Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-03-06
d FhOG Il A MME OF THE 4 NOW-
NOTHINGS.

NOTHINGS.
The New York Herald, which has identified it.
self with the Know-Nothing movements, gives the
following as the programme of the new party in
the Presidential Canvass of 1856:
First of all, then. the Know Nothings, as a par
ty, have no authorized newspaper organs, nor will
they have any. Those which assume to be their
organs are catch-penny individual enterprises
The party will have no newspaper organs. They
will manage the enrolment Of their forces and
their work for the election, State and National,
in their clubs and councils, leaving the newspa-
pers of all parties perfectly free to the discussion
of public men, public measures, and great politi-
cal issues and principles, among themselves. Ac-
cordiDg to tho system, as carried out in the late
Massachusetts and other surprises of the Know
Nothings, expect to sweep ali, or nearly all, the
State elections of the ensuing year, Just as they
have swept Massachusetts, from stem to stern. =
And why not? The old parties are disbanded-
the people are frec-the field is open, and the
coast is clear. .-.4t Cd. ..t --- . ~-l
Assuming that the Know Nothings, upon this
novel and inaccessible system of action will car
ry the State elections Of the ensuing year, North
and South, it becomes manifest that the usual
Baltimore party conventions may be dispensed
with, and that they probably will be postponed to
the next election. The Know Nothngs will have
the game in their hands. The questions then re-
cur, what is to be their programme for the Presi-
Dental election? Who will be their candidate ?
How will they nominate him? What will be his
platform? And how will they conduct the cleo
pioneering business of the campaign T. s-,. 7e-.
These are important questions; but they may
be answered in very brief exposition Of the SIM
pie constitutional plan which the Know Nothings
will most probably pursue. When the Presiden-
tial campaign comes on, they will meet in their
State councils, and in each State, respectively,
nominate an electoral ticket, emitting any men
ton of their candidate for President or Vice
President. Their electoral ticket itself. to the
unintiated, may be left as matter of conjecture
till election days but it will most likely leak oat
in the outset, or in the progress of the canvass,
as secret Of secondary Importance. In any
event, the usual caption of the electoral ticket
to wit the candidates of the party for President
and Vice President-will be left blank. The
people do not vote for President and Vice Presi-
dent they vote for the electoral ticket, as ex-
pressy ordained in the federal constitution.
Under this plan, the newspapers may have as
many candidates for the Know Nothings as they
please but of the real candidate they will know
nothing, or next to nothing till after the election.
This arrangement will leave the claims of every
Presidential aspirant in the country perfectly free
may have as many organs as may volunteer in his
behalf, or as many as he can afford to purchase.
Gen. Scott, Gen. Wool, Gen. Houston, Gen.
Cass, Gen. Pierce, Gen. Pillow, and all the other
Generals, all the Cabinet, and Kitchen Cabinet,
Buchanan, Mason, Dickinson, Hunter, Fillmore,
Clayton, Everett, Crittenden, John Bell, Jacob
Broome, Henry s. Mott, Mayor Conrad, Daniel
Ullmann, and all the resi-, may have run, if they
choose, in the newspapers and on the stump, each
as the candidate Of the Know Nothings. But the
order themselves will most probably come to no
fixed determination upon their candidate till after
the election. when the election is over, it shall
turn out that the Know Nothings have secured
majority of the vote of the electoral colleges,
then, by q preconcerted arrangement of their
connciis, their electoral tickets in the severar
States which they shall have carried, will be conl
centrated upon one and the same individual TO
President.