-house
have escaped the wrath of the %conquerine
foe. Whatever else fell beneath him, they
were protected: and he who should have in
suited the former, or defaced or fired the
latter, would have been disgraced. Here, il
any where, this should be the unwritten law
in the hearts of our whole people. And We
grieve nee again in our lives, to record
another instance in this country where Anef
leans have been SO utterly beside themselves
$50 brutal--as to vent their vengeance
against defenceless women, School-houses
Temperance shops, and Temples devoted tt
the worship of God. On Wednesday, the
Sth, in Philadelphia, these things were done
Churches were burned to the ground; the
nuns compelled to leave their places o
abode; Libraries made bonfres of; school
houses destroyed; private houses Quilted
and human lives, as we'll as human property
sacrificed. Against this inhuman conduct
we most solemnly protest. Against thl
fiery spirit Of lawless revenge, we would biz
our countrymen lift up their Hottest an
~sternest voice of indignation, as alike fata
to our fair name, and the safety and perma
NANCY IF our institutional
We have stated what we believe 10 hav
been the immediate origin of the PhiladeI
phia mob. The true cause lies deeper; an
: we must look it full in the face and maste
it, or it will master us. We may shirk it fo
, a time; we may trim, and by a resort TO ex
pedients check its effects; but they wi
break out, and deluge our country with mis-
rule, if not destroy our government, unles
we root out from among US that cause itsel
! Whence is it that foreigners are SO ofte
b led into these affrays Why are they insC
lent, or lawless, or revolutionary in spirit
They do not, as a general rule, bring tn
disposition with them. In their old home
the majority of them had no vote; they knee
not there what their government did, an
never, If they were thus informed, though
i of interfering with or questioning its actor
d How comes it, then, that all of a sudde1
t, they are thus changed, and filed with an a
bitrary, mobbisb, and %sanguinary tempe
The reason is thls-tAat the demagogues
. the country, Nctire Americans too, not c
- G. c. thoir rnhStantial nnnd. b