The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-08-13
The saddle Put on the Right Horse.


that the guilt of commencing the terrible rio
in Louisvilerests with the foreigu-born popu
lation:
The KENTUCKY ELEcTIoYs-TBE VIOLENCE Il
LoUIsvILLE-THE PEACE ELsEwHERE--Every
where throughout the State except here, the cleo
tons OF last Monday, far as we can learn, wer'
conducted without the slightest disturbance. M
elections were ever more warm and spirltc1, ve
none were carried on with strcter observance o
order.
This one fact refutes the oftrepeated declarations
of the anti American organs that the very existence
of a party protesting and practicing the principles
of the American party must OF necessity lnclte
men to violence. Even if the doctrine that Amer
leans shall rule America and not surrneder up their
government to foreigners, were calculated to exas
perate the foreigners and to provoke them to fierce
aggressons upon our property and our persons, the
doctrine itself would be none the less correct on
that account and it's practice none the less mpof'
tant. On the contrary, it's adoption and enforce
ment would be all the more necessary from the
startling fact Of the determination Of the hordes oil
the old world, landing upon our shores, not to let
us exercise quietly the power Of making our own
laws and the power Of controlling our own lnStltu
tions.
But, as we have said, all through Kentucky, ex
cept in Louisville, there was, Notwithstanding the
excitement, full as much quiet as usually attends
elections in this State. Though all the anti Amer
lean papers, by their nccndary abuse OF the Amer
lean party, had done their utmost 70 excite thelI
men to deeds of violence, there was an almost ut
ter absence of outrage. And SC it would have
been here but that some of the Irish and Germans
wrought up by their leaders and malignant advisers
almost to insanity, commenced, without even pre-
text Of just provocation, the work OF shooting down
American citizens in the streets. No man, however
onS f,1rio lv ba may at
name and the American race, dares stand forth IN
this community and deliberately deny the notorious
fact that weapon had not been drawn or drop o
blood split in any section OF the city up 10 the
time when the Irish and German guns were hred
from Irish and German windows and doors and
crannies and loopholes. Until the innocent BLOOD
of American citizens shed by foreign desperadoes
in their secret airs began 10 cry TO their country
men from the ground, men were everywhere con
graduating each other that there would be no dis
turbance of the peace and no interference with any
class of persons in the exercise Of their rights.
If guns had been fred from only one house or
from only two or three houses in single section OF
the city, we might have deemed it possible that the
whole outbreak was but the result OF some sudden
and mysterious evaporation. But when we con-
slider that there was nothing in particular to create
evaporation that the same bloody system OF action
was carried out by the foreign born people wherever
they had the strength Of numbers, and that the
quantity of arms and ammunition in their posses
sion was at least fifteen or twenty times as great as
il had ever been before, there cannot be, even il
we disregard ali the Overwhelming evidence 10 the
same effect the shadow of a doubt that the horrible
deeds of murder were deliberately planned and
deliberately executed.
We DO not DENY that the Americans, when they
had been fred on from numerous retreats, and had
seen their comrades falling around them, went too
far, and much too far, in the work of vengeance.
In the heat Of deadly conflict where life was staked
against life they did not, in every instance, dis
criminate between the guilty and the innocent. We
have no doubt that, in two or three cases, they
shed innocent blood, and the consciousness of this
must lie with q fearful weight upon the souls OF
some; yet, even those who did such deplorable
wrong may plead before earth and heaven in eXten
uation of their guilt that they meant only to assai
the guilty, that they naturally supposed all to be
guilty who we're in the houses from which the
deadly discharges Of firearms ctme-that they
were maddened by the assassination of their friends
and comrades-that they could not, in the fierce
ardOr of strife, distinguish properly between
rims aud unoffending foreigners found under the
same hostile roof-that their vision was blinded by
the terrible sight Of the blood of their brethren.
And if one innocent person slain by the
hands Of the Americans, the fact shows, with Tear
full dstinctness, the great and dreadful evils almost
necessarily attendant upon the movements OF mobs
even when gathered for the protection of the COM
munity against outrages. If rufhans and despera-
does fire from their houses upon quiet citizens it is
better that an officer of the law, summonirg all
needul aid, should storm the houses and seize the
murderers than that mob should assume the work
of the law. Aud one Of the mighty evils OF mobs
in general is that when their passions aroused,
they necessarily, as in this case confound the inno-
cent with the guilty, and too often devote both to
destruction.
The following article from the Journal of
Saturday preceding the election, shows that
the editor of that paper, so far from encour-
aging violence, as has been charged, cautioned
the American party against even prepara-
ton for contest, which may account, in some
measure, for the comparatively defenseless
condition in which they found themselves, for
conflict with the Sag NIGHTS:
From all quarters we hear of preparations made
on the anti. American side for resort to violence
at the polls We hear from q hundred sources, Of
organized bands of DULLES, who, it is said, are TO
receive extraordinary prices for their rutiany SER
vices We hear of systematic arrangements of
foreign. born persons, led on by native born Sag
Nichts TO take forcible possession of the polls on
Monday morning or Sunday night and to keep fore
Die pOcsesSlOu OF uLlli al NlCHb
shall be polled We pay very little heed to such |
reports and we hope that our American friends
will pay no heed to them. We earnestly hope that
our friends will not anticipate a collision Of force at
the polls, and that they will make no provision for
any such contingency. Let every true American
90 to the place OF voting DESTROYS only of exercis
ng his own rights and Of encouraging all others, of
whatever political party, to exercise theirs. We
10 not deem it necessary to exhort the native-bon
American citizens not TO allow themselves to be
deprived of even the least Of their rights by any
array of hostile strength, for the bare suggestion
If the possibility would be an insult that they
night well resent The idea of native-born Amer
can citizens permitting themselves to be excluded
ronDthe polls by any thought or reality OF clubs,
PISTOLS bowie knives, sword, rifles, or cannon, is
90 monstrously absurd to be entertained for one
noment by any mali thai understands the American
character.
We would, by al means soothe rather than in
lame the public feeling, for it is by far too much
r6amed already. We deprecated collision Of force
3 one of the greatest evils that could betall our
ity. It would be better for Louisville that she
hould have no Representative in Congress, better
nat she should have Representative in the State
legislature, and better that she should have no
'oce ia the election of the State ticket than she