Kenosha tribune and telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1855-1855, 1855-05-17
The National Era-Know Nothinglsm.

following comments:
II is a very safe policy to trust TO God and the
People, and leave all evils TO out without
pitching into them. The old practice Of some
physicians who pursued similar in relation
TO disease of the body, was called a patient wal
ting death We do not any thing in Know
Noihngism more unnatural or an:i>American
than there is IN Slay cry but this peculiar instiIu
trsn has attained some age, and what is still
wonderful, the Telegraph is pitching into it
cry week. Why not let the thing have its coursel
Il is wound up, and is bound to keep going till i;
runs down.
The Era is seldom wrong, and possibly is not in
this case nevertheless we see the thing in DIFF
fesent light. We agree with it, that Know No
1hingsm, as the Era understands it, is no more
natural than slavery but on the contrary is Of the
same piece and principle. But that phase of the
principle We suppose to have been settled long
since. We do not think that proposition to
act sohite slavery the of either birth place
or religion, needs the special effort Of any person
to combat it, for it andy possibility get vitality
enough to become mischievous or dangerous. The
great battle OF human rights, of personal liberty, 10
almost fought through in this country. From the
instinct Of self-preseTvation which prompted and
carried through successfully the revolution and
enacted our constitution, the strife has grown to
be one of principle, involving the weak, the poor,
and despised And now, when we are at the point
OF carrying the abstract question, we cannot for
the life Of us feel it to be possible for the wheels of
revolution to roll back far enough open the atrife
this long settled point.
In reply to all this, the Era aud others will ask
what disposition we mean to make Of the Know>
Nothing victories which have swept the country,
in virtue of the evidence they furnish of Know
Nothing strength. We answer there is not par
ticle of evidence that this organization has gained
asingIe important victory in the nation In all the
northern states since the passage of the Nebrask
bill, the hun ker democracy have been routed and
OVerthrown, and every such victory has been brui>
ted abroad as know Nothing victory, and it has
been echoed and e-ochoed until il fills the land
and people begin really to think that Know Moths
ingism possesses the nation. Yet many of these
states under these auspices have elected United
States Senators, nearly all of them have had SEES.
sons of their Legislature and have had chance
TO develop their designs, yet we doubt whether
even the National Fra find any thing in their
acts to condemn. In Wisconsin and New York
resolutions were passed coDdemnng any new re-
strictons Of any kind upon foreigners, and in Mas
sOchusetts where the thing was proposed and
where, in the Assembly there was but one indiv
widusi not classed among the Know Nothings, il
was defeated Now, if that kind of Know Moth
ingism which the Era condemns from week to
week, is strong, has in any instance been trum-
plant, why does it not in some manner manifest
itself1
Indeed the Era itself, in the same number, holds
the following language with reference to these
very victories
" So thought the masses OF the free States after
that outrage the Nebraska bill had been perpe
trated, for down went The old serve parties with
their mischievous and lying catch words Of % Ma
tonality,' and Compromise and up went the
People, meeting for the first time in our history at
the ballot box, the issues forced by slavery meet
ing them directly, frcluSirely, openly-and the
revolutions resulting were achieved by the very
policy the independent democracy had been for so
many years importuniug them to adopt"
These are the very victories upon which NIL the
ideas of Know Nothing strength are based, aud
vet the Era appropriates every one Of them to the
anti. slavery cause. Where then exists, does
the Era find the evidence that the organization is
worth the powder it expends on it week after week
We honestly beve. that of all this movement
denomnated Know othingism, not 90 per cent
of it has the least reference to the Pope, or Cath
ocs, or Foreigners Of any kind. The motives an
imating the men who co impose il, are various
Loosened all party ties, men feel free in thei
movements, and enter into combinations and form
organizations, which. were lines defining the new
issu es better understood, would moi be possible.
very large proportion of our people think that al
the political evils they suffer arise from the old par
Is tactics and the men which these tactics hav'
foisted into power.a n1 hence their interests demand
that tactics and men together be swept into politl
cal oblivion and this motive we believe TO be vast
~ stronger in the movement than the others a Ilu
ded TO. Certainly the evidence is all that way, 70
il seems simply to have swept old parties and oil
fogies out Of existence and contented itself thu
far with hrnefcent and necessary reforms of legs
laiion.
As we before remarked, we conceive such a,
organization or movement as this possible only il
virtue Of the present chaotic condition of parties
Iii, lhst fusing of elements, that tearing down O
old land marks, that pulling up Of old stakes al
sunderng of old bonds which is absolutely necessa
ry to the organization of the whole people into wv
parties upou the paramount living issues Of the day
snd in it all, We require more satisfactory evidence
than We have yet had to be convinced that fear O
the Pope prescription of Foreigners, has an,
important part.
We ascribe 10 Know>Nothingism proper, tn
strength which belonged to it when called the Ma
tive American party, and no That part,
never had the strength to make the least mari
upon our political history, and to eye it has N
more real strength than heretofore and no NOR
claim upon the popular attention.
Nopaper in the nation has done-no paper
doing better work than the National Era; yet w
believe it is doing to put down know-Noth
iugism BY its labors 10 enlighten the popular min
with reference TO the true position and conditlo
of this slavery strife than by any direct assault
upon the organization for We fully believe the OF
ganza,ion will maintain its seeming strength n