The sons of the sires : a history of the rise, progress, and destiny of the American party, and its probable influence on the next presidential election ; to which is added a review of the letter of the Hon. Henry A. Wise, against the Know-nothings

Front matter

i f

Fo %

LIBBAEY OIB1

Preface

Human destiny, whether contemplated as it relates to the individual or the race, is among the most exalted themes that can engage the intellect of man. Sublime in its mysteries, commanding in its interests, and gathering about its issues the grandeurs of futurity, it constitutes a subject eminently worthy of profound inquiry. The theme diminishes not in interest when circumscribed by the limits of a nation's history — but rather acquires intensity from the personal connection which the humblest member of a great commonwealth has with its humiliation or glory. Humauity nowhere offers more varied or interesting aspects

than in our American Republic.

(iii)

IV PREFACE.

As a nation, we have sacred interests committed to our trust. The author of these pages has sought to indicate how these interests are threatened, and to show how they may be properly guarded. That the dangers to which our nation is exposed are not visionary, is manifest from acknowledged corruptions in our political system, and also from the efforts of foreign governments to fill our land with their paupers and criminals.

In a recent number of the "Edinburg Review," there is an article on " The Management and Disposal of British Criminals." The writer suggests as the best course of policy, that crimi nals be encouraged to emigrate to the United States, — that this should be a condition in their sentence, — that as soon as they had earned enough to defray their expenses, the chaplain of the prison should procure their passage and release them. The writer maintains that " criminals from Botany Bay would be more valuable and more welcome visitors than the shoals of

PREFACE. V

Irish who are annually turned out upon those (American) shores." "In all this," he continues, " there will be no violation of implied conventions, no illicit or indefensible government agency; nothing will be done for the freed citizen which is not, or ought not be done for the citizen who has always been free."

That such sentiments prevail very generally in the old world is evident from many recent arrivals of foreign criminals and paupers, some of whom have been sent back.

In this volume utterance is given to the views of a large number of American citizens on the subject of the naturalization of foreigners, while it also sets forth the necessity of such a modification of the naturalization laws as the exigencies of the times demand.

The author holds it as the dictate of philosophy and sound statesmanship, that the sons

OF THE SOIL SHOULD RULE THE SOIL. While he

does not spare corrupt political intriguers, he 1*

VI PREFACE.

yields the homage of his mind to those statesmen who, by a life of integrity, give evidence of true patriotism. The reader will find unveiled some of the sores which have been festering upon the body politic, while his hopes are pointed to the man destined to be our next President, the glory of whose administration will be to protect American interests, and to secure our nation against the blight of those corrupt elements which now mar this beautiful land.

The Author.

Chapter I. The American Party

Among the clashing schemes and conflicting interests which have agitated our social system to its profounclest depths, a fact of startling import has recently been evolved — a fact transeendently important on account of the scope of its bearings, and momentous on account of its formative influence upon the future destiny of our nation. That fact is the "Know Nothing" organization.

Like a clap of thunder from a brilliant sky, it has waked up millions of native-born citizens from their slumbers, to contemplate the dangers which threaten their altars and their hearths. Startled from that repose of security which a conscious integrity of purpose and action inspire, they look with horror upon the uncovered snares which a stealthy foreign hand has framed to strangle the foster-mother that shelters and nourishes those outcasts who fied to her bosom for protection. "While the honest and patriotic nave been roused to a true perception of their duty, it has also sent ominous tremors to the hearts of truckling demagogues and corrupt politicians. These tremble for their places, and struggle to retain their power. This organization is remarkable for the suddenness of its birth, and marvellous for its unparalleled growth and expansion. "When this new star loomed out in our political firmament, in the twinkling of an eye, in its full-orbed brilliancy to guide our destiny^ multitudes labored to obscure or quench it ; but it laughed at their fruitless attempts, and moved onward to its day of glory ; or, to change the metaphor, it was scarcely born before Ilerods sent their murderous confederates to strangle it in its cradle. But having no notion to be dispatched so unceremoniously, it had grown to a giant, and set out on the march of its destiny, before the executioners arrived. Having eluded their grasp and escaped from the knife, they labored to circumscribe it to some isolated spot, or cut short its operations by exiling it from their favor. People were duly warned against the young monster ; the faithful were drilled to an obstinate resistance on its first approach, and commanded to scout, to curse, and to crush it. Yet notwithstanding the formidable antagonists which it everywhere encountered, it lived in the fire, and its successes were still reported, and each recurring day chro nicled some new victory. Such was the extent of the alarm which it created, that for a season our national councils were partially deserted, for their members had gone to wage a crusade against this formidable enemy. If they could only catch it, they would call a national jubilee to its immolation ; but while they looked for it here, it was yonder, and there, and everywhere ; and behold, the Know Nothings, though not known, sprang up thick and fast. Cities were carefully fortified, armed sentinels guarded every avenue that led to the road of public patronage and power ; but, as invisible as it is potent, it moved unseen amid the arena where aspirants for official stations were contending, defeating the well-organized parties, and spreading consternation among the mighty.

