IM P O R T A N T
T E S TIM O NY
CONNECTED WITH
NATIVE AMERICAN PRING|PLES.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE NATIVE AMERICAN PARTY As ADOPTED
BY THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. HELD AT -
PHILADELPHIA, JULY 4, 1845.
Resolved, That we do hereby form ourselves into
a national political party, for the radical reform of
abuses, and the preservation of our institutions and
our liberties, under the name of the Native American
Party.
1. That as Native Americans, we cannot consent
to give our political suffrages to any other than to those
born on our soil and matured among our institutions.
2. That no foreigner hereafter coming to these
United States, shall be allowed to exercise the elec-
tive franchise, until he shall have been a resident here
at least twenty-one years.
3. That the Bible, as the only basis of pure Chris-
tianity, lies at the bottom of all true liberty and equali-
ty, and thus, as the corner-stone of our freeinstitutions,
should be freely read by all men.
4. That removals from important offices under the
general government, should be made like appoint-
ments, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen-
ate, or other approving body, except in the absence of
the Senate, when the President may have the power
to suspend for cause.
5. That these principles, lying as they do, at the
very foundation of our political freedom, and our na-
tional existence, involve, and are paramount to all
others, however important to our external prosperity.
6. That the interest—the honor of the nation, as
well as the real welfare of all parties, require that
subordinate party questions should be made to yield
to the great principles for which we are contending.
7. That organizations of Native American Asso-
ciations should be established in all the townships
and wards of cities throughout the United States.
8. That the appointment of two delegates from
each Congressional District, be recommended to meet
in General Convention, on the 2d Tuesday of May,
1847, to nominate candidates for President and Vice
President of the United States, and that the place of
meeting be Pittsburgh, Pa. - -
9. That we advocate the principle, that no alien
should be naturalized, except on the production of a
Custom House certificate, to be procured on his land.
ing on these American shores, proving his residence
of twenty-one years; such certificate to be given up
to be canceled. -
10. That we hold it to be the duty of all true Na-
tive Americans, to give their suffrages to those only,
who subscribe heartily to our principles and will
maintain them. -
11. That as Native Americans, we hold it to be
our duty to take high moral ground on all subjects,
to grapple with the principles of right, of truth, and
of justice, without regard to mere questions of availa.
-- º
bility, and to contend for them fearlessly against the
world. - º º - º - -
12. That the several Executive Committees of the
States be requested to appoint, each, two proper per-
sons, to constitute a Corresponding National Com-
mittee. -
13. That while every constitutional effort should
be made to guard against the deleterious consequen-
ces of a rapidly increasing immigration, by the enact-
ment of the most efficient laws, for the accomplish-
ment of that all important object, still a generous
magnanimity requires that those aliens who are, or
may become inhabitants of the United States, should
be kindly received, and every privilege extended to
them, except that of participating in any of our politi-
cal administrations, and exercising the right of suf-
frage, until after a residence of at least twenty-one
years.
14. That as Native Americans, we will foster and
defend all the great interests of our country, its agri-
culture, its commerce, its mechanics, and manufac-
tures, navigation, mining, and science, fine arts, and
literature, against the world.
15. That we do advocate the passage of laws, im-
posing upon all foreigners coming hither for purposes
of permanent residence, a capitation-tax, sufficiently
large to prevent the excessive influx of vicious and
pauper emigrants, and that we do this as a matter of
self-defence. -
16. That we urge the promotion and fostering of all
means of moral and intellectual culture, by perma-
ment provision for general education, believing the in-
telligence of the people to be necessary to the right
use and the permanence of our liberties, civil and re-
ligious.
17. That the Native American party do, and will
continue to advocate the principle that the naturaliza-
tion of foreigners be confined exclusively to the Courts
of the U. States, and also that a public registration
of all applicants for the elective franchise be made.
18. That we advocate the universal toleration of
every religious faith and sect, and the total separation
of all sectarianism and politics.
19. That we recommend that no alien be permitted
to land in these United States, without a certificate of
good moral character, and who is able to provide for
his own support, which certificate shall be signed by
the United States Consul of the port from whence
he sailed; and also, that a registry be made of said
alien, in conformity with the Act of Congress, passed
in 1802, under President Jefferson. .
H. A. S. DEARBORNE, Mass.
President.


-
FOREIGN
EMIGRATION
AND
FO REIGN
-
CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE LIBER-
TIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
BY PROFESSOR MORSE.
Does this heading seem singular? What, it ºn be
said, is it at all probable that any nation, or combination
of nations, can entertain designs against us; a people so
peaceable, and at the same time so distant? Knowing
the daily increasing resources of this country in all the
means of defence against foreign aggression, how absurd
in the nations abroad to dream of a conquest on this
soil? Let me, nevertheless, ask attention, while I
humbly offer my reasons for believing that a conspiracy
exists, that its plans are already in operation, and that
we are º in a vulnerable quarter, which cannot be
defended by our ships, our forts, or our armies.
Who among us is not aware that a mighty struggle
of opinion is in our days agitating all the nations o
Europe; that there is a war going on between despotism
on one side, and liberty on º other. And with what
deep anxiety should Americans watch the viscissitudes
of the conflict.
“As long as I live,” says the Emperor,” “I will op-
ose a will of iron to the progress of liberal opinions.
The present generation is lost, but we must labor with
zealand earnestness to improve the spirit of that to come.
It may require an hundred years; I am not unreason-
able, I give you a whole age, but you must work with-
out relaxation.” -
This islanguage without ambiguity, bold undisguised;
it is the clear official disclosure of the determination of
the Holy Alliance against liberty. It proclaims unex-
tinguishable hatred, a will of iron. There is no com-
promise with liberty, a hundred years of efforts unrelaxed,
if necessary, shall be put forth to crush it forever. Its
very name must be blotted from the earth. What! and
is there a Holy Alliance, a “union of Christian princes.”
leagued to extinguish the kindling sparks of #. in
Europe? and will they make no º to quench the
great altar-fires, that blaze in their strength in the tem-
ples of this land of liberty?
With declarations before us, thus officially put forth by
despotism, and of such exterminating hostility to liberty,
is it not possible that an attack on us may be made from
a quarter, and in a shape, little expected? Should we
not at least look about us? Nations may be attacked
and conquered too, with other weapons than the sword.
Every revolution that has occurred in Europe for the
last half century, has been in a greater or less degree
the consequence of our own glorious Revolution. The
great political truths there promulgated to the world,
are the seed of the disorders and conspiracies, and revo-
lutions of Europe. Can despotism know all this, and
not feel it necessary to do something to counteract the
evil? Austria is now acting in this country. She
has devised a grand scheme. She has organized a
reat plan for doing something here, which she, at least,
eems important. She has her Jesuit missionaries
travelling through the land; she has supplied them with
money, and has furnished a fountain for a regular supply.
These are not surmises. They are facts. Some official
documents, giving the constitution and doings of this
Foreign Society, have lately made their appearance in
the New York Observer, and have been copied exten-
sively into other journals of the country:-This Society,
having ostensibly a religious object, has been for nearly
four years at work in the Unite States, without attract-
ing, out of the religious world, much attention to its
IN FLUENCE.
--
ºperations:-The great patron of this apparently reli.
gious scheme is no less a personage than the Emperor
ºf Austria. The Society is called the sº. Leopold
oundation. * Of Austria.
-
THE LEOPOLD FOUNDATION.
This is a Society in Europe, whose funds are derived.
in part, from the money paid by the people to have their
sins pardoned. The price is duly regulated. Crimes
are paid for in proportion to their size; and the proceeds,
thus taken from the poor slaves of superstition, are
paid into this Leopold Society, for the kind purpose of
shedding European Popish light upon our Republican
darkness!!! And such a system finds apologists and
advocates in the United States. The Leopold Founda-
tion has, for its ultimate object, the extinction of repub-
lºcanism in America.
The very year beforeitsinstitution, Professor Schlegel,
a very learned historian, who stood high in the confi-
dence of the Austrian government, delivered a course of
lectures at Vienna, the avowed object of which was to
prove, that Popery and Monarchy had always been the
natural allies and supporters of each other, as were also
Republicanism and Protestanism. At the close of the
17th lecture of this course, we find the following declara-
tion :
“The true nursery of all these destructive principles”
—alluding to the republican principles on which he was
lecturing-º the revolutionary school for France and
the rest of Europe, has been North America. Thence
the evil has spread over many other lands, either by
natural contagion, or by arbitrary communication.”
Here we have a declaration, by one in the confidence
of the Austrian cabinet, employed to write proclama-
tions and draft edicts for his government, that our country
is the revolutionary school for all Europe, and that the
republican principles, of which it is the true nursery, are
º ernicious and destructive tendency.
hat next Why, if American republicanism was
the source of the troubles and the insecurity of European
Monarchs, and if Popery was the natural ally and sup-
porter of Monarchy—and what more natural allies than
ecclesiastical and civil despotism –then it became a
matter of vital interest to crowned heads, to establish
popery in America for the subversion of our republi:
canism. Make Romanism the prevailing religion of
this country, and this hot-bed of “pernicious principles”
would be broken up and destroyed. Accordingly, the
very next year, the Society “for aiding Roman Catholic
Missions in America,” was instituted at the very place
where these lectures were delivered; with prince Met-
termich, the Austrian premier, at the head of it!. Put
this fact by the side of the declaration of the Duke of
Richmond, and who can resist the conclusion, that
Roman Catholic missions are prosecuted in this country
with the express design of overthrowing our free institue
tions 2 - -
-
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND.
The following language to the Duke of Richmond,
while Governor of the Canadas, and is reported by Mr.
H. G. Gates, of Montreal, who was present when it
was uttered.
2 .
- __ -




The Duke, a short time prior to his death, inspeaking
of the government of the United States, said: “it wº
weak, inconsistent, and bad, and could not long exist.”
“It will be destroyed; it ought not, and will not be
permitted to exist; for many and great are the evils that
have originated from the existence of that government.
The curse of the French Revolution, and subsequent
wars and commotions in Europe, are to be attributed to
its example; and so long as it exists, no prince will be
safe upon his throne; and the sovereigns of Europe are
aware of it, and they have been determined upon its
destruction, and have come to an understanding upon
this subject, and have decided on the means to accom-
plish it; and they will eventually succeed by subversion
rather than conquest.” “All the low and surplus popu,
lation of the different nations of Europe will be carrie
into that country; it is and will be a receptacle for the
bad and disaffected population of Europe, when they are
not wanted for soldiers, or to supply the navies; and the
European governments will favor such a course. . This
will create a surplus and a majority of low population,
who are so very easily excited; and they will bring with
them their principles, and in nine cases out of ten, ad-
here to their ancient and former governments, laws,
manners, customs, and religion, and will transmit them
to their posterity, and in many cases propagate them
among the natives. These men will become citizens,
and by the constitution and laws will be invested with
the right of suffrage. The different grades of society
will then be created by the elevation of a few, and by
degrading many, and thus a heterogeneous population
will be formed, speaking different languages, and of
different religions and sentiments, and to make them
act, think and feel alike, in political affairs, will be like
mixing oil and water; hence, discord, dissension, anar-
chy, and civil war will ensue, and some popular indivi-
dual will assume the government, and restore order,
and the sovereigns of Europe, the emigrants, and many
of the natives will sustain him.” “The Church of
Rome has a design upon that country, and it will, in
time, be the established religion, and will aid in the
destruction of that republic.” “I have conversed with
many of the sovereigns and princes of Europe, and they
have unanimously expressed these opinions relative to
the government of the United States, and their deter.
mination to subvert it.”
THE POPE'S FOREIGN JESUITS.
A sufficient ground of opposition is found in the cha-
racter of the agents who are made use of to accomplish
this great revvolution. History furnishes evidence—
sanctioned by Roman Catholics themselves—that
the Jesuits, who are swarming over this country, are
men whose principles and practices have been danger-
ous to the peace and order of all governments. With
them all things are right when sanctified by the end.
To lie, to assassinate by the steel and the chalice, are
with them, virtuous deeds, when they promote the in-
terests of Rome. The proof of this, is on the pages
of Molina, Lessius, Vasquez, Escobar, and the rest quo.
ted by Pascal, in his provincial Letters. And we refer,
for their practical results, to the eccelesiastical and poli.
tical history of Europe, for the best comment on their
enormalles.
Their perfect internal discipline, their entire obedience
to their leader, the art with which they adapted their in-
struction to every class of people, the consummate abi-
lity, learning, and judgment which they displayed, ren.
dered them the most powerful and opulent of the mo-
nastic orders. They became the grand bulwark of po-
pery. The facility with which they relaxed the moral
system of Christianity, and accommodated it to the pro-
ensities of mankind, rendered them exceedingly popu-
ar. The characteristics of the Jesuits were craft and
subtlety. They were perfectly unscrupulous in the use
of means for the accomplishment of their ends. This
º Society was ultimately suppressed, first by the
rench Parliament, then by Spain, Portugal, &c., and
finally the order was extinguished by Pope Clement
XIV., in 1773. This dangerous order has been revived
by Pope Pius VII. It is spreading itself firmly in the
nited States, and, with its wonted policy, seeming to
adapt itself to the institutions of the country, while by
getting the control of education, iſ prepares to modify
and direct those institutions at its will.
