The first political parties in the United States, from the establishment of the federal government and for many years afterwards, were denominated Federalists and Democrats, or Democratic Republicans. ing the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or any state or territory, or the slave-trade between the States or territories of the United States, in which it now exists, shall be received by this House, or entertained in any way what-The former was an anti-alien party. The ever." This rule was afterwards, on the 3d of December, 1844, rescinded by the House, on motion of Mr. J. Quincy Adams, by a vote of 108 to 80; and a motion to re-instate it, on the 1st of December 1845, was rejected by a vote of 84 to 121. Within five years afterwards-on the 17th September 1850,-the Congress of the United States enacted a law, which was approved by the President, abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. latter was made up to a large extent of naturalized foreigners; refugees from England, Ireland and Scotland, driven from home for hostility to the government or for attachment to France. Naturally, aliens sought alliance with the Democratic party, which favored the war against Great Britain. The early party contests were based on the naturalization laws; the first of which, approved March 26, 1790, required only two years' residence in this On the 25th of February, 1850, there country; a few years afterwards the time was presented in the House of Representa- was extended to five years; and in 1798 tives, two petitions from citizens of Penn- the Federalists taking advantage of the sylvania and Delaware, setting forth that war fever against France, and then being slavery, and the constitution which per- in power, extended the time to fourteen mits it, violates the Divine law; is incon-years. (See Alien and Sedition Laws of sistent with republican principles; that 1798). Jefferson's election and Demoits existence has brought evil upon the cratic victory of 1800, brought the period country; and that no union can exist with back to five years in 1802, and re-inforced States which tolerate that institution; and the Democratic party. The city of New asking that some plan be devised for the York, especially, from time to time became immediate, peaceful dissolution of the filled with foreigners; thus naturalized; Union. The House refused to receive and brought into the Democratic ranks; and consider the petitions; as did also the crowded out native Federalists from conSenate when the same petitions were pre-trol of the city government, and to meet sented the same month. The presidential election of 1852 was the last campaign in which the Whig party appeared in National politics. It nominated a ticket with General Winfield Scott as its candidate for President. His opponent on the Democratic ticket was General Franklin Pierce. A third ticket was placed in the field by the Abolition party, with John P. Hale as its candidate for President. The platform and declaration of principles of the Whig party was in substance a ratification and endorsement of the several measures embraced in Mr. Clay's compromise resolutions of the previous session of Congress, before referred to; and the policy of a revenue for the economical administration of the government, to be derived mainly from duties on imports, and by these means to afford protection to American industry. The main plank of the platform of the Abolition party (or Independent Democrats, as they were called) was for the non-extension and gradual extinction of slavery. The Democratic party equally adhered to the compromise measure. The election resulted in the choice of Franklin Pierce, by a popular vote of 1,601,474, and 254 electoral votes, against a popular aggregate vote of 1,542,403 (of which the abolitionists polled 157,926) and 42 electoral votes, for the Whig and Abolition candidates. Mr. Pierce was duly inaugurated as President, March 4, 1853. this condition of affairs, the first attempt at a Native American organization was made. Beginning in 1835; ending in failure in election of Mayor in 1837, it was revived in April, 1844, when the Native American organization carried New York city for its Mayoralty candidate by a good majority. The success of the movement there, caused it to spread to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, it was desperately opposed by the Democratic, Irish and Roman Catholic element, and so furiously, that it resulted in riots, in which two Romish Churches were burned and destroyed. The adherents of the American organization were not confined to Federalists or Whigs, but largely of native Democrats; and the Whigs openly voted with Democratic Natives in order to secure their vote for Henry Clay for the Presidency; but when in November, 1844, New York and Philadelphia both gave Native majorities, and so sapped the Whig vote, that both places gave majorities for the Democratic Presidential electors, the Whigs drew off. In 1845, at the April election in New York, the natives were defeated, and the new party disappeared there. As a result of the autumn election of 1844, the 29th Congress, which organized in December, 1845, had six Native Representatives; four from New York and two from Pennsylvania. In the 30th Congress, Pennsylvania had one. Thereafter for some years, with the exception of a small vote in Pennsylvania and New York, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Nativism disappeared. An able writer of The bill was tabled in the Senate; to be that day-Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, of Vir- revived at the following session. In the ginia-published under the nom-de-plume Senate it was amended, on motion of Mr. of "Madison" several letters in vindication Douglas, to read: "That so much of the of the American party (revived in 1852,) in 8th section of an act approved March 6, which he said: "The vital principle of the 1820, (the Missouri compromise) *** American party is Americanism-develop- which, being inconsistent with the princiing itself in a deep-rooted attachment to ples of non-intervention by Congress with our own country-its constitution, its union, slavery in the States and Territories, as and its laws-to American men, and Ameri- recognized by the legislature of 1850, comcan measures, and American interests-or, monly called the Compromise measures, is in other words, a fervent patriotism- hereby declared inoperative and void; it which, rejecting the transcendental philan- being the true intent and meaning of thropy of abolitionists, and that kindred this act