Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1855-06-08
A Severe but Friendly Rebuke

A Severe but Friendly Rebuke.
The New York Courier and Enquirer, in
its issue of the 10Th ut, administers some
searching inq uires into the purposes and
plans Of the Order of Know Nothngs The
Enquirer has ever manifested the warmest
sympathy with the preiessed principles Of the
Order, and no little degree Of attachment for
the Order itself. Coming from nm ayowed
friendly source, as does this article, with
such probing Therapeutics, and indirectly
sweeping rebuke for the practices OF the
order, II seems TO " II must appeal with no
ineonslderabe weight to the Judgment Of
thinking men, to enquire seriously as to the
proprlety Of the course and practices of the
Know othings. We extract the following
from the article -
!, is the business then Of the Know Moth
ings, If they want support, to have
themselves understood by the country. Let
them put their principles and their measures
into an explicit and Ineligible shape. There
Is an obscurity now resting thereupon which
keeps the Judgment Of consistent and prudent
men in painful suspense. This uncertainty
relates not only TO the general political ques-
tons of the day, but even to the Inherent and
distinctive characteristics Of the Order itself
i
the law of tolerance and equal Justice.
A Roman Catholic bigot is not a seemly
object, but Protestant bigot Is perfect
monster lie is a monster because he IS a
complete inversion of his own proper nature.
lie exhibits in his person a moral contradic.
ton that fills every rational beholder with
either pity or contempt. We tell the Know
Nothings plainly that the people of this
L trril L.,
than they will naturalist the old cast.a way,
and sbominsted, corporation and test acts If
England. They will take and bear with any
pest that the Europe of the nineteenth cen
tnry eau send in living shape, sooner than
adopt a European principle OF the eighteenth
century, dead and turned TO carbon
Aud again, this character of secrecy, is it
to be permanent Have the Konw-Noihings
made up their minds that their aims and their
operations cannot stand exposure; Is the
country to understand that il is their nature
10 live in the dark-iheir born, interchangeable,
nature, that cannot be put of without self
destruction This is a matter of prime con
sequence. Privacy for time, in OF ignating
and developing the mere material orranisa-
ton Of a new political agent, is one thing /:
privacy, as an established and permanent
. ANEhihAfhf III AhN lNAAAtNA management oil
the country, is quite another. The former
has been scquiesced in; the latter, cannot
be-
Yet again, the rule Of implicit obedience,
is that 10 be lastingS Is Il to be understood
that the first demand always 10 be mads by
the association is the abdcalion of private
judgment, and that this is an essential law of
it's existence Must sane men ever 20 on
4
authority: If this is the calculation, let It
be SO understood. 1t has to do directly with
the estimate 10 be put on tho moral quality
Of the Order IL viii decide the question
whether we have, at last, a society of protes-
tant Jesuits amongst us. The three first
characteristics Of the society Of lGNArIus
LoroLA, are the very three which have been
the subject of our present Inquiry-excluslve-
ness, secrecy, and implicit oath bound sub
mission. There is spirit in man which
groans beneath the weight Of its own free
dom and exults in bondage, if only permitted
10 think that the chain has been voluntarily
assumed. lGsATiUs took advantage of this,
and made the most Of it. Have the Know
No,hIngs adopted il as their own standing
; lesson; II they really have, we advise them
for their own credits sake, TO add the fourth
of the lgaatian articles, which forbids any
member Of the Society Of Jesus to accept
any ecclesiastical or civil dignity. 1t ID alb
suTd for them to endeavor to run parallel with
the Jesuits, and fall short of them, in the no.
blest Of all human qualities-dislntereste
ness. II is precisely here that they have
made their poorest figure, and they know il.
Let our friends look to il. They have read
some Of them must have read In their Igna-
tan studies the story of the Jesuit Ron
RIGUEs, who as he emerged from his secret
man of terrible aspects and mighty stature,
armed with naked sword and breathing
menaces. We advise them to keep clear OF
such lesuitical retreats, or they too will some
day find giant in their path, and one from
which there will be no dellyerance
We have written in good will and in kind
ness. We have long since given our hear
test appreciation to the great object which
the Know -Nothings profess to have in view,
the redemption our institutions from foreign
influence. We are as anxious as any that
this end should be reached. But il never
ought to be, and never can be, reached by
the adoption of the very systems and the use
of the very instrumen,alIties its pursuit is in
tended to counteract. II must be reached, il
NJ All, On american gfouhu, III itotestan
spirit, with Republican means. 1t must BE-
reached in daylight and not in darkness
through an open party, not a secret conied
eracy, by men with seeing eyes and hearing
, ears and speaking lips, by men who are reg,
ulators Of their own thoughts, masters o
their own actions, keepers of their own man
/ hood. We are for an American movement
i in an American direction, on an American
: method. II the Know Nothings are for this
9 let them show it (; If they are not for it, lie
l them be Stunned and desPlsed as false pre-
& tenders.