In the Jusuits oath is-
1. An acknowledgment that Protestant governments
are illegal, without the “sacred confirmation” of the
Pope, and may safely be destroyed.
2. A renunciation of “any allegiance as due to any
heretical” state, named Protestant.
3. A solemn pledge to do their utmost to . destroy
all their pretended powers, regal or otherwise.
Comment, on the relations which these agents of the
Pope sustain to our Protestant government, is needless.
They are found as agents, preachers, editors, orators.
and are the originators, or promoters of a majority of
the mobs and riots that for ten years past have distracted
this country. One of their great aims being to bring
our government and institutions and laws, into disre:
pute, that Protestanism may no longer have the credit
and the glory of building up this great nation.
They are Jesuits, in the pay and employ of despotic
government, they are foreigners, who have been school-
ed in foreign seminaries in the doctrine of passive obe-
dience; they are foreigners under vows of perpetual ce-
libacy, and having, therefore, no deep and permanent
interest in this country; they are Fº bound by
the strong ties of pecuniary interest and ambition, to the
service of a foreign despot. Is there no danger to our
free institutions from a host commanded by such men,
whose numbers are constantly increasing the power
arising from the right to refuse absolution to those who
do not comply with their commands. And should not
the men who possess such powers be jealously watched
by all lovers of liberty
Is it possible that these Jesuits can have a sincere at-
tachment to the principles of free institutions? Do not
these principles oppose a constant barrier to their exer-
cise of that arbitrary power, which they claim as a di-
vine right, and which they exercise too in all countries
where they are dominant 2 Can it not be perceived,
that although they may find it politic for the present to
conceal their anti-republican tenets, yet this conceal-
ment will be merely temporary, and is only adopted now,
the better to lull suspicion:
And to whom do these leaders look for the instruc-
tions? Is it to a citizen or body of citizens belonging to
this country? Is it to a body of men kept in check by
the ever jealous eye of other bodies around them, and
by the immediate publicity which must be given to all
their doings? They are men owning no law, on this side
of the ocean; they obey the Pope, and his Consistory of
Cardinals, following the plan and instructions of theim-
perial cabinet of Austria, plans formed in the secret
councils of that cabinet, instructions delivered in secret,
according to the modes of despotism, to their obedient
officers, and distributed through the well disciplined
ranks in this country.
It is a beautiful feature in our Constitution, that every
man is left to worship God according to the dictates of
his own conscience, that the church is separated from
the state, and that equal protection is granted to all
greeds. The Roman Catholic is permitted to work in the
light of Protestant toleration, to mature his plans, and
to execute his designs to extinguish that light, and des.
troy the hands that hold it. It is no refutation of the
charge of intolerance, here made against Roman Catho.
lies as a sect, to show that small bodies of them, under
peculiar circumstances, have been tolerant, or that in
this country, where they have always been a small mil
nority, they make high professions of ardent love for the
republican, tolerant institutions of our government. No
one can be deceived by evidence so partial and circum.
scribed, while the blood of the persecuted for opinion's
sake, stains with the deepest inge every page of the
history of that church; aye, even while it is still wº.
upºn the dungeon-floors of Italy: while the intoleran
and anti-republican principles of Popery are now weekly
thundered from the Vatican, and echoed in our ears by
almost every arrival from Europe.
CHARACTER OF THE GREAT BODY
OF EMIGRANTS.
Controlled and organised in this Country by Foreign
Jesuits—the drill officers whose headquarters and mas-
ters are in Europe.
Massachusetts.
FOREIGN PAUPERS. -
From a report of the Secretary of the State of Mas-
sachusetts, it appears that the number of State paupers
reported for the year, is 6,060. Of these Three thou-
sand six hundred and sixty-three are foreigners, and
Three thousand and eighty-seven from England and Ire-
land. Thus it appears that nearly two thirds of the
pauperism of Massachusetts is of foreign origin.
The following is an extract from an official document
of Nov. 1814: Boston Eagle, Feb. 12th.
Number of State Paupers in the Alms House in this
- 2541
city, -- -- -- --
Of this number there are Foreigners, , , 1768 .
Estimated cost to support the dregs of Foreign Alms
Houses and Penitentiaries, per year, each, $52,00-
amounting to the enormous sum of NINETY-TV0
THOUSAND NINE-HUND RED AND THIRTY-
SIX DOLLAPS A YEAR / / Is it not time to look
at such enormous expenditures? What is to be done?
Must this be tolerated Shall we submit tamely to such
proceedings? Three times as many foreigners as Amer:
icans to be supported by the citizens of Boston!—and
they are constantly coming in overwhelming numbers!
American citizens ! look at this authentic document,
this startling fact, and you never will tell us that we
have nothing to fear from foreigners.
I N N E W YORK.
FOREIGN PAUPERS.
Facts from the New York alms-house statistics, we
make the following extracts:
During the week ending the 26th of October, there
were admitted into the Alms-House 90 persons-63 of
whom were foreigners, 27 natives.
- During the week ending November 2d, 98-66 ſo-
reigners, 38 natives.
During the week ending Nov. 9th, 95-69 foreigners,
26 natives.
During the week ending Nov. 16th, 118–77 foreign-
ers, 41 natives.
During the week ending Nov. 23rd, 108-70 foreign-
ers, 38 natives.
“It has repeatedly occurred that passengers have
been sent up from the ship that brought them, to the
Alms-House. There were at one time no less than 16
prients in one Hospital at Bellevue, all of whom came
in one Ship.”
The whole number of inmates in the Penitentiary and
City Prison is 1419, showing an increase of four hun-
dred since July last, and of º number there are 372
natives, 885 foreigners, and 162 blacks. Commeut is
unnecessary. Jan'y. 16th, The number of Paupers ad-
mitted to the alms-house at Bellevue, N. Y. during the
week ending Saturday, December, 14th, was 149. Of
these, 111 are foreigners, and seven of them had not
been in the country seven days when they became in-
mates.
The New York Express contains the following start-
ling intelligence.
An extraordinary document from a Committee, in the
Board of Alderman upon the subject of bonding alien
passengers in New York. The bonds of nine firms in
this city exhibit the enormous liabilities of $16,000,000
—that of the 602 children supported by the city, at the
Farms School, 457 are the children of foreign parents-
and that the whole number of children 626 have foreign
parentage, and 195 American, exhibiting the average
of more than three foreigners to one native, and an
alarming increase of the ratio of foreigners.
he whole number of inmates in our Penitentiary is
1419, showing an increase of 400 since July last; of
these 338 are Americans, and 1198 foreigners. he
number of prisoners and paupers, we all pay taxes for,
is 4344, showing an increase since July last of nearly
000
1000.
In view of these alarming facts, and remembering
that over 60,000 immigrants were commuted and bond.
ed here the last year the Committee make some forcible
appeals to the country.
Astounding Report From THE TRustees of the
New York City Dispensary during the past year
16,746 patients have received advice and medicine.' '
he places of nativity of applicants are shown in the
following table:
- Males. Females. Total.
United States, 2556 2490 50.46
Ireland, 4260 5810 10,070
England, 426 498 924
Scotland, 106 41 147
British North America, 24 97 121
Germany, 142 124 266
France, 59 14 73
Other Countries, 71 28 99.
Total 7644 9102 16,746
-
Only 5046, it will be seen were Americans, and it is
estimated that 4000 of these were children of foreigners,
leaving, in fact, only one thousand (out of the seventeen
thousand) natives, and these most colored. No table
has ever been presented that illustrates more fully from
whence America derives her pauperism than this. It is
an astounding fact that our Alms-Houses, Prisons, Dis-
pensaries, and Benevolent Societies are kept up, almost
wholly, for the benefit of foreign paupers and criminals;
there are two other (the Northern and Eastern) Dis.
pensaries from which no reports are yet made,
IN C IN C IN N AT TI.
FOREIGN PAUPERS.
The Cincinnatti American Republican says we have
weekly published the returns from our Alms-House,
and we now give the number of paupers admitted into
the Commercial Hospital, Cincinnatti, from 1841, to
1844, inclusive.
Years. Foreigners. Natives. Total. Resident. Non-resident.
paupers paupers.
1841 500 478 978 299
I842 932 330 1262 350 932
1843 528 521 1049 493 656
1844 786 523 1309 492 627
Of the adult population of Cincinnatti, 1 in 100 is a
Frenchman or Italian, 16 in 100 are from Great Britain,
28 from Germany and about 5 in 100 are not enumerated.
Thus HALF THE voters are foreigners. A similar state
of things is shown in other western cities, and several
of the western States are entirely under the control of
foreigners. A sufficient number arrive annually to
make two States. The valley of the Mississippi will
not long be American in the character of its population,
if it now is. -
Mr. Secretary Upsher, says that from 1835 to 1839,
24,507 emigrants were from Bavaria, not one of whom
could speak our language. More than 5,000 got off
without their passports, or, in other words, were felons,
murderers, or other criminals. Thus foreigners enter
our country for personal reasons or political, particularly
murderers, thieves, refugees, and criminals of every
grade, and it is estimated that this number is annually
some 20,000 ! and it should be remembered that these
criminals are admitted to the American franchise, while
Americans are disfranchised for the same crimes.
What, asks the Cincinnatti Bulletin, can we say in
the face of such facts? Can we do less than ask for an
extension of the naturalization law -
Foreign paupers IN NEw York.
More than two-thirds of the inmates of our alms-house are
foreigners; and in a very able report made last July to the
Board of Aldermanby WM.S. Miller, now member of Congress
elect from the third district, it is stated that the citizens of
New York are directly taxed to the amount of $150,000 a year
for the support of alien paupers and vagrants. , Last week the
number of foreign and native paupers admitted into ºur alms-
house was seventy of the former, and thirty-eight ºf the latter.
The whole number of inmates at present is 2,699. One in-
stance has lately come to the knowledge of our authorities, in
which a town in Germany emptied its whole workhouse, down
to its very dregs upon our shore. This is a very cºmmºn
practice in England and Ireland. A respectable house in this
city is making immense sums annually, through its foreign
agents, in the business of drumming up, emigrants and for-
warding them. That a regular plan has been devised to ship
offpaupers by the thousands to this thriving country. filling
our Almshouses with the miserable wretches, is not mere *
-




sertion. Take one city for instance—New York. According
to the journal of Commerce, on the first day of July last, the
number of white adults in her Alms-houses, Lunatic Assylum,
and Penitentiary, was two thousand seven hundred and ninety-
of this number, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one
were foreigners, and nine hundred and nine, only, were Na-
tive Americans: More than Two THIRDs foreigners and the
same proportion undoubtedly exists among the inmates of
prisons and other establishments connected with the Alms-
house department. As in New York so throughout the whole
country. We do not complain—we have enough and to spare.
The American heart sympathises with suffering humanity
throughout the world, and from the abundance of her stores
delights to feed the hungry and succor the distressed, wherever
they may be found. We have reason to complain of Europe
for making a Botany Bay of us—thrusting swarms of the vilest
and most desperate of her crowded population on ºur shores
to fill our jails and prisons—to disturb the tranquility of Qur
peace—to create disorder and bloodshed—and then turning
with a sneer and saying, “This is your boasted Republi-
canism?”
IN THE INTERIOR.
It is found that in the interior the same foreign evil is appa-
rent. Read the following from the Rochester Daily American.
Camp in Monroe County, N.Y.-Mr. D. McKay, the jailer,
has furnished for publication a statement of the number of com-
mitments and convictions within the past year, of persons
charged with crime.
The whole number of commitments was 918.
of this number, 308 were natives of the United States, and
610 natives of other countries! Two-thirds of the commitments
and nearly the same proportion of the convictions in Monroe
county, last year, were of foreigners. The other day we pub-
lished statistics showing that a like proportion of the paupers
supported at the expense of this county, were also foreigners.
We submit these facts to the attention of the taxpayers of
Monroe. Two-thirds of the expense of the support of pauper-
ism, and of the administration of criminal justice, are saddled
upon us by foreigners.
But the pecuniary expense, enormous as it is, is but a drop
in the bucket. The moral, social and political evils brought
upon us, by such an importation of vice and crime, admit of no
calculation in dollars and cents.
The very recent naturalizations have been so numerous
that, unless native Americans of all parties will unite to stay
the evil, the city of New York will, at the next election, be
under the sway of ignorant foreigners. Already in Cincinnati,
half of the voters are naturalized foreigners; and enough are
made citizens annually to constitute two States. How long, at
this rate, before we shall be in the minority, and find ourselves
subject to those who say—‘ºmericans shan’t rule us,” and pro-
claim themselves *born to be our masters 2'"
IN BALTIMORE.