not to legislate slavery into any batch of wild enthusiasts, who would seek Territory or State, nor to exclude it thereto embroil us with foreign countries, in from, but to leave the people thereof perrighting the wrongs of Ireland, or Hun- fectly free to form and regulate their gary, or Cuba-would guard with vestal domestic institutions in their own way, vigilance American institutions and Ameri- subject only to the Constitution of the can interests against the baneful effects of United States." It was further amended, foreign influence." on motion of Senator Clayton, to prohibit "alien suffrage." In the House this amendment was not agreed to; and the bill finally passed without it, on the 25th May, 1854. About 1852, when the question of slavery in the territories, and its extension or its abolition in the States, was agitated and causing sectional differences in the country, many Whigs and Democrats forsook their parties, and took sides on the questions of the day. This was aggravated by the large number of alien naturalized citizens constantly added to the ranks of voters, who took sides with the Democrats and against the Whigs. Nativism then re-appeared, but in a new form-that of a secret fraternity. Its real name and objects were not revealed-even to its members, until they reached a high degree in the order; and the answer of members on being questioned on these subjects was, "I don't know"-which gave it the popular name, by which it is yet known, of "Knownothing." Its moving causes were the growing power and designs of the Roman Catholic Church in America; the sudden influx of aliens; and the greed and incapacity of naturalized citizens for office. Its cardinal principle was: Americans must rule America"; and its countersign was the order of General Washington on a critical occasion during the war: "Put none but Americans on guard to-night." Its early nominations were not made public, but were made by select committees and conventions of delegates. At first these nominations were confined to selections of the best Whig or best Democrat on the respective tickets; and the choice not being made known, but quietly voted for by all the members of the order, the effect was only visible after election, and threw all calculation into chaos. For a while it was really the arbiter of elections. On February 8, 1853, a bill passed the House of Representatives providing a territorial government for Nebraska, embracing all of what is now Kansas and Nebraska. It was silent on the subject of So far as Nebraska was concerned, no excitement of any kind marked the initiation of her territorial existence. The persons who emigrated there seemed to regard the pursuits of business as of more interest than the discussion of slavery. Kansas was less fortunate. Her territory became at once the battle-field of a fierce political conflict between the advocates of slavery, and the free soil men from the North who went there to resist the establishment of that institution in the territory. Differences arose between the Legislature and the Governor, brought about by antagonisms between the Proslavery party and the Free State party; and the condition of affairs in Kansas assumed so frightful a mien in January, 1856, that the President sent a special message to Congress on the subject, January 24, 1856; followed by a Proclamation, February 11, 1856, "warning all unlawful combinations (in the territory) to retire peaceably to their respective abodes, or he would use the power of the local militia, and the available forces of the United States to disperse them." Several applications were made to Congress for several successive years, for the admission of Kansas as a state in the Union; upon the basis of three separate and distinct constitutions, all differing as to the main questions at issue between the contending factions. The name of Kansas was for some years synonymous with all that is lawless and anarchical. Elections became mere farces, and the officers thus fraudulently placed in power, used their authority only for their own or their party's interest. The party opposed to slavery at length triumphed; a constitution excluding slavery was adopted in 1859, | cise of its local and reserved sovereignty, and Kansas was admitted into the Union January 29, 1861. 393. may place foreigners or other persons on Under the fugitive slave law, which was passed by Congress at the session of 1850, as one of the Compromise measures, introduced by Mr. Clay, a long and exciting litigation occurred to test the validity and constitutionality of the act, and the several laws on which it depended. The suit was instituted by Dred Scott, a negro slave, in the Circuit Court of the United States for The Court said in The Dred Scott case, the District of Missouri, in April Term, above referred to, that: "The right of 1854, against John F. A. Sanford, his property in a slave is distinctly and exalleged owner, for trespass vi et armis, in pressly affirmed in the Constitution. The holding the plaintiff and his wife and right to traffic in it like the ordinary article daughters in slavery in said District of of merchandise and property was guarMissouri, where by law slavery was pro-antied to the citizens of the United States, hibited; they having been previously law-in every State that might desire it for fully held in slavery by a former owner- twenty years, and the government in exDr. Emerson-in the State of Illinois, press terms is pledged to protect it in all from whence they were taken by him to future time if the slave escapes from his Missouri, and sold to the defendent, San- owner. This is done in plain words-too ford. The case went up on appeal to the plain to be misunderstood, and no word Supreme Court of the United States, and can be found in the Constitution which was clearly and elaborately argued. The gives Congress a greater power over slave majority opinion, delivered by Chief Jus- property, or which entitles property of tice Taney, as also the dissenting opinions, that kind to less protection than the propare reported in full in Howard's U. S. erty of any other description. The only Supreme Court Reports, Volume 19, page power conferred is the power coupled with In respect to the territories the Con- the duty of guarding and protecting the stitution grants to Congress the power "to owner in his rights. Upon these consideramake all needful rules and regulations tions, it is the opinion of the Court that concerning the territory and other property the Act of Congress which prohibited a belonging to the United States.' The citizen from