Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-11-21

Those which refuse to bow down and wor-
ship it, are threatened with its most re-
lentlees prescription, and we have many we'll
meaning friends, who urge that we ought at
least, to be awed into silence with regard to
1t. One writes us as follows
"What think you noio, OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
sent nearly 100 subscribers last winter and spring
You must-change your course that subject, you will
lose nearly all your subscribers. advise friend OF
the Tribute, and Greeley in particular.
Respectfully, JOSEPH ]. IRWIN"
Another more courteously demonstrates in
the following terms
SIN opposing the Know-Nothings not that the
premises YOU lay down false your arguments ala
cous, but in all attempts by argument stay
the stampede towards the mysterious Order futile
as they would be in stopping prairie fire.
"know-Nothingism is epidemic, which will, and
must rage You err therefore, in wasting labor in oppo
ston to IT, thereby prudicng the minds many against
you, inducing them to withdraw from your subscriptions
the loss of which may he of little you, but will
be fatal to the growth Of many good principle, which
has been planted nurured and strengthened in their
hearts by your efforts.
You may be able to lose your subscribers but your
subscribers cannot afford to lose the Tribune and though
they will only "bite their off" by stopping it,
yet II is question whether they ought to be permitted
do So when such catastrophe be prevented by any
policy of our Witch does require the sacrifice Of
principle. Keep the hearts of the people warm, and
their heads clear the Temperance and Slavery ones
tons, but let them go the length of their teher Know
Nothngism else they will break loose from all restrain -
Another writes us after this fashion
"Why does the Tribune stand up for the Irish and the
Catholics? They never vent with you any question,
and never will They for Slavery, Rum and Igno-
rance; you for Freedom Temperance and Education;
so you always will and always must be opposed to each
other TLen why don't you give them up and SO with
those who are naturally your friends"
To these several criticisms and queries, we
propose now to make answer:
l. We have no expectation that the great
&c
among us, will ever vote with us. We expect
to confront them at the polls so long we
shall live. But it is one thing to vote that
your neighbor is wrong on some controverted
point, and quite another to vote down his right
to voice in deciding the question. We be-
Heve the great body Of the American citizens
who were born Irish, or Germans, have been
lmbued with erroneous views on most current
political topics; we will vote down these
views when we can but we will not vote
away their right to voice i'll the premises
There are very many Americans born, who
habitually vote as we do not; we labor to con-
vert or overbear them; but we do not want
them disfranchised, but would resist any
movement to that end. Let every man have
his vote; then if we are voted down, we will
submit to the will of the maiority if we
triumph, we expect our antagonists to do that
same.
2. Now as to Freedom. We have accept
cd in good faith, the Republican theory of
Government, We believe that call men are
created equal; and that a deficiency of nat
ural ability, or literary attainment while it
necessarily limits the influence of a citizen,
should not deprive him of his vote. Now
suppose the Irish and Dutch were all wrong
with regard to Slavery shall we mend the
1,t, Il
denial Of Political Franchises to some, the
true way to Rights for all We cannot see
it in that light.
We know, moreover, that the control of the
"Know Nothing machinery was long ago
secured to the Pro Slavery WIRE workers, and
that one of the chief objects of the movement
is the "crushing OUT or smothering of all
Ant-Slayery agitation. Thus the Baltimore
Patriot exultihgly says:
eve infer that the secresy so Objectionable that it is
condemned by the Jesu been necessary to eff
feet the liberation of the citizen from the thradom Of
party An open attempt at fusion abandonment of the
party flag might have been rebuked and defeated The
people have had therefore, to in secret like the Re-
formers Of every age The affairs of Liberty like those Of
Religion, must sometimes be hidden from the eye of pow
But infer that the great purpose of the American
party is the preservation Of the American Union That
the means contemplated consist in expungng every prn
cpe of luminosity against the country its institutions
from the acts of the American party that they will
buke and repudiae this abolition rule of Office? Will not
the American party exclude this question from the halls of
national legislation, as they would Catholicism or Alien
Ism! viii they not restore harmony which alone makes
the Union useful, honorable desirable? We do
pec from the American party, any expression of opinion
upon the merits of the question: only expect that Abo-
ltonism will be thrown out Of the national issues and
mted for discussion decision the proper tribunals
the sovereign States of the Uniou such is opinion
of this American nomenclature expect that it will kill
out every organized principle which initiates against
harmony the purity, the perpeuity of the American
Union"
To the same effect, The american Organ,
just started at Washington, and edited by
Vespasian Ellis, says:
els there politician in this nation bold and reckless
enough to assert that the American party in any
spect any extent seeks to stand OIL any other plat
form than the Constitution and the Unon9
SIS there any right guaranteed by the Constitution Ell
ther to the States or to individuals, which do main
tam in its purity and in its full length breadth? we
shall maintain and defRnd the Constitution as it
stands, the Union erists, and the rights of the
States, without diminuion, guaranteed thereby,
opposing at all times, and TO the ertent Of ability
and influence, all Cho may GssaH them, or either of
them" To this doctrine stand pledged and VIC DEFY
our opponents to point to single done SEN
timen expressed by the american party in conflict with
this doctrine Who at the North assais our principles
as promug ed in our first number? Who at the South
assail them!
''What rights of the Northern States do we oppose2-
What rights Of the Southern States do not maintain!
What rights of either will we not defend to the last ex
tremity None The American party was formed on
the basis of the Constitution and the Union and is des-
tined to preserve BOTH by purifying the body polite and
exercising conservative influence wherever its organi
cations prevails
We might quote enough more of the same
sort, but it is needless. Suffice it that the
Know Nothing movement is in the hands
of the Union savers Of 1850, and will be stead
lily shaped to their ends. Individuals, and
perhaps certain localities, may demur but
the movement is the latest dodge of Hunker-
ism. Nobody believes that an earnest con-
temner of Slavery will be pushed by it for the
Presidency nobody doubts that the nomina-
ton by 1t OF any such man as Charles Sum-
ner or 5. I. Chase for the Presidency would
rend it into fragments. 1t can be kept alive
only by the most rigid avoidance of ali excit-
ing and agitating topics. 1t is in fact back
fire set by Silver. Greyism to stop the advance
OF the Ant-Nebraska spirit in the Free States.
When 1t shall have subserved this end, it will
be allowed to die out and give place to some
fresher humbug.
AS to our own future, in which our friends
evlnce so deep an interest, we do not share
their apprehensions. 1t is quite likely that
we shall lose some subscribers through
Know Nothing prescription but our sub
scription prices are so low, and the present
cost OF paper, &C., so high, that few thous-
ands OF subscribers more or less will make lit
tie odds in our annual balance sheet. Ger
talnly, we would rather gain patrons than
lose but we cannot sell our convictions for
subscriptions. If the time should ever come
when the public does not value our labors in
this field enough to let us live by them, we
shall be very willing to try another vocation.
But the better portion of our readers will not
easily be alienated from THE TRIBUNE. Hav