The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-09-10
Acknowledges at Last.

NtIdtbf w ILouN II Wiz tno't "uuo
co,ls clurlatan that ever appeared in Ameri-
eau politics. Ten days after he was nomi-
mated he WAS charged with having been
prominent Know-NothiDg. He denied it in
slblic speeches Since then, from time to
time, prominent and truthful men, among
them ALBERT PIKE, have published state
ment> to the effect that they sat in Know
Nothing lodges with him, and only a week
ago the gentleman who administered the
oath of the Order to him published the fact.
On the same day that appeared, a card in
German, signed " HENRY WILSON, per +. G."'
(the "F. g." being Mr.. Wilson'S secretary
was circulated by telegraph denying that
WILSON was ever member OF the Order.
Two days after, the card having been gene
rally distributed and commented Oh In Eng.
lish; another telegram was sent denying, on
WILSON'S behalf, the authorship of the card
The public were getting bewildered at the
audacity of this liar, when he caps the climax
himself by speech on Friday night, ut Natick
his home, denying ever having denied that he
was member of the KNOWN othing party
and does 1t with an air of extreme surprise
saying, Why, good God, gentlemen, l never
denied IL" His explanation, which follows,
IS as audacious an attempt ~ explain as was
his first attempt to lie ptt of 1t. He said:
There were IN 1854 perhaps million
men connected with that American move
mcut. They carried fourteen OF fifteen States,
elected seventy or eighty members Of Con
Sress from the northern States, and large
number In the southern States, and the Con
gross That made Mr.. Banks speaker of the
nouse of Representatives in 1866 was elected
by men who co0peIated In that movement.
They carried five New England States-New
Hampshire, Connecticut, this State-Sl 900
Votes. Now, gentlemen, let me tell you In
regard to that mopement--it was Just this:
1t was like the union leagues or something
Of that kind. In which men who had acted
with the Democratic party and the old Wing
party got into 1t, and went through 1t, and
came out and made the Republican party of
the United States. The anti.slavery men who
were in it were there In, behalf of the
rights of the black men. The representa-
tives of the white men we're there against all
narrow and illiberal legislation. The narrow,
higoted, and intolerant men supported in
1856. Willard Fillmore-the whole South
American part of them--at least six hundred
or seven hundred thousand Of therl-aud
in 1860 they voted for Bell and Everett; and
then the southern part Of them went into
the war like Albert Pike aud those that
didn't get into the war came out, and are
supporting Horace Greeley to-day. And
there are not less than five hundred thou.
saad men in the United Stntes to-day
foI or hof nafol tysfE,
the know.Nothings In 1854 that are
are probably three hundred thousand
men, might go on for hours making eX-
tracts from speeches that made, that I,
under no circumstances, in changing the
naturalization laws, in reforming abuses,
would vote for any measure that did not give
every man In this country, no matter of what
!ace or where he was bora, the same rights
that l claimed for myself and my family.
And those speeches were printed in the Tn
buae. We held a national convention In
Philadelphia, to which Pike refers, In which
/ told those men TINT if they adopted a mar
row and nhberai platform then wouldn't
support it, that would deHounce IL, and
that it would 20 down under the wrath Of
the people. They adopted the platform and
we shiYered the organization to atoms and
organized the Republican party ii, ~, -,st.
Mark you, after taking an oath to be intole.
rant md make .nan's birthplace a cause
for Acknowledgement, be claims chat he went
into the organization TO secure every IRAN
the same rights that lie bad. The whole
thing is so miserably thin that one is sur
prised that even HENRY Wilson should have
attempted to pass it of on the public.