The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1855-05-26


from the consequences Of the oaths he has
taken when he sees his new companions
brutalized in their secret meetings; hears
their profanities; observes their treachery
and their intrigues, their heart-burnings
and deceit between each other; and then
when he goes out into the open day and
marks the contrast between the outrages
Of his brethren at the ballotboxes, their die
orderly interruption of public meetings,
their riots on the holy Sabbath, and the qui-
ct and complaining spirit Of the men and
,comen they pursue and proscribe;-such a
man feels at his heart the keen rebuke that
always Furnishes ovcr-zeal and uncharitable-
ness. And SO the clergy long for deliver
ance from these hated bonds" r
Already has California, through her State
know nothing organization, extinguished
the proscriptivc religious element which has
been the life and the soul Of the order in
the Atlantic cities and States Here, then
| is difference that strikes at the very root
of the whole structure Of the secret conspi-
racy. Without this feature the whole
movement would have been mere phantom
of the hour. i9'7
How many thousands Of those who have
become committed to this party, however,
are also at war with the know nothing OBJ
legation against emigration! They already
fear the effect of this sweeping exclusion.
They cannot answer the argument that en-
igration is useful to our country, and they
dare not meet the fact that horde Of dis
franchised aliens in our midst would be
hurtful to the country, in oil its relations
social and political.
Finally, it is notorious that the difference
between the know nothings of the South
and their confederates of the North is q
deadly and an inextingushable one. State
organizations in New England have avow-
ed abolition doctrines as part of their SET
tied creed; and wherever in the free states
any formal attempt has been made by the
know nothings to disavow abolition and
avow national principles, excitement and
confusion have been the result The very
last demonstration in proof of this was at
Chicago, Illinois. III
Such is the present condition of the new
party! Torn by dissension, deserted by
those who have tasted of its cxactions and
grown tired of its prescriptions; with the
fundamental articles of its creed defended
by the faithful in one region, and dcnounc-
ed by the faithful in another; with its doc
trines denied by those who profess oadvo-
cate them-how can such combination
survive the onset of an intelligent, manly
and resstless antagonisml How can it be
national, when in the South its oracles de-
| fy the abolitionists and in the North it's
leaders assail the South? How can 1t be
) consistent, when on one hand its tcrrors
are let loose upon the Catholic, and on the
other upon the Protestant? How can it be
moral, when it persecutes the believer in the
Pope, and forgives the unbclieyer in God /?
How can it be compacted organization,
when one State proclaims liberation and
the other repudiates il? How can it COM
mand respect, when one portion of its fol-
lowers acts in the dark and another clam
ors for public action? How can it be per-
manent when the clergy that have built it
up fly before the cxcesscs Of its followers /?
Demagogues may combine for party and
for plunder; but political combination to
be permanent and to be salutary must stand
upon the rock Of principle. It would be
vain to look for good results from any or
ganization whose rank and file have no COM
mon, defnitiyc, and well-settlcd policy and
creed, as it would be to see the Christian
church maintained while its followers de-
nounced the Bible. IL Union. ~. .-.-