Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-07-18
THE INcoyeRUITlEs OF KNOW NoTHINGIsM


The people cannot forget the terrible alarm which
Know Nothingism attempted to produce In the last
canvass for Governor with the cry Of the Foreigner
and the Pope. We we're told that ship loads Of for
eien paupers and criminals were hOodingour shores,
making our fair country penal colony for Europe.
We we're told that the Pope of Rome, with his seven
heads and ten horns, was sitting upon his throne,
sending cut bis emissarfes and preparing to under
mine and subvert the free institutions Of
try. All manner Of stories we're concOcted and dis
tributed broadcast over the land. We told that
q aeU and pure party, springing from the cOrrup-
tions of the two old parties but responsible for
the obnoxious acts violated pledges Of either"
had been organised by the disinterested patriots
of the country meet this alarming exgency of the
times ne were told that there were no Office
seekers among this parly--that they eschewed 'the
wild hunt after Office" adopting it as maxim in
their creed that " the office should seek the man,
not the man the Office" We were told that as part
of their creed they believed in the justice of
ruling Providence, and in the Christian religion
that they thought the bible middling good book,
and we're determined it should be Introduced into
the public schools from which they said it had
heretofore been excluded by R0mish Bishops. We
were told that they believed in cultivating in
tense American feeling" and that "none but Amer
leans should rule America" That the oldquestions
of Bank Distribution, &C., which had previously d.
vided the country had grown obsolete, and that the
Wing and Democratic parties had died from their
own corruptiOns. We presume that few have for.
gotten that such was the staple commodity of Know
Nothing speeches in the last State electiOns-that
such proclamatiOns were made in every paper and
upon every stump.
We told the people at the time that it was all ar
rant humbuggery-that it was a dirty pretenCe,
shallow triek-and that the only desire of those
who urged it was to steal into power and seize upon
the spOils of Office. The people believed and
overwhelmed the monsrosity, put their foot upon it,
crushed its vitas, and left it to rot upon the Pc
litieal highway of the world.
Those who followed in its trail are now seeking to
avoid public recognition, and are raising new devil
oes to entrap the unwary. They profess to have
found out that the old Wing party was not dead and
seeking to shelter themselves behind it. they claim
to be the q Wig and American" party. We no
longer hear of the danger of the Pope. They have
quit telling us of the ship loads of paupers and
criminals that are aOOding shores, making a
penal colony for Europe. They declare Know Moth
ingism to be an organization that has passed aVay,
and that they GILL not discuss it. Distribution" is
the great question now. The old States, they say,
are being plundered by the new, and monster
wrcugis being inflicted upon the country. That the
State is in debt, the railroad companies upon the
brink of run and that their only safety is taking
the common property of the people and placing it in
their Golfers. This done, they promise to go on and
build school houses upon every hilltop and in every
valley, educate all the "blue-eyed boys and Aaxen-
haired girls pay all the taxes of the people, and
bring upon the country such general state of pros
perity as never existed beforel The same orators
are going around the countr. looking the people in
the face, and talking this sort of captrap, who in
the last canvass were trying to errify them with the
foreigners and the Pope. For their shameful dem
agogueism they were despised then-for their IN
blushing ehrOntery they will be scofed at now.