It is a queer thing, but it is a thing of life and power. It is invincible, for it has stood unblanched amid the hottest fires; and weapons that never before failed in conquering, were shivered upon its breast, and fell in broken fragments harmless at its feet. After it survived the keen blades of argument, shafts of ridicule and the canister of executive displeasure were poured from the great guns with which the batteries around our Metropolis are mounted; and these were caught up, and re-shot by the smaller calibre ; but still it maintained its po sition, and smiled that it should be the harmless occasion of firing up so many brains, until they glowed more fiercely than Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. And now the anathemas of the Vatican are thundering about its head, and the powers that be will not acknowledge it as a legitimate offspring of Republicanism ; but for all that, its shrine is sought, and offerings more precious than India's gems or California's gold are lavishly poured upon its altar — the affections of hearts true to the great interests of the country, and the energies of minds free from the bondage and blight of the papacy. An organization so recent in its origin, yet so wide-spread in its influence— so silent in its operations, yet so potent in its action, has drawn upon its movements not only the eyes of this nation, but also of that foreign despotism which had already laid the foundation deep in the structure of our government, whereon it hoped to rebuild its falling throne — an organization so commanding in importance to others, deserves our study and demands a record of its history.

A nation may be born in a day ! The thunders of an hour may rock it into a heap of ruins ! To guard their national existence during its infancy, was not the whole duty of the American people ; but to have walls of true hearts, beating around it through all its progress towards its high destiny. Despotism exists so long as the iron heel can keep under its quivering and bleeding hearts ; but wo to the tyrants, when crushed humanity begins to pulsate with aspirations for freedom. He knows, and therefore fears, that the throne of the oppressor reposes on an explosive mine, which needs but the match to shiver the most powerful despotism to atoms. Happily for all, our government requires none but bloodless revolutions. It carries within its bosom the elements of its own permanency. These elements are endued with the requisite power to correct any irregular tendencies to which the body politic may be liable. Every system which aims at stability and hopes to be crowned with perpetuity, must have incorporated this corrective means. "With us, not the one, nor the few, but the many, are the individuals in whom the governing power resides. The people are the elements of permanency in our political system; and when any irregularities occur, or any manifest departures, by those whom they have elevated to official stations, from the principles of our constitution, are seen, they must correct them ; they are the sovereigns, and it is their prerogative to guide the interests of the nation.

The American party had its origin, therefore, not as its opponents affirm, in defective views of our government ; nor is it the child of disappointed politicians, nor of the spirit of in- 2 tolerance ; but it is the offspring of those selfadjusting principles, and those elements of permanency found in our civil structure ; or, in other words, it is the child of the people. It is not a bastard republican, but a born sovereign — a prince of freedom ; an heir legitimate, rapidly passing to his maturity, who will present himself on the 4th of March, 1857, at the Capitol of Washington, to assert his prerogatives to the Chair of State, and his right to rule the nation of freemen who have given him existence. He is now a youth of rare capacities and of glorious promise ; so attractive, that his personal charms daily captivate thousands and tens of thousands of hearts. He is possessed of such attributes, that men everywhere confide to him their dearest interests — such gentleness, that the most timid venture under his protection; and exhibiting such energy, that those trembling under the feebleness of age lean upon his arm for support. If I were to draAV a portrait of this youth, and analyze the properties of his character, I might commence by saying that he is very much in appearance like the pictures of the manly Washington; i. e. assuming that which no one doubts, that the spirit of man externalizes itself in the person of the man. He is unassuming, yet great ; with an eye calm as the ocean in repose, but penetrating as a sunbeam, while it gleams with an energy more powerful than the earthquake. "With a brow of towering majesty, where thought and hope repose in communion, and in which the destiny of an injured nation resides, clothing the countenance with an air of that sublime self-reliance, which conscious wisdom and strength inspire.

