Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1855-08-22
From the Charleston Mercury.
pNHIIC MEETING.

known as the American Party or Know Moth
ings, assembled at Hibernian Hall, on Wednes-
day evening, August Is, 1855.
w. McKensie Parker, Esq. called the meeting
to order, upon whose motion the following gen.
tlemen were elected officers:
PREs1pENT.-W. D. PORTER.
VICE PREsIDpNTs.-Hon. Jacob Bond ron.
Hon. VIM. Aiken, Hon. S. w. Barker, Fl. A.
DeSaussure, Thomas Lehre, Hon. T. L. Hutch
inson, VIM. NJ. Lawton, Geo. H. 1ngraham,
Hon. Alex'r. Mazyck,'Wm Finley, John Tucker,
Hon. Edward Frost. H. W. Pernonneau, Hon
John Schnierle, James NJ. Eason, James H.
T+apier, James NJ, Stocker, Dr.: E. Geddinss,
DR.. Tbos. Y. Simons, VIM. I.ebby, Otis Mills,
Joshua Lazarus, Daniel Hayward: VIM. II.
Houston, w. Aston Pringle, James B. Hey
ward, w. Mckenzie Parker, Henry Horlbeck,
Col. +. 0. Elliott.
. -SEcRErARIEs.-C. Richardson Niles, +. Tat
uall Paine, E. H. Locke, G. A. Follin.
Mr.. Porter, upon taking the Chair, addressed
the meeting ut some length upon the objects for
which it had assembled, and ably and searching
" reviewed the principles and purposes Of Know
No!hingism.
Hon. l. w. Hayne rose, and after few pre-
lmnary remarks submitted for the consideration
of the meeting the following Address and Reso-
buttons:
When South Carolina. after long period of
poltical excitement, settled past differences and
through a constituiionally organized Convention,
nrocIaimed to the world the principles which
were held in common by her sons, and, in her
sovereign capacity, defined her position in re-
gard to the Federal Union we had hoped that,
for time ut least, she might be spared further
agitation and party distraction. To the alleg-
ance of her citizens we trusted for uniformity
of principle at home, and we felt assured that
her sister States of the South would know
where to find her in time of need. We desired
only to keep the ship of State fast at her moor
ings. We did not seek progress; but simply to
maintain steadfastly, the position taken blythe
highest. authority known to our institutions.
South Carolina, We had hoped, would, In quiet
dignity, @bide her time" for further action.
: It is now manifest, however, that party organi-
zation has become necessary to resist new po-
ltiicsl combination, known as the Order of
Know Nothipgs, but lately assuming for them:
selves the name Of the'SsH American party"-a
party which, in the rapidity Of it's growth, and
success Of its early movements, having outstrip.
ped the numerous fanatical Developments in
the Free States, has reached our State, and has
introduced into it principles and practices, new,
dangerous, and distracting. Notwithstanding
its professions, it practically repudiates the fun
damentaI principles of civil and religious liberty
rejects the right of free discussion-denies
the inestimable blessing of freedom ofconscience
sacrifices personal Observation-Disclosures
the subyersion of the Rights of the States ms
sovereign members of this Confederacy-and,
in its assertion of the indisputable and r;ghtful
sway of the majority, annihilates the indepen.
dence, safety, and welfare of the slaveholding
States.
It then becomes rs we conceive, the impera-
tive duty of all who regard the preservation and
taithful construction and enforcement OF the
Constitution of these United States, as high
political duty, who are resolved TO maintain the
rights. of the States, and particularly of the
: Slavehoding States, as Incidents of their SOY.
-ereignty, and the political rights and privileges,
AS well of the people rs Of the States, rs SET
forth in the Constitution of the Union, and in
that of the State of South Carolina, to array
themselves, not in secret, but openly not bound
together by oatfs, but by the strong ties which
unite those who have enjoyed the rich blessings
of Civil Freedom and Religious Tolerations
not for the advancement of selfish purposes, but
for the good of the communities in which they
live, and of the State to which they belong; not
by the order of any Grand Council, but in obe-
: dience to their own free and generous impulses
not subject to CONTROL except such as the estab-
lished laws of their country, and their conscienti-
GUS convictions of duty, may suggest-in oppo-
sition to this combination, now styling itself
The American party" in order that its course
NAV be stayed the manifold evils it has pro-
duced, and will produce, be abated its unwhole-
some effect on the moral character of our State
be removed, and the blighting curse of political
prescription, and religious intolerance, forever
averted.
We adopt as basis of organization for such
aparly of opposition the following
RESOLUTIONS.
/. Resolred, That as citizens Of the State Of
South Carolina, we recognise the Ordinance
adopted by the People Of the State assembled
in Convention in 1852, as part Of the funda-
mental law of the body polite, equal in authori-
ty, as Declaration of Right, with the Constitu-
ton itself, and we proclaim, as cardinal prnci-
pie of the present organization.
sThat South Carolina, in the exercise of her
Sovereign VIII as an Independent State, aeee.
ded to the Federal Union, known as the United
States of America; and that, in the exercise of
the same Sovereign VIII, it is her right, with
ont let, hindrance, or moiestation from any pow
er whatsoever, to secede from the said Federal
Union and that, for the sufficency of the causes
which may impel her to such separation, she is
responsible alone, under God, to the tribunal OF
public opinion among the Nations of the Earth. "
We consider the proceedings of said Conven-
ton as having authoritatively defined the posi-
tiou of South Carolina and her relation to the
Federal Union. And in the opinion of this
meeting, the Obligation of the Third Degree,
as set forth in the Constitution Of the National
Council of the United States of North America,
known as the Order of Know Nothirgs, is a. di.
rect denunciation of the principles of this Ordi-
nance, and the position assumed in these pro.
ceedings, and the triumph of the Order in this
State, would effect polictical revolution within
her limits.
Q. RESOLVED, That we protest against the pro-
position put forth by the Grand Council OF the
Order, in Philadelphia, that "the maintenance
of the Union of these States, is the paramount
political good"-a doctrine which assumes that
Government is above the object for which il
WAS instituted-strikes at the very foundation
of the Sovereignty of the States, and under
avery violation of the Constitution, however
aaprant, and under every degree Of oppression
and iniury. however destructive, demands Of the
States eternal and unresisting subsection to the
central power; and we disaRrove, as heretical
In principle and eminently dangerous to the
South the idolatrous devotion tothe Union OF
these States, so prominently md constantly m
culcated by the Constitution and Ritual OF ,he
Order, when contrasted with their silence as 10