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NATIVE AMERICA . Thh American who attempts to explain away the * Know-nothing" movement , appeara to us toiniBs the point of that spontaneous action , and hardly to catch the very spirit of the day in his own all-devouring republic . Such patties , he tells us , are continually arising , But can do . nothing separatel y from the two great parties in the State , formerly called [ Federalist and Republican , now " Whig and democrat , into whieh all supernumerary parties merge . ILiet us admit that all parties within the Union are American , and that
when their distinctive purpose is opposed , they sink back into one of the two great sections- —Conservative or Progressist . But , as the American admits , the Know-nothing , party is not organised , or but slightly so ; and it is therefore the more remarkable , as an almost spontaneous effusion of popular feeling . Galled out by antagonism , to the attempt of the Roman Catholics to suppress the Bible , in the State schools ,- where the volume had not been use *! - for- sectarian purposes , the party , ifi party it can . be called , is concentrated chiefly
on the object of antagonising " foreigners " —that is , recent immigrants obeying-l ? ope or outside notions ^ and- not pursuing genuine indigenous American ofejeets . T ! he Romanists had organised a party * 6 turn the balance at 'election much as some parties , for mere mercenary objects ., stand back to turn the balance afc our own borough elections . The Enow-nothings ^ with little of organisation but a common purpose , stood more back , and neutralised the waiting policy of the Catholics . The new party ia loosely organised-
only by * community of purpose , it is not ^ secre , t '' so Biuch as latent ; it is called forth by its . purpose , and will merge into the two , gre ^ tp ' arties that divide the State when its purpose is opposed . It belongs chiefly to the ; " \^ hi g , party . , because it belongs greatly to a class which exists inmost representative couniaries--rthe class which usually holds back from political movements ; but that only showa its truly national character . It differs from -the " Native Americans ? ' in being nonpolitical where they -were ultra-democratic .
It consists of Whigs more jealous of American feeling and popular right than the ultrademocratic ultra-Ainerican agitators . In short , it is latent American society coining out m the dormant Whig ranks . It is essentially born of the occasion . The very name of " Know-nothing , " the origin . of which we do not know , serves to indicate the impalpable character of the party asa separate division of the American people . If there ia anything that distinguishes the Know-nothings at all , it is the fact , that
they do not belong to any distinctive division . They are distinguished for being undistinguished . It is a spontaneous outnaoving , such as ia excited in the individual by the most inward promptings of conscience when ordinary dry principles fail to keep him clear in perfect , justice . The Romanists , agit ating to get possession of the American mindi in the sohoolsj had adhered abundantly to professions , principles , grounds of liberality ,
toleration , and so forth . But the ultimate tendency was as clear as the movement itself , and the Know-nothinga do not meet the attack by any cut and dried assortment of counter principles , whioh would havo been difficult , but almost by an inarticulate impulse of common sense . If the Kuow-nothings reside to a great extent amongst quiet Whigs and act in a democratic mode , it shows that they are more American than cither Whig or Democrat .
It is , in fact , a spontaneous action to assert the independence and freedom , of the American , mind and nature . It is ono of the better forms of that general energy which resists encroachments * , hostile to it , and . con ?
Native America
stantly encroaches upon weaker natures around . The pressure of America upon Cuba is a similar impulse , which may be condemned by the letter of the law , as it is understood in Europe . It is not regular , but we all know that the result would be to settle a difficult question according to plain sense , and assimilate the American territory to natural geography , to rescue Cuba from a degraded "bondage into a constituent province o £ the moat powerful country in the world .
There is jusfc the same spirit in the replies of Mr . Marcy and Mr . Buchanan on the subject of privateering . The practice , as it has hitherto been conducted , is one wlricli it is difficult to distinguish , very nicely frorn buccaneering—a licensed piracy . Xet , it has enabled the American people to vindicate their independence and power afc sea without placing upon their treasury and their national resources the incumbrance of an immense
organised navy . In the same way American traide coveis the world , committing faults and absurdities , but regaining its healthy tone by the spontaneous act of common-sense . Yast railways are created , although a great railway speculator may caricature ; the magnitude of his own operations by issuing spurious shares which have no foundation m real business . President Pierce may have committed a . grieyous fault in permitting an American naval captain to bombard the miserable capital of Mosquitia— -Greytown . But the
political interests at stake m that mongrel territory are paltry , while the one rescue of jE | oss . ta the Hungarian , from the un ^ lawful detention by the powerful empire of Austria , exemplifies the free action of the Western Republic in vindicating the spirit of justice much more than it is violated at Greytown . We foresee , as distinctly as possible , that the ultimate vindication in that swamp will , by and Uy , substitute American government and American possession for the vagrant pauper sovereignty which is now enthroned . America is almost the only country in the world that dares or cares to speak her mind . Her faults are glaring , her virtues are
gigantic , her healthy opinion in the globe immense . If , occasionally , a representative of the Republic can exemplify its mistakes at a foreign court , some sturdy Republican like Mr . Sickelp can easily be sent over to tell the plain American mind ; and we do . not know any conclusion upon which the American mind can be made up which is not likely to be fulfilled . The conclusion which Mr . Sickels impersonated , the identification of Cuba with tb , e Union , is a settled , fact of the future . But it is the result of inarticulate justice , as distinct from European pedantry as the Know-nothingism . which is silently working at home .