holding and owning property Court was of opinion that the clause of of this kind in the territory of the United the Constitution applies only to the terri-States north of the line therein mentioned, tory within the original States at the time is not warranted by the Constitution_and the Constitution was adopted, and that it did not apply to future territory acquired by treaty or conquest from foreign nations. They were also of opinion that the power of Congress over such future territorial acquisitions was not unlimited, that the citizens of the States migrating to a territory were not to be regarded as colonists, subject to absolute power in Congress, but as citizens of the United States, with all the rights of citizenship guarantied by the Constitution, and that no legislation was constitutional which attempted to deprive a citizen of his property on his becoming a resident of a territory. This question in the case arose under the act of Congress prohibiting slavery in the territory of upper Louisiana, (acquired from France, afterwards the State), and of which the territory of Missouri was formed. Any obscurity as to what constitutes citizenship, will be removed by attending to the distinction between local rights of citizenship of the United States according to the Constitution. Citizenship at large in the sense of the Constitution can be conferred on a foreigner only by the naturalization laws of Congress. But each State, in the exer. is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family were made free by being carried into this territory; even if they had been carried there by the owner with the intention of becoming a permanent resident." The abolition of slavery by the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States ratified and adopted December 18, 1865, has put an end to these discussions formerly so numerous. As early as 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska controversy on the territorial government bill, resulted in a division of the Whig party in the North. Those not sufficiently opposed to slavery to enter the new Republican party, then in its incipiency, allied themselves with the Know-Nothing order, which now accepting the name of American party established a separate and independent political existence. The party had no hold in the West; it was entirely Middle State at this time, and polled a large vote in Massachusetts, Delaware and New York. In the State elections of 1855 the American party made a stride Southward. In 1855, the absence of naturalized citizens was universal in the South, and even so late as 1881 the proportion of foreign-born population in the Southern any territory thereof, to frame their conStates, with the exception of Florida, stitution and laws, and to regulate their Louisiana, and Texas was under two per domestic and social affairs in their own cent. At the early date-1855-the na- mode, subject only to the provisions of the tivist feeling among the Whigs of that Federal Constitution, with the privilege of section, made it easy to transfer them to admission into the Union, whenever they the American party, which thus secured in have the requisite population for one repboth the Eastern and Southern States, the resentative in Congress.-Provided always, election of Governor and Legislature in that none but those who are citizens of the the States of New Hampshire, Massachu- United States, under the Constitution' and setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New laws thereof, and who have a fixed resiYork, California and Kentucky; and also dence in any such territory, ought to parelected part of its State ticket in Mary- ticipate in the formation of the Constituland, and Texas; and only lost the States tion, or in the enactment of laws for said of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi- Territory or State. ana, and Texas, by small majorities against it. 8th. An enforcement of the principle that no State or Territory ought to admit others than citizens of the United States to the right of suffrage, or of holding political office. The order began preparations for a campaign as a National party, in 1856. It aimed to introduce opposition to aliens and Roman Catholicism as a national question. 9th. A change in the laws of naturaliOn the 21st of February, 1856, the Nation-zation, making a continued residence of al Council held a session at Philadelphia, and proceeded to formulate a declaration of principles, and make a platform, which were as follows: twenty-one years, of all not hereinbefore provided for, an indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding all paupers, and persons convicted of crime, from landing upon our shores; but no interference with the vested rights of foreign "An humble acknowledgement to the Supreme Being, for his protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their success-ers. ful Revolutionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their descendants, in the preservation of the liberties, the independence, and the union of these States. 2d. The perpetuation of the Federal Union, as the palladium of our civil and religious liberties, and the only sure Bulwark of American independence. 3d. Americans must rule America, and to this end, native-born citizens should be selected for all state, federal, and municipal offices or government employment, in preference to all others; nevertheless, 4th. Persons born of American parents residing temporarily abroad, should be entitled to all the rights of native-born citizens; but, 5th. No person shall be selected for political station (whether of native or foreign birth), who recognizes any allegiance or obligation, of any description, to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, or who refuses to recognize the Federal and State constitutions (each within its sphere) as paramount to all other laws, as rules of political action. 6th. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved rights of the several States, and the cultivation of harmony and fraternal good will, between the citizens of the several States, and to this end, non-interference by congress with questions appertaining solely to the individual States, and non-intervention by each State with the affairs of any other State. 7th. The recognition of the right of the native-born and naturalized citizens of the United States, permanently residing in 10th. Opposition to any union between Church and State; no interference with religious faith, or worship, and no test oaths for office. 