recognised and practised in the
south. But the clergy of the north have commenced a fanatical crusade
against it. We should guard well against these influences, foreign and
domestic, now operating against us.

As a part of the history of the times, it may be proper to give the rise
and progress of the so-called order of "Know-Nothings." The plan of the
organization was conceived by a gentleman of the city of New York, who, in
1849, prepared and embodied into a system, a plan for uniting the American
{114} sentiment of the American people throughout the United States. It was
meant as a combined resistance, on the part of the native American
population, to foreign and papal influence in this country. The progress of
the plan was so slow in its development, that at the end of two years, the
number of members uniting in the organization did not exceed thirty. In
1852 the plan was examined by a few gentlemen connected with the Order of
United Americans, another secret and American organization, but not
directly political or partisan in its aims and objects. A society was
formed, and forty-three members signed their names to it, and from that
small beginning was formed a body of native Americans which, in a year or
two after, exceeded, in the state of New York alone, two hundred thousand
members. This state organization soon extended its ramifications all over
the country, and is now known as the American party. It has held three
national conventions, one in Philadelphia, one at New York, and one in
Louisville, and is now no more of a secret party than either of the two
great parties opposed to it: the national conventions having abolished all
secret meetings, and the state conventions or councils having generally
concurred in this abolition of all oaths and all forms of obligation but
those of personal honor and mutual good faith.

The ban of secrecy had made it, doubtless, an object of suspicion. Its
adversaries hurl at it these {115} unfortunate antecedents. But now all
secrecy has been abolished, and the party claims to assert only, the great
principle of an INTELLIGENT SELF-GOVERNMENT. They recognise the secret and
insidious influences of the Jesuit, and deprecate it. They call attention
to it, and to its increasing importance in this valley; but still, in the
spirit of liberty, leave the Jesuit free to act as he pleases. They
perceive that it is irreconcilable with freedom of thought and conscience
to surrender, uncondi