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Atheists , obtaining such a license as Protestant Dissenters , to be permitted to meet together for « religious worship" of negations ? —and are Mormons to be so completely tolerated that if a Mormon is returned to Parliament we are to allow him to take his seat ? The general answer * might be that the law .
as to licensing chapels ^ is not in a logical condition : magistrates should not be called upon to decide on theological points . How amend the- law ? We say — get rid of the law . For , Mormons have a perfect right to meet together to invoke Joe Smith ; Atheists have a perfect right to meet together : their errors as to a future world does not disentitle them
to citizenship in this . ; The magistrate is a civil officer . ; he provides for order ; and the sole condition of his- granting a license to prayerful people ^ should he that they are to keep tolerably quiet . If Methodism , is to meet together , why not Mormonism .. ? . The Mormon is more , not less , than an orthodox person ; be believes all that the Archbishop of Canterbury does , or should do ,, and a good deal more . And if Mortnonism , -why nob Atheism ? Is the man who repudiates Joe Smith less entitled to orthodox regard than the man who does believe in . Joe Smith ?—is
he likely to be less , rational—that is , less orderly ? A prayer meeting should be regarded in the eye of the law as an ordinary public meeting- —nothing more . Certainly we require a law organising , for certain sects , the property of the communityin tBe chapel or church ; but for an errant lunacy ., such as > the Mormons , there should be perfect liberty . Joe Smith should be entitled to take tbe
. London Tavern for prayer , if Ma * . Bathe ¦ would let it to him- —which Mr . Bathe would , if Smith gave securities . And there should T ) e this perfect liberty , because if the law refuses it , it will be obtained in spite of the law- —secretly , if forbidden publicity . The Times asks—Are we to license a chap el for a sect indulging in blasphemy and indecency ? The Times does not define blasphemy and indecency ; but it means what it would call " Infidels ; " and we answerr—Yes , if you license Protestant Dissenters in general , for you know very well the spread of infidelity is not an affair of magistrates' licenses .
Beyond the question of licensing lies the larger question . Suppose a Mormon returned by the city of London to sit in Parliament—and we are convinced that if a Mormon became the richest xetsxu in the city of London , he would have as few difficulties in getting a seat as Baron Rothschild met with—ought the Speaker to let him in before the bar f Why not ? In the Jew Bill
de-TOLER&TION AITP THE MORMONS . A qjanTAiF community of Mormons in London went to a magistrate ; , went through the ordinary forms , and got their chapel , or meeting house , licensed for the performance of religious worship , Any sect of Protestant Dissenters can obtain such a license : and the Mormons are Protestant Dissenters . They are , therefore , under the protection of the Jaw : and their meeting house having been invaded the other day by an orthodox man
, who sneered at and disturbed their no doubt insane proceedings , he was handed ovor to the police ; the police brought him before a magistrate ; and by the magistrate ho wub reprimanded , informed of the state of the law , and bound over ,. &c . Thereupon a question of religious toleration is raised . The loading journal approves of the decision of the magistrates , that decision being in accordance with the law , but throws doubts upon the wisdom of the law , and aske how far is this toleration to go , Aro
bates Sir Robert Inglis put the case—Suppose a Mahommedan settled in London , mid returned afc the head of the poll ( say in an an 1 ; i-Russian . agitation ) , would you give him a seat ?—and Liberals replied , at the time : " Of course we would . " Of course , then , tho qi-vil and religious liberty party would vote for Joe Smith . We can conceive Lord John
Bussell bringing in , and dropping , ten successive Mormon Bills , and going to Mormon celebrations , and dancing in succession with the fifty , more or lessj Mesdames Smith . "What is our religious toleration worth if it 1 ) 0 merely an endurance of Jews and Protestant DissentorB ? To say that wo must not endure tho Mormons is to say wo should not endure oursolvoB . Kauvoo is filled from England ; the Mormon movement is tho chief religious movement of our timo ; and aro wo to give up our faith in tho enlightenment of our country ?
In one word , toleration is a civil , not religious , question . Persecute Mormoniam—and id flourishes . lu persecution it } tho history of the growth of most religious creeds-j vet tho world aecms over to bo forgetting that experience .
Untitled Article
WE THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 16, 1854, page 878, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2056/page/14/
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