Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-06-07

Il
An irnmense concourse of our citizens assem-
bed on Monday evening at the City Hall TO hear
an address from the Hon. A. H. STEPHENS. Not
the shortness of the notice, it being
announced only on that day, by placards at puellc
places, there being no papers issued honaay
that Mr.. Stephens would address ms
fellow citizens, the people turned out, en- nasse,
to hear their distinguished and patriotic Repre-
sentative. The Hail was crowded to sufocation,
and hundreds were standing outside, unable to |
get in, and clamorous for Mr.. Stephens TO come
out on The steps This being suggested to the !
speaker shortly after he opened his address, Mr. /
Stephens said he would acquiesce cheerfuly in |
the general wish, and proceeded to the northern |
portal of the Hall. Here our citizens, to the |
number of two thousand, were compelled to
stand on the damp ground for the want of suit
able platform. Thanks are due, for this advan-
tage, we suppose, to our Know Nothing Council,
who have thus carried out this Know Nothing
principle Of sitting discussion. We have never
seen an orator speak under euch disagreeable cir
cIimstances, but we have yet to see more patient
and attentive audience. Mr.. Stephens COM
menced HE remarks by expressing his regret at
being compelled TO speak in the dark, for it was
always his pleasure when he spoke, to look the
people in the eye. He said that he had travelled
over more than half the State, in order to meet
the people OF Augusta to night
Since his communication to Mr.. Thomas had
been published, il had been said that the reason
of his retirement from the canvass in this Dis
trct, was mis- fear of being beaten. For himself
he was afraid OF nothing-of nothing under nor
above the earth, hut to do wrong Of that he
was afraid but of being beaten, he wouldn't
give fig for man who was not willing to be
beaten in defence of what he believed to be right.
He had come there then, he said, in response to
various calls TO announce that he was again
candidate for Congress from this District Nom
mated, said he, not by any two-thirds rule, but
here upon this stand l nominate myself for Con-
gress from the 9th Congressional District
Mr.. Stephens was here interrupted by deep
and enthusiastic shout of appreciation from the
great crowd he was addressing. He continued,
that this Know Nothing order had been created,
it was said, for the purpose of putting down
demagogues, small men, tricksters. For himself
he was no trickster. Tricksters never walk in
open day. They skulk in hiding places, and
! he warned the people to beware of leaders who
resorted to the dark in order to concoct their
| schemes.
1t has been said by some who had commented
upon his letter, but none Of whom had had the
| holiness to come out, by those who were shoot
| ing at him in the dark that David and his adhe-
rents formed secret organization, and that Sam
uel Adams and others fromed secret clique for
| the purpose of striking a blow for American
| liberty. This object, said he, was revolution, and
| the object of the Know-N othings was revolution
1t is to overthrow the Constitution of the coun-
| try; TO create religious test, when the Const.
tuition said that there should be no religious test
| The Know-Nothings knew that their object was
| revolution; they knew that they had taken an
oath not to support any Catholic for Office. They
| might deny it, and explain away the denial by
some casuistical, slippery Know-Nothing con-
| struction, but there was monitor within, which
| told them they had taken it.
| Mr.. Stephens continued for some time in an
| eloquent strain on the sublimity of truth, the
| foundation of all honor and integrity among men;
a want of which, as bad as the Know Nothings
charged the Catholics to be- could not be prefer
| red against them and then introduced beauti-
full passage of sacred history )" 1t was after
1 Judas had betrayed Christ with kiss, and Peter
denied him thrice, that our Lord asked, what is
| truth g" He called upon all Know Nothings, but
| especially all Ministers of the Gospel, who
| might have joined the order, to repent in sack
/ cloth and ashes and to 90 about and preach from
| the pulpit on that text, "what is truth 90 ~ L
He here eloquently appealed to Know-Noth.
1 ings to burst asunder these oaths, which bound
| them down as with cords, and abandoned this
4 spirit of prevarcation which they had adopted
| for the purpose of violating the Constitution of
the country He poured forth glowing, patriotic
| and forcible appeals in behalf of the principles
| laid down in his late letter against Know-Noth-
| ingism. He depicted in mastery style, the cor
rupting and disastrous influences to result to So
| cety from the deceitful, equvocating and fraudu-
lent practices of Know Nothngism-the anti
| American-anti- Republican, and unmanly char
! acter of secret orgsnjZation-the danger to lib
| erty, to the peace of communities, and to social
| order, of secret political conclaves plotting in
| the darkness of midnight for the advancement of
| purposes not disclosed to the public they sought
| TO govern, and whose rights they aimed to con-
| troll and dispose of in this clandestine mode. He
held that such conduct was unworthy of men and
| freemen who held principles worthy of success.
Truth never skulked from the light of day and
hid himself in dark corners, afraid of discussion
| and investigation. 1t was the Characteristic of
error and of falsehood thus to hide, and there to
work out their bad purposes. Truth was the
! foundation stone of civil order-the very life
| and essence of all social integrity. Yet Know
| Nothingism bowed to a spell and an influence
| more potent than truth, and reconciled the con-
| sciences of men to resort to equvocation and
| slippery construction to deceive the public. But
| there monitor from on high, in the breast
| of every honest man, that must at times whis-
| per to him that this was wrong.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENT bound its yotaries under the
| third degree of its ritual by a solemn oath to
/ maintain the Union, at all hazards against all
| efforts of factonists and of secessionists. But
| it nowhere bound its members to maintain the
| Constitution yet that Constitution was the very
| life and soul of the Union. 1t could only have
been made by it, and through it, and the princi-
| Piles it consecrates. Without it, the Constitu-
| lion would be vaueless or worse than valueless.
There was the abolitionism of this order in
disguise. He called on Southern men to notice
| it. He, Mr. Stephens, stood upon the Georgia
! platform. Should Kansas be rejected on account
| of slavery, he was for resistance. Send him to
Congress and he would resist it there; if unsuc-
| cesstul, he would return to the people and tell
| them to resist it.
1t had been said that the foreigners who came
10 this country Joined the abolitionists in their
| crusades upon our rights. 1t was not so he
! knew that it was not so. The foreigners who
! came here, came with reverence for the Con-
| stitution. Where did these foreigners mostly
| settle In the North West And from the
| North West came the best friends of the South.
| from Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, the last, the
! only State which had never bowed to abolition.
ism, and now for the frat time, to be represented
| 10y free-soer, when Know othingism had
| sprung into existence.
Every Know Nothing took an oath, that he
| would support no Roman Catholic for Office
| This was striking at one of the fundamental
| principles of the Constitution, which declares
there shall be no religious test, as qualification
| for Office. He, therefore, who took that OATH
! took an oath inconsistent with the support OF
the Constitution. 1t was an oath in violation of