The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-09-06
Gen. Wilson and Knownothingism

The Greeley organs, led by the New York
Tribune, finding it impossible to make an
effective attack on Senator Wilson, now con-
fine themselves to asserting that he was for
merly 'knownothing." The Tribune pur-
sues this attack in the most ferocious style,
dealing largely in the 'raw-head-and-bloody
bones" method. 1t reproduces the know
nothing oaths, forms of initiation, and pro-
fessions, of seventeen years ago, and under
takes to make Senator Wilson responsible for
them then, now, and forever. 1t may be
that the present chief manager of the Tribune
is literally knownothing in the matter of
political history; but Mr.. Greeley knows very
well that such an attack on Senator Wilson
is nothing bettersthan unmitigated villiany.
Any one desiring honestly to know what
principles and policy Gen. Wilson has sup
ported during the last seventeen years, will
60 to the record of his speeches and votes in
the senate; and there they will find that he
has never for moment advocated what is
known or orremembered as ''knownothingism."
That is den in which his mind never lived.
During the time specified, he has delivered
speeches, not only in the senate, but in
almost every part of the country; and yet no
speech of his can be produced in which
knownothingism was endorsed or encOur-
| aged.
The outbreak of knownothingism, in this
| State and elsewhere in the country, did not
proceed from sympathy with the proscriphve
| principles of what is called 'Natve Ameri-
canism"; it was encouraged and used as a
method of breaking up the whig party and
preparing the way for the republican party.
| Not one in ten OF those who went into the
movement had any sympathy with "Native
| Americansm"; but they did mean TO secure
the organization of party that would stern
| ly oppose the slave power; and, in 1856, they
showed what they meant and where they
were, by organizing the republican party and
/ voting Tor Gen. Fremont. The genuine
''Native Americans with the inveterate pro-
slavery whig hunkers voted for Mr.. Fillmore
| We chose to stand aloof from the knounotiI-
| ing movement but we know wen what Senator
| Wilson said and sffu in regard to IL; and we
know tnat during the time of that political
oyerturn, he had no more sympathy with
| what they called ''Knownothing principles"
than with the institution of slavery. The
Boston Pilot is good authority on this point.
Its conductors tell us that they have taken
( pains to investigate the charge Of knownoth-
| ingism made against Senator Wilson, and
that they find nothing to justify it. The Pilot
| says:
'IfMr Wilson uttered these things in 1854,
the Pilot did not say word about it, which
| surprises us. We are, therefore, inclined to be-
| lieve, whether Henry Wilson was a knownoth-
ing or not, that these alleged quotations are
manufactured as campaign documents, and un-
usually dirty campaign documents, at that"
The quotations referred to by the Pilot
were manufactured for political effect. They
are deliberate forgeries. Nothing like them,
nothing kindred to them, nothing consistent
with them, nothing to excuse them, can be
found in any speech he has delivered. He
had a certain connection witch the knownoth-
ing movement, for a short time; but, like
many others who used to clear the field for
an anti-slavery Republican party, he never
was knownothing in principle, purpose, or
sympathy. This was understood then, and
is sustained by his record before and since.
The truth is, Gen. Wilson was an earnest,
persistent, uncompromising anti-slavery man ,
in and out of politics and his whole aim then
and afterwards was to get a more powerful
| support for his anti-slavery principles. Those
who misrepresent his position and work, at
that time, and say he was a proscriptive
knownothing, are wilful calumniators, and
they know it. Nothing can be more base and
villianous, in political warfare, than the at
tempts of the New York Tribune TO misrep-
resent and falsify his actual position relative
to what is called ''knownothingism." Po-
litical and other reform will be in bad way,
when there shall be nobody to help it but
those who use Tribune methods in politics.
But, Gen. Wilson is attacked this way, be-
cause his record is so irreproachable, that his
opponents can do nothing better than at
tempt something against him at this point
| Worcester Spg.