ARRival of PAUPERs AT THIs Pont.—It is evident, that
there is a systematic determination by the powers of Europe,
to get rid of their pauper population by transporting them to
this country, and compelling our citizens to support them–
and such will inevitably be the case, if we do not adopt prompt
measures to frustrate the design. We must arouse ourselves
or we shall be overwhelmed with European criminals and
paupers, to the great increase of our poor-rates, the demorali-
zation of society, and the corruption of the ballot-box. Some
two months since, a ship called the “Megunticook,” arrived
at Baltimore from Bremen with passengers, which were landed
about 11 o’clock. At 2 o’clock of the same day, several of
them were at the office of the almshouse commissioner for the
second ward, applying for admission into that institution.
A man named David MILLER, resident of the thirteenth
ward, was presented to the Grand Jury on Saturday last, and
committed to jail, charged with having “cooped” fourteen
men, and with having been instrumental in voting them three
times each in all the wards of the city.
Let us see how this foots up. In the first place each of
these fourteen men voted three times; that makes forty-two
yotes for each man. In the next place, there are fourteen wards
in Baltimore; this multiplied by forty-two, makes five hundred
and eighty-eight votes cast by these fourteen men at one election.
This shows the way in which the foreign votes are made to
outnumber and break down the Native votes of the country,
and the appalling extent to which such foreign influence may
be carried.
THE LAN CASTER PA., PAUPERS,
We call the serious attention of every Tax-payer in the
county to the Report of the Grand Jury of Lancaster, Pa.
They state that a very large majority of the inmates of the Poor
Hºuse are foreigners, many of them not a month in the country.
We learn from other quarters that there are 293 inmates in
the Poor House, and that of this number there are Two
HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX FOREIGNERs and only
sixty-seven Americans 1
NATURALIZATION.—ELECTION FRAUDS.
At the recent term of the United States District Court in
Pittsburgh, twenty-four bills of indictment were found, and
among them fifteen for perjury and subornation of perjury in
obtaining naturalization papers. Seven were against one in-
dividual, four for perjury, and three for subornation of per-
jury, and one each against eight others, all foreigners.
IN ALBANY.
There were 657 paupers relieved by the ºverseers of the
poor at Albany last year-269 Natives and 382 Foreigners.
SPECIMIEN of the manner in which emigrants are
organized in the U. S. Senate, Mr. Foster a Senator
from New York, by Executive appointment, soberly
presented the doctrine, that a foreigner in this cºuntry
had as good if not a better right to citizenship, than a
native, because the latter is a citizen by necessity–the
former from choice. Carry this doctrine out, and the
man that inherits an estate has no better title to it than
any other individual; and this is an issue, that we are
pained to believe, will soon be made in this country. It
is not to be supposed that the multitudes cºnstantly
landing on our shores, will rest satisfied with their con-
dition, when they shall, by their numbers and influence,
have acquired the power of voting the property of others
into their own possession. ---
A Congressional ticket in support of this principle of
Agrarian robbery, has already been nominated in Balti-
more. The progress being now agitated in Congress.
to reduce the price of the public lands to 25 cents per
acre, to pre-emptioners, is but half a step removed from
this. The next step will be to give them away without
price; and the next will probably be, to divide out the
fine farms owned and occupied by the original settlers
and natives of the soil, or to expel them from their occu-
pancy altogether, in order to make room for the “con-
quering Huns.”
THE GREAT EVIL.
We submit the following extracts from a letter received
by F. List, Esq., Consul at Leipsic, in reply to a circu-
lar issued by the Secretary of the Treasury, on the sub-
ject of foreign vagrants and criminals.
“I have made inquiries with respect to the transporta-
tion of paupers from this country to the United States;
but state affairs being in this country not as openly con-
ducted as might be desired, I have not been successful
until of late, when, by confidential communications, 1
have learned things which will require emergetic measures
on the part of the United States to be counteracted. Not
only paupers: but criminals, are transported from the
interior of this country, in order to be embarked there for
the United States 1’’
“A. Mr. De Stein, formerly an officer in the service
of the Duke of Saxe Gotha, has lately made propositions
to the smaller states of Saxony, Fox TRAnsporting
THEIR cºnſin ALs to the port of Bremen, and EMBARKING
THEM THERE For THE UNITED STATEs at seventy-Five
Dollars PER HEAD which offer has been accepted by
several of them. The first transport of criminals, who
for the greater part have been condemned to hard labor
for life, (among them two Notorious Rob BERs, PFEIFER
and ALBRECHT,) will leave Gotha on the 16th of this
month: and it is intended by and by, to empty all the
work houses and jails of that country, in this matter!
There is little doubt that several other States will imi-
tate the nefarious practice In order to stop it, I have
sent an article into the General Gazette of Augsburg,
wherein I have attempted to demonstrate that this
behavior was contrary to all laws of nations; that it was
a shameful behavior towards a country which offers the
best inducement to German manufactures.”
It has of late also become a general practice in the
towns and boroughs of Germany, to get rid of their
paupers and vicious members, by collecting the means
for effectuating their passage to the United States,
among the inhabitants, and by supplying them from the
public funds!”
The fact of this letter having been received, and its
entire authenticity, has been publicly shown in the
National Intelligencer from official files at the Treasury
office. See also the following proceedings of the Ger.
man meeting. -
It is also stated, that in a letter from the Mayor of
Baltimore, (General Samuel Smith) to the President
he says, that fourteen convicts from Bremen had been
landed in Baltimore, who had been shipped in irons—
and that their irons were not taken off until they were
near Fort McHenry. And these 14 convicts were not
only landed on our shores to renew their course of
villany, but in five years they were no doubt manufac.
tured into American citizens, with all the rights and
privileges of freemen. Can native ornaturalized citizens
consent to continue a law which, thus places on an States, and repºrted in our papers, is, in Europe, attri.
equality with themselves and children, the vilest con-buted to the Natives, but is, in fact, perpetrated by
victs of Europe?
PENNSYLVANIA.
In the Philadelphia Almshouse, December 19th 1844, there over many thousands of the worst and he
were 1700 paupers, 649 of whom only were Americans.
We have an immense mass of testimony, sufficient to fill a Over 400,000 thallers have been subscribe
£ut it jailpose. The agents have been in America, and have re-
volume which we have not room to insert here.
foreign convicts.
An arrangement is in progress in Germany, in which
Princes have taken a prominent and active part, to send
º classes.
for this pur-
appear hereafter, to confirm the astounding evidence already turned. Their acts have been approved. The people
presented from all parts of the United States.
time we present the following proceedings of a meeting held
in the City of Philadelphia.
º-According to a call of the GERMAN EMIGRATION
society, the Germans of the City and County of Philadel-
phia sssembled in the Lutheran School-house to deliberate on
a report published by the Public Ledger, and sent here by
Prof. Frederick List, our Consul at Leipsic, whereby he gave
information of the lawless exportation of criminals to the
United States by several German States. Mr. FIDEL FIS-
CHER, the president of the Society, presiding, and Mr.
FREDERICK F. DRESSLER being appointed Secretary, the
following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
In the mºan; who are to be collected from the Poor Houses and
Prisons of Germany are designated; and the first de-
tachment will be speedily sent out. The agents have
chartered the vessels, º money is all provided to
pay the transportation of these people to America.
FARMERS! MARK
The fact that the American feelings and principles prevail
chiefly in cities and districts of country where there are a
large number of foreigners, proves that the evils and dangers
of foreign influence are most feared and deprecated where
they are best known. People thus sitnated witness constantly
Resolved, That the report of Mr. List proves that we are to the permicious influence that foreigners exercise in our elec-
expect criminals to arrive in the United States unless we take
the appropriate measures to obviate it.
tions, and the danger therefrom to our institutions. Foreign
voters are most objected to where the people have the best op-
Resolved, That it is the duty of the citizens of the United portunity of correctly understanding their merits and demerits.
states to meet the danger accruing from it to the harmony of
our republic.
This should convince the inhabitants of all parts of the neces-
sity of stopping this great evil before it makes further progress.
Resolved, That we see in the transportation of vicious and If the people of the country wait till the evil becomes as great
outcast men to the United States, an insult to their honor, and all over the land as it is now in large cities, it will soon be be-
at the same time a danger for the security of civil society.
yond remedy; but if they take it in time they may successfully
Resolved, That we are of opinion that the kings and princes resist its approaches.
of Germany adopt this measure to limit the emigration of
honest and wealthy men to the United States.
Resolved, That we believe that those princes take this me-
thod to endanger the quiet and harmony of the Union.
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire in what
manner, and by what means, they can best hinder this shame-
ful conspiracy of German Potentates, and immediately to adopt
the requisite measures against it. To this committee were
appointed L. A. Wollenweber, Jacob F. Haehnlen, G. Goebel,
º Wittig, D. M., G. Lembert, H. G. Stuebgen, L.
erbert.
Now is the time for the whole body of American citizens to
move in behalf of American principles and measures.
INFLUX OF FOREIGNERS.
An article in the New York Journal of Commerce, based on
statistical authorities, gives the whole number of foreigners
arriving in our country in thirty-six years, ending with 1815,
as 220,000, averaging 5,111 per annum. During 15 years end-
ing January 1, 1844, there arrived in New York alone 684,489,
averaging 45,631 per annum. During the first seven of these
years the average was 38,966, and during the last eight years
Resolved. That we request all the Germans adopted citizens 54,137. In these 15 years the total immigration into the United
to follow our example.
F. J. DRESSLER, Secretary.
ADDITIONAL PRO OF.
states is estimated at 1,000,000, averaging 55,566 per annum,
FIDEL FISCHER, President-which is eleven times greater than the average of th; thirty-
six years ending in 1816. - -
e can attention to the above astounding article; the Em-
pire of China, with its 300,000,000 of inhabitants, would be
The New York Mirror, a prominent neutral paper, overwhelmed with such an avalanche annually increasing, in
shows that the practice carried on with impunity, an
many years duration:
Importation of Cºminars.-We find another letter
dtime.
tamely submitted to by our Government, has been of
THIS SPEAKS VOLUMES.
Vast sums are remitted by the Irish in this country to
from another American Consul on this subject. Charles their countrymen, “to enable their friends to come to
Graebe, our Consul at Hesse Cassel, Sept. 8, 1836, the land of their adoption.
writes to the Secretary of the Treasury:
“The only forced deportation which has come tº m
The amount thus remitted to Ireland through five
houses in the city of New York, and negotiated by one per-
knowledge, is from the free Hanseatic town of Ham-lº only, (an Irishman) was prior to isºs, fººt,460 or
burg, the government of which deports from time to time,
those criminals which have either been condemned for life,
or for a long period; they give them the choice either
to endure their time, or to emigrate, in which case the
overnment pays their passage.” A number of them
i. been sent to New York. See Documents, Senate
of the U. S., 1836-37. Vol. 1, Document W. page 3.
82,228,502.40. Calculating the average price of pas-
sage at £2, this amount has brought to our shores 262,
230 paupers, or those without means to pay their pas
sage; besides children and others, obtaining their pas
sages at a less price—Suppose “the pauper importing
houses,” and consequently the number imported, to
have been double, and also one-fourth more money to
ave been remitted by friends and other private means,
h
This letter speaks only of criminals, transported; but -
it is well known that paupers are sent to this *. sent from New York alone, to import 590,000 Irish:
yearly, at the expense of foreign governments.
fact that the most desperate floºs are sent to this
country from Europe, should of itself, be sufficient to
The practice must
induce our government to interfere.
be arrested by law.
MORE, EVIDENCE.
A copy of the “Report of the Secretary of State, ſinis believed, there are one in five 1
the sum will have been $5,571,505 of our own money
such a population has since increased, by such means, in
a two-fold ratio and a large portion of the whole have
been supported by the labor and industry of our Ame:
rican citizens ! -
There were, 30 years ago, not more than one in for-
ty of ourinhabitants who were foreigners; bºt now; it
Think of this, coun-
compliance with a resolution of the Senate,) in relation rymº and calculate for yourselves, º º
to the practice of foreign governments in transferring" will be true that, as they say, “we are born to be their
their criminals and paupers into the United States”- masters.” be in the minority 2
º, which is appendiº statement exhibiting the num-ſtrymen, befºre ºne sºlº tºº.
Fifteen years will scarcely elapse, coun:
In view of
--- - - - idly but
ber of persons arriving in the United States annually, such a result—for Americans, though they rapidly
averaged for the last eight years. This average shows gradually give way, will not yield up all they hold dear
the total arrivals per annum to be 78,941, of which 3,418 without a struggle—a writer says,"
only were citizens of the United States.
So that we
*The political seer, who is now casting his horoscope,
have had an annual increase of foreign population for the often covers his eyes with hºunds to hide the streams
last eight years, of more than 75,000, as shown by of blood that roll before him
returns to the Department of State; but MANY
The late scenesin Philadelphia are examples of what
ºts, Nijs ARRIVE AN Nuxºly of has been seen and what we shall soon see, if we do not
WHOM NO ACCOUNT IS TAKEN.
This document proves, that foreign criminals and
º have been transported to the United States.
immediately and effectually act on the defensive.
