Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-10-17

tnut the uumitteu member OF tho order 10 OATH
bound 10 obey its DEGREES on penalty of being de-
nounced as a wiLf.a traitor 10 his God and his
country aud that he is next assured by the high
priest ofthe conspiracy that for the violation OF his
oaths THE deep and 6iighting stain of perjury
ioiH rest on has soui" have already specified
some Of the works TO which he is committed from
the moment he enters one of these caves Of pcrse-
cuton, and which ne must accomplish, or be de-
| nounced as traitor TO Ged and his country" II
Is new thing in the history Of American parties
tosce men assuming obligations to prescribe others,
| their equals, and often their neighbors, and con-
senting TO the imputaton OF perjury should they
| fail or falter In this pous pastime.
Men have taken oaths TO destroy their country's
oppressors, and Heaven has approved the act. The
august ceremonial which has inaugurated and COM
pleted the Declaration of Independence was made
IN the sight Of an approving God, and If ever such
approval was given it consecrated that immortal
| VOW But are our fellow freemen whom we meet
In the daily walks Of liG oppressors and enemies,
| that we should crawl into corners to take oaths
against them, failing in which the sin Of perjury
is TO rest on our souls !? No good angel besses
such rreverence no virtue is to be saved by it,
no right protected, and no wong made right
But will ask whether the profane oath have
quoted, and the equally profane assumption Of
| Furnishing the violation of such an oath, should
not call down the thunders of indignant protest
| from every Christian pulpit in the landi Instead
Of turning their thoughts upon the imaginary dan
gers of a distant prelate whose power to affect
our happy institutions would be as Intellectual as
| the attempt of tho naked King of the Mosquito
coast to capture Gibraltar; instead of melting
political party in its work Of denunciation and
| acknowledgements has been the case with too
many Of the protesting followers Of the meek and
lowly Saviour humbly refer them to the specta
Gle OF vast multitudes Of men. wallowing in the
most reckless oaths, gorying in the most abandon
ed DeraeCutOHS and the riUht
to punish rebellion to their standard, by hurting
the anathema of perjury, as If they were delegated
vicegerents of God on EARTH
Surely no American citizen, however deeply
prejudced against an opposing creed can for
moment be misled by the plea that this midnight
order, with all its professions has advanced true
religion. The ritual and the platform of the order
both declare belief in "a Supreme Being" as an
essential preliminary. But.there is great reason
to fear that the managers want nobody else to
worship God save themselves, and that their idea
of Deity is of one who expects to be propitiated
by acts of deceit and shame. A party which ex-
cludes Catholic and admits a Mormon, which
does not hesitate to follow the lead ofmany whose
deeds and words are at war with every idea of re-
'lgion-such party cannot long delude any por-
ton of intelligent citizens with empty professions
of piety.
Nay if there be perjury any where, those who
violate an obligation like the following, in the
Pennsylvania Bill of Rights, win bave some trouble
TO purge themselves:
"That all men have a natural and indefeasible
right to worship God Almighty according to the
dictates of thir own conscience; that no man can,
of right, be compelled TO attend, erect, or support
any place OF worship, or to maintain any ministry,
against his consent; that no human authority can,
IN any case whatever, control or interfere with the
rights of conscience and that no preference be
given to any religious establishments or modes of
worship.
That no person who acknowledges the being
Of God and future state ofrewards and punish
mcns SHALL account of his religious sentimental,
be disqualified to hold any Office or place of trust
or profit under this Commonwealth"
beg of you to contrast this with the oath of
the midnight order. We are told it Is perjury in
a Know-Nothing to violate that oath. And here
is an obligation more solemn, more binding, more
essential to society, which in some of its parts is
set at nought by thousands Of Know-Nothings--
and this, too, without complaint or condemnation
from those ministers of the Gospel who belong to
the Order, and who themselves practise the evil
they should condemn in Others.
1t has been said that, while the adopted citizen
| takes an oath TO support, the Know-Nothing takes
an oath TO violate, the American constitution. And
the fruits of this recklessness full of terrible
significance. A direct result of the secret obliga
tons Of the Order may be found in the bloody tn-
muts of Louisville, and in the excuses Of the
hnOW-NOtniugs III Otnef large cltleS. 10 SUCH
an extent has public indignation been excited
against the profane and familiar resort to extra-iu
dical oaths, and the nvariabe appeal to force and
fraud at the ballot-boxee that in portions of the
Union the Order has deliberately discarded alike
it's secrecy and its obligations This has been the
case in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and South
Carolina. The very fact that the oath of the Order
tends to bring into contempt the higher obligations
imposed by the constitution and the laws, proves
that il is not binding upon those who are deuded
into an assumption OF it.
But IL Ia no less clear that in many places this
OATH imposed with all the forms of midnight secrecy
has had disastrous effect upon those who have
scceptedit So far from contributing to the strength
Of the Order, it has been one of the principal
causes of its rapid decay. Resorted for the pur-
pose Of consummating the schemes of men who
tcould not obtain advancement f ON other parties
but were able to pack msjorities in these secret
societies, IL became CALLING yoke to the more re-
spe table members, and, as may be well conceived,
has ended by driving out the best and leaving the
lodges in the control Of the worst. Nay, take
| member of this Order, one who is known TO have
accepted Its obligations, and suddenly demand ofhim
whether he is attache TO il, and observe with how
much confusion and shame he will attempt ~ deny,
| or indirectly admit, the fact. That ministers Of
God should, in the ostensblc desire of promoting
the spread OF the doctrines Of Christianity, embark
| with those who are committed to these obliga-
tons that they should cheerfuly assume compan-
ionshp with men besottcd in intellect and led cap
| tive by vice and fraud and that they should sit
silent nd see not only their Catholic feow-beings,
but their own neighbors, (even those concurring
with them in religious belief who do not belong TO
the 0rder) stricken down or marked out as il were
for execution, almost passes comprehension.
i IL cannot be doubted that the manner in which
these obligations have been insisted upon, and the
violence with which the demands Of the pledged
midnight majority have been contaminated, has
contributed to change many of these lodges into
Pandemoniums upon earth; controlled, not by
como skilled in the practices at first bitterly de-
nounced by their leaders, and now almost en-