Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-01-16


ehise now enjoyed among us.
9Th We hold that all unnaturaliEed Foreigners
who are present or who may hereafter come among
us, may enjoy all the rights Of American citizens
except voting and holding office
6th. We hold that the United States, as gov
srnment, has right 10 state the terms upon which
Foreigners may become citizens aud no Foreigner
has right TO complain Of such laws
It'll. We hold that no person OF foreign birth
should be appointed to Ill any Office Of honor, trust
or profit, in these United States, while Americans
can be found who are capable or willing OF receiy-
ing the same.
Here are the principles avowed by the first Ma
tive American Association. IL was TO AID tnose
principles that the American citizens Assem- bied IN
Kensington, and il for daring TO exercise TINS
privilege in lawful, peaceful manner, that Ameri-
can citizens we're first beaten off with stones and
clubs and then shot down, and inhumanly massa-
cred in the public streets
In yery few months an American Republican
Association, embracing many OF the most intelll-
gent and respectable citizens, sprang into exist
ence in almost every ward throughout our city and
county When in February, notice was given that
a meeting was about TO be held in the Second
Ward HoyarensiRg, for the purpose OF organic
ing an American Republican Association in that
district, declarations were boldly and literally made
to some considerable extent, that no meeting oil
tho kind should there be held-the meeting was
held in the Commissioners Hall; one of The Com
nissioners Of Moyanensing an Irishman by birth,
and by name McDonough, demanded to know
" lo had the d'daeity' to give up the Hall for the
use of the Native AmericansN Say whether or
not there was not cause for the organization of the
American Republican party, and determined and
persevering maintenance of its principlesy Who,
fifty years ago, would have supposed that newly
imported foreigner would have, at this day, the
a,sdacity to question the right of American free
men to occupy their own public halls for the pui-
poses for which they were erected? And yet, such
was indeed the case. In 1884, in the northern
part Of the township, election day, the Irish
oedusrs of Kensington and Spring Garden, with
their blue sticks, drove American citizens from the
polls.
On the 18th of March, at an election in Spring
Garden, the Native Americans were assaulted Mt
the polls, and the common method of the lower
classes Of Irishmen--a resort TO brute force, was
employed to drive them off, and thus deprive them
Of one of the most inestimabe privileges of citizen
ship In this disturbance, which at one time threat
ened to be alarming, one man was severely injured.
Thus, it will be perceived, that the disposition Of
the Kensngton rioters was no new thing. IL did
not spring up suddenly in that district some OF
the venal presses would have made it appear in
consequence of the infammatory speeches Of Ma
tive American speakers but IT had been imbibed
and was tenderly nursed, long before the progress
Of the new party had reached that neighborhood
Associations Of American Republicans having
been formed in almost all the other wards in the
city and county, the Native American citizens Of
Third Ward, Kensington, resolved to organize an
association in that Ward, also, and accordingly
gave the usual notice for meeting to be held for
that purpose, on an evening in the latter part OF
April, at the house of Mr.. John Gee, in Second
street, above Phoenix. On assembling, however,
at the place and time appointed, the citizens were
informed that the intended meeting could not be
held in that house, in consequence OF certain vio-
lent threats which had been made and widely cir
culated that any house in that Ward which should
be used for the purpose of holding Native Amer
lean meeting should be burned to the ground The
proprietor Of the establishment was 8 tsfed that
these threats were not idly made.
IL was hence determined by the persons assem-
bled to adjourn to another Ward, and they accord
ingly repaired to a house in the Second Ward,
where their meeting was held in peace. Here we
have an instance OF atrocity without parallel Ill
the history Of our country. Never before were the
citizens of any Ward compelled to hold their po
ltical meetings in Ward adjoining, to escape the
fury of foreign rabble Other meetings OF the
Third Ward were afterwards held within the limits
Of the Second Ward. Invitations were extended
TO gentlemen to address these meetings, who re-
fused to comply, on the ground of their not being
held In their proper place. This induced the mem
bers of the Third Ward Association to make an
other effort to hold meeting in their own Ward,
and accordingly they published the following notice
in the 'sNorth American of the I'd and Sd of May:
a meeting of the Native-born Citizens Of the
Third Ward, Kensington, was held on Monday
evening" the 29th ult After eecting officers, they
adjourned to meet in mass meeting on Friday af
tsrnoon, May 8, at o'clock, at the corner of Sec
ond and Master streets. All friendly to the cause
are invited to attend. at
WIN. CRAIG, President.
JOHN McMANus, Secretary"
Agreeably to the above notice. q number Of the
Native Americans assembled on the open lot adj
joining the Public School House at the corner of
Master and Second streets. Their meeting was or
ganized, and they proceeded to transact their bust
ness In peaceable and quiet manner. Mr.. s. X.
Kramer, publisher of the Native American, was
called upon to address the assembly, which was
quite small, and had taken the stand in answer to
that call, and commenced an explanation Of the
principles of the new party, when suddenly num-
Der Of foreigners rushed forward, assaed the
meeting with shouts, hootings, and clubs and
drove away its members in confusion, without
the slightest attempt at forcible resistance. The
stand of the speaker was torn from under his
feet, and the staging demolished The assailants,
on this OCCASION were Irish Catholics, and priest
Of the Catholic church had left the vicinity within
an hour previous to the attack. We make no com
ment upon this fact. The reader is left to decide
whether his influence, if exerted, might not have
this shameful breach of peace and dar-
ing violation of the law
Having been thus forcibly driven from the place
Of meeting, the American Republicans repaired to
the George Fox Temperance Hall, where they
again organized. After which the following pre-
amble aud resolutions we're unanimously adopted
Whereas, The citizens of Kensington, have been
violently assailed and matreated at meeting for
the expression of their opinions on public policy
and for the declaration of their feelings, and have,
in pursuance of this same violent spirit, been driv
en- by outcry and clubs from the place designated
for their neutrality-suspicious.
Resoived, That we, the citizens of Kensngton
in mass meeting assembled, do solmenly protest