THE PHILADELPHIA HETEROGENEOUS "PSEUDO-AMERICAN KILKENNY CONVENTION, FEBRUARY THE 22D, 1856. The Know Nothing party, from every locality, met in the city of Philadelphia on the 22d day of February, 1856, pursuant to orders, and put forth the following ticket: For President, MILLARD FILLMORE, of New York. For Vice President, ANDREW JACKSON donelson, of Tennessee. Mr. Fillmore, Gen. Sam Houston, of Texas, and John M. Clayton, of Delaaware, are the triumvirate that is said to have first organized the Know Nothing party in the United States; consequently, one of the three had to receive the nomination for President; and as Mr. Fillmore had absented himself from the scenes of political broils, on a tour to Europe, he was thought to be the most available to catch the votes of old line Whigs, anti-Cuba and fishy Democrats. We shall not pretend to raise the hackneyed cry of abolition against Mr. Fillmore; but suffice it to say, that a recurrence to his votes whilst a member of Congress, his Erie letter, his reprieve of two negro-stealers whilst President, and his nomination without a platform-with nothing to bind him— without a pledge to carry out; all go to show that, if elected, he will adopt a programme most suited to his taste, and to the tastes of the innumerable isms that will evidently rally to his support. To show that Andrew Jackson donelson, the candidate upon this Kilkenny ticket for the Vice Presidency, regarded Mr. Fillmore unsound upon the subject of slavery, as late as the spring of 1851, we have only to introduce what Andrew Jackson donelson says upon that subject whilst editor of the Union. We copy from the Washington Union, May the 17th, 1851. MR. FILLMORE AND ABOLITION. The special organ complains of our allusion to the part which Mr. Fillmore acted on the abolition question, alleging that in the last election, "it was the staple of stump speeches and party resolutions, and the American people elected Mr. Fillmore to the Vice Presidency in spite of it.", According to the logic of the special organ, the statute of limitations exculpates entirely the agency of the Whig party in giving birth and dignity to political Anti-Slavery in order to secure the election of General Taylor and Mr. Fillmore, but must be interpreted in the very opposite sense when it suits its convenience to assert that the Democratic party is responsible for the Buffalo platform, and for the combination which elected Mr. Sumner to the Senate of the United States. This kind of logic will not do, and is so contrary to the rules of common sense, that we are inclined to think it is only a way the special organ has of manifesting its ill-will that two such distinguished members of the cabinet as Messrs. Webster and Corwin should have left us some records on the subject which make the true logic one of the qualities that must ever be excluded from the Republic. Did not Mr. Corwin implore the Abolitionists to vote for Mr. Fillmore, saying, they are my children-my Whig children? Did not Mr. Webster say the same thing, in substance, when he reproached the Buffalo plat form as a theft-an illicit taking of Whig property? But the special organ, admitting all this, says, in substance, Did not the people elect Mr. Fillmore in spite of it? And can it be supposed that anything which Mr. Fillmore did before the last election is to have any weight in determining his claims as the present candidate of the Whig party for the Presidency? This is the point which we wished to see distinctly put by the special organ, in order that our readers may not mistake the lame and impotent defence which it sets up for the invincibility of the present administration. Instead of making the manly declaration which the truth demands, that the combination by which Gen. Taylor was elected implicated the Whig party, both as the author of political anti-slavery and the beneficiary of all the results of the power it bestowed-instead, we say, of admitting what is as clear as daylight on this subject, and founding the desire of Mr. Fillmore to be elected to the Presidency on the magnanimity of his countrymen, who might forgive such a fault in the presence of the credit which is due to him for his conduct as the present head of the administration-the special organ prefers to persevere in charging un. justly the Democratic party, which has nobly defied the incendiary spirit of abolition in all the stages of its encroachment on the peace and harmony of the land. This But if in this respect the special organ is unfortunate, it is not less so in maintaining that the election of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency precludes an inquiry into the objections which were made to him during that canvass. is indeed strange logic, whether applied to morals, laws, or politics. The wrong done by individuals or parties is often not really understood until the authors have been long in possession of the advantage which tempted them to commit the wrong. If such logic were recognised by the people--if the objections. made to the election of an individual to the presidency are to be considered as invalidated by his success-one of the highest safeguards against the dangers of party spirit would be withdrawn. Such logic would have kept John Quincy Adams in power; for all the faults of his administration were anticipated, as the natural result of his unsound political principles, by those who opposed his election. Yet it did not avail him