The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-11-28
Wednesday Msrning,. November 2S
The Know Nothing Controversy.


The Iateiiigeneer seems to be greatly
troubled at the prospect of losing for
the radical party even the small foreign
vote it has heretofore received. Its
tribulation is manifested to ludicrous
degree, and, with tears in its eyes, it
upbraids us with having raised the old
Know Nothing issues for service in the
municipal campaign. At the same time
il tries to charge the Democratic and
Conservative party in this State with a
desire to prescribe foreigners, and visit
upon them the disabilities contemplated
by the dark lantern fraternity ten years
ago.
In the frst placs, the question as to
the rights and privileges of foreign
born citizens was not raised by us. 1t
was first mootcd by the Ritchie Press,
edited by Brigadier General T. S. HAIR
RIs, Radical of the strictest sect, and
prominent candidate for the radical
nomination for Governor Of West Vir-
ginia, and withal, entitled to the ut
most confidence of the radical party in
that he was a member of the military
commission that hung Mrs. SURRATT,
and has been prominently connected
with the somewhat celebrated Freed
mems Bureau. If this don't give man
claim to be called a radical, we are at
loss to imagine what will. AS we
have said, the question concern
ing the rights and privileges
of foreigners was first raised
by this man HARRIS, and not by US
HARRIS is member elect of the West
Virginia Legislature, and he has recent.
ly avowed himself in favor of enfran-
chising the negroes in West Virginia in
order to overcome the vote of Catholic
lrishmen, and, at the same time, in
dulges i'll a vast amount Of abuse and
slang concerning our foreign born citi,
zcns generally. 1t is the radicals who
have raised the issue, not we. The Intelli
gencer's own friends are responsible fol
thrusting this matter into public atten-
tion, and must bear whatever conse-
qucnces may ensue therefrom.
The charge that the Democratic
party is committed to the endorsement
of Know Nothingism, because some of
the candidates voted for by it in the re-
cent election had once been members of
the proscriptive fraternity, is as absurd
ss.anything can be. These men may, or
may not have been members of the
Know Nothing organization, it matters
very little what their past political af.
filiations were, they were in the late
campaign, and are now acting with that
party which has always labored to give
TO foreign born citizens the privilege to
which they are of right entitled, and
which has alway S opposed, and will for
ever oppose the Vaccinations of rad
icalism, whether it labors for the dis
reimbursement of white men or the en-
franchisement of negroes. To intimate
that these men by becoming the candi-
dates of the Democratic party have
given to that party the taint of Know
Nothingism, is to intimate what every
person possessed of three grains of conf
mon sense knows to be false.
The proscriptive spirit manifested by
the radical party Of to-day is identical
with that of the old Know Nothing or
ganization. Ten years ago it labored
only for the Acknowledgement OF men
who had been born in foreign land or
who professed a certain religious belief
To-day, while still striving for the re-
strictiOn of the suffrage to such white
men as are willing to vote the radical
ticket, it proposes to remedy its possible
failure in this regard by comforting the
right to vote upon the negroes whose
ignorance and heathenism have been
their constant theme for declaiming
twenty or thirty years.
In this contest, every foreign-born
citizen should know with which party
his true interest lies; manifestly it is with
that organization which labored for the
protection of his rights during the days
of Know Nothingism, and which would
now spare him the degradation ofming-
ling with negroes at the polls, and hav-
ing his vote neutralized by theirs. One
of the principal leaders Of the radical
party in West Virginia, and q prominent
member elect to the next Legislature,
declares noU that he is in favor of en-
franchising the negroes in West Virginia
in order that their vote may overcome
that cast by our foreign born citizens. He
pledges his party no~ to this disreputa-
BILE measure for the oppression Of men
protesting religion different from his
own; and there is no reason for doubt
ing that the radical majority in the next
Legislature will endeavor to carry the
scheme into effect. If any foreign born
citizen of West Virginia hereafter aids
such men by his vote, he is either a
traitor to the interests of himself and
his sountrymen or he is too ignorant to
distinguish between his friends and his
foes.
Wholesale Prosecution.