FELLOW CITIZENS, -
we have presented some few of the many facts which
ore than half of the crimes perpetrated in the United'demand your serious attention, in conclusion read the

following extracts from an eloquent, pure minded, hon-
est American. -
A foreign population is rolling in upon us like the
waves of the ocean. As far as they visit our shores to
find a refuge from oppression; to gain subsistence by
their honest toil, or to sit down as quiet men under our
form of government; be they ever welcome... May the
name of America be forgotten, when she shall cease to
ive shelter to the outcast, or welcome the stranger to
É. abode. But largº numbers are sent here. They
have a work to do. They are hardly upon our shores
before they begin the work they are employed to do.
They expect no immediate results—they work for the
future. That, is to develope their plans, to answer their
hopes, and fulfil their expectations.—a future that seems
to be even at our doors. -- ---
You find many of this class in the principal families
in our cities. They, also, have a work to do. They are
under one domination; they are links in that great chain
that is fastened to the foot of the papal throne; they are
bound to obey their church; they believe, it can do no
wrong; they are to obey, and their church is responsi-
ble for the results. And in a day, the horrors of St.
Bartholomew, when, by a simultaneous rising of the
papists, more than thirty thousand Protestants were put
to death, while their blood ran down the streets of the
cities and villages of France like a river, could be re-
peated in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
Others march to the polls, not quietly to exercise the
right given them as adopted citizens—not to promote
the good of the country—but to answer the ends for
which they are, many of them, sent to this country.
And while they insolently announce that they hold the
balance of power, they threaten with defeat any party
that will not grant their claims. They are marched into
their churches of worship on the eve of elections, are
addressed by their bishops, and obey their dictation at
the ballot-box. -
In the journals devoted to their interest, our fathers,
that .. band of devoted men, who pledged honor,
fortune and life in the cause of human liberty, are called
A RACE or cowards, and ourselves a generation as cow-
ardly as they. They take the sacred Scriptures, print-
ed for gratuitous distribution, and burn them, amid
tokens of guitation, in the face of day.
The churches erected in our country for the defence
of the Romish faith, are built with reference to a defence
with weapons, not of celestial origin or temper, They
are built with all the compactness and solidity of a for-
tress in feudal times. Their leaders enter a small vil-
lage, and erect a stone structure that would not be un-
worthy to stand in London or Paris. These structures
have been used in this country for other purposes than
devotion; they will be so again. In the recent riots in
Philadelphia, the Catholic churches were the forts of
that people. American citizens, passing quietly along
the streets, were shot down, like beasts of prey, by
bullets directed by those who made their sanctuaries
their refuge. In those houses they placed their arms,
their ammunition, their men, and their priests. Let
any outbreak occur, and soon those massive structures
would be converted into citadels. -
These men enter our common schools, and demand
that the Bible be removed. Thatbook, which is the char-
ter of our liberties, and which gives these persons per-
mission to land upon our shores, and by which the
º they enjoy are secured, they wish to trample
eneath their feet. And those who tamper with this
power, court its embrace, or by it attempt to gain a tem-
porary good, know not what they do. A dangerous
victory they achieve, who triumph by such help. One
of the emperors of Rome, to put down a rival power in
the empire, engaged the savage hordes around his capital
to assist him in exterminating his foes. he barbarians
assisted him in his work; and having accomplished
this, they then conquered their employer, and then
overran and conquered the country. “Let him that
readeth understand.” - -
I thank God, I'most devoutly thank him, for the
early developement of this spirit. If our rights are not
secure; if it is not known who shall, and who shall not
rulein this country; if the necessity shall be laid upon us,
the second time, to achieve our independence; to windi.
cate the freedom of speech and of the press; to place
upon a firm basis the right to discuss what we please in
in a proper way, whether it, be the pope or papacy,
- m:—if these great battles are to be
º...º the contest º Let the battle
begin, if begin it must-the earlier the better. Let it
come while there is vigor, and nerve, and principle, to
sustain the war, and guide us to a triumphant issue.
I believe there is in this country anational spirit, con-
fined to no party, limited to no sect. -
I believe a love of country yet predominates over the
love of party, and that, when the dangers that threaten
us shalfbe seen and felt by our countrymen, they will be
true to liberty; true to their altars; to their homes.
Do not, I beseech you, lightly esteem the dear-
bought inheritance of the Fathers. But, in all you º
for your country or yourselves, THINK or Your FATHERs:
Think of posterity . -
READER.
The foregoing pages present facts which cannot fail
to awaken the most serious apprehension. They show
that immense numbers of Europeans are annually poured
into this country, that the larger portion of them ARE
NOT * CITIZENS by CHOICE” as has been
boastingly but falsely pretended, but on the contrary are
sent here by their masters, and sent to accomplish their
unholy purpose. That purpose is to effect the extinc-
tion of Republicanism in America, to put out the great
light and extinguish the great example of Universal
Liberty which the bigots and despots of Europe abhor.
Crowned heads have publicly declared their hate of
Republican Principles, and the reason is obvious; they
believe our glorious Republic is the great fountain head,
the nursery of Republican Principles, and they believe
right. Believing this, is it not most evident, most
reasonable, that they should wish to put down our
government? and as open force is out of the question, is
it not equally evident, equally reasonable that our
European foes should resort to the only means by
which they can ever hope for success? Most assuredly;
and the declarations of the Duke of Richmond (page 3)
are founded in truth.
Were this torrent of emigration placed in contact with
our citizens and secured the benefit of American schools
and Republican Principles their might be no danger.
But the great body of foreign emigrants do not mingle
with our citizens, and can therefore receive none of that
enlightening influence which would arise from religious,
political, or social intercourse with the Freemen of
America. They are accompanied by their priests, the
crafty Jesuits, whose influence over their flocks enables
them to maintain such a bigoted, clanish separation, as
may best prevent their minds from being poisoned by
what the Pope considers “an insane love of liberty;”
that kind of liberty which has been taught in our revolu-
tionary schools, and which in his opinion has set so bad
an example to other nations. In a future number we
shall show, in a very prominent light, the stand which
this foreign Potentate has taken upon this question.
The question of overturning our Republic “by subver-
sion rather than by conquest.” In the meantime we
proceed to exhibit, in the following pages, a series of
bloody and appalling facts, which show the true character
of this “foreign influence,” as well as the horrible
manner in which the priestly Jesuits carry out, to the
letter, their plans of “subversion, rather than conquest.”
tº READER we want to place this statement of
facts in the hands of every true American throughout
the length and breadth of the land, and we want your
prompt and earnest aid to enable us to do this, Give
the people light and we are safe, let the true facts, the
actual condition of affars be understood and we have no
apprehensions for the result. With the light of open
day we bid defiance to our foes, but in darkness' we
perish, Help us to spread light over the land.
º


THE
KENSING TON MAS SACRE,
PHILADELPHIA.
---
THE KENSINGTON MASSACRE.
In order to show that the Kensington massacre was
not a sudden outbreak, but that it was the result of a
settled, deliberate, premeditated conspiracy against
American citizens; we ask attention to the following.
This statement was originally prepared for the “Native
American,” in which paper it appeared soon after the
first massacre, and is adopted here, because it is a state-
ment founded on facts, that have never to this day been
disproved or shaken in one single particular; but are
fully sustained by the most ample, legal, and authentic
testimony.
The proper starting place, from which we may arrive
at just conclusions, is º foundation of the Philadelphia
city and county American Republican Associations.
n the early part of December, 1843, a meeting of
Native American citizens was convened at a Hall on the
Ridge Road, in the District of Spring Garden Philadel-
hia; who formed the first Philadelphia Association.
hat its principles may be fairly understood, we present
them here as adopted Dec. 2d, 1843.
CONSTITUTION.—ARTICLE I.
We, the undersigned, Native American Citizens of
the Second Ward of Spring Garden, in the County of
Philadelphia, do hereby organize ourselves into an Asso-
ciation for the purpose of sustaining and carrying out the
principles hereunto affixed, under the name of the
“Native American Republican Association of the
Second WARD or Spring Garden.”
1st. We hold to a repeal of all laws originated by
sectarian dictation, and to a present and eternal separa-
tion of Church and State in any and every form.
2d. We hold that the º in the Public Schools,
without note or comment, is not sectarian.
3d. We hold that all Foreigners who may hereafter
come to these United States, shall remain at least
twenty-one years before they shall be entitled to the
elective franchise.
4th. We hold that no laws should or can be made to
abrogate the rights of the elective franchise now enjoyed
among us.
5th. We hold that all unnaturalized Foreigners who
are present or who may hereafter come among us, may
enjoy all the rights of American Citizens except voting
and holding office.
6th. We hold that the United States, as a govern-
ment, has a right to state the terms upon which Foreign-
ers may become citizens, and no Foreigner has a right
to complain of such laws.
7th. We hold that no person of foreign birth should
be appointed to fill any office of honor, trust or profit,
in these United States, while Americans can be found
who are capable or willing of receiving the same.
Here are the principles avowed by the First Native
American Association. It was to aid those principles
that the American Citizens assembled in Kensington,
and it was for daring to exercise this priviledge in a
lawful, peaceful, manner that American Citizens were
first beaten off with stones, and clubs, and then shot
down, and inhumanly massacred in the public streets!
In a very few months an American Republican
Association, embracing many of the most intelligent
and respectable citizens, sprang into existence in almost
every ward throughout our city and county. When in
February, notice was given that a meeting was about to
be held in the Second Ward, Moyamensing, for the
purpose of organizing an American Republican Associal
tion in that district, declarations were bºldly and liberally
made to some considerable extext, that no meeting of
the kind should there be held—the meeting was held in
the Commissioners' Hall; one of the Cºmmissioners
of Moyamensing, an Irishman by birth, and by name
McDonough, demanded to know ºf the audacity”
to give up the Hall for the use of Native Americans
Say whether or not there was not cause for the organiza-
tion of the American Republican party, and a determined
and persevering maintenance of its principles who,
fifty years ago, would have supposed, that a newly im:
ported foreigner would have, at this day, the audacity to
question the right of American freemen, to occupy their
own public Halls for the purposes for which they were
erected? Andyet, such was indeed the case. In 1834,
in the northern part of the town, when on an election
day, the Irish weavers of Kensington and Spring Garden,
º º blue sticks, drove American citizens from
the polls.
On the 15th of March, at an election in Spring Garden.
the Native Americans were assaulted at the polis, and
the common method of the lower classes of Irishmen-
a resºrt to brute force, was employed to drive them off,
and thus º them of one of the most inestimable
privileges of citizenship. In this disturbance, which at
one time threatened to be alarming, one man was
severely injured. Thus, it will be perceived, that the
º of the Kensington rioters, was no new thing.
It did not spring up suddenly in that district, as some
of the venal presses would have made it appear, in con-
sequence of the inflammatory speeches of Native
American speakers; but it had been imbibed and was
tenderly nursed, long before the progress of the new
party had reached that neighborhood.
Associations of American Republicans having been
ormed in almost all the other wards in the city and
county, the Native American Citizens of Third Ward,
Kensington, resolved to organize an association in that
ward, also, and accordingly gave the usual notice for a
meeting to be held for #. purpose, on an evening in
the latter part of April, at the house of Mr. John Gee,
in Second Street, above Phoenix. On assembling, how.
ever, at the place and time appointed, the citizens were
informed that the intended meeting could not be held in
that house, in consequence of certain violent threats
which had been made, and widely circulated, that any
house in that ward which should be used for the pur.
pose of holding a Native American meeting, should be
burned to the ground. The proprietor of the establish-
ment was satisfied that these threats were notidly made.
It was hence determined by the persons assembled to
adjourn to another ward, and they accordingly repaired
to a house in the Second Ward, where their meeting
was held in peace. Here we have an instance of atro-
city without a parallel in the history of our country.
Never before were the citizens of any ward compelled
to hold their political meetings in a ward adjoining, to
escape the fury of a foreign rabble. Other meetings of
the Third Ward were afterwards held within the ſimis
of the Second Ward. Invitations were extended togen-
tlemen to address these meetings, who refused to com-
ply, on the ground of their not being held in their pro-
per place. This induced the members of the Third
Ward Association to make another effort to hold a
meeting in their own ward, and accordingly they pub-
lished the following notice in the “North American,”
of the 2d. and 3d, of May: º

“A Meeting of the Native Born Citizens of the Third
Ward, Kensington, was held on Monday evening, the
29th, ult. After electing officers, they adjourned to
meet in mass meeting on Friday afternoon, May 3, at 6
o'clock, at the corner of Second and Master streets. All
friendly to the cause are invited to attend.
WM. CRAIG, Prest.
John McMANus, Sec'y.”
