Litchfield enquirer., 1855-03-22
TIE KNOW NOTHING MovEMEnr.


 alization laws to snbserve party and person al ends, the painful degradation of much of our immigrant population, and the facility with which corrupt and designing men have marshaled this ignorant and minimizing mul- titude in successful opposition to great and beneficial schemes of national policy, have justly awakened a deep and widely spread indignation, and inclined many true Wings to give their influence and their votes to the so-called Know Nothing party, as the most effectual means of remedying these evils. l Is this the wisest course! Have they de- liberately weighed the influence and proaa- ble results of such action! To all who are i hesitating, the following suggestions are respectfully submitted.
 Whatever may be the sympathies of Know Nothings at the north, the movement is inc. vitably prc-slavery in its tendency; and es- pecially in its influence on the question | whether the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska shall become free or slave States, 1t is so in spite even of the wishes and ef- forts of its adherents. The only hope of excluding slavery, is in settling them with l population whose interests and inclination will lead them to prohibit involuntary servi- tude. whenever they may be called upon to frame State Constitution. This can only be done in numbers suficien. to insure suc- cess, by directing thither the immigrants to cur shores, and extending to them the l right of suffrage. Twenty or thirty thou sand Irish or Germans, taught from child | hood to regard the holding of slaves with abhorrence, and made to feel that the toler- ance of the system in their midst must not only depreciate the value of labor, but rem 1 der 1t disreputable, and degrade them soci- ally to an equality with the slave, would be an important element in the proper solution of this problem; but with hold from them this privilege, as the Know Nothings would do, and the. territories may as we'll be sur rendered to the slave power at once and
 without struggle.
 Through the Democratic party, always pro-slavery, the south has hitherto wielded I this vote when now for the first time al. | most, circumstances are certain to cast it in | favor of free institutions, shall we push it | aside. or shal! we not rather employ it to promote what we believe to be the true in- | terests of the country.
 Again, every census shows that our ratio | of increase exceeds that of the south, and consequently gives us a greater preponder- | ance of representation in Congress. But We l owe this entirely to the half million of for eigneis annually settling among us; for the | ratio of natural increase is larger at the south | than here. So far then as you enact laws discouraging immigration, so far you help to diminish this preponderance in the gen | eral Government. In this connection, call ing to mind the fact that the declared policy of the Know Nothings on this question is non intervention, Gall the south requires or asks, since the repeal of the Missouri Con- promise,) and that its hope is to build up a "Union party" which shall allay all sec tional animosities, which can only be done | by complaisant yielding to the encroach- ments of slavery. and, lastly, the extraordi- nary favor with which the movement is re- ceived at the south, have we not abundant reason to apprehend that not only its silent and unconscious influence, but also it's open and powerful aid will be given to the spread of the "pcculiar institution"
 In the present development of its princi- pies, the Know Nothing party possesses no | element of permancnce. When its one idea shall have been realized, what will remain to bind together it's incongruous parts, un- l less it be the spoils of office! If it survives | the perlls of infancy it must die or enlarge it's pla,form-it must take ground upon all 1 the great questions of the day; and can it ] take better position on the tariff and pro- lection to home industry than the Whig party has occupied for years past! If it takes the same, what will become of its free l trade adherents, who alone give it greater | numerical strength than the Whig party | If it unfurls the banner of free trade, prctec- | tionists must abandon 1t, and who will trust it, rather than the Democratic party which for years has battled for this principle, and l is, step by step, approaching its realization. | Thus in every important issue turks danger
 to this new party. Can Wings abandon an | organization whose principles are open and l avowed, and blindly abandon themselves to the current and be drifted they know not | whiiher, but assured that, on every side, shoals and quicksands beset the fraiI vessel in which they have embarked2 Can they assist in dsorganizing tlse only party that has steadily advocated the interests of free labor, until, at least, they have the assur-
 ance of something better, Sooner or later
 this new party must fall, and to what shall
 we then look to make head against the reck-
 less schemes of the Democracy if We now
 aid in crushing out the life of Whiggery !
 Let us maintain our organization, and not allow ourselves to be drawn into the sup port of Know Nothings through despair of | electing our own nominees. Even if it be true that they are strong enough to sweep everything before them, let them do it; but let us stand by the Whig candidates, as in honor bound. If defeated, we shall be in better position year hence. than if we de- sert our own banner and fall into their ranks; we shall, at least, have left to us the power | to nominate and vote for our own candidate, | and not one dictated to us by our masters. | the Know Ncthings. But is there really any reliance to be placed on the reports of their strength Where did they originate | Who vouclles for their truth May it not