to say to the American people that the objections made to his re-election had been disposed of by his first election, and to plead that, if they were true, the constituted authorities ought never to have trusted him with the highest office in the gift of the republic. We assure the special organ that we have no desire to profit by the very bad defence it makes for Mr. Fillmore, when it tells us that we ought not to go back to the circumstances which connect him with the abolition societies; but we insist upon it that common justice claims for the democratic party the merit of not being responsible for the sins of those societies, by whose influence, we feel authorized in saying, the whig ticket succeeded at the last clection. It will not do to answer this demand for justice by saying that the Erie letter "was printed and reprinted ten thousand times" during the last election, nor that Gen. Campbell asserts that he "knew Mr. Fillmore to be as free from abolition sentiments as any man in the North. Gen. Campbell cannot be presumed to know Mr. Fillmore as well as Messrs. Webster and Corwin, whose testimony is before the whole country, proving, beyond all doubt or dispute, that abolition and free-soil-were the property of whiggery, relied upon for a political purpose, and never abondoned until it was seen that a political power thus organized could not exist without destroying our Constitution and Union. But it is not alone on this question of the responsibility of the administration for the evils of political anti-slavery, that we think the defence of the special organ will be, and ought to be, unsatisfactory to the country. When we stated facts proving the inadequate protection of our interests on our Mexican frontier, the reply set up was that we seemed disposed to take the side of the Mexican government; or that at best, all that could be made out of that fact was, that a democratic Congress had left the War Department without means for the next fiscal year, which does not commence until the first of July next. All the means were granted that were asked for during the past two years; and yet the frontier was not defended during that time, and the singular excuse is given that the appropriations for the estimates of the next year were not what the heads of bureaus had desired. What relation could there be between such appropriations and the depredations of Indians that bad occurred a year before, and to prevent which there had been the most ample means provided by Congress? Who is ANDREW JACKSON donelson? The adopted son of President Jackson? No! Far from it. ANDREW JACKSON donelson is the nephew, if we are correctly informed, of the wife of President Jackson, and was named for the express purpose of inheriting the estate of General Jackson; but Old Hickory not fancying the gentleman, adopted Andrew Donelson, also a nephew of his wife, and had his name changed from Andrew Donelson to Andrew Jackson, Jr. Therefore Andrew Jackson, Jr., inherited the whole of the Old Hero's estate, and is now quietly residing at the Hermitage. ANDREW JACKSON donelson (of Tulip Hill) is no more the adopted son of President Jackson than a man unborn, but on the other hand, is a pompous renegade of great pretensions, with the faculty of presumption developed at the expense of all the rest of the bumps. CONCLUDING REMARKS. In the foregoing compilation of political matter, we have thought it unneces sary in the majority of instances, to make any prefatory remarks, as the whole object has been to present and preserve such articles, letters and specches as were elicited during, antecedent and subsequent to the great fight of the South against Know Nothingism. Some portions of the work will show the consequences and disorganized state of things resulting from the influence of Know Nothingism; whilst other parts are designed for reference in the approach. ing Presidential election; and to show that the Democratic party is the only palladium of this great Republic. Preface, INDEX. The birth, parentage and ancestry of Henry A. Wise, The politics of Mr. Wise's ancestors. His education and first marriage, Presidential Campaign of 1836. election to Congress in 1837, Graves and Cilley duel, Re-election to Congress in 1839. Pet Bank System. Death of Mrs. Wise. Re- vii xii XV xix XX xxi xxvii Re- xxxii Presidential Campaign in 1840. Second Extra session of Congress in 1841. Rejection for the mission to France. Returns to private life. State election in 1848. Election to the State Conven- XXXV Chang and Eng-Sam and the woolly heads—a chapter of death warrants, 233 Civil incapacitations &c. 280 Congressional canvass, 344 Conclusion of the canvass, 353 Inaugural address of Gov. Pollock of Pennsylvania, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 1855, 245 247 Know Nothingism and Catholicism, 139 Know Nothings of the North. Movements upon the slavery question, 250 Know Nothing humbugs examined and exploded, 321 Know Nothing oath, 129 Know Nothing Philadelphia platform. Notes and comments by the Richmond 449 Know Nothingism unveiled, 457 Letter of S. Wallace Cone, 433 List of members of the House of Representatives of the United States, 500 Lynchburg Know Nothing convention, 479 Mr. Wise writes from Washington City after he concludes the campaign, 353 409 Mr. Wise's Petersburg Letter, 429 Mr. Wise's North Carolina Letter, 430 Mr. Wise and the New York Hards and Softs, 432 Mr. Wise opens the canvass, 39 |