Agreeably to the above notice, a number of the Na-
tive Americans assembled on the open lot adjoining the
Public School House at the corner of Master and Second
streets. Their meeting was organized, and they pro-
ceeded to transact their business in a peaceable and quiet
manner, Mr. S. R. Kramer, publisher of the Native
American, was called upon to address the assembly,
which was quite small, and had taken the stand in an-
swer to that call, and commenced an explanation of the
principles of the new party, when suddenly a number
of foreigners rushed forward, assailed the meeting with
shouts, ſhootings and clubs, and drove away its mem-
bers in confusion, without the slightest attempt at for-
cible resistance. The stand of the speaker was torn
from under his feet, and the staging demolished. The
assailants, on this occasion, were Irish Catholics, and a
Priest of the Catholic Church had left the vicinity within
an hour previous to the attack. We make no comment
upon this fact. The reader is left to decide whether his
influence, if exerted, might not have prevented this
shameful breach of peace and daring violation of the law.
Having been thus forcibly driven from the place of
meeting, the American Republicans repaired to the
George Fox Temperance Hall, where they again
organized. After which the following preamble and
resolutions were unanimously adopted:
Whereas, The citizens of Kensington, have been vi-
olently assailed and maltreated at a meeting for the ex-
pression of their opinions on public policy and for the de-
claration of their ... and have, in pursuance of this
same violent spirit, been driven by outcry and clubs
from the place designated for their meeting—therefore
Resolved, That we, the citizens of Kensingtonin mass
meeting assembled, do solemnly protest against this fla-
grant violation of the rights of American citizens, and
call upon our fellow citizens at large, to visit with their
indignation and reproach the outbreak of a vindictive,
anti-republican spirit manifested by a portion of the alien
population of Third Ward, Kensington.
Resolved, That in view of the above transaction, we
invite our fellow citizens at large to attend the next
meeting, to sustain us in the expression of our opinions.
Resolved, That when we adjourn, to meet in mass
meeting on Monday afternoon, at 4 o'clock, at the cor-
ner of Second and Master streets.
THE MEETING OF MONDAY, MAY 6TH.
In conformity to the resolution adopted at the meet-
ing of the preceding Friday evening, citizens favorable
to the American Republican cause, assembled in Mass
Meeting, on Monday afternoon, May 6th, at 4 o’lock,
on an unoccupied lot, at the corner of Second and Mas:
ter. Streets. This lot is about 100 feet wide and 150 feet
in length, and is bounded on the west by the Public
School House, which fronts on Master street. The
staging for the officers and speakers was erected about
the centre of the west side of the lot, against the school
house fence. The whole extent of the lot was covered
with persons who had assembled to participate in the
proceedings. The meeting was organized in the usual
way, and several gentlemen were called upon to address
the assembled ...i. Mr. S. R. Kramer and Gen-
eral Smith successively took the stand; neither of them,
however, occupying over ten minutes' time. Their
addresses were remarkably mild in their character, and
contained nothing against which the most scrupulous
could have reasonably objected. While these gentle-
men were speaking, several Irish carters came driving
their carts into the lot, and forced their way through the
crowd, nearly up to the speakers’ stand, greatly annoy.
ing the people, and even exposing them to danger.
Each of these carts contained something more than an
ordinary wheelbarrow load of yellow dirt which was
brought there at that particular time, in that remark.
ably singular manner, and in such small quantities,
fºr no good reason which has yet been assigned.
Five or six of these diminutive loads were succes.
crowd, as near to the staging as the drivers could con-
veniently force their carts. These loads of dirt still lie
upon the spot where they were then thrown. They
were not needed there at that particular time; neither
has any use been made of them singe. Neither of them
was brºught in until the meeting had assembled, tº wº
one sent there after the assembly had dismissed! and
when it is understood, that at the very time when these
carters were committing this inexcusable outrage upon
the meeting, there was assembled in the market house,
running parallel with Second street, on the north side
of Master street, and a few yards west of the school
house, a number of Irishmen opposed to the meeting.
armed with fire-arms and other offensive weapons, none
can for an instant doubt that these carters were sent
there for the purpose of provoking an attack upon them:
selves, and of thus furnishing a plausible excuse for an
assault in return upon the meeting, on the part of their
friends in the market house and the surrounding build-
ings. There was evidently in all this a cunningly de-
vised plan for the perpetration of a premeditated outrage,
for the consummation of which the most fiendish prepa-
ration had been made. -
But that Divine Providence which often takes the
wicked in his own craftiness, and guards the innocent
from harm, interposed most miraculously to avert the
calamity which then pended over the American Repub-
lican cause. Had the carters to whom allusion has been
made, been assailed with violence by the assembled
people, a fearful and dreadful slaughter, far more exten-
sive than that which really occurred, would doubtless
have ensued. For in this spot, the citizens were almost
entirely unprotected. They were surrounded by their
enemies, as they fled in the only direction which could
have promised security, toward the market-house, they
would have been met by the assassins who there re-
mained concealed, awaiting a signal for the commence-
ment of their work of . Then, too, it would have
been exceedingly difficult to have made it appear that
the Native Americans were not the aggressors, and
that their assailants were not only acting upon the de-
fensive, or for the protection of their worthy friends, the
carters. At the moment when the conduct of the car-
ters was growing insufferable, and a slight demonstra-
tion of a #. at interference was being manifested,
Mr. Lewis C Levin was called to the stand. This cir-
cumstance restored tranquility for the space of a minute.
But the moment that gentleman commenced his re-
marks,—before a solitary sentiment had been concluded
y him, and before the subject of the carts had again
drawn off the people’s attention, the clouds suddenly
discharged a torrent of rain upon the assembled multi-
tude. For a second there was a pause, which was ſol-
lowed by a simultaneous rush for shelter in the market-
house.
So suddenly and entirely unexpected was this move-
ment, that those of the Irish who were unquestionably
awaiting some provocation for an attack upon the meet-
ing, were confused and undetermined in regard to the
nature of their further proceedings. The most of them.
as the crowd rushed into the market, retreated to a row
of buildings, consisting of a hose house and the dwel-
lings of themselves and friends, situated in Cadwallader
street, and facing the market house, at the distance,
perhaps, of some 200 feet. -
number was few, remained to contest the right of the
citizens to the use of the market. This market house
had previously been employed as a sort of rendezvous
for the mob during the railroad and the weavers’ riots,
which had previously disgraced that neighborhood,
and they seemed to consider themselves solely entitled
to its use. An attempt was here made to reorganize
the meeting, but the few Irishmen who had now min-
gled with the native citizens, were determined that the
organization should not take place—They produced the
utmost noise and confusion, whenever any offort was
made to speak, on the part of Mr. Levin, who had again
arisen to continue his address; and so constant and vio
lent was the uproar that it was impossible for that gen
tleman to be heard even by those who occupied places
nearest to him. º the most noisy of those who
were now interrupting the proceedings of the meeting,
was an athletic Irishman near the speaker, who bran
dished his naked arms above the heads of those around
him, and swore terrible vengeance upon every one who
sively brought in, and emptied in the midst of the
should dare to come into contact with his clenched fists.
Others, however, but their

So exceedingly violent was this man's conduct, that
some person at length attempted to eject him from the
market house. A scuffle ensued between the two. The
Irish rioter drew his antagonist to the outer side of the
market, on that side which fronted the dwellings and the
hose house of which mention has been made, when a
stone was thrown from a party in the vicinity of the
hose house, with tremendous violence, toward the mar-
ket, which struck with great force against one of the
stalls. This was instantly followed with the discharge
of a musket from the same direction.
A scene of confusion and strife now took place which
beggars all description. The first impulse of those in
the market was to rush upon the party near the hose
house who first assailed them, which they did. driving
them off in great affright in every direction. But no
sooner were they thus drawn out from the shelter of the
market, upon the open space in front, and their open
assailants dispersed, than a destructive fire was opened
upon them with fowling pieces, rifles and muskets,
from roofs, windows, loopholes, yards and alleys of the
houses in front, which was kept up without intermission,
until the ground was vacated by the American Repub.
lican party. During this firing the utmost consternation
prevailed, and men were shot down while endeavoring
to escape from the scene of danger, without knowing
from whence their injuries were received, so cautiously
were their enemies concealed.
One young man, about nineteen years of age, was
engaged throughout, the afternoon, in supporting the
American flag, which hung over the speaker's stand.
This laudible employment rendered him an especial
mark for the aim of the enemies of the cause he was
maintaining. Two or three times had the flag fallen to
the ground, and as often did George Shiffler, with the
assistance of several others, again raise it, and cause its
stripes and stars to float above their heads. But his ef.
forts were unavailing; for a bullet at length pierced his
heart, and he fell as senseless as the flag he supported,
to the ground. He was carried to the store of an apo.
thecary near by, where, in a few minutes, he ceased to
exist on earth; and before the sun had gone down, the
lifeless body of the noble and patriotic boy was laid at
the feet of a widowed and distracted mother
Besides young Shiffler having been killed, eleven per-
sons of the Native American party were severely
wounded. Nothing could . the excitement and
even amazement which pervaded the community when
the news of this outrage reached the city. Crowds of
people were assembled about the corners of the streets,
and other public places; and business of every descrip-
tion was almost entirely suspended. A spontaneous
meeting was held on Tuesday afternoon, in the State-
house yard, which was attended by thousands of
American citizens to express their indignation at the
conduct of the foreigners. The following among other
resolutions were unanimously adopted.
Resolved, That the recent outrages in Kensington, by
which a meeting was disturbed º broken up, and the
lives of citizens sacrificed, is an infraction on the rights
guarantied to us by the Constitution and laws of our
country.
Resolved, That whilst as men and Americans we are
determined at all hazards to resist unto the death every in-
fraction of our rights, we are determined that we º
be led by provocation to retaliate on the rights of others.
Resolved, That the proceedings of a portion of the
Irish inhabitants of the District of Kensington, on Mon-
day afternoon, is the surest evidence that can be given,
that our views of the Naturalization laws are correct,
and that foreigners in the short space of five years, are
incapable of entering into the spirit of our institutions.
A motion was then made from the multitude, to ad-
journ and meet in Kensington. The officers of the
meeting endeavoured to persuade them not to, but the
motion was carried with loud and repeated cheering.
On reaching Master street, about five o'clock, prepa-
rations were immediately made to erect a stage for con-
ducting the business of the meeting, on the open space
between the Market and the row of buildings from it.
which the firing took place on the previous day. But
while in the act of raising the American flag, the Ameri-
can Republicans were again fired at from the direction
of the Hibernia Hose-house. A rush was then made
toward the house, when a volley of musketry was
poured into the meeting. John Wesley Rhinedollar, a
young man, was shot through the back and killed upon
the spot, and at least a half dozen others were º
In a moment the Hose-house was torn open by a portion
of the infuriated crowd, the carriage taken out in the
midst of a continuous discharge of fire arms, and
dragged away and destroyed. A destructive fire was
now kept up without intermission from the houses ad
joining and the rear of the hose-house, from persons
who were entirely concealed from view. So great cau-
tion had been taken to guard against exposure, that it
was almost impossible to tell from what direction pre-
cisely many of the guns were fired. In a short time,
about thirty of the Native Americans were more or less
injured. Several, indeed, were dreadfully wounded.
r. A. R. Peale, one of the secretaries of the meeting,
was shot in the left arm, which has since been ampu-
tated. Mr. George Young, received a wound in the
breast, and fell weltering in his blood. The ball entered
the left breast, passed through the lung, and escaped
through his back below the shoulder.
During the dreadful fire of their assailants, eight Na-
tive Americans were killed, and about forty wounded.
AMERICAN CITIZENS MURDERED IN THE PUBLIC
Streets.
THE PROOE’s.
The two Native American Papers, and the North Ameri-
can, (whose reports are omitted for want of room.) entirely
concur with the following extracts from the different papers
as named.
FRoºt THE PHILADELPHIA UNITED STATES GAZETTE.
All statements agree in the fact, that the meeting was dis-
turbed, wantonly and wickedly, by persons who had not been
sailed to the meeting, and who, consequently, had No Right
To unreſt A worp, with reference to the proceedings. This
led, naturally, to their ejection; and that was made the
grounds of the murderous assault with fire-arms ºc.
FRoºt. The Pui LADELPHIA DAILY CHRONICLE.
one of the speakers was about to address the meeting,
when a shot was fired, either from the house of the Hibernia
IIose company, in Cadwalader street, or from the house
adjoining, which killed a young man named John Wesley
Rhinedollar, a ship carpenter, on the spot Rage, indigna-
tion, and fury immediately seized upon the meeting. and in
an instant one of the most bloody and melancholy scenes
followed that was ever witnessed in this country.
A continued succession of volleys of musketry were fired
from the row of Irish houses in Cadwalader street, which
was kept up, without intermission, for mºre than three
hours. The men in these houses were evidently prepared
for a conflict.
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA FORUM OF TUESDAY.
After adjourning to the Washington Market, the Americar
flag was unfurled, which gave rise to cheering. Mr. Levin
again took the stand, and while GoING ON WITH HIs Dis-
course, a young man, who stood outside, (having been grossly
and personally attacked.) became excited, and pulled out, a
pair of pistols, and cried if any one interfered with him he
would shoot him. A rush was then made, and the next
moment a gun was fired. It was now that the riºt ºr
menced in earnest. From EveRY STREET AND HOUSE
CAME RUSHING TO THE SCENE OF ACTION ARMED
MEN.