The first time I saw him was in the city of Brotherly Love. It was on the evening preceding the first great election of the consolidated city. It was one of those charming nights when the voices of nature appeal to the human spirit, to draw it forth from the busy throng, to those seclusions where man may commune with his thoughts, and those invisible powers that move around him. On such a night I strolled into Independence square, musing upon the exciting scenes I had witnessed during the fortnight I had tarried in that beautiful and busy city. In my rambles, I had carefully observed the various places of note. One thing struck me as singular, shortly after I had set out on this exploring tour, and that was, that nearly all the officials were of foreign birth. In the custom-house and in the city government, and indeed in nearly all places of trust and profit, were personages, whose brogue betrayed their nativity. I wondered how it could happen, that in a crowded city, where so many sober, honest and industrious native-born citizens were toiling in the shop, and from the cellar to the garret, that none of these sons of the soil could be trusted with the keeping of the peace and safety of the city. As I entered the beautiful enclosure, pregnant with so many stirring memories, and hallowed by the most sacred associations, the old clock pealed out the hour of ten. From the same point issued, seventy-eight years ago, those notes of liberty which swept on angel wings over this land — from that sacred place the proclamation went forth, that no foreign despot should oppress Americans.

It seemed as though there were something mournful in those vibrations which announced the hour ; and I almost imagined that the faithful chronicler of time was conscious that true patriotism had sadly declined — as if it knew the powerful sway which a despot beyond the ocean had acquired over this nation. This impression had previously forced itself upon my mind ; and, however unwelcome, will establish itself in the mind of even the most careless observer of that which daily transpires around him. For what does he behold ? At our political gatherings every foreigner is pressed into service to promote the interests of that party which has been most lavish in its promises of reward. ISTot only are the huzzas at our hustings foreign, but the polls have frequently been under the special charge of drunken aliens, with no other object than to exclude all citizens whose nerves are inadequate, and whose character forbids their participation in a row. The intrigue and rowdyism which have characterized almost every recent campaign, have been gotten up hf foreigners ; and to look at them, a stranger would suppose that they are the sons of the soil, and enjoyed all the prerogatives to let or hinder others in the exercise of their rights. I had scrutinized these public movements, looked into the secret conclaves where high officials were bidding, and prelates were selling, the suffrages of their spiritual subjects to the highest bidder. I had also looked into the cabinet, and saw the gifted and competent American thrust from a high position, to make room for one who would conciliate and command the foreign element.

It was, while musing on this state of things, and meditating on that cunningly devised and wide-spread net-work of Jesuitism, the deep corruption which exists among politicians, and the base prostitution of power and influence on the part of those who fill the high places of our republic ; to this masked enemy of freedom, that I involuntarily exclaimed, Shade of Washington ! whither will all this tend ? I was in that particular frame of mind when our thoughts become a burden, and the anxieties of the heart cause us to long for a companion to share our solicitudes, when there stood in my path a personage of commanding appearance, and thus 2* addressed me: — "Sir, you seem troubled — a weighty care has cast its dark shadow upon your brow — can you trust to another a knowledge of the secret which disquiets your spirit?" Excellent sir, said I, for your language and appearance do not deceive me, I was pondering the strange condition of things among us. I have passed through this city, and travelled extensively through this land — I have watched those popular movements which now and then disturb society — I have traced the actions of public men to their hidden sources, and have discovered that those whom I followed, whom I trusted and believed to be the noblest patriots, are heartless and selfish, and labor for personal exaltation, rather than for the advancement of our country's interests. I have studied the springs which keep the political machinery in motion, and vainly tried to solve the problem why millions of freemen suffer themselves to be controlled in the choice of their rulers, by a superstitious and tyrannical power — a power between whose seat and us the ocean rolls, but a system so cunningly devised, that the pulsations of its authority are as distinctly felt at "Washington as at Rome.

A power which fills almost every office with its menials, that controls our state and national legislation — makes our governors, elects our presidents, and constructs our cabinets — a power courted, feared, and flattered by all who aspire to honorable and influential positions; and I wondered whither all this tends. Are we to realize the predictions of despotic powers, and prove by our overthrow and the prostration of our liberties and hopes, that man is not capable of self-government ? Are we to witness the abhorrent thing — a despotism born from a Republic ? Shall we see a many-headed monster springing from the womb of the virgin of Liberty? "Sir," said my interrogator, "these are neither strange nor singular thoughts which have disturbed your peace — they are feelings evoked by the genius of liberty that attends the meditations of true patriots — apprehensions which had a home in the mind of Washington, when he said to his staff, "Put none but Americans on guard to-night." Emotions that agitated his great heart, while its holy pathos and earnest yearnings flowed from its profound depths into that Farewell Address, in which he so affectionately warns the American people against foreign intrigue and alliance. They are not singular nor isolated thoughts, but such as were present to the meditations of the ablest statesmen of the past, and such as now disturb the heart of our glorious confederacy. These questions have been asked and answered, and invested with that power derived from those whose right it is to bestow it, I am now on my mission to restore America to Americans.

