Georgetown weekly news., 1855-05-31
The London Times on the Ameri, al.
PnrfY.

The London Times on the Ameri, "a.
Party.
The Boston Jorrnal, by the last steamer,
copies the following as the most important
portion of the article'in the London Times
on the Know Nothing or American party.
1t has attracted considerable attention in |
the East. The "Ihunderer" discourses as
follows =
"We have read with great interest a
State paper. which appears to us to be drawn
up with ability and moderation on behal.
OF the Know Nothings, or. as they profess
to call themselves, the American party, in
the United States. This party has already
obtained a decisive aScendancy in the North |
ern States of the Union, and ii is extreme
ly probable that it will name the successor
of President Pierce at the next Presidential
election. But the principle OH which the
party is formed is OF far greater Importance
than any personal consequences it may pro-
duce, for this principle may lead to perma-
nent results in the policy of the Union.--
The American party, places itself in oppo-
sition to the rival claims of the Old political
leaders, and it boasts that its organization
has been completed entirely without their
assistance.
The object Of its founders has been to
preserve their design from the assaults of
other parties until they could rely on their
own strength; and for this purpose, they
state. curiousiy enough, that 'their organi-
zation is more or less secret in action, and
almost altogether secret in the source from
which it derives its counsel and design
Yet, in spite of this mystery, which would
seem so little adapted to the political hab-
its Of the United States, the party has un.
questionabiy gained ground with singular
rapidity. 1t must therefore represent an
opinion shared by large masses Of the Amer
lean people. Its main object is declared to
be to re-assert the original purpose of the
Union, to revive the national spirit of the
country, to crush those factions which have
converted party warfare into mere strug-
gle for the power Of dispensing patron
age, and above all, to resist the increase
of foreign influences in the United States.
This last motive is more especially the
peculiar immediate object of the Know
Nothing party. They state that not much
less than half a million strangers are driven
annually by poverty or m.srule to swell
the population of the United States; and
that although this acquisition of labor is in
some respects useful to the community, yet
that these immigrants are ignorant of the
institutions, the laws, and even the language
Of the country, and animated by spirit very
different from that of American citiZenS.-
These persons are, however, very speedily
invested with the franchise and the exercise
of political power.
This immigration furnishes what may,
without much exaggeration Of phrase, be
called the distinct estate in our republic
Its ever-sweling tide is visible in every COM
munity. 1t is banded into combinations
more or less apart from our long known and
familiar masses Of native citizens, by ties OF
foreign kindred, by unforgotten and ever
cherished nationalities. and by sympathies
alien to the spirit which alone sustains our
peculiar, temperate and complicated system
of freedom. Worse than this it has caught
the notice and stimulated the craft of selfish
political aspirants and demagogues, who
nave too easily>found it plant resource
for party use, and who have cajoIed, hatter-
ed and stduced it into the rank OF partisan
strife, and thus impartedt to it a conse-
quence and an influence most powerful to
aid a perverse ambition, but utterly power
less to accomplish any honest end tor which
the highest prerogatlves OF citizenship were
/ originally designed" To this we may add
that it exercises an undue and almost eXclu-
sive influence over the American press, that
it is always endeavoring to embroif the U
States, for its own sinister purposes, with
the European powers, and that it is led by
the renegades, the sympathisers and the an.
nexationlsts of every cline who have sought
a refuge beyond the Atlantic.
But the views of the American party dc
not stop here. They observe that very
large portion of this annual emigration be-
longs to the Church of Rome-a body re-
garded with diStrust by the greater number
OF the American people, protesting at least
a moral allegiance to a foreign and absolute
power, and organized in peculiar manner
for the promotion of Roman Catholic OBJ
jects at the expense of those very liberties
which these persons exercise and enjoy
The American party, therefore, proclalmS
that it takes its stand against the political
action of the Roman Catholic Church in the
United States, not from intolerance OF the
doctrines of that faith, but from conTlc-
tion that the tendency Of that church IS to
embody its adherent in party the ooJects
OF which are at variance with the lhStllu-
tions and national spirit OF the American
people. -.
These declarations are to great extent
new in the history of the United States
Hitherto, unlimited facilities and encourage
ment have been held out to immigration,
and the political parties in the community
nave prolessed absolute Indifference to the
religious faith of their members. Expert
epce seems to have convinced at least one
considerable section Of the American COM