Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-11-28
[From the. Richmond Enquirer. |
&c Last Of Observation-Disclosures


OF one thing the recent election was
decisive beyond all question-and that
is, the fate of the know-nothing party.
In the summer Of the year 1854 the
existence of the know-nothing order was
first discovered by the public, though it
is since ascertained that it had been Sc
cretly spreading some time before is
effects were visible on the surface. In
its youth the thing exhibited wonderful
precocity of mind and body. Its coun-
sells were controlled by sagacity that
would have done no discrcdit to the
graycst veteran in politics; and the
earliest display of its prowess was alto
gether worthy of an infant Hercules
In the North especially, the atmosphere
of which was in harmony with its nature,
knOw-nothingism was propagated with
the fecundity of a rattle-snake. Feeding
upon the fanatieism and the moral cor
ruptions of that unsound section of the
confederacy, the order grew with such
astounding vigor of development, that it
soon oyerspread the entire region, even
as vermin once covered Pharoaa's ac-
cursed country. Impelled by the in
stincts of rapine. the order came creep
ing in this direction; but, finding moth
ing to its taste in the South, it was soon
driven back to the nest of its nativity.
And there, under another name, it still
fourishes in unimpaired power.
In the spring of 1855 the know-noth-
ing order was confident of carrying the
Presidential election of 1856. Invinci-
bic in the North, it anticipated an equal
ly easy conquest of the South. Every
body remembers its insolence in that the
day of its power. For the democracy
it had only contempt and curses Our
doom was sealed. Nothing could APP
'pease the relentless spirit of our enemy.
We were all to be driven from power. -
The Irish, the Dutch, and the Catholics
were to be consumed in one grand auto
da-fe; and around the burning pile the
minions of .'Sam" were to leap and yell
in dclirium of drunken joy. This
was the programme of its policy this
was the delightful prospect which stimu-
lated the energies of know nothingisiu
to SO desperate an effort. And, in truth,
the ambition was not altogether ridicu-
Ions. If Virginia had given way in the
spring of 1S55-if our invincible de-
mocracy had been unable to repel the
onset-what other State in the South
would have arrested the march of know
nothingism, with all its prestige of un-
broken success and all the power of its
accumulated conquests? But Virginia
stood firm, and her gallant democracy
rolled back the tide of invasion from the
soil of the South From that day-from
the memorable oath of May, 1855, when
Henry A, Wise gloriously triumphcG
over the "invincible invisbles," down
to the 4th of November, 1856, when
James Buchanan defeated the coalition
of Fremont and Fillmoro-the decline
of know-nothingism has been rapid and
uninterrupted. 1t was never able to
recover from the effect of that first fatal
blow. Its dissolution was inevitable in |
the course Of time.
The nomination of Fillmore was am
effort of despair. There was a bare
possibility that the responsibility of his
name might compensate for the iHfaiiy I
OF his party; and that the power of pre- |
Judice and association would rally the
remnant of the wing organization to his
support. This was the philosophy of
tnlmore's nomination; its folly is seen
IN the result of the election. Instead of
Irescuing know-nothingism from ruin,
know-nothingism carries him TO the bot Z
tomless abyss of perdition. In every
State of the Union but one, aud that Of
the least respeetability, the know-noth-
ing party sustains an ignominious defeat