Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-06-02


Without hope man would be a miserable
wretch. Without hope the Know -nothings would
be the most miserable of all wretches.. Their
signal disaster in Virginia cast gloom over their
countenances and filled their hearts with despon-
dency. Their voices were hushed. They were
dumb as oysters They opened not their mouths.
As they had come, so they went. They came
like locusts; they came like wild pigeons; they
came like sorah. They disappeared like locusts,
wild pigeons, and sorah The first frost was
fatal to them. As the sorah is supposed to sink
into marsh mud, so the know-nothings are sup
posed TO have sunk into the cutters from which
they sprung.
But one hope remains to them. II is that great
cure for all evils-a convention. The first shock
OF the Virginia election over, they begin to peep
from their hiding places and look out upon the
sun in the heavens. Some of them have even
been heard to speak, sput in very gentle and sub
dued tones
On Monday next they hold national conven-
ton in Philadelphia to make, we presume, a ma
tional platform, and to arrange for the Presiden-
tlal election. From this convention they expect
great things. What the convention will do, it is
not for to surmise. s.Sutiicient unto the day
is the evil thereof"
The Petersburg I,,lelHgeacer, which has the
credit, if credit it be, Of originating the late
fusion in Virginia, and which, perhaps, is the
most suggestive Of all the Wing journals in that
State, seems to expect much from the Philadel-
phia convention. 1t advises programme, which
it thinks will be wonderfully efficacious in pro-
noting the growth and the ascendancy of the
new order. 1t threatens the Northern Know
nothings with the dissolution of all the lodges in
the South unless national platform shall be
agreed upon. The Intelhgacer thus expresses
itself:
"One thing we must be permitted to say in all
sincerity and candor-that, inasmuch as the sla-
very question now rides over all others-as this
is the only rock upon which the Union can be
dashed to pieces, it will be the primary duty of
the convention to declare itself III the most erplic
terms upon this question. There must be no am
bguity-no rcservation-not sentence or q
word in their platform upon which to hang a
doubt. If there is, their labors will be in vain.
They will have to choose between the constitu-
tonal, national elements in all their purity and
strength, and the elements of fanaticism, sedi-
ton, and treason, in all their rampant virulence
as now displayed in the rawlings of Wilson, Par
ker, Greeley, Giddings, and the rest of the Sa-
tanic host that are in league against the Constitu-
ton and the Union II they do not thoroughly
clear themselves of all connection with, and sym
pathy for the 1b0litioniSiS every council at the
South will be instantly disbanded and its mem
bers, disappointed and mortified, will feel them
selves under sacred obligation to resist ut all
points and at all hazards the influences of an
Order having utilization with such detestable
party that which numbers amongst its leaders
the disorganizers and incendiaries we have Just
| named. The South will be united as one man
against this American party, if the Philadelphia
Convention does not totally and unequivocally
renounce Aboltonism in all its shapes and phases
They must stand fatty and fearlessly up to the
passage of a resolution expressly repudiating all
purposes of interfering, directly indirectly
with SLAVERY, co nOnliRe, in way preiudicial
TO the rights Of the South. They must satisfy
the South, beyond all suspicion, that they recog-
nze those bonds between the North and her
which our fathers of '68 established, in their full
forcc-and that they will nfexibly adhere to the
letter and spirit of the CONSTITUTION and Of
the LAWS"
Here is an implied admission that the Northern
Know -nothings have not explicitly expressed
themselves on the slavery question. Indeed more
seems to be implied than this. There is the i'm
plication of faint, that must be burnt and purged
| away.
When the sky falls, it viii catch larks, and
when the Northern Know-rothings promulge a
suitable and an honest platform for shareholders,
| then indeed will the wonder of wonders be per-
| formed The suggestion of the Petersburg In
| tltigencer is unreasonable II cannot expect
such men Mr.. Burlingame and Senator Will
son to declare in favor of slavery.
| An interesting question here presents ITSELF 1t
is7what will the Know-nothing Wings of the
South, do, when they disband their councils, in
consequence of not receiving a suitable platform
from their brethren of the North Where
will they goi What new disguise will they
assumed What novel Wing trick will they at
tempt to play They ought to be thinking seri-
ously Of these things, for they will very soon be
| called on 10 act.
Il