Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1855-03-17
DOWN ON THE KNOW NOTHINGS.
From the PicaYune.l

! "Mene, Meme, Tekel, Upharsin," inscribed upon
its walls, intimating to him in letters of fire
that he hand been weighed in the balance and
found to depart from him, has there been a
greater political fright than that with which
the parties have been agitated by the fo-ma.
ton of a new party, whose motto is "a plague
on both your houses,"-we "know-Nothing"
of either, and don't care to. How to fight this
new and growing party seems to tax the in
genuity and invention of the shrewdest leaders
and organs Of the old ones. They find itcon-
sisting of men of all sorts of opinions in some
matters, but who are united on its main grand
principles; and when they are in the midst of a
struggle to prove that the party in question is
heterodox on this point, at the North, they are
met with the response-that so has been every
| other party that ever existed in the republic;
and then when, turning round, they find that
the same new party is at fault in the South,
they discover that in this it is no worse off
than every other that has preceded it. And
how, in their agony, they exclaim, can we fight
such a party!
A short time ago a portion of the press rang
with the cry that the new American party was
an Abolition party, and the bug.a-boo story
was raised that it was but Garrisonism, Theo-
dore Parkerism and Wendell Phillipsism in
disguise. Seward the arch.abolitionist, said
these terrified organs, has been elected by
know. nothing votes, and Known othingism
is Abolitionism. sand nothing else"
But now that we find Lloyed Garrison, lee
turing in the Broadway Tabernacle against the
Know othings, and abusing Houston, of
Texas, on the bare suspicion of having any.
thing to do with them; now that we see Thur
low Weed in the Albany Evening Journal,
and Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune,
Safeguarding them as "Hindoos," now that
we discover William II. Seward, who is in the
field as the Abolition candidate for the next
Presidency, making set speeches against them
in the United States Senate, we find that tune
changed, and the new pitch is on quite another
key.
Now it is religion. Do the Know othings
mean to prescribe men for their religious belief!
is the cry. The first cry of Abolitionism is
given up, for the Abolitionists are all dead
against the new party, and as there is nothing
in party politics, like "a good cry" the new cry
is, the Know. Nothings are down upon the Ca.
tholics! And this "cry" will have its day, and,
like the other, will in due time fade into the
murmur, and eventually die out in
utter extinction.
AS we understand the object of the Ameri-
can party, it is to divest the issue they present
Of all these outside considerations, and to pre-
sent the naked questions, whether Americans
cannot govern America-wether the ballot has
not become vi;iated by a too lax construction
Of the laws of naturalization, and their practi-
,al application-whether the consequence of |
This has not been that the real wish and under.
standing, in the heart of this people, with re.
gard to that which makes for their peace, their
prosperity, and their welfare, has had its con-
and deliberate utterance impeded
BY the facility with which our laws, as they
lave been interpreted and administered, have
been wrcsted to party purposes.
A reform that strikes so deep, so radically as
his, that goes down to the very basis of old
buses, grown almost venerable by the prac-
ice OF all parties alike, and boldly avows its
object to be to topple them all over, like a
dangerous ruin that threatens every passer by,
'ery naturally excites the o%ppugnancy Of those
whose interest it is to keep the old tottering
'~tructure standing as long as it can cover their
otherwise defenceless heads, and to perpetuate
abuses by which they alone can keep breath
their bodies. And thus w need not be at
II surprised to find demagogues sometimes
xclaiming that "The Know othings are
Abolitionists in disguised" while the Northern
Abolitionists are denouncing the same Know
as aHindoos."
Again, VIZ hear a great hue and cry raised
gainst the new American party, on the GROUND
nat its supporters work in secret! Another 4
'ansparent piece of humbug, this! For what
arty that ever was known in this, or any other f..
did not initiate its workings in secret? ,
hey will not be accused, we presume, of vo.
ng in secret, of coming up to the polls, and |
k~ercising the right of suffrage, under cloud of
Ight. And when they have chosen their men,
'ey do not turn ont to be the sort of folk that /
afraid Of declaring their principles, and Of g
oldIy assuming the responsibility Of carving j
lem out, practically and effectually.
Secret societies! What are all the caucuses. e
committees, the preliminary ward meetings i
r nomination, the Tammany Halls, the Broad. q
Houses, Albany Regencies, and all the P