From THE PHILADELPHIA TEMPERANCE ADvoCATE,
On Friday afternoon, the 3d instant, the American Repub-
lican public meeting, was assailed with threats of violence,
and clubs were seen brandishing in the air. A rush was
made towards the stand, and the meeting was obliged to dis- -
erse.
p At the adjourned meeting, on the following, Monday, Mr.
Levin rose to continue his remarks. He had hardly com:
menced speaking, when a scene of tumult, riot, and bloodshed
followed, which exceeded anything of the sort that had ever
occurred in Philadelphia. Report after report of firearms
was heard, brick-bats flew in every direction, clubs and blud-
geons were used, and men were knocked and shot down like
dogs. After a few minutes hard fighting, the Natives gave
way, under a heavy shower of missiles and musketry from the
Irish, who rushed out of their houses in the vicinity of the
market.
From THE PHILADELPHIA PENNsy LVANIAN.
Mr. Levin recommenced his discourse; he had not pro-
ceeded far before a rush was made, in consequeñº of a gun
fired across a lot, from the vicinity of the Hibernia Hºse-hºuse:
Then commenced one of the most dreadful scenes, &c. From
every street and house came rushing to the sºme of action,
ºf men; some with muskets, others with bludgeº,
stones, &c. Those in possession of the markee-house main-
tained their ground, and held aloft the flag—the star-spangled
anner-
FRoM THE PHILADELPHIA GAzETTE of TUESPAY.
After adjourning to the market, upon the planting of the
flag, loud cheers were given by the Native American party, in
the midst of which Mr. Levin arose to continue his remarks,
He had hardly commenced speaking, when a scene of tumult,
riot, and bloodshed followed, &c.
From the PHILADELPHIA PENNSYLVANIA INQUIRER.
on Friday night, the Native Americans of the Third Ward,
Kensington, held a public meeting. Whilst the proceedings
were in progress, an attack was made upon it by a party of
Irish, who drove the Native Americans from their stand, and,
as is alleged, took possession of their flag and destroyed it.
The meeting reassembled at another place, and it was agreed
to hold an adjourned meeting on Monday afternoon-in open
day. Accordingly, a large meeting was held yesterday after-
moon, and after being in session a little while, it moved over to
the Washington Market, in order to get out of the rain.
while there, a large body of Irishmen having assembled in
the neighborhood, individual quarrels commenced, and the
meeting was attacked. Firearms were discharged; one Native
American was killed, and several wounded, &c.
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA SPIRIT OF THE TIMES-
A mass meeting of the Native American party took place
yesterday in consequence ºf a previous gathering of the Ameri:
can party in Kensington being attacked and dispersed by a mob
of Irish citizens on Friday night last. About 4 o'clock,
upwards of 500 persons assembled and organized. The meet-
ing adjourned to the market-house, Mr. Levin arose to con-
tinue his remarks, when a scene of riot and bloodshed fol-
lowed, &c. -
The Philadelphia Evening Mercury copies the account from
the United States Gazette, as above stated, and says:
“We join in hearty commendation of the persons who 0.
attempted to interrupt the late meetings in Kensington, and
sincerely hope the perpetrators of the bloody outrage may be
brought to deserved punishment.”
FRoºſ Bickner, L’s. REPorter, PHILADELPHIA.
On Friday, while the proceedings were in progress, an
attack was made upon the meeting by a party of Irish, who
drove the Native Americans from their stand, and, as is alleged,
took possession of their flag and destroyed it.
At a meeting on Monday afternoon, a large party of Irish
having assembled in the neighborhood, individual quarrels
commenced, and the meeting was attacked. Firearms were
discharged, and one Native American was killed, one or two
others reported as dead, and several were severely wounded,
&c.
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA SATURDAY. POST.
* * * The difficulty commenced on Friday even-
ing last, when a Native American meeting was broken up by
a mob of Irish.
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA SATURDAY COURIER.
When the speaker arose to address the meeting, an Irish-
man, standing at the outside of the crowd, said, “now let’s
make a noise, so that he won’t be heard.” They forthwith
created a noise, and were remonstrated with, and requested
to let the meeting go on in peace. They would not cease their
clamor, and were expelled. This caused excitement, which
was raised to an intense degree, in consequence of several
shots being fired from the upper windows of the Hibernia
Hose-house, fronting the market-house. A number of shots
were fired from the crowd of Irishmen, but they were finally
compelled to flee, &c. -
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA SATURDAY MUSEUM.
On Friday, the 3d instant, the American Republican citizens
of Third Ward, Kensington, assembled in public meeting.
Samuel R. Kramer, Esq., editor of the Native American, was
called for, and immediately appeared to address the meeting,
but had not proceeded far in his remarks, when he was assailed
by threats of violence, and clubs were seen brandishing in the
air. A rush was made towards the stand, and the meeting
was obliged to disperse. -
The Saturday Museum fully sustains the facts, as given by
the other papers, of the commencement of the outrages on the
Monday and Tuesday following.
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC LEDGER.
No one will hesitate to say that the Native American party,
having called a public meeting, had a perfect right to carry on
their proceedings in peace; and the disturbance they met with,
from persons opposed to the objects of the meeting, was as
gross an outrage as ever was perpetrated upon the rights of
any body of free citizens. It has come to a pretty pass, in
availing themselves of their constitutional rights, they are to
be assailed by others, and their lives sacrificed in the public
streets. * * * The presumption that mischief was intended,
is confirmed by the conduct of a reckless set of ruffians, who,
a few evenings since, broke up a meeting assembled for a
similar purpose. Such conduct as this is not to be tolerated
in any country, much less in ours, where the hand of fellow-
ship and good feeling has always been extended to the emi-
grant from other shores. * * * It is a poor return for these
favors, if they are to turn round and strike at the liberty and
º of those who have so generously given them power to
o so.
FROM THE PHILADELPHIA AMERICAN SENTINEI.
Yesterday afternoon, as the Native American party was
holding a mass meeting in Kensington, a number of men, who
had secreted themselves in houses near by, rushed out from
their hiding-places, and commenced firing guns amidst the
multitude, killing a young man instantly on the spot, a bullet
having passed through his heart. At this period, all were
struck with amazement; the meeting adjourned, and then the
tumult commenced.
PRESENTMENT OF THE GRAND JURY.
To the Honorable the Judges of the Court of Oyer and
Terminer and Quarter Sessions of the County of
Philadelphia. -
The Grand Inquest for the City and County of
Philadelphia, for May. Term, 1844, beg leave to present
that they have carefully passed upon all bills to which
their attention has been called.
The Jury have been instructed by the Court to
inquire into the origin and cause of which led to the
gross violation of law, and to present the first and last
agressors, if possible. Upon this branch of inquiry, and
from all the facts which came under their notice, they
have come to the following conclusions: -
The Jury are of opinion that these efforts in some
measure gave rise to the formation of a new party, which
called and held public meetings in the District of Ken-
sington, in the peaceful exercise of the sacred rights and
privileges guaranteed to every citizen by the Constitution
and laws of our State and Country. These meetings.
were rudely disturbed and fired upon by a band of lºw-
less irresponsible men, some of whom had resided 111
ur country only for a short period. This outrage,
causing the death of a number of our unoffending citi-
zens, led to immediate retaliation, and was followed up
by subsequent acts of aggression, in violation and open
defiance of all law. -
The American Republican Conferees in their
Address to their Fellow Citizens, say:- . .
The murderous assault on American citizens, the
trampling under foot and tearing into shreds the Ameri-
can flag, by those who had sought a home and protec-
ion under the broad ſolds of that flag, and who had
sworn to protect it, is the cause, the origin of the whole.
To that issue we shall hold those who have assailed us,
and on that issue we shall go to trial before our country
—whether American citizens are to be shot down like
dogs, when holding a peaceful political meeting, by
foreigners, whom our Naturalization laws have by too
easy a process entitled to bear the name. The question
is, shall Americans not be allowed to assemble as such,
but must they when they wish to be protected from
murder assume some other name *
Disgraceful as is the burning of the churches, fearful
and appalling as is the act, by which buildings dedicated
to the worship of God are given to the flames, is it an
outrage of a greater character than that which sends the
souls of men without a moment's time for preparation to
the bar of God's Judgment? Let not the atrocity of
the latter be forgotten in that of the former, awful as it
is. Let not the one be a screen behind which the other
is to be hidden. We utterly reprobate the arson. As
individuals we have joined in extending protection to
other buildings of a similar character. We deprecate
the connection of our names with such an act, but we
are equally resolved that the lives of American Citizens
shall not be taken by aliens without cause in the dis-
charge of a just right.
Splendid rifles, and warlike munitions, not appro-
priate to their condition, have been found in the posses-
sion of Irish Catholics of the lowest grade of poverty;
clearly showing, that the chief actors or instigators in
this bloody assault upon peaceable Americans, are yet
behind the scenes.
Ertracts from
JUDGE KING'S CHARGE,
IN THE CASE OF JOHN DALEY, CON-
VICTED OF RIOT AND MURDER.
OYER AND TERMINER, Sept. 18, 1844.
Before Judges King, Jones and Parsons.
The meeting of the 3d of May, 1844, was called for
the purpose of considering the expediency of a proposed
aleration of the laws of the United States, in reference
to the naturalization of foreigners, and promoting the
ends and objects of the association known as the Native
American Party. The meeting was organized, and the
officers being placed on a platform erected for the pur-
pose, Mr. S. R. Kramer commenced an address, but
was interrupted by a large number of persons opposed
to the objects of the meeting, among whom this º
ant was particularly prominent. A scene of confusion
arose, and shortly after the opponents of this meetin
rushed forward, pulled down the platform, and dis-
º

persed the meeting. To this violence, the meeting
offered no resistance, preferring to submit to the aggres:
ision rather than resort to a forcible maintenance of their
rights. It was, however, agreed to by some that an
adjourned meeting for the same purposes should be held
on Monday, the 6th of May, at 4 o'clock in the after-
moon, at the same place.
If the call of the meeting of the 3rd of May, was ad-
dressed exclusively to persons, favorable to its objects,
the interference of individuals, hostile to its proceedings,
and the breaking up and dispersion of the meeting by
them, was a gross outrage on the rights of those who
called it. It was a riot of a flagrant kind. Anybody
of citizens having in view a constitutional and legal pur-
pose, have the right, peaceably and quietly to assemble
together for its consideration and discussion. Any
attempt by another body of citizens opposed to the ob-
jects of the assembly to interrupt and disperse it is not
to be tolerated. In this instance it has led to the lon
train of riots, murders and arsons, which have disgrace
our city and shaken the ſoundations of social order.
- --
The Attorney General insists, that the whole case
shows an original and formed design in the defendant
and his associates, to disperse any meeting having for its
object that contemplated by the meeting of Friday the
3d of May, and to destroy and kill those concerned in
it, if their object could be accomplished in no other way.
He insists that the whole conduct of Daly and his asso-
ciates manifest that such was their intention, and that
the affair of the hose house was a mere pretext to cover
a deeper and deadlier design. If you should believe
that the arming and array in the vicinity of the market
was really with this diabolical motive, and that the slay-
ing of the deceased and all others who fell on that day
was the product of such a design, and done in consum-
mation of it, then all those concerned in this deed, prin-
cipals, aiders and abettors, are guilty of murder in the
first degree.
REPORT ON THE KENSINGTON
RIOTS,
AS READ BY G. BLIGHT BROWNE ESQ.,
ONE OF THE COUNSELUPON THE TRIALS,
Adopted, and ordered to be printed with the Proceedings
of the State Convention, which assembled at Harris-
burg on the 22d, of February, 1845.
On Friday, the 3d day of May 1844, a number of Amer-
ican citizens assembled together, in a peaceable manner,
at the corner of Master and Second streets, in the County
of Philadelphia, to discuss the propriety of applying to
Congress to pass an act altering and amending the na:
turalization laws of the United States. That this was
their motive and design can be proved. The measure
was constitutional and legal, for the twentieth section
of the Constitution of Pennsylvania declares, “That the
citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble
together for the common good, and to apply to those in-
wested with the power of government for the redress of
grievances, or other proper purposes, by petition, address,
or remonstrance.”
The right to assemble to discuss and remonstrate is
one of vital importance to the existence of a free govern-
ment. The Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions of
the Peace, for the City and County of Philadelphia, so
so admitted it in their public address to the Grand Jury;
for they there said, “If the call of the meeting of the 3d
of May was addressed exclusively to persons favorable
to its objects, the interference of individuals hostile to its
proceedings, and the breaking up and dispersion of the
meeting by them, was a gross outrage on the rights of
those who called it. It was a riot af a flagrant kind.”
“Any body of citizens, having in view a constitutional
purpose, have the right peaceably and quietly to assem-
ble together for its consideration and discussion. Any
attempt by another body of citizens, opposed to the ob-
jects of the assembly, to interrupt it and disperse it, is
not to be tolerated.” “In this instance it has led to the
long train of riots, murders, and arsons, which have dis-
graced our City, and shaken the foundations of social
order.”
