Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-07-08
HE rNs1NcERIrY OF KNOW NorH1NGIsM.

THE INsINCERITY OF KNOW NOTHNGISM. &
There is no safety in trusting man or party who
attempts to secure our confidence by deceivine us.
The man who goes into the community and tells the
people that you are broke, and that he desires to
manage your affairs that they may be put right,
when in fact you are not broke-or who tells Won
that you are being pundered by your neighbors and
should demand of them your rights, when. he in
fact has encouraged and aided in the very plumber
OF which ne informs you-or who processes as a
friend to warn you against the evils which others
are trying to niet, when in fact there is no foun
dation for his assertons-the professed friendship
of such men, we say, is hypocracy, is influenced by
selfish interest, and ready to any means
to accomplish his purpose. political party may
be judged of in the same way IT, in stating facts,
they tell you the truth, they honest whether you
agree with them in their conclusions or not If they
resort to deception in order to your favor,
you may set it down that they are corrupt, and will
not do to be trusted
We have this exemplifed every day in the Know
Nothing party They used to tell us that we would
be ruined by the Pope of Rome, if we did not pro-
scribe the members of that church from holding Of
fee. They used to tell that country was be-
coming penal colony for the paupers and criminals
of Europe, and that unless checked we would GER
tainly be ruined. Though many persons were delu-
ded with these and similar false cries, they soon
lost their power, and Know NOthingism sunk into
contempt.
But parties like men, will not die willingly, and
new means of deception have been invented and are
now being argued over Tennessee All at once they
| nd 81 FL
threatening us, other wrongs being imposed up
on us, more to be dreaded than the Pope or the
foreign pauper; and the Franklin Reriso, catching
the key note of their leading organs and orators,
| excaims:
''Shall we sit tamely down and see our State
plundered of her share of the treasure and
not demand our rights? Shall we the new States
enriched and made prosperous by the public bounty,
and not ask to share in that prosperity? Must our
| schools and public works langush for funds, when
there millions in the public treasury lying idle,
| which is rightfully ours Will the freemen of Ten
nessee submit to the doctrine that the newly arrived
foreigner has good right to vote as they! Can
| you go to the polls and man who has been but
a day in America, led upb designing demagOgue,
and deposte that shall kill yours efectually,
and yet he not be able to tell even letter that is
the ticket he votes ,"
Now can any one believe that the editor of this
paper sane and IN earnest, when he wrote the
above grandiloquent appeal? Does it require argu-
ment to show the superficial observer that it was
coined in deception, and is a substitute for the
old and hackneyed EXPLANATIONS of its party, now
dispensed with from necessity? We think not. We
have different opinion of the discernment of the
masses from that entertained by those who attempt
to palm off such stuff upon them.
We are told that great wrong hasbeen perpetra-
ted upon Tennessee in the waste of the public lands
and yet Mr.. Bell of the chief instruments
contributing to that waste, having advocated and
voted for all the land appropriation bills We are
told that our rail road companies and schools are
languishing for funds, and that we should supply
their wants from the treasury of the government
though the government had dollar but what was
raised directly from the peoples property, and as
though money extracted from the government would
not have to be raised again from the pockets of the
people. We told that Tennessee has millions in
the Federal Treasury, thus appealing the cupidy
of the masses, when, matter of fact, Tennessee
nor other State has, ever had dollar in that
treasury. They appeal to US to know if we will
submit to the doctrine that the newly arrived for
eigner has good right to vote as we, when in
fact public man, much less party, ever preach
ed such doctrine. Such is the glaring trickery
the bare-faced deception, to which Know Nothing
ism now resorts to get into power. Can the new
humbug be more successful than the old? We think
not. Upon the contrary the country will overwhelm
it with shame and disgrace. The mass of the Anne
rican people are intelligent and patriotic.