I am instructed to break the coils of that serpent which infolds the public body, and whose fearful pressures already cause the national heart to quiver and palpitate with alarm. I will sever the monster's folds before his poison impregnates and darkens with death the fountains of liberty. I have already achieved victories, and to-morrow I shall triumph here. I will carry new energy from this field, and will, ere long, complete the conquest of the land, and restore to the sons of the sires who consecrated this soil by their blood, the dearly purchased inheritance of their fathers." "Who are you then, I asked, that you utter such purposes, and speak with such confidence, even in a cause whose justice I acknowledge ? "My name, though honourable, must not now be revealed. I am hated by those who have corrupted the land — persecuted by those who, in their infatuation for honorable distinction and self-aggrandizement, have allowed themselves to be duped and blinded by a foreign foe that now diss a chasm about the throne of freedom. I am cursed from the seats of power — hunted and hated — anathematized in the palaces of the great, and defamed in the dens of the vile — but I am approved by the man of honest toil, hailed as a deliverer by him who would have his acres protected against foreign rule, by the intelligent and order-loving — by patriots and Christians. For although they "know me not," they know that I am their friend, and have come to their help. They understand that my mission is to purify and strengthen ; to build up and fortify our noble institutions, that unborn millions may rejoice over them as the impregnable refuges of freedom.

They know that it is my high commission to keep clear from corruption, those channels through which the life of this nation flows, and to aid the brave and the good to perpetuate our glorious Union. I am slandered and calumniated, but that harms me not. They say that I was born in the night, and speak it to my reproach ; but the learned Greeks declared the midnight hour the hour of golden thought. Chosen sometimes by the wicked for deeds of evil, but to the good it yieldeth jewels. But I am not just born — long have I kept my vigils over the land of the free and the home of the brave. I sat by Washington in his deep meditations ; I lodged with him by the camp-fire, and bowed by his side under the spaugled canopy of heaven, when he prayed for Divine succor in the day of peril. I was closeted with Jefferson and Madison, and was the companion of that noble band whose motto was — " Give us liberty, or give us death." I was born, not amid scenes of revelry or darkness, but in the quiet beauty of that hour when good spirits bring messages to mortals from the world of light and love. Then — and amid the blending glory of heaven and earth, I was horn and commissioned for my exalted destiny. But go now, for a great conflict is waging between thy brethren and aliens, and demands thy energy ; hut mark as thou goest, that those great prerogatives of the Magna Charta, " Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" are jewels whose keeping must not be confided to those who are the slaves of a despot. He vanished, and my cares had taken wing, and as I looked into the silent glory of the starry firmament, it seemed as though the spirits of the fathers of Liberty and founders of our institutions, smiled approvingly on the utterances of my unknown companion, and hope kindled afresh in my heart, that the stars upon our glorious banner would not only retain their position and lustre, but that they would yet shed their radiance over the earth's wide circle, and wake its oppressed millions to a grand universal jubilee of freedom.

Chapter II. Causes Of Its Origin

When we behold a great popular movement carrying society in a certain direction, sundering the ties of party, and, like the resistless torrent, rolling its weight of waters onward, and sweeping away from their deep foundations rocky barriers which vainly oppose its progress, we instinctively ask, Whence has it come ? Whither does it go ? How has it originated ? And what are its elements of power ? A great variety of causes, primary and secondary, remote and proximate, might be offered as operative in creating this popular movement. Here opinions and sentiments circulate and conflict, as freely and as violently as the elements of nature ; and while free discussion is viewed with dread by the despot, and the agitation of great political questions is ominous only of evil to crowned heads, in our system, where there are self-adjusting principles, we behold this conflict of opinion as a means of healthful prosperity. As the agitations of the sea and air, and the commotion in the organism of nature, are productive of ultimate good results, thus also in a form of government like ours we anticipate no evil from a war of principles. In this land, where the freedom of speech and of the press is enjoyed in the most extended amplitude, intellectual warfare constitutes no unusual phenomena. As common as they are spirited, they cease to occasion surprise. But when such an amazing result is witnessed as the product of this freedom, which we have in the existence of the Know- Nothing organization, an inquiry into the causes which have produced it, is eminently rational. It is worthy of our regard — it demands our attention, for it can neither be scouted nor laughed out of existence. It is an order possessing those attributes which challenge the high regard of all men. Its numerical strength, considering its recent appearance, is without a precedent. It has spread with astonishing rapidity, and numbers among its members men from all professions and pursuits, and these, for the most part, our best citizens ; — highly respectable, whether we consider the intellectual or moral character of its adherents. And so far as the organization has had opportunity to unfold itself to the public eye, its deportment has been such as to commend itself to the favorable consideration of good citizens.