Having thus shown you, upon the threshhold, the
solid ground upon which the right of meeting of the
-
prove, to the satisfaction of our fellow citizens, that the
members of this meeting having assembled with these
lawful motives and designs, and by virtue of this high
authority, conducted º when met, in the
most exemplary manner. They organized, and the
speaker was about to address them, when a band of
fierce and lawless Catholic Irishmen, many of them
aliens, interposed. They were not included in the call,
and therefore had no right to be there at all. Their in
terests and feelings were on the opposite side to those
who had called the meeting; it is easy, therefore, to
perceive that their motives and designs were to frustrate
the meeting, and prevent the proposed discussion.
That such motives and designs were unlawful, must
and will be admitted by every unprejudiced mind.
That their acts were alike unlawful, we will also show :
with force and violence they interrupted the exercise of
an inestimable right—they broke down their staging–
tore down their flag, and broke up the meeting; and,
so far, prevented American citizens, upon their own soil,
from deliberating and remonstrating, notwithstanding
the guarantee of the Constitution.
e meeting offered not the least resistance, leaving
the redress to the police and the laws of the land. No
meeting of Quakers could have furnished a stronger ex-
ample of non-resistance. Such as we have said having
been the state of affairs on the third of May, a question
arose whether American citizens should cowardly surren-
der to a lawless band of ruffians an inestimable right, or
call a second meeting, and insist upon its exercise? An
adjourned meeting was called for Monday, the sixth day
of May, at four o'clock P. M., at the same place. To
this meeting no one was invited to take arms; nothing
illegal was contemplated by its members. On the sixth,
the Native American Republican citizens peaceably as-
sembled. They organized, and they proceeded to bu-
siness, when a Catholic Irishman by the name of
O'Neil, who was one of the opposition, unlawfully and
riotously disturbed them. This was the first act of vi-
olence committed on the sixth, and it can be traced to
the opposition by parol evidence and by the VERDICT of
O'Neir,’s Conviction. At this juncture a shower of
rain came on, when the Americans, as they had a right
to do, took refuge in the Washington Market House.
Here they were immediately assailed and disturbed by
the opposing Irish party. That their motives were to
frustrate this meeting as they had done that of the third
of May, you will entertain no doubt. They sought, by
force and violence, to prevent American citizens entirely
from exercising their right of discussion and remon-
strance! A fight ensued, first without arms, in which
the Irish oppositionists struck the first blow. Soon aſ-
terwards a gun was fired. It was from the Hibernia
Hose House, and was discharged by the Irish upon the
Americans. This was the first appeal to arms, and it
was on the side of the Irish. From these facts, which
we contend have been clearly proven, we contend that
the Irish rºoters alone were breakers of the law; that the
Native American Republicans was the assaulted and
innocent party. That this meeting of the sixth of May
acted throughout in self-defence alºne, and that their
opponents were the aggressors, will be evident from
this, among other circumstances, viz: that the Irish
rioters were the successful party, the Native American
Republicans having been a second time beaten and
driven of the ground. George Shiffler, one of the
Americans, was murdered in this riot of the sixth of
May. The Native American Republicans were thrown
upon their own resources, and were º either to
defend themselves, or submit to be wantonly butchered.
After the proceedings of the sixth of May, to which
we have above briefly alluded, but which might be given
to you more in detail if it were necessary, a dilemma
again presented itself, viz.: ' whether dear aud valuable
rights should be surrendered by American freemen to a
lawless mob of foreign Irish Catholics, or should be in-
sisted upon.” It was decided to call a meeting for the
seventh of May in Independence Square.
Much stress has been laid, in a certain place, upº
the manner in which this call was worded. We will
ask you to recollect the honest excitement under which
that call was written, and not to forget who raised, that
...i.e. "No man has the right to place, the bºdy
of a citizen upon the rack, and then expect him tº be-
have with the same coolness as if he was stretchedupon
aforesaid Native American Republican citizens was
founded, we would next state that we are prepared to
a bed of down. He who dams up a torrent, must nº


-
be surprised at a rush of waters when the obstacle is
overcome. -
You, making due allowance for the circumstances,
will read the call. “Let every man come prepared to de-
fend himself; these were the words. -
A call “to come prepared” does not necessarily mean
“to come with arms;” and, in a case like the one now
presented to you, cannot be, so construed: but it was
only “to defend himself,” which is lawful, for the 21st
section of the ninth article of the Constitution of Penn-
sylvania declares, that “the right of citizens to begr
arms in defence of themselves and the State shall not be
questioned.” ---
Self-defence is the first law of nature; to establish its
rightfulness needs no appeal to bºoks—to maintain it,
requires no aid from the laws of man. It has been
planted in every breast by an All-wise Creater, and its
growth cannot be stifled-no, not even by the dictates
of our Holy Religion: “To defend himself,” to a free-
man, is “to maintain the sacred rights of man,” among
which (as we have shown) is the “right of discussion
and remonstrance.” Did our forefathers act in self-de-
fence? Did they maintain the rights of man’ To go
still further, what was the answer of our Saron ances-
tors, when the charter of their liberties was demanded?
Each man drew a poignard from his bosom, next his
heart, and exclaimed, “ By this we won them, and with
-
this we will defend them!” And shall we disgrace our
noble ancestry? Beit remembered that we are speak-
ing of defence, not offence—we are speaking of defend-
ing life, liberty, and free discussion; and such high
rights—and we are speaking of cases ſ ... ." such
as that of the seventh of May, when disorder and blood-
shed ran riot, and the voices of the law and its ministers
were drowned amid the din of lawless strife and rebel-
lious arms. In such a case, we inquire, “would you
require us to disgrace our noble ancestry?” Much also
has been said of the adjournment to Kensington. It has
been pronounced to be imprudent, illegal and disastrous.
That the adjournment was not illegal, we will maintain
in the face of the world. If the Constitution and Laws
do not limit the place of meeting, who has a right to do
so If any one has such right, surely it is not possessed
by a band of Irish rioters!
As to the imprudence of the adjournment, allow us to
suppose a case which may throw some light upon the
subject. Suppose a band of lawless men should deter-
mine that your Honorable House of Representatives
should not sit in your Legislative Hall;-suppose they
should break into it, overturn the tables and benches,
tear down and trample under foot the emblem of Legis-
lative authority, and turn the members into the street.
Now, suppose the honorable members of that House
should meet in some other place, and resolve that they
would proceed with the lawful business for which they
til, eventually, no American meeting can be holden, for
any purpose, without the previous license of these
foreigners? -
There remains no doubt in our minds that the Catho-
lie Irish had determined that the Native American Re-
publicans should hold no such meeting as they had pro-
posed to hold in the Ward, and that they (the rioters)
would resist the holding of any such meeting, even unto
death.
A respectable witness has said that he heard some of
them call out, “now the women and children to the houses,
and every man to his gun” upon which men ran into an
alley, and each one came out again well armed. A third
has sworn that he saw the first fire, and that it came
from the Irish at the Hibernia Hose House; he is sup-
ported in this by still another, who has sworn that the
first gun was fired by the Irish rioters, before any attack
was made by the Americans. One gentleman saw an
Irishman come from behind a brick building, kneel
down and take deliberate aim at an American, as one
would at a wild beast, and fire. Several other witnesses
observed John Taggert, another Irish Catholic, hiding
behind an old stable, and saw him aim and fire, upon the
Americans. me of the balls went through a man
named Young. Another gentleman saw the meeting
pelted with brickbats and stones, by the Irish, before
anything offensive was done by the members of the
American meeting. A general firing now took place
from the Irish in Harmony Court and the Germantown
Road; a respectable citizen has sworn that he saw more
than fifty flashes from a blue frame in Harmony Court.
Another saw men on the Germantown Road, hiding
and firing, like savages—he saw one Irishman take a
rest on a fence, and fire and kill a man. A third has
proved that he saw the men in Harmony Court come in-
to Cadwallader street and fire, and then retreat to load
anew. Many witnesses have proved that port holes had
been previously, deliberately, cut in the houses of the
Irish in the vicinity, out of which to fire upon the Amer-
icans. About this time, Rhinedollar, an American,
was murdered by these Irishmen.
Under these imperious circumstances, and thus driven,
as it were, to the extremes of despair, it is not wonder-
ful (as it is respectfully submitted to you) that the Amer-
icans should have retaliated, and endeavored to defend
themselves /
That all they did, at that time, was in self-defence,
and did not exceed the bounds of the law, under the
circumstances of the case, we centend is very manifest.
We respectfully submit that it is alike due to our national
character for peace and order, to the hitherto unblem-
ished reputation for sobriety and submission to the
laws of the inhabitants of the City and County of Phila-
delphia, and to the individual feelings and standing of
those who have taken a part in calling and holding these
were elected; would it, or would it not, be an act of public meetings, and have thus been maltreated, that a
imprudence to insist upon returning to the very spot from
which they had been unlawfully ejected? Allow us,
with profound respect, to say, that their right to meet
and make laws is not more perfect than that of the citi-
zens to meet, discuss, and remonstrate-their right to re-
turn to their Legislative Halls is no greater than theirs
to return to Kensington.
Before the meeting of the third of May, two attempts
had been made by the Americans to assemble in as
many public houses, but the Irish Catholics, in each
case, threatened the owners of the houses with personal
injury, &c., if they allowed the meeting to take place
on their premises; and thus they frustrated these mea-
sures. In fact, these lawless men had made up their
minds, and so expressed themselves, that a meeting,
whose object it was to memorialize Congress to alter the
Naturalization Laws, should not be holden in the Ward.
From these facts, you will perceive to whata degraded
condition those persons would reduce the Native Amer-
ican citizens of the City and County, who would require
them tamely to submit to be browbeat and hectored out
of their constitutional rights to assemble by a set of
riotous foreigners.
But you, fellow citizens, are not going to condemn
ree born Americans to this state of abject slavery :
Besides, where were these impositions to end? If
the Americans had surrendered up this right, what se-
curity would they have had that these same foreigners
would not have followed up exaction upon exaction, un-
fair opportunity should be given to have the whole mat-
ter deliberately and impartially examined, and the result
published; that not only our own citizens, but the world,
may know that it was not the Native American citizens
of these districts; but a band of lawless Roman Catholic
rishmen, mostly aliens, who are to blame for the
disorders that have disgraced our city and county.
T H E SOUTHW A R K RIOT S.
(PHILADELPHIA.)
Before our citizens had recovered from the shock of
this unprovoked and appalling massacre, afearful repeti-
tion by the same class of foreigners was attempted in
Southwark. What the motive could have been for this
second astounding outrage we will not undertake to say;
but will furnish such evidence as will enable Americans
to draw their own conclusions. We point to the drilling
of soldiers in the church, the unlawful organization of a
company of foreignersby a brother of the priest, himself
an unnaturalized foreigner; the warlike array discovered
on searching the church, the placing of the Irish Greens
in the church with an Irish Catholic commander, the
prevarication and falsehood manifested by the priest
before his own altar; the important testimony of the
Episcopal Clergyman the Rev. M. Coleman, and above
all the childish, frivolous excuse assigned by the priest to
the High Sheriff for turning his church into an armed
fortress in the midst of a quiet and peaceful community.
When we look at the total absence of all cause or pro-
vocation for this murderous array; at the deadly loss
being all on the American side, but one foreigner having
been killed, while so many of our countrymen were
massacred, we are at a loss to conceive whether these
massacres were intended to show how far foreigners
already dare to trample on Americans with impunity, or
whether to create a cry of persecution in order to enlist
sympathy and collect funds and other aid from the
papists of Europe as they are now so largely doing, or
whether it is a part of some other Jesuit scheme against
the people and institutions of this country, some fatal
conspiracy yet undeveloped, we shall not surmise, but
leave the reader to draw his own conclusions from the
following testimony.
THE SHERIFF'S EVIDENCE.
Testimony adduced before the Court of Quarter Ses-
sions, The Attorney General called-
Morton McMichael, swoºn—I am the High Sheriff
of the City and County of Philadelphia;
* * * * * * I told him it was indiscreets to have done
so, and inquired the reason why this had been done,
when there was no immediate danger; Priest Dunn,
replied that he had received information that day, that
the church was to be attacked in the evening, and put
a note into my hands; I read part of it, and found that
the handwriting was that of a female, and signed with a
female signature; the substance of the note was, that
the church was to be attacked that evening; I asked
him who the writer was, and he said, a young lady, a
teacher in his Sabbath school; ' ' ' '
* * * * * * I went into the church with the twenty
men and Alderman McKinley; I found in the robing
room the same persons we had left there; I made a list
of the names and residences of those who had been fur-
nished as my posse; when I had done so some person
proposed to make a search; I said to them that they
were my posse, that they were there for the protection
of the property, that it would be unsafe to make a search
with candles, and that daytime was the proper period for
that; while still speaking on that subject, a side-door
was opened, and two men were seen there armed with
muskets; they were standing there as if guarding a pas-
sage; each man had a musket at his º the twenty
men then became excited, expressed apprehensions at
being fired on from the inside of the church, said they
could not stay to peril their lives, and we then went
through the church; we found in the church, stationed
at different parts, eight or ten men armed-eight of their
muskets were loaded. We found a number of muskets
stacked in one of the side rooms of the church; we found
in a closet a number of old fowling pieces, single and
double barrelled guns, and rifles; most of them were
loaded and loaded very heavily; there were besides some
pistols, and a considerable quantity of ammunition, &c.
