Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-06-09

From the Augusta Constitutionalist and Repub-
lican, May 80.
LARGE AND ENTHUsIAsTIC MEET-
InG-sPEErHEs OF MEssRs. STE
PMENs, TOOMBs, AND THOMAS.
An immense concourse of our citizens assem-
bled on Monday evening at the City Hall to hear
an address from the Hon. A. H. Stephens. Not.
withstanding the shortness of the notice-it be-
ing announced only on that day, by placards at
public places, there being no papers issued Mon
day morning, that MIR. Stephens would address
his fellow citzens-the people turned out en-
masse to hear their distinguished and patriotic
representative. The hall was crowded to sufio-
cation, and hundreds were standing outside, un-
able 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 adj
dress, Mr.. Stephens said he woul acquiesce
cheerfully in the general wish, and proceeded to
the northern portal of the hail. Here our cit-
zens, to the number of two thousand, were COM
PEELED to stand on the damp ground for want ola
suitable platform.
| Mr. Stephens commenced his remarks by ex-
/
| in the dark, for it was always his pleasure when
he spoke to look the people in the eye. He said
1 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, it had been said that the reason
of his retirement from the canvass in this district
was his fear of being beaten. For himself he
was afraid of notiing--of nothing under nor
above the earth--but to do wrong. Of that he
| was afraid; but of being beaten, he wouldn I
give fig for man who was not willing to be
beaten in defense 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 a
candidate for Congress from this district. Nomi-
mated, he said, not by any two thirds rule, but
here upon this stand 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, and 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 had been said by some who had commented
| upon his letter, but none of whom had the bold
ness to come out, by those who were shooting ut
| him in the dark, that David and his adherents
| formed a secret organization, and that Samuel
| Adams and others formed clique for the pur-
| pose of striking blow for American liberty.
/ This object, said he, was revolution, and the OBJ
| ject of the Know-nothings was revolution. 1t is
to overthrow the Constitution of the country; to
create religious test, when the Constitution
said that there should be no religious test. The
Know -nothngs knew that their object was revo-
luton; 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
menu want of which, as bad as the Know
nothings charged the Catholics to be, could not
| be preferred against them; and then introduced
beautiful passage of sacred history: at was
after Judas had betrayed Christ with kiss, and
Peter denied him thrice, that our Lord asked
what is TRUTH" He called upon all Know-no-
things but especially all ministers Of the Gospel
who might have joined the order, to repent in
sackcloth and ashes and to 90 about and preach
1 from the pulpit on that text, "whnt is truth"
He here eloquently appealed to Know-nothings
| to burst asunder these oaths, which bound them
1 down with cords, and abandon this spirit of
prevarication which they had adopted for the pur-
pose 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-nothingism. He de-
| pleted, in mastery style, the corruptng and dis
! astrous influences to result TO society from the
| docetful, equivocating and fraudulent practices
| Of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS anti-American, anti
republican, and unmanly character of its secret
organization-the danger to liberty, to the peace
of communities, and to social order of secret po-
nln in fba II, IL, Of
night for the advancement of purposes not dis
| closed TO the public they sought TO govern, and
whose rights they aimed to control and dispose
Of in this clandestine mode. He held that such
conduct unworthy of men and freemen who
held principles worthy of success.
Truth never skulked from the light of day and
hid itself in dark corners, afraid of discussion and
investigation. II was the Characteristic Of error
and of falsehood thus to hide, and there TO work
out their purposes Truth was the foundation
stone of civil order--the very life and essence Of
all social integrity. Yet Know nothingism bowed
to spell and an influence more potent than
truth, and reconciled the consciences Of men 10
resort to equivocation and slippery construction
to deceive the public. But there was a monitor
from on high in the breast Of every honest man
that must at times whisper, to him that this was
wrong.
nothingism bound its votaries under the
third degree Of its ritual by solemn oath to
Indlntaln tbe Union, AT All naZarus, against all
efforts of factionsts and Of secessionsts. But il
nowhere bound its members TO maintain the Con-
sttution; yet that Constitution was the very life
and soul of the Union. II could only have been
made by it, and through 1t, and the principles IL
consecrates. Without il, the Constitution would
be valueless, or worse than valueless.
There the abolitonsm of this order in dis
guise. He called on southern men to notice it.
He, Mr.. Stephens, stood upon the Georgia plat
form. Should Kansas be rejected on account Of
slavery, he was for resistance. Send him to
Congress, and he would resist il there's If unsuc-
cessful, he would return TO the people and tell
them to resist it.
1t had been said that the foreigners who came
TO this country joined the abolitionists in their
crusade upon our rights. 1t was not SO; he knew
il was not So The foreigners who came here
came with a reverence for the Constitution.
Where did these foreigners mostly settler In
the northwest. And from the northwest came
the best friends Of the South--from Indiana, Ili-
nos, and Iowa; the last the only free State which
had never bowed to abolitionism, and now for the
first time to be represented by free -soiler when
Know -nothingism had sprung into existence.
Every Know-notbing took oath that he
would support no Roman Catholic for Office
l.