Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-07-26
From the Philadelphia Pennsylyanian.
The Know Nothing Council and the
Hartford Convention


Americans can offer no reasonable excuse
or secret politics. The genius of our repub-
ican institutions, founded upon popular rep ,
and a coTelative accountability
10 the people, exacts frank and open action.
Whatsoever is other than this, cOmeth ofeylL
and is at war with truly American politics.
Secret skulking plots, under the pletenoe ~
noltical action. are the offspring OF J0relgR IN
huence, hostile to the welfare OF our oelo'eu
country: and the American heart lett TO ITS
o,,.r, inonulses. will loathe and despise them. I
I, matters not bv what name such combna- /
ems are called. or in whit specious guises
tI,ov are clothed. the nature of the thing re-
ros;ns the same. and its iniquity as great
Tbe National Council of Know Nothngs
which recently met in our city, had its pro-
totvpe, in many respects, in the secret Con-
vention which met at Hartford, in l814.-
The aims of both assemblies were tTeasona-
bic, though each profesSed patriotism. Meth
Ell body would have dared to do openly, that
which was done by each under the cover of
secrecy, because none can make open war
upon republican freedom, in this country,
with the slightest prospect of success
The insidious foes of republicanism must
move at midnight, and by stealth. With
dagger and dark lantem-the implements OF
the assaSsin-they can venture from their
| lurking places only when true men slumber
But fortunately for us, such occasions are
rare; and that eagle-eyed and eternal vigilance
by which Americans hold their liberty, has
never vet failed to detect the dark plots OF
its enemies, and conSign to appropriate pun
ishment those who have led in them
The projectors of the Hartford Convention,
with their prominent adherents, soon became
objects of public scorn from which they new
err again escaped. The same measure of JUS
tice already hangs over the heads of the Know
Nothing leaders and chief mummers, which
they will realize in proportion to the nature
of their conspiracy against the rights of man
kind and the constitution of their country, I
unfolded and understood.
The Superlative Americanism which the
Know NOthings have assumed, loses much
its originality in their hands, when we lool
into the proceedings of the Hartford Conven
ton. 1t will be found 20 be a cIap-trap, which
that party wore cut forty years ago, and cas-
aside as useless. 1t is upon the minutes o
the Hartford Convention, under the date o
December 29th, 1914, thus" That the ca
pacitv of naturalzed citizens to hold Office
Of trust, honor, or profit, ought to be restrain
ed; and that it Is expedient to propose a
amendment to the Constitution of the Unite
States in relation to that subject" That wa
one of the lodges of the Convention, to cove
their own secret treason with sham patriot
ism. But it no more served their purpos
than the hypocritical assumption of excluslv
Americanism, by the Know NOthings OF tn
present dav, can serve to conceal the hideoI
=, no
uralized citizens were fighting the battles
their adopted country, native traitors WEI
giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Man
of the active Know Nothings cannot be c,
pected to be informed upon this subject f
their parents had not yet emigrated to Anne
lea, when these things occurred. We trus
therefore that a little enlightenment Will m
be altogether lost upon them. The followir
extract from the Olive Braach-publlshC
almost contemporaneously with the even
referred to, viii present in admirable contra;
the difference between profession OF supe
lative and exclusive Americanism, and Il
practices of those who professed it.
"Let us contemplate, for moment, Il
spectacle there exhibited to the view of Il
world. | will not go over the disasters
the war, nor describe the difficulties in whi'
the government was involved 1t will be 7
collected, that its credit was nearly gor
Washington had fallen, the whole coast W
blockaded, and an immense force collects
in the West Indies, was about TO make d
scent, which it was supposed we had
means of resisting. In this awful state of o
public affairs, when the government SCENE
to be almost tottering on its base, when Gre
Britain, relieved from almost all her 9th
enemies, had proclaimed her purpose of r
q ducing us to unconditional submission we
held the peace party in New England purs
. inc a course calculated to do more injury
j. their country, and to render England mo
= effective service than all her armies. Tho
~ who could not find It in their hearts to rejoi
:, - at our victories, sang tie Deum' at the King
= Chapel in Boston at the restoration of ii
" Bourbons. Those who would not consent
y illuminate their houses for the capture of Il
= Guirriere, could give visible tokens Of the
y Joy at the fall of detroit. The beacon fire
! of their hills were lighted up, not for the el
u enlargement Of their friends, but as signals
: the enemy; and in the gloomy hours of miC
= night, the very lights burned blue. Sue
J. were the dark and portentious signs of th
= times which ushered in the renowned Har
: ford Convention. That Convention met, an
= from their proceedings, it appears that the
chief object was TO keep back the men an
money of New England from the service {
the Union, and to effect radical changes i
= the Government-changes that can never
effected without dissolution Of the Union.
Such was the patriotism Of those VII
= wrapt themselves up in an exclusive Amer
. canism forty years ago, and resolved that TIL
capacity of naturalzed citizens to hold office
: of trust, honor, or profit, ought to be restrain
\ ed? They were the Know Nothings of th
days Of the Hartford Convention, and thei
!, mantle Of principles has fallen upon the Know
I Nothings of to-day. 1t makes good fit; lie
/ them wear it while they live, and be burie'
:. in il afterwards.
r But shall not Americans rule America
Certainly they SHALL Americans always hav,
since the Fourth Of July, 1879, do now, anC
always will rule America But to hav,
, America governed by secret treason, and anti
intolerance, would be quite another thing
To a government administered by Hartford
!, Conventions and Know Nothing Councils
organized under vicious oaths against Consti
tutional freedom, we are radically opposed
And we feel Just rs little sympathy for sucl
Americans as have prostituted their manhood
and surrendered their independence in those
lurking places of infamy.
| JUDGE PERKINS OF LOUIsIANA.-Wes sincere
ly regret that the country is to be deprived
of the valuable services of this rising states
man and inhexible patriot in the next Con.
gress. Although he positively declined, in
formal manner, a reelection, yet such is the
estimation in which he is held by his imme
date fellow-ctizens, that many of the mem
bers-nearly majority-ofthe recent Demo
cratic Convention, which assembled at Batol
Rouge for the purpose of nominating his sue.