Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-03-31
The Oath bound Candidate.


John Pool Esq, the Opposition candidate for
Governor is first, second, and third degree
Know Nothing, and will, if elected Governor be
solemnly bound to observe and carry out his oaths
Startling as this may appear it is nevertheless true
lie is sworn to prescribe all persons who are not
natives and all persons who profess the Catholic re-
llgon. He is sworn to 5estow all the offices which
ne may have to fill on Know Nothings like himself;
and he is sworn to support only Know Nothings for
office. He is committed by solemn obligations as
ever rested upon man, to foment strife between
races and between sects in religion; and these obli
cations in the language of the oath which he took
"shaU erer be kept sacred and inriolate" If there
be a power to absolve him from these obligations,
we have evidence that Mr.. Pool has ever been
absolveG. On the contrary, the inference is that
his obligations still upon him, and that he is
bound whether he wishes to do so or not, to carry
them out
All this, and much more fellow citizens, pGs done
in secret. With doors closed, at midnight, away
from the thoroughfares Of men, while honest people
slept Mr.. Pool took these oaths. With his hand rest
ing on the flag staff of his country, the Holy
Word of God he pronounced these obligations, not
tons of his own fellow-ctizens! BY the light of
lamps dimly burning, with hushed tread of foot
steps, and with the silence of skulking fear, the
passwords were "ochispered" and the grip" was
given.
Such is faint outline of Know Nottingham 1t
commenced in the North, in the hotbeds of aboli-
tonism. 1t destroyed the old Wing party, which
was national, and built up the black Republican
party, which is sectional. 1t trampled under foot
the teachings of Henry Clay, and substituted for
them the teachings of Brownlow, Winter Davis
Banks and Tom Ford. 1t put the North against
the South, the South against the North, the native
against the foreigner and the Protestant against the
Catholic 1t sharpened the knife and lit the torch
of hand-tohand conflict in Baltimore, New Orleans
and Louisville, between citizens of the same coun-
try, until blood flowed like water, and selfgovern-
ment became a byword and reproach IN those
Cities. 1t hunted down men, who proudly claimed
the American flag as their flag, because they wor-
shipped God in their way, and because they
had foreign blood in their veins If WASHINGTON
had lived in such day, and had been proposed for
Office it would have voted against him for refusing
to subscribe to its oathS and would then have mob
Deu Nun II ne nau StaKeu MS lie, as nc ulu IN the
old war; for federation IN religion and for the rights
of naturalized citizens 1t made party, and that by
the most binding oaths, paramount TO country and
paramount to individual character and personal in
dependence. 1t made tools of freemen for the ben
eft of third degree leaders in the Order like John A.
Gilmer and John Pool 1t so outraged justice. it so
trampled on individual rights it strengthened ali
olitoniSm it deficd and condemned law in large CT
ties, it so arrayed neghbor against neighbor and
friend against friend that the whole Southern coun-
try diSgusted with its mummcrics and indignant At
its course, rose almost as one man and consigned it
to defeat. But black RepublicaniSm had meanwhile
risen on its ruins" and now threatens the very
existence Of the government. In the South the
members of this oath bound faction again changed
their name declared themselves Wings, and attempt
ed to rid themselves of the odium of Know Nothing
ism. But in vain. 1t will stick to them as long as
their oaths stick in their cOnScences. We intend to
hold them 10 it. We intend to hold John Pool TO
it. In our next we will refresh the minds of our
readers more fully with the obligations which Mr..
Pool assumed as a Know-Nothing, so that every one
may see what sort of Governor he would be, if by
possibility he should be elected