Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1855-03-04

Nuie htro tuey not All SIeClSu ny tnS
nothing organization
Mr.. WADE. i hope not.
Mr.. DOUGLAS. He hopes not but he
knows that they were elected by Know-nothing
votes, and yet, on this floor, in order to aid his
friends and allies in Virginia and the southern
States, he talks about that as being IN anti
Nebraska triumph.Sir, turning to Mr.. WADE
you boast that you beat every Nebraska Demo
crat in Ohio at the last election and you
might have added that you beat every anti
Nebraska Democrat also, because the Know
nothings demanded other men. Look over all
the recent elections, and wherever you will show
me one Nebraska member Of the House cut
down, / will show you, think nearly two for
one anti Nebraska men defeated at the same
election by the same causes. Was it the Ne
braska issue, then, that administered this re-
buke, or was it caused by your secret con.
claves, where you get men together at the dark
hour of midnight and administer to them the
most terrible oaths that they with smile upon
their faces and friendly grasp of the hand,
which is calculated to disarm suspicion, will
strike down their neighbor in the dark, and
conceal the hand that inficts the blow?
Mr.. WADE. VIII the gentleman suffer me
to ask him a question?
Mr.. DOUGLAS. Certainly.
Mr.. WADE. / ask the gentleman if his
Nebraska bill was not concocted by secret
conclave in the night time? Laughter.
| Mr.. DOUGLAS. l am not surprised that
| the Senator wishes to ask such questions--any-
thing to draw my attention from the real point
| of this case. He does not choose to controvert
any one fact which have detailed here, and If
| those facts be true, they overwhelm every posi-
ton he has taken. / answer him, no, sir; the
| Nebraska bill was not concocted in any con-
clave, night or day. 1t was written by himself,
at my own house, with no man present. What.
ever odum there is attached to it, assume it.
Whatever of credit there may be, let the public
award it where they think it belongs. 1t will
not do by inuendo to attempt to avoid the
issues presented. The fact is, and the gentle.
man knows it, that in the free States there has
been an alliance, will not say whether holy
or unholy at the recent elections. In that
alliance they had crucible into which they
poured Aboltionism, Main liquor law. ism, and
what there was left of northern Whigism, and
then the Protestant feeling against the Catholic,
and the native feeling against the foreigner.
| All these elements were melted down in the
crucible, and the result was what was called
the Fusion party. That crucible, in which
these various elements were melted, solved, and
united was, in every instance Know-nothing
lodge. But for your know-nothing lodges
| Illinois, instead of giving three thousand ma.
jority at the recent election for the Nebraska
ticket, would have given twenty five thou.
sand. But for that my colleague Of the
other House, who is now within my eye,
Mr.. RICHARDSON, instead of being elected by
eight hundred majority, would have been elect.
ed by three thousand on the Nebraska issue.
Ny other colleague in the House, who is elect.
ed to the next Congress, Mr.. L. l.. HARRIS,
and turns out your Abolition Fusion Know
nothing member speak politically, with no
design to be personally oflensive-in the Spring
field district, would, instead of receiving two
hundred majority, have received two thousand,
if he could have had the Nebraska issue as
the test, without the interference Of your secret
Know-nothing organization. Notwithstanding
these facts, it suits the purposes of some to
parade all these victories, as they call them, as
triumphs Of anti Nebraskaism in the North,
and as rebukes to northern men? Am to un.
derstand that, if Mr.. Wise should happen to be
defeated in Virginia, and Know-nothing del
egation should be sent from that State to Con.
gress, as from Ohio, and other free States, ii
would be proclaimed as an ant-Nebraska vic.
tory? If you should happen to carry the en-.
tire southern States this year, and turn on,
your whole delegations, bringing in a new LOT
vocierating their devotion to southern rights
and southern institutions, all under the secret
management of the mysterious know.nothing
machinery, will you call that an anti.Nebraska
victory in the South?
Sir, this will not do. Let us call things by
their right names. Let us look the real issue
in the face. What We had to fight at the North,
was nominally Fusion party but the organi.
cation was the Know.nothing councils. Its
whole vitality, its energy, and its power, arose
simply from the fact that its incongruous ee.
ments, which were TO be moulded into one har.
monious bond, could be assembled at the dark
hour Of the night, when honest people were
asleep and there, under the protection of the
most horrible oaths to observe secrecy, plan
and plot, and pledge themselves to the execu.
ton of schemes which an honest man would
never dare to proclaim to the world or avow in
the light Of day. Thus, by strategem and ter.
rors, men personally hostile were forced to
act together-men who were the advocates OF
adverse and irreconcilable political theories,
we're apparently moulded into one common
brotherhood and although they might not APP
prove Of the objects, yet being bound by oath
to obey orders, and vote as they were directed,
they felt constrained to yield obedience under
the terrors of being branded as traitors
| and perjurers, as your Littlejohns and
| other recreants have been for voting for
Mr.. SEWARD. If you caught Democrat in
your councils or lodges he was required to
abandon his party, and repudiate his time.
honored principles, and become n FUsIoNIsT:
| if you caught a Nebraska man, Wing or De-
mocrat, he was compelled by his oath to vote
the Abolition Fusion ticket; if you caught an
Abotionist, or man belonging to any other
party or faction, he was bound TO vote pre-.
cisely as majority Of the council or lodge
should determine. But it SO happened that, in
the portion Of the country where j reside and
| think, throughout the whole Northwest, every
lodge was under the control ofAbolition leaders
and Abolition auspices; and hence you could
turn it all against Nebraska men, and all other
advocates Of the Constitution and laws OF the
United States.
Mr.. WADE. How did it work when they
caught Democrats2
Mr.. DOUGLAS. Well, sir, il they could
find Democrat green enough to be caught.
they administered to him the oath, and then. /
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