The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1855-10-05
PARTY NAMES.

""'S'"'i uHJusl5 ana wrong " so stlio t"SHIi
and that they are just as good Americans as
those who claim to be the american party"
We have no doubt the term, or name, sounds
little harsh, unpleasant and disagreeable,
but we cannot see how, under existing cir
cumstanees, our sensitive opponents are 10 be
relieved. There is in the country great ma
tlonal party, imbued with sentiments purely
and Intensely patriotic, who see, or think
they see, danger to our Institutions from the
immense waves of immigration continually
breaking upon US and from the tremendous
growth Of "foreign influence" brought TO
bear upon the civil and political affairs of the
nation through the ballot-box by the loose
ness and ineilicency of the naturalization
laws us at present existing and administered.
This party, actuated 10y the same Identical
principles that inspired the revolutionary IA
theirs and enabled them to achieve heritage
for their children more glorious and fraught
with richer blessings than any ever wrought
out through human Observation-Disclosures
party, warning against and trying to root out
the foreign weeds which the corruptions of
later years have sown in our soil, TO pluck up
and cast away the dangerous element of for
eign birth which is mingling itself in all our
affairs, not assimilatng with the institutions
of the country, but aiming eventually to dis
place them and build up others of antagonis-
tic characteristics party, born Of patriotism
and nourished and sustained by love of coun.
try, the memories of the past and the hopes
of the future, and battling against evils Of
such fearful import, calls itself and is IN sen.
timent, motive and decd, "l'he American
Party On the other nand, there is another
party in the country calling itself "Demo.
cratic" which is at war with the "American
Party" fighting against the American senti-
menL and panderng to foreign or anti-Ameri-.
can influence, that power and thrift may fol-
low-that takes the immigrant, fresh from
the rotten and reeking despotisms of Europe,
with all his prejudiccs and imperfections
about him, by the arm the moment his foot
touches our soil and extends to him in full
a privilege Of which he knows nothing, and
which it denies to the natiye-born short of
probation OF twenty-one years. This party,
thus acting, is the antagonsm of the other.
its opposite in action End tendencies, if not
in sentiment, and therefore anti. The one
claims to be "Amorican," plants itself upon
sound principles, and avows its determine
tloFl to effect certain patriotic purposes. The
other makes war upon this, and avows its
determination TO put down and crush out
the doctrines and principles the first ad
vCca.es. They are antagonistc, and if the
first is American, that which wars against it
is necessarily ard inevitably anti American;
and if those who compose the first are emit.
tied to be designated rs "Americans," or
members Of the American Party, as they I'M
doubleday are so entitled, we can see no
great IMPROPERLY or injustice in calling thei:
opponents anti-Amercans. This is the result
of their position upon the great issue whe-
Their Americansm shall prevail in America,
or whether we shall continue to depart more
and more from the guides and landmarks
laid down by the fathers Of the country, I'M
til every thing American is lost sight of in
the lust for spoils that characterzes the pres
ent party in power, and which leadsi it to seel,
assistance from source every day becoming
more potent for evil.
If our democratic friends who complain at
being styled anti-Americans, would ponder
the subject little we are confident they
would soon see the matter in the same light
that we do-that the fault is not with
the Americans, but grows out of their own
position of opposition, and that there is no
escape from it so long as they remain in bad
company. We know that the masses of ma
tive citizens who oppose the American move
ment are honest and patriotic, and if for
eign soldery were to land upon our shores
that they would be among the first to rally
TO repel them; yet they are members of and
act with Il party that welcomes yearly an in
vasion Of five hundred thousand to our shores
An element more dangerous to our institu-
tons than all the soIdiery of Europe. De-
ceivcd by corrupt leaders and presses and led
astray by false lights, the ignis.fatuus of
party, the deeeiving vapors engendered by
rottenness and corrupion-they either can.
not or will not see the Inconsistency of their
position, but keep right on, aiding the evil,
unconsciously it may be, and fighting off the
corrective sought to be applied. While they
remain in that position they ought not to ob.
ut TO their appropriate classification in the
catoloqu, Of patty names. They are desig-
mated "anti. Americ,p" because they are CIV
ing support to an anti-Amerlosn sei;'lment-
just as those who oppose the admission o.
any more slave territory into the Union are
called Abolitonists because they give aid and
comfort to the fanatics who aim at the de-
struction Of the institution where it already
exists.
s-S- We learn from the Jonesborough
Journal that the track laying on the East Ten
nessee and Virginia Railroad is nearly COM
pleted to Strawberry Plains, 16 miles above
Knoxville, and that passenger train will
commence running to that point in few
days. Also, that Nathan Cannon has been
appointed depot agent at Knoxville, and our