Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-06-30
THE Know-NorH1NG DISRUPTION.

know-Nothing National Convention at Phla-
delphia, until this week, and it is only because
the Order numbers many members in this
County, that we notice it at ALL
This was the first National Convention which
has ever been held, and the wire-pullers have
been anxious to make such platform as would
satisfy both sections of the country, and rem
der Sam" triumphant in 1856. AS might be
expected in ignoring the only question which
has any public interest, the Convention split
into fragments. -.-
The platform builders made to the Conven-
tion majority and minority report. The ma
jority platform, which caused the schism, is Civ
en- in the following words, so far as the slavery
question is concerned -
Resolved, That the American party, having
arisen upon the ruins and in spite of the oppo-
sition of the Wing and Democratic parties, can
not be held in any manner responsible for the
obnoxious acts or violated pledges of either ;
that the systematic agitation of the slavery
question by those parties has elevated sectional
hostility into a positive element of political
power, and brought our institutions into peril
1t has therefore become the imperative duty of
the American party to interpose, for the pur-
pose of giving peace to the country and per-
petuity to the Union. That as experience has
shown it is impossible to reconcile opinions so
extreme as those which separate the disputants,
and as there can be no dishonor in submitting
to the laws, the National Council has deemed
it the best guarantee of common Justice and of
future peace to abide by and maintain the ex-
listing laws upon the subject of Slavery, as a
final and conclusive settlement of that subject
in spirit and in substance.
Resolved, That regarding it the highest du-
ty to avow those opinions upon a subject so i'm
portant, in distinct and unequvocal terms. it is
hereby declared as the sense of this National
Council, that Congress possesses no power I'M
der the Constitution to legislate upon the sub
ject of Slavery in the States, or to exclude any
State from admission into the Union because
her Constitution does or does not recognize the
Institution of Slavery as part of her social
system and expressly pretermitting any ex-
preston of opinion upon the power of Congress
to establish or prohibit Slavery in any Terrific
ry, it is the sense of this National Council
that Congress ought not to legslate upon the
subject of Slavery within the Territories of
the United States, and that any interference
OF Congress with slavery as it exists in the Dis
trict of Columbia would be violation of the
spirit and intention of the compact by which
the State of Maryland ceded the District to
the United States, and breach of the Nation
al Faith
The minority resolution which was rejected
is as follows =
Resolved, That the repeal of the Missouri
compromise was an infraction of the plighted
faith of the Nation and that it should be re-
stored, and that if efforts to that end shall
fail, Congress should refuse to admit any state
tolerating slavery which shall be formed out of
any portion of the territory from which that
institution was excluded by that Compromise
The majority report was adopted by the
Council-New York voting for it. Upon its
adoption, portion of the Northern members
seeded and organized by placing Senator
WILSON, of Massachusetts, in the Chair. and
put forth the following as their platform =
To the people Of the United States:
The undersigned, citizens of various States
assembled at Philadelphia on the l4th day of
June, 1855, feel constrained under the exist
ing state of affairs, to affirm the following prin
ciples =
FIRSr-The unconditional restoration of that
time-honored Compromise, known as the Mis-
souri, Prohibition, which was DESTROYED in utter
disregard of the popular villa wrong which
no lapse oftmec an palliate and no plea for its
continuance can justify And that we will use
all constitutional means to maintain the posi-
tive guarantee OF that compact, until the object
for which 1t was enacted has been consumma-
ted by the admission of Kansas and Nebraska
as Free States
SECoND-That the rights of the settlers in
Territories to the free and undsturbed exercise
OF the elective franchise guaranteed to them by
the laws under which they are organised, should
be promptly protected by the National Execu-
tive whenever violated or threatened. And that
we cannot consclentiously act with those who
Will not aid us In the correction of these Ma
tonal wrongs, and who will not even permit
their fair consideration and their full discus
sion.
THIRD-We further declare our continued
and unalterable determination to use all hon
orable efforts to secure such modification of
the Naturalization laws, aided by such an ele
vation of public sentiment, as will preserve tbe
true interests of the Nation, and will guaran-
tee the three vital principles of Republican
Government SPIRITUAL FREEDOM A
FREE BIBLE, and FREE SCHOOLS
thereby promoting the great work of American
izing America
FoURTH-That we invoke the arm of legis-
latlon to arrest that growing evil, the depor-
tation by foreign authorities of paupers and
convlcts to our shores and that, as our Ma
tlonal Constitution requires the Chief Execu-
tive of our country to be of native birth, we
deem it equally necessary and important that
our Diplomatic Representatives abroad should
also possess no foreign prejudices to bias
their Judgment or to influence their official ac-
ton.
MAssAcHUsErrs-Henry j. Gardner, Hen