The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1855-07-18
Know-Nothingism-Abolitionism-A
Southern Confederacy.

Pio lihe 10 uigest the principles OF the
platform laid down by the Know Nothing
convention, recently assembled in Phia-
delphia. Doubtless, great number,
those whose proclivities favored each of
the two great national parties have be-
come prosolytes to the cause of the new
party, influenced by this very platform
We confess, the principles laid down by
the convention appear 20 be just and equi
table. IL any measure could conciliate
the South, il loots reasonable that the
promises Of the Know Nothing party
would. a
For several reasons we place no reliance
in the promises ofthis party. If the polit-
ical affinities Of ineteen twentieths of the
people Of the North could be correctly as.
certained, it would be found that they
were ultra abolitionists. 1t is no use to
feather our eyes by adrot, cunningly de-
vised promises; the Northern people are
opposed to the institution Of slavery, and
even those who have sought and found
homes in the South, arc, with few excep.
tons more or less infected with the same
feeling. A Northern man with Southern
principles can hafdly be relied upon, and
if this be so, how can wo rely upon the
promises Of those who are residents Of
Northern soil, and more especially, when
we consider that all promises of like ma
ture hitherto made, have been unscrupu.
lousy violatedi
The origin Of the Know Nothing party
should caution us and arouse our suspi-
cions. Did any one at the South, ever
hear Of party Of Norhern birth, favoriug
the perpetuity Of Slavery. Did any
one ever hear Of party originating at
the North, but that it did net most heart
lily oppose III It Is notorious fact, that
Northern papers, to ensure their success,
are as loud in their promises to oppose
slavery, asSouthern journals are to uphold
it. The difference as regards the purity
or honesty Of these promises, from oppo-
sing sections, is, at the South we are pro
tecting our own guaranteed right, where
as, at the North, it eyinces vindictive,
meddlesome interference. While the con-
tention exists between the two sections on
the subject Of slavery, no conciliatory or
friendly feeling can exist, and the result Of
this contention must result either in the
abolition Of slavery, or the dissolution OF
the Union. .rA
Let the rejecting mind trace the cause
of tLis sectional pickering to its source;
let it go back to the first adoption Of the
Federal constitution to the present period,
and let it examine into the primary eau
ses Of our contentious. Slavery is the
cause! The casual reader or observer
cannot fail TO see that the subject Of slave.
ry has been directly and indirectly the
bone Of contention. The North has used
means, evasive neans to eradicate slavery
from the Union, and has hitherto failed
1t is true she has gained some conquests
by dishonest course Of action, but SO far,
the South has resisted, and now the eli
max approaches, when she must make a
most manly resistance, or else give up the
rights we have SO long been coutending
for.
The last subterfuge Of the North is the
creation Of the Know-Nothing party
We understand from the name, that they
recognise the tenhets Of neither Of the two
great national parties, and are told they
labor to act as common brotherhood in
maintaining, and conforming to the pro-
visions Of tho Constitution. We doubt
not, but as this party first originated at
the North, it was another attempt by en-
deavoring to blind the eyes Of Southern
ers, to carry out their own long cherish
ed views Of ultimately destroying the in.
stitution of slavery. First, then, we put
no faith in it, from the consideration its
origin. In the second place, we look up.
on the designs OF the party as the subter.
fuge to bribe and corrupt us. BY these
designs We have particular reference to
their vin1icative animosity to foreigners
and the Roman Catholic Church. The
policy Of the North is to form one great
Nationsl Party. This can only he accom-
plished by securing the appreciation and
cooperation Of the whole country. Time
and again have the North found that they
can effect nothing Individually Of them
selves, but il they can bring into the issu,
q common question,upon which the North
South, East and West can unite, their sue
cess would be achieved, hence, have they
ranted and diiated upon the evils and cor
ruptions Of the Roman Catholic Church
and more particularly upon the growing
greatness and Importance foreigners art
assuming in the United States. TheJ
have endeavored land in part successfully
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