11th. Free and thorough investigation into any and all alleged abuses of public functionaries, and a strict economy in public expenditures. 12th. The maintenance and enforcement of all laws constitutionally enacted, until said laws shall be repealed, or shall be declared null and void by competent judicial authority. The American Ritual, or Constitution, rules, regulations, and ordinances of the Order were as follows: AMERICAN RITUAL. Constitution of the National Council of the United States of North America. ART. 1st. This organization shall be known by the name and title of THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, and its jurisdiction and power shall extend to all the states, districts, and territories of the United States of North America. ART. 2d. The object of this organization shall be to protect every American citizen in the legal and proper exercise of all his civil and religious rights and privileges; to resist the insidious policy of the Church of Rome, and all other foreign influence against our republican institutions in all lawful ways; to place in all offices of honor trust, or profit, in the gift of the people, or by appointment, none but native-born Protestant citizens, and to protect, preserve, and uphold the union of these states and the constitution of the same. Sec. 5.-The national council shall be vested with the following powers and privileges: It shall be the head of the organization for the United States of North America, and shall fix and establish all signs, grips, passwords, and such other secret work, as may seem to it necessary. It shall have the power to decide all matters appertaining to national politics. It shall have the power to exact from the state councils, quarterly or annual statements as to the number of members under their jurisdictions, and in relation to all other matters necessary for its information. It shall have the power to form state, ART. 3d. Sec. 1.-A person to become a member of any subordinate council must be twenty-one years of age; he must believe in the existence of a Supreme Being as the Creator and preserver of the universe. He must be a native-born citizen; a Protestant, either born of Protestant parents, or reared under Protestant influence; and not united in marriage with a Roman Catholic; provided, nevertheless, that in this last respect, the state, district, or territorial councils shall be authorized to so construct their respective constitutions as shall best promote the interests of the American cause in their several juris-territorial, or district councils, and to grant dictions; and provided, moreover, that no dispensations for the formation of such member who may have a Roman Catholic bodies, when five subordinate councils shall wife shall be eligible to office in this order; have been put in operation in any state, and provided, further, should any state, territory, or district, and application made. district, or territorial council prefer the It shall have the power to determine words Roman Catholic" as a disquali- upon a mode of punishment in case of any fication to membership, in place of "Pro- dereliction of duty on the part of its memtestant" as a qualification, they may so bers or officers. consider this constitution and govern their action accordingly. Sec. 2.-There shall be an interval of three weeks between the conferring of the first and second degrees; and of three months between the conferring of the second and third degrees-provided, that this restriction shall not apply to those who may have received the second degree previous to the first day of December next; and provided, further, that the presidents of state, district, and territorial councils may grant dispensations for initiating in all the degrees, officers of new councils. Sec. 3.-The national council shall hold its annual meetings on the first Tuesday in the month of June, at such place as may be designated by the national council at the previous annual meeting, and it may adjourn from time to time. Special meetings may be called by the President, on the written request of five delegations representing five state councils; provided, that sixty days' notice shall be given to the state councils previous to said meeting. Sec. 4.-The national council shall be composed of seven delegates from each state, to be chosen by the state councils; and each district or territory where a district or territorial council shall exist, shall be entitled to send two delegates, to be chosen from said council-provided that in the nomination of candidates for PresiIdent and Vice President of the United States, and each state shall be entitled to cast the same number of votes as they shall have members in both houses of Congress. In all sessions of the national council, thirty-two delegates, representing thirteen states, territories, or districts, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi mess. It shall have the power to adopt cabalistic characters for the purpose of writing or telegraphing. Said characters to be communicated to the presidents of the state councils, and by them to the presidents of the subordinate councils. It shall have the power to adopt any and every measure it may deem necessary to secure the success of the organization; provided that nothing shall be done by the said national council in violation of the constitution; and provided further, that in all political matters, its members may be instructed by the state councils, and if so instructed, shall carry out such instructions of the state councils which they represent until overruled by a majority of the national council. Art. 4. The President shall always preside over the national council when present, and in his absence the Vice President shall preside, and in the absence of both the national council shall appoint a president pro tempore; and the presiding officers may at all times call a member to the chair, but such appointment shall not extend beyond one sitting of the national council. Art. 5. Sec. 1.-The officers of the National Council shall be a President, VicePresident, Chaplain, Corresponding Secre tary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and two Sentinels, with such other officers as the national council may see fit to appoint from time to time; and the secretaries and sentinels may receive such compensation as the national council shall determine. Sec. 2. The duties of the several officers created by this constitution shall be such as the work of this organization prescribes. Art. 6. Sec. 1.-All officers provided for by this constitution, except the sentinels, shall be elected annually by ballot. The |