The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-05-31
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF KNOW NorHINGs.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF KNOW NoTHINGs.
This Council, soon to meet in Philadelphia,
will be composed of delegates from the several
State Councils, each State, we believe, having
an equal voice with every other. The fifteen
Slave-State Councils will be represented by
pro-slavery delegates-New Jersey, Pennsylva-
MIA, and New York, with California, if repre-
scented at all,) by delegates subservient to Sla-
very. These alone, to say nothing of the
doubtful delegation from Indiana, will give the
Slavery faction an overwhelming maj ority, and
| it is not probable that the delegates from Mas
sachusetts and New Hampshire will find much
backing anywhere.
No Presidential nomination, it is said, will
be made; Know Nothing paper in Tennessee
announces that the National Nominating Con-
yention will be held at Memphis, next spring.
| The prevailing impression is, that the June
Convention will meet for the purpose of pre-
pairing the way for a successful nomination, by
agreeing upon common ground for National
action. This ground we suppose to be, the
policy of ignoring the Question Of Slavery.
| The National Council that met in Cincinnati
some months ago, resolved upon this, as we
learn from the american Organ, but the pre-
sumption is, that it simply recommended its
adoption by the State Councils, and that the
National Council, about to be held, will assem-
BILE to ratify and settle it, as an essential part
of the platform of the Party.
That the National Council at Cincinnati sub
mitted the ignoring policy to the State Coun-
ellis, with view to obtain their assent to it, we
infer further from the fact, that they have lately
held simultaneous meetings, at which the ques-
ton was under consideration, and that the res
olutions of the New Hampshire Council, the
only series published by authority, appear in
the light of a response to a call made upon it..
The closing resolve, for example, is as follows
Resolued, That any attempt to commit the
American Party of New Hampshire to the ad-
vancement of the interest of Slavery, to ignore
it as political question, or to enjoin silence
upon us in regard to its evils and encroach-
ments, deserves and shall receive our earnest
and unqualified disapprobation."
The June Convention will then agree upon
| the policy to be pursued by the National Know
Nothing Party, and that policy will be, to ig
more the Question Of Slarery. All the dele
gates from the South, and many, if not ma
ority, from the Free States, are in favor of this
| disposition of the subject.
| The question arises, what course will the
! Anti-Slavery delegates adopt in such an event
Will they tell us? Will they communicate to
their friends their purpose? Have they any
purpose at all? One year before the Wing
National Convention was held in l848 while
the Nationals in both sections were preparing
the way for the nomination of a non-committal
candidate for the Presidency, and the adoption
of the ignoring policy, we criticised the course
of the Boston Wing, then the able exponent
of the Anti-Slavery Wings of Massachusetts,,
and desired to know what it intended to do,
should such policy and such a nomination be
agreed to. 1t answered promptly and expli.
city
"Neither will we sustain any man or set of
men who are not clearly, distinctly, and une-
quivocally, pledged to carry out the principle
of the Wilmot Proviso, in all cases of territory
acquired by the United States.
If General Taylor be nominated the candi-
to sustain the system here pointed out, (the
stoppage of the war, the application of the
Wilmot Proviso, and the encouragement of
Slavery we shall be contented to give him
what support we can. If not, Massachusetts
Wings, after passing the resolutions of the last
session, cannot consistently do So"
The Convention did nominate General Tay.
lor-did not "pledge itself to sustain the system
here pointed out ON the contrary, it ignored
the whole question of Slavery-and the Boston
Whig with Palfrey, Adams, Allen, Wilson, and
Phillips, true to their previous avowals, would
not sustain General Taylor, or the Wings who
| supported him, but co-operated in the forma.
ton of the Free Democratic Party.
Political transactions were then carried on
openly-honest men openly avowed their pur.
poses-the Convention was open-integrity and
selfrespect were braced up by public respoasi.
6H'ty. The People knew ,ohat, men were
pledged to maintain, and they could see how far
the pledges were executed. There was no
chance for double-dealing, compromise, eva
sion, or deceptive reports.
We are sure General Wilson will agree with
us, in deploring the secrecy which wells the pro-
ceedings and purposes of the State Council of
his Order in Massachusetts, and the secrecy
that will give IMMUNITY, in the National Council
about to meet, to bad faith, disloyalty, treach-
cry, compromise, regeneration. He, as an
honest man, would like to be able to announce
to the Public the demand he is authorized to
make on the Convention, the course of action
he intends to pursue, should it be rejected. and
he would like to have the consistency of his
conduct subjected to public scrutiny. He, as
an experienced man, understands well, how
the halthearted, the time-serving, the disloya
who can hardly be held to their duty, even I'M
der the eye of their constituents, will rejoice in
the darkness that shall relieve them of an irk-
some accountability.
We again ask-for we are anxious that those
of our friends, who seem disposed to confde
implicitly in Know Nothing professions, may
have their attention drawn to the inquiry-to
what are the Councils in New Hampshire and
Massachusetts, committedp They have adopted
Anti-Slavery resolves, it is said. Aye, but
those resolves, as published, do not pledge them
against association or action 10Th National
Kno,o Nothing Party, ignoring the question of
Slavery. Mark that Examine the Massa-
chusetts resolves:
T" Resolred, That while the American party
of Massachusetts, fully recognises the right Of
the States to regulate their own domestic af.
fairs, we claim, and shall under all circum.
stances exercise, the right to relieve the Fed.
eral Government from all connection with, and