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Show 20 because it is possible for a people to take so much foreign blood in its veins, and so many foreign ideas to its consciousness, that its nationality perishes. In part, this principle comes from the National Instinct; and that is always stronger in the great mass of the people than it is in any class of men with "superior education:" for the superior education consists almost wholly in development of the understanding,- the thinking part,not in culture of the conscience, the affections, and the religious element. Therefore, for the National Instinct, I never look to lawyers, ministers, doctors, literary and scien1 ific men, or, in short, to the class of men who have what is called the "best education:" I look to the great mass of the people. It seems to me that the National Instinct of the Saxon had something to do in making this principle of the American party so popular. However, I do not think the chief devotion to this principle comes from that source, but from one very much corrupter than that,- a source a great deal lower than the uneducated mass of the Northern people. It comes from political partisans,- men who want office. There are two ways of getting into high office. One is to fly there : that is a very good way for an animal furnished with wings. The other is to crawl there : that is the only way left for such as have no wings, and no legs, and no arms. Well, there was a class of men at the North who could not fly into office; and when the way which led up to the office was perpendicular, and went up straight, they could not crawl; they were so slippery, that they fell off: there was not strength enough in their natural gluten to hold up their natural weight. Such men could not fly there ; they could not crawl there, so long as the road went straight up; so they took the Know-Nothing plank, which sloped up pretty gradually; and on it Mr. Gardner crawled into the governorship of Massachusetts. A good many men, in various 21 other States, wormed up on that gently sloping incUned plane, who else never would have been within sight of any considerable office. Now, it is this class of men, who caught sight of that principle demanded by the national instinct, which fears an excess of foreign blood in our veins, and of foreign ideas in our consciousness; and they said, Let us make use of that as a wedge upon which we can crawl up into office. They have got in there; but before long they will fall out of their lofty hole, or, if they stay in, will be shrivelled up, dried clear through, and by and by be blown off so far that no particle of them will ever be found again. The American party just now, throughout all the United States, I fear, has fallen into the hands of this class of men. It does not any longer, I think, represent the instinct of the less-educated people, or the consciousness of the more thoughtful people, but the designs of artful, crafty, and rather low-minded persons. But let no injustice be done. In the party are still noble men, who entered it full of this national instinct, with these three negations on their banner - No Priestcraft ' ' No Liquor, No New Slave States. Some of them still adhere to the \Vorst of the leaders of their party. Loyalty is as strong in the Saxon as in the Russian or Spaniard; as often attaches itself to a mean man. It is now painful to see such faithful worshippers of such false "gods." "An idol is Nothing," says St. Paul: it may also be a Know Nothing. This party, notwithstanding its origin and character, has done two good works,- one negative, one positive. First, it helped destroy the Whig and Democratic party. That was very essential. The antislavery man, the nonpolitical reformer, wanted to sow his seed in the national. soil. It was dreadfully cumbered with weeds of two kinds, -Whig-weed and Democrat-weed. The Know Nothings lent their hands to destroy these weeds; and they have |
