Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1955-09-29
ANOTHER WIG TRIBUTE,

Vt meeting of the Democrats of Be
xar, Texas, on the Sd Of juno. JUDGE
BrcKNrn, a leading Wig, addressed
the meeting, from which We take the
following stirring passage:
! JUDGE BucKNER was then called upon.
lie said the position in which he found
himself placed was the. most novel one
he had ever occupied onany public oc-
..casion in his life. And let mc give, said
he, to each gentleman Ivy present, wing
Tor democrat, the aSSI,c;a.cc that | 90 in
for the resolutions Ties, sraiu>t know
nothingism, and confinc myself cxclu-
siycly to them, and that desert no prin-
ciple; for | may announce, on this occa-
sion, that from my earliest youth to this
time | have ever been united with the
wing party. | hold that those resou-
tons in regard to l;now-mothingism IN
volvc principles eff morS Importance than
ever divided the whig and democratic
parties in all the time during which |
have read newspapers, or listened to the
discussion of political principles in our
country. And hold that those gentle
men who have been associated in the whia
party care not if they have joined the
know-no:'ing ranks-should now stop,
after the Developments which have been
made through all the portions of the coun-
try--that they should now stop and, if
their secret sworn organization will per-
NIT them, Withdraw at once, and stand
once more upon the ground Of the noble
leader OF the party, ever tie boast Of the
American people, and appiau'cd hy the
democratic party for the opcn frank
and manly course he pursued upon every
political question which was ever aqita-
ted in the country whist he trod the
stage Let he ask those gcntlcmcn-ifI
there be any Of them vino belong TO this
know nothn" rarty-do you believe that
at this day, if the great Henry Clay
were living now, he would be found
creeping into cellars and swearing fdcl-
ity to political midnight associations
Henry Clay, who declared that he would
rather be right than be President.
"lic continued: Look at the prirci.
pies announced and generally regarded
as the established principles of this know;
nothing party: are they not at war in
their very nature, with American prin-
ciplos? DO these gentlemen who call
themselves the American party-do they
r"i'roD""t AnAa,icnn principles? In the
late contest in Virginia. the Democrat
party represent tmcricTh principles and I
in Tennessee, where the canvass is warm
now between the democratic and know,
nothing parties, the democratic is repre-
scnting American principles. What.
gentlemen, are American principles? l.
it not an American principle that no man
shall be prescribed on account of his re-
ligious belief, whether he believe in a
God or not-whchrr Atheist or Dcist-
whether Catholic or Presbyterian, or a
Methodist or Baptist, or whatever creed
he may profess? Docs not the Consttu-
tuition Of your country tell you that none
are to be prescribed, none ia be deprived
Of the right TO vote, to hold Office, and
enjoy the privileges of an American cti-
zen, on account of their religion? Docs
the know-nothing party advocate that
principle? That is principle embodied
in the immortal constitution of your coun-
try-in the constitution which has gui-
dcd our country from the weakness of
infancy to the vigor of manhood, and
spread its fame throughout the civilized
world. That is an American principle,
and this know-nothing party is the anti
American, and not the American party. !
And again; DO the genius and spirit of
our institutions require that We should
throw open our doors and offer an asy-
lum IN our country to the oppressed of
all lands? And when we have invited !
them to our shores, does it accord with |
the genius and spirit of American insti-
tutions to hold them az oiicnsI do they
require us to maintain and 10 sustain them |
here until qualified, under the constitu-
ton, and MGu to admit them, rs citizens
to equal rights with ourselves.
As an instance Of the practical |
working Of the know-nothing doctrine Of
prescription on account of origin, heal |
ludcd to the case of Mr.. Rosclius, Of Lou
isiana--a man who stood high in the cs-
timation Of every intelligent gentleman
in the State, one Of the ablcst lawyers I
in the South, standing at the very head
Of the bar in New Orleans, with a prac-
ticc Of 81 600 or $4,000 year, but yet
man Of whose services rs chief justice
the mow-nothing lawyers had bound
themselves by an oath to deprive the
State, on account Of his foreign origin"