The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-04-01
WESTERN DEMOCRAT.
10; CHARLOTTE 05r
Tuesday Morning, April |, 1856.
DESOLATE CONDITION OF KNOW No
THING1SM-THE PHILADELPHIA
NOMINATE 4 GRIND FAILURE.


the Philadelphia Know Nothing National
CeRSeutiun, and of the embarrassing and
fatal position of its chief nominee:
The Know Nothing National Convention
has had its appropriate result. \ body
made up in about equal proportion of inca
pables and impra Notwithstanding from
beginning to end in confusion and tur-
moil that was absolute chaos-stultifying
itself by taking delegation from Roman
Catholic constituency, in direct contrayen-
ton of one of the very first articles of its
crccd-breaking up all previous platforms
and leaving the fragments III a state in
which no one knows whether they belong
to the Order or not-it>clf lettering for days
upon the very brink of disruption, and to-
wards the last not able to prevent the break
ing away of one full third-the body fully
enough wound up itS career by settling upon
a man who stands entirely aloft from the
OrganiZatiOn-a mere outsider. We do net
deny that the nomination actually made
was the best one that could have been made
under the circumstanccs-wc are bound to
presume that il waS-but the circumstances
must have been cruel indeed that imposed
such n necessity. 1t is the first time i'll
American politics that Il party has ever
been Obliged to 90 out of its own pale for
an available candidate. The case is the
more extraordinary in the fact that it is al
together unknown what the sentiments of
this nominee are towards the party and its
objects. He has made no declaration of
those sentiments. There is nothing in his
previous official life to show that his views
accord with those of the Know Nothing
party. A majority of the delegates from
his own State, who must be presumed to be
best acquainted with his actual relations to
the party, made Il written protest against
his nomination, in which it was declared
that ''the nominee is not a member of the
American party; he has never been inside
of Council room, and no act of his life,
no word spoken or line written by him,
which we have any knowledge of, indicates
that he has any sympany with the party, or
would carry out its principles :" and stig-
matiSed the nomination as "a BETRAYAL of
the American movement, traitorOus at
tempt to wrest it from its purpose" We
will not say that so harsh language is de-
served-for the act finds perhaps a suffi-
Gent excuse in the necessity-but it is I'M
deniable that the nomination is a virtual re-
inqnishmcnt of the distinctive principles of
the party heretofore professed. The party
that dares not to go into battle under a
leader, and with a standard of its own, is
no longer a party-iti is a mere collection of
'aereenaries. limo Iongerfghts for a cause
spOilS are ITS only object.
Mr.. Fillmore, we suppose, will accept
this nomination. This in itself is easy en-
ough-but thereafter will come trial. He
will have to stand very sharp interrogating
from all parties and from all quarters of the !
Union. n-cOmmittalism, in his case, is |
clearly impossible. Even surprising that
the mass of the voters in the party which
nominated him, would allow it, in respect
to the objects which they have professed to
have at heart, still there are other interests
which cannot he lullcd into indifference,
and other questions which cannot be evad-
ed. What thinks Mr.. Fillmore concerning
the destruction of the Missouri Compromise
and the admiSsibilty of Kansas into the
Union as slave State! The North will
have an answer to that question, and so
will the South, for it is the question of the
day. The attempt to escape it, should
such an attempt be made, will be set down
as proof of a lack of principle, and will alike |
ALLEVIATE each section from his support
The disposition of the North, even at this |
early stage of the matter, is attested by the |
fact that in the preliminary convention, the |
famous twelfth section was annulled bv the
unanimous vote of every Northern State.
save New York which was equally divided;
and the sentiment of the South is well en-
ough read in its persistent refusal to admit |
any proposition in the slightest degree atv
rance with the principles and policy of the
KansaS-Nebraska Bill. Mr.. Fillmore will
have an infinitely more difficult position to
maintain than either of his two competitors.
Whoever these personally may be, we NAV |
set it down as certain that they VIII be the
opponents of a principle, in relation to the |
action of the General Government upon the
all-disturbing subject of slavery. Their
course will be clear and easy, for they will /
have nothing to do except to give in their
adhesion to the principle, and remain faith |
full to it. In doing this. they can ALLEVIATE
none that really belong to their party. But
Mr.. Fillmore cannot undertake to do this
without its ending in drawing upon himself
the most vehement opposition from multi
tudes of his original supporters. Not even
his strongest friends can count seeuroIv
upon his receiving the ELECTORAL vote of any
particular State in the Union, for the vor,,
good reason that they cannot scarcely connt
upon the position he may finally take in re-
ference to the great issues which will inev-
itably divide the two sections of the CONN.,
try during the canvass. Willard FilImore,s
horoscope would be the very last one any
Ran SIh 10 81,