The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-04-27
The Know Nothings In virgtNa-A Sweeping
Revelation,

latest case before us is slat of Mr. Littiebury N.
Lyon, the new ATe rican party candidate for
Congress in one OF the central districts Of the
State. In his circ ular letter to the people of
the district, published in the Lynchb1rg Pr
ginian, he says that his antecedents have been
democratic, bat that he considers the existing
differences between the two old parties CT the
country OF very little account the lines of de-
marcaticc between them having become almost
invisible.
Anew question, however, has been raised,
which he considers OF absorbing and vital i'm
portance-the question Of curling the growth
Of the foreign elements which, of late years,
nave exercised such marked aud powerful in
ihuence in our political elections. Speaking OF
the necessity Of check upon the present tre-
mendous Increase of the foreign vote under the
facilities of our existing naturalization laws,
Mr. Ligon says =" This foreign population,
which to the extent Of some 500 900 annually
reach our shores hasten to the new States, pso-
pie them, and then exclude slavery from their
borders by State constitutions"
This is the Southern view of the subject,
and the key to the spread of Know Nothing
ism in Virginia and throughout the South.
They say that the mass of our European-born
citizens are anti-slayery in sentiment
that they settle in the free States because
Of their prejudices against the peculiar institu-
ton of the SoIth--that they constitute very
material portion of all the anti slavery parties
and factions Of the North, and that they are an
nualiy swelling the auti-slavery ranks, parti-
cularly in the new States and Territories of the
Northwest with alarming aud continually in
creasiDg accessions. Hence, among the most
ultra slaveholding communities Of the South
ern States, we find the Know Nothiugs rising
into the ascendancy upon the ruins of both the
old national parties that have lived out their
day. hence the remarkable progress Of the
Know Nothngs in Virginia, upon the all-im-
portant issue to them of selfpreservation.
Their balance of power may be secured by
arresting the growth of the popular vote of the
North over that Of the South; and this, they
think, may be done by q stringent modGc alton
or total repeal of the naturalization laws.
This modification or total repeal being the
corner stone OF the Know Nothing platform,
is the very thing, therefore, which is carry
ing this new American movement spoutane-
ously forward in all the Southern States az ainst
all the expedients Of resistance, and over all
| sorts of Instructions.
Suppose for example, the term of natu ralz-
alton were extended at the next session of Con-
gress to twenty-one years, what would be the
result? It would probably cut off one hundred
thousand Of our European reinforcements, who,
under the present general law and existing lo-
Cal usages in the Northern States, would vote
upon the Presidential Issue in 1856, and fer the
members Of Congress to be elected with
the new administration. While the &C
emulation OF " foreigners in the North,
therefore, from their pressure upon the native
working classes upon Protestant ideas aud out
side politicians, has rallied together the natives
TO the ranks of the Know Nothings in the one
section, the single but vital consideration of
checking the present alarming increase Of the
Northern anti-slavery vote is quite suf1 eient to
lead the Know Nothings to victory in every
quarter of the other sections of the Union.
We have no doubt that this is the secret
which lies at the bottom Of the my sterious and
extraordinary growth Of Know nottingham in
Old Virginia and the South. From sll present
appearances, too, the new party coalition in that
State will overthrow Mr.. Wise and the Pierce de-
mocracy with prodigious majority; and if vir-
gipia, the citadel Of the democracy ia the outh,
be thus carried, the rest of the Southern STATES,
in the order of their elections, may be reason
ably expected to fall into line without much
resistance. With the South thus revelation.
lied, the Know Nothings will be able to COM
mand the Presidential election upon Union
and constitutional platform, throwing such Sc
ditious and disorganizing branches of the new
party as that in Massachusetts, entirely out Of
the calculation, In this light every thing hinges
upon the Virginia election, and the result there
will be the most important, perhaps in its con-
sequences of any State election in the political
history Of the country for the last fifty years
Let the conservative Know Notoings OF the
North prepare for o fusion with their brethren
of the South upon some common national
platform Better dispense with their present
anti.s]avery affiliations in this quarter, than
enter the Presidential campaign divided into
two or three sectional factions. The democra
cy, shufling off the incubus of this admnistra-
tior, may yet take the field as homogeneous
and powerful national party. Let not that be
forgotten. The defeat of Mr.. Wise aod the old
rotten democracy by large majority in Vir-
ginia, will net only be great aud powerful re-
volution in that State, the like of which has
not happened there for fifty years past, but it
will be the forerunner of Know Nothing re.
volution in the South "a Know Nothing revo
luton in the whole Union, but perchance
Know Nothing revolution also in Eoglaud-
ard over all Europe.
EXTRA SESSION OF THE LEGIsLATURE-FUR-
TIER DEVELOPMENTS OF THE SEWARD CANE