From the character it presents to our scrutiny, it is no unreasonable assumption, that the emer-

CAUSES OP ITS ORIGIN. 25

gency which called it into being was one deeplyfelt in the bosom of society, and one which called into play the higher impulses of humanity. The nature of that emergency will be fully unfolded as we progress in these pages, and for the present therefore only a few of the causes which contributed to call it into being will be touched upon.

One of the remote causes, and which has been operative for many years and has at last materially contributed to bring into existence the American party, is to be sought, in the frequent assaults upon Protestantism. He who has carefully watched the workings in the social system, must know that for a number of years there have been systematic, but in many instances veiled efforts made, to create a train of influences which might gradually weaken and ultimately destroy the Protestant element in our country. This could only be accomplished by a variety of means, and these used clandestinely. Our nation being a complete amalgam of the leading nations of the earth, the Jesuitical maxim, " divide and conquer," could play with more hope of success than where such circumstances did not favor. One great object was therefore to adopt such a line of policy as to create of the Cathclics, an " imperium in imperio," and to sow as much dissension as possible among the remainder of the citizens. To accomplish the end aimed at, they 3

26 CAUSES OF ITS OEIGIN.

must, as far as possible, prevent the fusion of these different representatives into a bona fide American character ; and therefore they tried to raise new issues without end, in order to preserve distinct nationalities among us.

This was not difficult, among a people made up of a number of races and so many nations, for there were necessarily found among us opposing elements and conflicting opinions. Just so far as they could succeed in this, they would make' room for their own growth, and hope to weaken the Protestant element by dividing its adherents into hostile parties. But they were not satisfied with this, they exerted their influence upon the action of our civil institutions, and had, to some extent, succeeded in causing the political economy of the nation to swallow up its theology. This would necessarily be a slow process, for the descendants of the Puritans, of Luther, of Calvin, and Penn, could not readily be induced to lay aside their old-fashioned ideas of morality and government.

First the cry was everywhere raised that this is a free country, that we must tolerate error as well as truth, and when they had as they thought prepared the public mind for it, they made the first bold attempt to strike from our political firmament its sun, by an advocacy of the banishment of the Bible from the public schools. The opinion of our strait-notioned fathers, and

CAUSES OP ITS ORIGIN. 27

that of some of their children, though not claiming their sterling virtues, that the Bible was the best book to expand the human mind, to cultivate the heart, and to form a character of solid virtues, was controverted. It was asserted in the presence of a nation of purer statesmen, and nobler philanthropists, than any other can boast, and in the face of a most thriving and virtuous population, and in defiance of these monuments of the worth of bible-influence on the mind of youth, the vain philosophy of the age, nay rather Jesuitism in disguise, dared to affirm that the Bible was not adapted to the purposes to which it had been so long and so successfully applied. There were appeals addressed to Protestants that they must be tolerant, that they must respect the scruples of Catholics, and accommodate the school system to suit the views of all, even three or half-a-dozen in a community of thousands. And these kind souls in the abundance of their liberality, or in compliance with the suggestions of an easy virtue, but with politicians from a desire to conciliate the favor of the Jesuits, after a little show of resistance yielded the point, and God's word was banished from our schools. And now in these intellectual laboratories, where the future citizens and rulers are to be fashioned, they have in many instances no book whose influence alone is adequate to the formation of a virtuous citizen or an upright and wise statesman.

I regard, therefore, as among the most prominent causes of the origin of the Know-Nothings, the encroachments of foreigners on the sacred lights of American citizens. Our government was established to meet the wants, and secure the happiness of the largest possible number of its subjects. While it repudiated the intolerance of despotisms, it granted the amplest liberty compatible with the peace and safety of the state to its citizens, native and adopted. The Roman Catholic power, accustomed to rule both Church and State, and animated with that arrogant spirit which exalts itself above all other institutions, both human and divine, could not fraternize with other subjects, nor be long contented with an equality of privileges, but aimed at the supremacy not simply in the religious institutions and educational machinery of the land ; but also labored for the possession of civil supremacy. Short of the highest pinnacle to which it could ascend, i. e., of absolute and unlimited power, it could never rest in peace.