The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-06-28
THE CURTAIN LIFTED FROM THE MYSTERY


We predicted few months ago that the moment the
know-nothngs mpeled strip the veil of secrecy
from their oathbound lodges their days would be num-
bered Odious as the whole idea of candestne organ
ization in country where all is open and free, and
where nothing is withheld from the public eye and ear
there Of fascination in the midnight cayerns OF
the order which attracted the curious and the young No
matter how most of them deceived and Disguised after
their initiation there something left to bind them to
their obligations in the fact that they each repository
of grave secret unknown many others Now, however
curtain has been reluctantly lifted from the mystery
and all who run may see and read the novelty has passed
away and men calmly and codly scrutinse the mumme-
ries that for year or have led captive large por
ton Of our countrymen The machinery of the miserable
drama is now regarded with contempt by the vota
ries Of the and thousands congratulate them
selves either that they released from their to such
farce or that they were not tempted to engage in it.
But there things made public by the Philadelphia
convention well calculated inspire serious apprehen
sions.
We may now see how completely the aboionsts had
taken possession of the northern lodges and how power
less all who DID not act with these fanatics in
the order Not less conspicuous is the fact that OF all the
doctrines avowed and Of all the leaders acknowledged wing
measures and first Not one single article of the
democratic faith which has survived many trials,
accepted in Difference to the democrats who entccd
into the lodges What convocation of worn-out poll
tcians too clustered in these dens of darkness We be-
hold that those vocerous against corrupt political
hacks and in favor of the party because it was to be
composed Of men iresh from the ranks of the people
the very refuse of the old parties the invalds of past
conflicts, the rejected debris Of politics There was not
disappointed ofIice-huner, not intriguing manager
who did 60 into this order last resort Such are
of the disclosures produced by the recent declaration
in favor Of open action the part Of know-nohings
The abandonment of the principle may be called
bne of the most significant results Of democratic oppcs
ton to the order The argument and the rdicule which
the hidden policy aroused m the democratic press became
too severe to Withstand. Like all enemies who driven
from the covert and the hammock into the open field
who fight in secret cannot fight and win in public
Entrenchcd III their hiding places assang their adj
versares from the thcket the savages enabled to
spread havoc and death among the American troops but
when such cheains jackson forced them from their
ambush they off in DETAIL or swept into eternity
by the engines of disciplined warfare 1t will not answer
now that the veil of secrecy has been away for the
leaders of the party to play double game with any
hope of They triumph by holding up
creeds for the latitude of the free States the other for
the latitude of the South Revengnl demagogne cannot
hereafter hide themselves from the wrath which their apos
tacy may provoke Eminent intellecs cannot clandes
timely bid for Office by selling themselves to faction This
is time when masks must off and must stand
out in their true character when the savage science Of
secret war must give 70 public and honorable oppos
ton and when Truth, having tracked Error through all
her hiding places and forced her into the broad of
manly strife will hurl the enemies of sound principles into
that obscurity from which they will hereafter
emerge bad party may succeed for a time, and then
only in deception and in darkness II cannot maintain
itself in the light of day, and against adversary clad in
the moral afforded by the consciousness of defend
ing righteous cause