Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-08-02

since, attempted an exposition of
the political record If Hon. Henry
Wilson, which, attracting the atten-
ton of "Warrington," the noted
Boston correspondent Of the Spring
field Republican who was then stop
ping in Dubuque, no addressed o
letter to the Tribune, in which, be-
sides correcting the misstatements
and inaccuracies OF the article, he
gives succinct history of Mr..
Wilson's political career. This
letter is too long for our columns,
but we propose to give few ex-
tracts from it explaining Mr.. Will
sons brief connection with the
Know-Nothing movement in Massa.
chusetts, and his motives therefor.
The letter follows Mr.. Wilson from
the anti-Texas times down through
ls4s, when, in company with other
eminent Massachusetts men, he lett
the wing party and oganized the
Free Soil movement, to the success.
full coalition with the democrats un.
der Boutwell, and Banks in 1850,
which made Sumner senator and
Boutwell, governor, and the attempt,
by this combination in 1852, to re.
form tho constitution Of the State
which was frustrated by the wings.
"Warrington" then proceeds:
The constition Of 1852 was defeat.
cd partly-at any rate, it was so be-
lieved-by the shrcwdness of the
wings in getting the Roman Catho4
lie vote against it. The secret or.
der Of know-nothings arose about
this time, and was stimulated to
great activity in Massachusetts, by
this real or supposed Catholic &C.
ton. Wilson was in the movement,
but l do not think it can be truly
said that he "organized it." He
probably fell in with it rs the only
way of destroying the whigs-just
as, if you will allow me to say SO, a
good many people who do not be.
lieve in protection, or Mr.. Greeley,
or the democrats who will elect Mr..
Greeley if he is elected, now pro.
pose to vote for him, "to beat
Grant" He was in it, and of it;
and his great offense, in the eyes Of
all fair-dealing men, was that he
was in and Of it while actually run
ming as the regularly nominated
candidate of the free-soilers for gov
ernor! He is the only instance in
our political history, l believe, of a
man boiling tho nomination of him
self - receiving without rcmon-
STRANGE votes OF his friends while
he was actually supporting candi-
date who was utterly unfit to be
chosen-the worst candidate of the
four who were in the field. To do
him justice, he never did the thing
before nor since. l do not think
that he established the lodges of
the party,-that work was done by
the fellows who believed in it,-he
never did SO to any great EXTENT
never, to any great extent, pretend
ed to. When the Legislature of 1855
met, he sought the senatorship, and
got it, against the opposition Of the
doctri'sasres Of the party and its or
ganizers, the Jonathan Prices and
Alfred Elys, who thought the Pope
had actually sailed for America,
and was about to establish the in
QUESTION in Boston, and roast at the
stake, or bake in dry pans, all the
evangelical citizens the Bay State.
He was chosen because the free-soil
and anti-whig element was stronger
than the anti Catholic and anti-for-
eign element. His majority in the
House was considerable; in the
Senate, only one, if l rightly re-
member. He wrote a letter to Rob-
ert B. Hall, which was just X. N.
enough TO save his credit with the
K. Ms, but was mainly occupied
with "the principles which under.
lie" the movement, rather than with
its measures, its constitutional
tinkerings and its prospective stat.
uteS.
After his election he took hut lit
tie pains to disguise his contempt
for his associates. A letter of his
to Vespasian Ellis, of Mississippi,
is accessible to the antiquary,which
was written in this "between hay
and grass" period of his know-noth-
ing career; but when the republican
party arose, he gave it his full and
hearty support; and never was there
a fellow who did this with less re-
luctance, or with more apparent joy
at getting rid OF scaly connection.
Not only was he never proscriptive,
bnt his counsels were always mod
crate. He was against the anti
foreign and anti. Catholic measures
in the legislature-not against them
as we were who hated the whole
know.nothing gang, men and prin.
ciples alike, but against them SUBJ
stantially, and as strongly as cir
permitted. The Irib.
une speaks of his proscriptive spir.
it, and says this gave him the know.
nothing nomination for governor,
which he declined in favor of Gard
ner. l never heard that he receiv-
ed the nomination, or had a chance
to decline it. That he had his eye
on the senatorship when he joined
the party is likely enough; but l
think his main purpose was to de-
feat and break up the wings, pro-
cess necessary, in his opinion, to
the good of the country, as well as
indispensable to his own political
success.
The old, original, fast-color K.
Ms stuck to Gardner through 1855
and 1856; Wilson left before the
election Of 1855, supported Rock
we'll for governor, got beaten with
the other genuine republicans, and
has stood by the party ever since.