Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-04-24
KNOW NOTHING INCONSISTENCY.


talks Of the schig party of Tennessee as something
palpable, and of the hopes and prospects OF 'na'
party The election of Mr.. GENTRY would, IN tne
opinion of the True Wing, be triumph Tor that
achio paytv. The defeat of Gov. JOHNSON would,
in the opinion of that paper, be defeat OF the
democratic paytg. So far, all is plain sailing. We
can understand this We believe it to be exactly
the truth. But when we say the same thing in eff
feet although we state the fact in different Ian
guage, the True Wing fatty denies it, Its argument
then is, that this know nothing crusade is "a
great American movement" in which wings and
democrats equally participate. At the same time,
the Tfpe Wing calls itself a schig paper, and con-
tinues TO talk OF the a0hig party and of sohg prin
ciples And at the same time, the True Wing adj
vocates the know-nothing movement ard rejoices
at all its successes whether in wing or democratic
Statesl In its opinion, know-nothing victory is
alauays something to be rejoiced over as q demo-
cratic defeat and never result to be grieved at
aclig defeat. Clearer than this, the True Wing
hes lately, in sort of family quarrel with the Ga
aette in effect maintained its right to be, and its
i consistency in being both wing and know
nothing organ at one and the same timel Every
wing paper in the State is an advocate of know
nothngism, and every democratic paper opposes it.
When democrat is heard of who advocates know
nothingism, the fact is heralded from one end of
the State TO the other by these aehig papers, as
something to be greatly rejoced at We never
hear one of them say that q wing leaves has party
organization by becoming aknow-nothing.
And yet, furnishing as itself does, all these evil
dences of the literal truth Of our declaration, that
whiggery and know-aothingism are identical, the
True Wing denies the statement when we make It'll
Yesterday, it referred to the case of a Mr.. s. T.
TAYLOR, of Upton county, conclusive proof that
know-nothngism is not wing trick. Mr.. 7ay1or's
case is this: He wanted to be the democratic can
didate for representative of the counties of Upton,
Fayette, and Shelby. The democrats of Upton
suspected him of know nottingham and drew him
out. He avowed his sympathy for Buntnism, and
the democrats of Upton dropped him ike some
thing politically nasty. And the True Wing thinks
thai this fact should convince US that the great
American movement is not whg trick -" 1t is,
however case in point that it as wing trick, and
that it has caught one gudgean.
The True Wing, then, has offered no evidence to
show that know -nothingism in Tennessee is not a
wing trick, while it is daily filed to the brim with
evidence that it is. 1t has simply shown that, in
some few instances, the trick has proved success
ful, and that we have never denied.
We have lived to expose TOO many of these wing
tricks, to be deceived by this last and baldest of
ALL We can tell that same old coon" as far as
we can see him. We have had, as editors in Ten
A. Id loI o.
ter Jackson man" and that the running of him for
President was 4" a wing trickI" The charge, when
made was filriously denied. Yet it is now history,
which the True Wing will not question. In 1910,
we had opportunity of becoming acquainted
with several wing tricks. In l643, we very well
remember that we had more trouble with "bank
democrats" than we have now with know-nothing
democrats. We said then that bank or no bank
was the great issue, and that the man who was for
bank, wasn't democrat. And the wing papers
then, using the same trick that the wing papers use
now, pointed us to nominal democrats here and
there, who were for bank, as proof that it wasn't
party issue Need we tell the True Wing how
that bank question was finally settled and whether
it was or was not party issue? Then, again, in
lS48, Gen. TAYLOR was "no party canddatel"
Oil mol He wasn't an ultra Vhig, you remember
And didn't the wings prove that he was no party
candidate, by showing that democrats were for
him2 Yet we rather think that when he was
elected, il was called aOhig Victo'yi Democrats
who had voted for him, very soon then found out
what no -partyism meant. And in 1852 when the
True Wing was so devotediy in love with foreign
ers-so delighted with the rich Irish brogue-so
much attached TO the German accent-so griev-
ously shocked at the exclusion of Catholics from
ofice-that hot summer OF 1852l-how well we
remember the labor of proving to the people that
all these professions were wing trlckl That the
True Wings party only wanted TO use theforeigners
and the Catholics, and didn't really care CONT
mental dime what became of them And now,
when the True Wing turns right about and makes
hatred to foreigners and particular form of re-
Egion ifs single issue for political campaign, does
it really think it deceive as TO thetrue char
acter Of IFS party, after so long acquaintance?
No, Sir We can tell that same old coon as far as
we can see him He fights against democracy, and
cares nothing for any religion. lie would as soon
swear his followers to vote against Protestant as
against Catholic, if it would pay as well. He is
now emphatcaIy in his element-prowling in dark
alleys, "between midnight and day break" He is
drtier than we have known him before and darker
colored from rubbing so closely against northern
nggerdom. But he is ''the same old coon," and
shrewd enough yet to fool occasionally asoft and
unsuspecting democrat
But the democrats who have been deceived by
this last and meanest trick of ''that same old coon
are rapidly detecting the fraud and leaving the
"order" A few, who wanted an excuse for leaving
theirparty and going to whiggery, will stick to
it We bid hearty good radiance to all such.
But the houest, who have been unsuspectingly de-
ceived, will quit the concern the moment they see
the cause of whiggery and know nothingism iden-
tilted in the persons Of Gentry and other know
nothing wing candidates.
And we can assure the True Wing that we have
never, in our lives, felt more perfect confidence in
the future of DEMOCRACY than we feel this day. II
needs great issues to rouse the DEMOCRATIC PARTY
TO the exercise of its majestic strength five have
triumphed over the enemies of equal rights and
free government on the comparatively unimpor-
tant issues which have thus far been raised in our
history, it is to doubt the intellect of Manage!