Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-02-23

legislation of Massachusetts,; the crimi-
nal trials of New York. Can native
expect justice from judge or jury of
foreigners, Or foreigner from these ma
tive officials ? Protestant from Cath
olics, or Catholic from Protestants p
At trial in Massachusetts, Know-noth-
ings excused themselves from testifying
to facts important to justice, on the
ground that their testimony would sub
ject them to (Know-nothing) pains and
penalties. And the Judge decided that
these volunteer, self-assumed response
bilities placed the witness within the rule
''that no man is bound to testify to facts
that will criminate himselfr' They tes-
tilted, however, very freely against the
Catholic who was on his trial! What
confidence will those who remain in the
lodges have in those who left them p
What confidence those who left them in
those who remain in them
Before the magnates of the Order,
gathered at Philadelphia, were pleased
to release the members themselves in
Guided, of course) from so much of their
oaths as required them to conceal their
membership and the membership of their
fellows, the Know-nothings must have
mustered at least 500, 900 strong. 1t is
safe to assume that each one of them was
questioned as to his membership, or the
membership of others, at least ten times
on an average. How did they meet
these questions? How were they obliged
to meet them under their oaths? Why,
by-what shall | call them, brother, to
speak the truth without giving offence ?
| viii call them unt,ubS, knowing no
softer name for them Here were 5 ,000,-
600 of untruths scattered broadcast over
the whole surface of the Union as the
first fruits of Know-nothingism. Many,
very many of them dropped from the
lips of Christiansl How were the most
of these 10000 got into the Order p
BY members pretending ignorance of it;
for they were under oath not to acknowl-
edge their membership, or to disclose
the secrets of the brotherhood. They
must, therefore, have been guilty of
wilful deception with every proselyte
they gained. Say that 100000 were
gained over in this way, and we have
300, 600 more untruths distributed
through the country as the price of 50
many converts to Know-nothingism. -
Thousands and hundreds of thousands
have left the Order, and they almost
unanimously testify that they found it
not to be what it was represented to be-
For time all who withdrew and spoke
against it were denounced as perjured
knaves and traitors. This was true or
false, according as they found the thing
to agree Or disagree with the representa-
tons of it made to them-a caadid rep
resentation of it, as we have seen, could
not have been made to them by the law
of the Order. If true, what a food OF
iniquity poured out of the Order when
they left it !! If false, what language is
too severe to characterize the calumuy
heaped upon them by their recent brcth-
rem
Mr.. Simon Wolf, of Pennsylvania,
who writes like man of wisdom and
truth, after detailing tho hattering but
delusive representations by which he
was induced to join the Know Nothings,
thus concludes: " Ino,o decJare that, IN
a life Of sirty gears, Iha0e peuer Jouod,
IN loricate or puJtic, IN politics or ont Of
II, IN Church or IN Suite, as much deceit,
yfatsehood, and corruption as found IN
the se.f-styled american party.'"
To thislet me add the testimony of a
man, little older than Mr.. Wolf, who
never did join the american party"
! was born and yaised (if Mr. Hillyer
please sec Worcester, Mr.. H. in the
State of Georgia, where there are now
over Al, 900 Know-Nothings. not one of
whom, ! will venture to say, will assert
that he knows blemish on my moral
character. | have mingled much and
disputed much in politics, and more in
law. ! have been twenty-eight years a
member Of the Methodist church, and
sixteen years minister Of the Gospel
and ! never was calleda dotard or fool,
or likened TO clown, under mems own
signatures, or charged with falschood
and turpitude by Methodist preachers,
until ] came in contact with Know-No-
things; nor have j ever been, in the
whole course Of my life, as much calum-
mated as | have been by Know-Nothings
and their champions in the last nine
months Never did / see such an in
tolerant, arrogant, insolent, over-bearing,
inconsistent, vindictiye party as this. 1t
bellies me into opposition to it, and then
tellsm that, as minister of Che Gospel,
have no right to NEEDLE with potitics.
] reply, then, the hundreds Of preachers
who are in it should come out Of it.. 1t
rejoins that it is religions in its character
again respond, if it be religious, sure
ly, as a religious man, have a right To-
discuss its orthodoxy, ana to counsel my
brethren who belong TO it; and it again
repeats that it is politicali Its reltgion
is reduced to one article: d" No Office for
Catholics" So of its politics: ono Of
fee for foreigners" It's religious cxer-
eises consist (occasionally) in rummaging
into ladies' wardrobes, riding Catholics
on rails, hooking their services, as
saulting their persons, and battcring their
houses Of worship. Its political exer-
cises consist (occasioaaHy) in killing for
eigners, firing their houses, and giving
their bodies TO the flames. It's protested
.-..4s-es-~--.~-@-~~-a-~
teen or sixteen at time that an lrishman IN
sisted on passing when seventeen were IN; that
be became bosteroug when Thomas Jeffrey, 10
prsoem yiolenee, struck him on the head. This
from know-nothings.