The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-11-23

towns remain to be heard from: Dighton. Han
over, Marsh6eld, South Seituate-total, G.
From our friend Whittier, we have received
the following comments on the result:
The political revolution in Massachusetts
consummated at the late election, has unques
honably surprised the country at large Even
her own citizens, not initiated into the mysteries
OF the new order, were scarcely prepared for
so complete an oyerturn. At blow the Wing,
Democratic, and Free Soil parties have been
annihilated. From the Governor down to the
members of the lower House of the Legislature
only some half dozen of the latter, who still
retain their old names, are spared, to remind us
that these parties once stood in fierce competi
ton on the battle ground of politics. The
Know Nothing organization has the entire con
troll of the State.
If 1t be asked, Have the People of Massa.
chusetts all of a sudden fallen back two centu.
ries to the religious bigotry of their Puritan
ancestors, and gone crafty into a No-Popery
crusader taken up the war cries of a Chi
nese mob against foreign devils" and "out.
side barbarians?" we are happy to be able to
reply in the negative. Our Catholic friends
abroad need not entertain any fears for their
brethren in Massachusetts. They are in no
danger of being burned at the stake, or drawn
and quartered
The new Governor, Gardner, is not likely to
put himself at the head of his friends, and hunt
Papists in the streets of Boston, as crazy Lord
George Gordon did in London. Our brilliant
good-natured friend, Arson Burlingame, is no
John Knox, to proclaim the sacking of Papist
churches, and the rending of the clerical trap
pings OF Parson Brownson and Father Roddan.
General Wilson has opened no offices for re-
cruits for military crusade, nor is he at all
likely to make a bequest of his skin, like Ziska,
to the Grand Know Nothing Council, for a
drum head to summon Protestants to the bat
tie of Armageddon. We hope these assurances
will quiet the nerves of all who have been
alarmed by the late ridiculous summerset which
the staid old Commonwealth has turned.
1t is not to be denied that the Anti-Republi-
can tone and sympathes of the Catholic priest
testable Bedini, and, above all, the zeal with
which the Irish population of Boston labored
to send back Sims and Burns to Slavery-the
fact that wherever you found Catholic you
found noisy Fugitive Slave Law Advocate
volunteer bloodhound, eager to hunt Z" the
ndgers"-had prepared the public mind in
Massachusetts to sympathize with the new
movement. The colored people, almost to a
man, voted for Gardner and four-6fths of the
Free-Soilers went the same way.
But the refusal of the Wing State Commit
tee, last summer, TO unite with Free-Soiers and
Anti-Nebraska Democrats, in forming a great
Anti-Slavery organization, like that of Ohio,
Indiana, and Michigan, was the principal
cause of this most extraordinary political
change. The Governor elect, H. j. Gardner,
was a member, of that committee and made
an Intellectual effort to induce his colleagues to
Join in the Republican movement Simon
Brown, Lieutenant Governor elect, an Anti
Nebraska Democrat, was one Of committee
Of three, chosen at a Fusion meeting in Con-
cord, to invite the leading men of all parties
to a conference in Boston. This effort also
failed. General Wilson and the Free-Soilers
generally, spared no efforts to bring about the
Fusion. Their overtures and entreaties were
met with contemptuous abuse and derision by
the Wing managers. The Republican Con-
vention at Worcester, as a matter of course,
proved a failure. But the great mass of the
People were DESTROYS of giving up old party
names and issues, and the Know Nothing move
ment presented an opportunity for doing SO.
Wings, Democrats, Free-Soilers, rushed head
long into the mysterious order. The result is
before us.
We regret the non-eection of such true men
as Charles w. Upham, J. Z. Goodrich, and
Thomas D. Eliot, faithful and able defenders
Of the rights of the North. But their defeat,
painful as it is to many of their constituents,
can give little satisfaction to the Slave Power,
when it is seen that the new delegation is en-
tirely Anti-Nebraska, and that six, at least, out
of the eleven, are open and avowed Free
Sellers C. l.. Knapp, of the 6th district, is an
old Liberty man, true rs steel. De Witt in
the Worcester district, Trafton in the 18th,
Comins in the 4th Damrell in the Sd, and Bur
lingame in the 9Th district, are also FreeSoil-
ers n P. Banks, jun, is triumphantly re-
elected from the 18th district, against the COM
bined opposition of the Pierce Democracy and
the Wings. He goes back to Washington an
Anti-Administration Fusionist. Burlington, of
the I'd district, and Morris, of the 10th, are re-
liable Anti-Slavery Wings. Of Davis, of the
9th, and Hall, Of the LIST, we have no very def
mite knowledge.
Gardner, the Governor elect, stands openly
pledged against the Nebraska fraud and the Flu
gitve Slave Law. His past history has been evil
IDENTIFY that of Pro-Slavery Wing, but we speak
now only of his present position. Brown, Lieu
tenant Governor, is Free Soil Democrat and
Fusionist. Of the Senators and Representa-
tives elected, enough is known to be tolerably
certain that a reliable man will be chosen TO
the United States Senate, and efrectual provi-
sion made for protecting the inhabitants of the
State against the Fugitive Slave Hunt.
OF the future of the new party we cannot, OF
course, speak with any degree of confidence.
One thing, however, seems certain. With its
Southern affiliations, and slaveholding wing it
cannot be relied upon as the Party of Freedom.
Among its prominent supporters are reckoned
Willard Fillmore, black with the infamy of the
Fugitive Slave Bill, and John NJ. Clayton, OF
Delaware, who in a late speech lays down, as a
plank of its national platform, the Nebraska
doctrines of Pierce and Douglas. These are
not favorable indications. With the kindest
feelings towards those of our friends who have
connected themselves with the new party, we
must, for ourselves, stand apart from its portals