Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1849-1856, 1855-10-25

A HARD Hit FROM FRIENp.-What
will " Sam " say to the following home
truths from the Courier and Enquirer
Our Know Nothing friends will vince, we
fancy, at sue language from such quar-
ter. .....
We have Democratic victories and we
have Republican victories but Know
Nothing victories, where are hey' Elec-
ton follows election, and in turn bring en-.
couragement and JOY to all other parties
but to the Know Nothings, each lease es be-
hind nothing but cold disappointment.
"Sam is no longer the character he was.
lie has had losses and he feels it. He
swaggers no more. Trouble has made him
prematurely old--sent him already into the
sixth age, and the big manly voice we heard
so much of last year is 8 turning again to
wards childish treble" People look at him.
and shake their heads, and prophesy that he
is not long for this world. His best friends
no longer feel the pride in him they did.
They are 10th TO salute him with his old
pct name and almost all their talk OF him
now, is in an interceding, deprecating strain.
Times have changed bitterly with " Sam "
within the last twelvemonth.
1t is notable reverse of fortune indeed,
but not like many hers, the result
chance, or accident. The main cause of
it has been--folly. The Know Nothings
have msjudged and mismanaged egregious-
ly. They have committed the fatal error
of trusting TO mere mech anism for success
of believing that a secret organization
which gave them their original impulse,
was sufficient of itself to maintain them
in position. Last year the Know Nothing
order was new thing. 1t had the charm
of novelty, and the advantage also of ap-
pealing to a widely ditfused anti foreign
feeling. is secret affiliation gave it com.
paclness, discipline, and strength, and ena-
bled it, especially when siding as it usually
did with the anti-Nebra,ka sentim, mt, TO
eff ct great triumphs. But these triumphs
it is in no case turned to any practical pur-
pose. 1t established no new measure, and
carried out no definite charge of policy.
1t spent its energies in hidden intrigues, and
undertook to satisfy the people with high
sounding generalities of no practical ac-
count whatever.
1t might call itself American " in name
but it was essentially un-American in form.
in spirit and in operation. The two first
requisites in the movement of republican
government, are freedom OF violation and
| publicity Of action, and it was by the direct
contravention Of these that the Order UNDER
took to succeed.-Know Nothingism could
not remain popular. Every election through
the present year has shown most unmistuk-
ably that it has forfeited public confidence.
All sections alike repudiate it. At the
West 1t has hardly dar d as yet to show its
head In the South, in spite of its appeal
to sectional jealousy by holding out the
prospect Of injuring the North by cutting
down the immigration which has so much
promoted the growth of the North, it has
been beaten by overwhelming majorities, in
spite of having enlisted into its service al
most the entire body Of the old Wing party.
And at the North, where the evil effects OF
our present system Of naturalization have
been the most felt, the Order has nowhere
achieved an Independent victory, and the
latest elections have shown that it is not
only mpotent itself, but that all alliance
with it is fatal. In the only two important
contests which are now going on, that of
New York and Of Massachusetts,, il is com.
PEELED to fight alone and unaided without
the slightest reasonable hope Of success.
Nowhere is there chance of its retrieving