The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1855-09-28
AMERICANIsM NOTHING NEW.

AMERlCANISM NOTHING NEW.
The New York Express answers the charge
that Wing principles have been lost sight of
and abandoned, in the following manner
The writer Of this article has been, and is
| likely to be as long as he lives, 81 Wing
that IS to say, for the maintenance of GER
tain class of principles, known in British his
| tory rs "Whig," and adopted in our Ameri-
can Revolution as Wig. Many of these
principles, 60 nomine, die out, and perish with
their peculiar interests and times, but the
principle known as Wing. is immortal, and
can never die. Stamp ac s, "Banks, ""rariifs,
"lnternal improvements" &C., are peculiar
interests, for peculiar times,-that may, and
must perish-but the principle of nationality
OF loving ones own family better than 9th
er peoples famies-One's own country bet
ter than other peoples country--ohe's own
father-land better than other peoples father
land-and the principle of governing this
tather'land, in jealousy of, and resistance to,
Executive power, Prerogative, and Patronage,
is an old Wing principle that never dies
but is as immortal rs the everlasting hills
| abont us.
But to he on American, il Is not at all ne
cessary to UNI Wing ones self The American
Party presents no novelty to us--none in the
least. There was an American Party in the
Revolution-and it was the Wing Party-in
opposition to the British, or Tory party-and
there is an American party now--in oppos-
| ton, not alone to British party, but an Irish,
German, and generally Foreign Party. To
be Wing in l776, was to be an American,
| in opposition to Foreign influence, and For.
| eign aforementioned so now, to be an
| American, one must in that sense, be a Wing
now. A Declaration of Independence was
necessary, in l776, to preserve us from For
| egn arms, and Foreign inflnence-and q De-
claraiion of Independence now in 1855, is
necessary to preserve us from half n million
of European foreign immigration per annum,
and from hosts of Asatics settling in the Pa
cifc-with endless numbers more to come
| A Wing and an American, are words histori-
cally almost synonymous. They are but
| different letters in different words to express
the very came idea Hence, il is, that for
twenty years past, the greatest obstacle on
election days, the Wings have had to contend
with, have been foreign votes and combina-
lions Of foreigners:-and but for such comb
nations and such votes, Henry Clay in 1874
would have been elected President, and the
| Wings, the greater part of the time, would
have the administration Of numerous State
Governments. The foreign vote has been a
combined, solid vote against the Wing party.
| For reasons best known to themselves, the
Roman Hierarchy among - have directed
that vote against US, especially the Irish bat
tallions under their control-and if Roman
| Catholic lrshmen have voted the Why ticket,
they have voted il at the peril of their lives.
! Foreigners as masa, know not, and .recog-
nize not our "nationality," but bring here, as
Kossuth did, an idea OF the "solidariies Of
| the people" and that America is not to he
| governed for the benefit of America and
Americans, but for the "soidaritary" of all
peoples-more especially the Irish--or as
kossuth taught, for the Hungarian peoples.
| Hence, as our readers see, Americani4m is
nothing new to us, old Whigs-us, old Jour
nalists We have nothing to learn, or ,Inlearn,
in being Americans. Wearej ust where we have
been. We.imbibcd our Amercansm from the
Federal Constitution. We read it, and see,
to emnncipnte us from Foreign Government
mot from mere Stamp Act alone. The
peaceful revolution of the Ballot box,we now
seek, is to preserve us from that foreign in
| fluence. The Federal Constitution was or.
dained to preserve us from foreign ntrgues,
and dOminntion--and to make us one Ameri-
can People. The Party now sought to be
established, is an American Party to preserve
their institutions from the touch and faint Of
foreign craft and cunning, and if such party
was necessary in 1916 and 1887, when the
annual foreign immigration was under 5000
it is now, mathematcally, II hundred times
as necessary, when the immigration is an an
nnal 50O.0OO