TESTIMONY.
Of Isaiah Robins, 124, Queen Street. I had a conver-
sation with Mr. Dunn, the Priest, about the 2d or 3d of
July. I told Mr. Dunn that so long as he did not arm
his Church there was no reason to apprehend any at-
tack; Mr. Dunn had frequently told me, before this,
that he expected an attack upon the 4th of July. I told
him he might go in and out until he was gray-headed
without any danger of attack. I told him that so long
as he kept himself within the laws, they would protect
him; that the civil authorities would protect him. I
felt it my duty to speak to him as a neighbor, as I was
interested, living adjoining his church, and if his church
was molested my property was in danger. * * * * I
warned him again and told him the laws of the country
would protect him. I likewise told him that it was use-
less for him to undertake to defend his church by force.
He placed up a wooden fence against my house and de-
sired that the fence might remain there until after the
4th of July. I told him I thought it was altogether
folly. * * * * That evening I heard a noise in the
basement story of the ...; which I supposed to be
drilling. On the 5th of July, in the forenoon I went
into the basement story of the church- " " " I saw
several piles or stacks of muskets. I cannot say the
number, but I saw several stacks, I then thought it
was my duty to notify the civil authorities, &c.
TESTIMONY OF GEORGE N. NUTZ, No. 34,
ALMOND STREET, CURRIER."
I was one of the twenty selected for the search; I
was left in charge of the long room and the muskets,
whilst the rest of the Committee of 20 went up stairs :
I asked Mr. Dunn the Priest, if there was any ammuni-
tion in the Church; he answered ; we went to a
closet in the long room on the south side of the church,
and asked the priest what was in the closet; he said
there were a few lemons, lemon syrup, and things of
that kind; two doors of the closet being locked, we re-
quested him to open them in order that we might see
what was in them; he opened them, and we found in
one of the closets a keg of powder, several pistols, a
number of percussion caps, balls and slugs, &c.
SEARCH OF THE QUEEN ST.
CHURCH.
TO THE PUBLIC.
Feeling called upon by a sense of duty to our fellow
citizens of the city and county of Philadelphia, we, the
undersigned, would beg leave to make a statement of
a few simple, unvarnished facts, calculated to throw light
º the recent breach of the peace in the neighborhood
of Second and Queen streets, Southwark.
It is well known, that on the 5th day of July, a furni-
ture car conveyed to St. Philip de Neri Church, in
Queen street, Southwark, a number of muskets, which
were carried into the church, in presence of the residents
of the neighborhood. The report of this matter having
flew in every direction, the street was soon crowded by
citizens, in anticipation of an outbreak. The Sheriff was
sent for, and soon appeared upon the ground; a request
was made upon him, that the arms should be taken from
the church; he entered the building with two of the
aldermen of the district, and soon returned, stating that
there were twelve muskets in the church, which would
be placed in the hands of the citizens. * * * *
The people still seemed not to be satisfied, and called
for more arms, when it was suggested that a committee
of citizens should be appointed, whose duty it should be
to make a thorough search of the place, and to prevent
any more arms coming in or going out. To this the
Sheriff agreed, and deputized one of the citizens, who
is a member of this committee, to choose the men.
The subscribers were chosen, and headed by the
Sheriff, who requested Alderman M'Kinley to accom-
pany the committee. -
The Committee concluded to parley no longer, and
started upon the search. The first door we opened,
revealed to us two able bodied Irishmen, with fixed
bayonets and loaded muskets. These men, were dis;
armed, and on opening the door at which they stood
sentry we saw twenty-seven musketsstacked along the
room. Placing out of our own number a guard over
these men and muskets, we proceeded on the search;
and in our way found eight other men armed as above.
Arriving in the room in which the religious services
were held, one of the Committee brought the priest in
front of the altar, and thus addressed him : “I ask you
upon your sacred word as a man and a Christian, have
you any more men here? Have you any more arms?
Have you any ammunition?” To each of these ques-
tions he answered positively—no. Finding nothing new
in our progress, we again proceeded to the room or
vestibule from which we first started. In this room
were several closets and some of them were in a case
or counter, which stood along the wall. We asked the
priest to open it. He said it contained nothing but a
few lemons and articles for making something to drink.
We asked him to open it, when we discovered a º of
powder, some percussion caps and buck shot; and on
account of this quibbling of the priest, we were anxious
to open a closet which was under the stairs, leading
from the vestibule to the room behind the altar. The
priesthere said that the closet contained private property
belonging to his brother, W. H. Dunn, and some few
* Arming the Church.


small articles belonging to himself, and objected to open
it, stating that the key of that place had never been in
the hands of any other person but himself and brother.
No denial would be listened to, and accordingly the
closet was opened; in it was found seven single, and
two double barrel guns and several pistols; and several
hundred cartridges, some of which had eight, ten or
*... slugs, and buck shot in them, and upon examina-
tion of some of the fowling pieces, they had seven, eight,
and even nine finger loads in them. * * * *
Adopted in Committee, July 11th, 1844.
John W. Smith, Wright Ardis,
Jacob F. Wanderslice, John Fareira,
John M. Dutton, F. S. Johnson,
David W. Moore, Thomas A. Roe,
John Baxter, Jas. F. M. McElroy,
David Ford, Fras. B. Longmire,
Francis S. Bready, James Boaker,
Samuel Martin, Solomon Walker,
William Copeland, Reuben Stewart.
Having headed this committee by request of the Sheriff,
I subscribe to the foregoing report.
§ M’KINLey, Alderman.
MOST IMPORTANT.
Testimony of the Rev. Mr. Coleman, Pastor of Trinit
(Episcopal) Church, Southwark; and Editor of the
Banner of the Cross.
“THE SouTAwark Riots. The U. S. Catholic Ma-
gazine complained at the time that we were altogether
silent, in reference to the dreadful outrages of May last,
in a northern district of Philadelphia; and we had at
first determined to leave also to the secular papers any
notice of the awful scenes of last Sunday in Southwark,
(our own parish and residence,) of which we were com-
pelled to be an eye witness. The accounts which have
appeared in them have no doubt already acquainted all
our readers with the shocking particulars; but those at
a distance may not be so well informed of what we
deem it a duty to make known; and that is, that the
late disturbances were WHOLLY PROVOKED BY
ROMANIST.S. º doubts may have existed
as to the remote cause orimmediate occasion of the Ken-
sington riots, there can be none in the present case.
During the whole of the great excitement consequent
upon the former, Southwark remained quiet and peace-
ful; the same tranquility and good order continued af.
-terwards to reign; and the deportment of its citizens,
of all classes, was most pacific and exemplary. It is
º absurd to pretend that the least danger to the
omish Church (St. Philip de Neri) could really have.
been apprehended. Yet, under all these circumstances
of order and peace, this church is armed in open day-
light, and the most formidable preparation for a ..
conflict made, with muskets, pistols, gunpowder, slugs,
balls, &c. Twenty-four hours before this became gen:
erally known, one of the most respectable gentlemen of
the º predicted, in conversation with us, what the
result would be; and it could not but have been fore:
seen by any one of ordinary sagacity, Was it designed
to exasperate the population, and to bring about the sub-
sequent scenes of violence and bloodshed? Such is, so
far as we have heard expressed, the universal opinion
of this community; and the least that can be said is,
that there is just ground for suspicion. We must not
omit to add, that, throughout all the tumult and desola-
tion, NOT A SINGLE ROMANIST sustained the
slightest injury, in person or property. Yet their peri-
odicals are ringing with the ridiculous charges of “per-
secution’ and ‘anti-catholic riots.’”
“We write under no other feelings than those of deep
pain and sorrow, and were enabled to maintain the same
calmness throughout the whole of the late melancholy
occurrences, which may be believed, when we state
that several articles in our present number were written
amidst the roar of artillery, in the square adjoining our
dwelling, the frequent whistling of bullets, as they pas-
sed the window of our study, and the clash and din of
arms on every hand! Nor do we wish to produce ex-
citement in others. But it is impossible to close pur eyes
to the fact that we have reached an ominous and most
important juncture. We can no longer doubt that a se-
were and searching sºggle is fast approaching. Re-
cent events should brº kin a voice of thunder upon the
ear of every Americaº Protestant.
Judge Jones, in his charge to the Grand Jury, on
the 15th of July, 1844, said " " " the disturbance in
sºuthwark, arºse from the fact of a large number of
arms having been put into the Church, in Queen street,
and it becomes necessary therefore, &c. * * * * When
persons apprehend danger to their churches, or property
ºf any kind they must solicit the protection of the law.
What right as any sect to arm its churches; to make a
FORTIFICATION IN THE HEART OF THE
CITY, when the LAW IS SUFFICIENT for the
protection of ALL, &c.
REPORT OF THE BOARD OF COM-
MISSIONERS.
THE SOUTHWARK RIOT OF JULY.
At the stated meeting of the Board of Commissioners
of the District of Southwark, held on Thursday evening.
the following report was read and adopted and ordered
to be published:- -
The Committee appointed on the 24th of July, 1844.
to inquire into the origin of the tragic, events which
transpired in this district on the 7th of July, 1844.
REPORT.
These witnesses all concur in representing that the
first alarm which was created in the district was occa-
sioned by the taking into the church of St. Philip, in
Queen street, in open daylight a quantity of fire-arms;
that the reports which were rapidly circulated throughout
the city and districts, of the arming of the church had
drawn great crowds of people into Queen street; that on
Friday evening the Sheriff arrived on the ground, hav-
ing been notified by several citizens of the prospect of a
tumult; that the . was searched on that evening
by the Sheriff and a committee of twenty, appointed by
himself as deputies, who found and removed quantities
of muskets, powder, balls, and slugs: that when the
Sheriff first arrived he found the church under the guard
of a civil posse, summoned together by the Aldermen,
and also the watchmen and police of the district; a
military company arrived on Friday night, and was
stationed in the church. -k -k º +
Peace and quietness had now been restored by the
peaceable exertions of this civic guard, and as the wit-
nesses nearly all concur whilst the guard and peaceable
citizens were congratulating themselves upon the resto-
ration of peace and order, and the success of their labors
in preventing the building from being injured or fired,
their attention was arrested by the sudden and unexpec-
ted arrival of a military force under the command of
Gen. Cadwalader.
The witnesses describe the military array as march-
ing down Queen Street towards the church with music
playing and attended by a large crowd, who had follow-
ed them from the city, through the district, into Queen
street. On reaching the front of the church, the officer
commanding halted his troops; and after congratulating
the civic guard for their exertions in successfully resis.
ting the mob, and in preserving the building, he desired
the guard should leave the church, and surrender it up
to him for protection; this was complied with, and be.
fore the ºuard had all reached Second street, on their
passage from the Church down Queen, a distance of
not more than two hundred feet, the soldiers had fired
upon the citizens, at the corner of Queen and Second
street in which fire several citizens,—one of them a res-
pectable quiet inhabitant of the district, Mr. William
Crozier, in Plumb street, aged thirty six years, who was
one of the civic guard who had charge of the church,
and Isaac Freed, of Green street, Spring Garden, aged
sixty one years, and a man named Ellis Lewis, aged
about twenty years, a stranger, were shot dead besides
several wounded. One of the witnesses represents him.
self to have been in Queen street, going towards Front;
on hearing the report of guns he wheeled around and
saw a number of persons lying in the street, some ap-
peared to be dead, and some appeared to be undergoing
great agony.
A number of these witnesses were standing in the
immediate vicinity of Queen and Second streets at the
time of the fire, who represents that the confusion,
terror, and horror of the multitude at that awful mo:
ment was intense and wild. They all concur in the
opinion that the fire was cruel, unnecessary, and, as
they represent it, a wanton sacrifice of human life.
They all represent that at, and immediately before the
arrival ºf the soldiers, order, peace and quiet had been
perfectly restored—that there existed no necessity what-
ever for their assistance—and that the dreadful scenes
which were enacted in this district on that memorable
Sunday evening, all resulted in some unaccountable, in-
as “rioters” and stigmatize
burners.” Church-burners. º º º
truth is º established that the Popes churches
were saved by Native American Protestants, that ºut
for their prompt and determined defence, not ºn. Stone
explicable and trifling dispute with an officer and a
ºn standing at the corner of Queen and Second.
The firing of the soldiers must have been precipitated
by some sudden explosion of anger on the part of the
officer in question, as all the witnesses concur in sº ing
that from the first arrival of the soldiers in front º
church until the fire, not more than ten minutes could
have elapsed.
The Committee now submit the following:
Resolved, That this report be entered upon the
Minutes of this Board, and that the narratives” fºrmished
by the persons who were witnesses of the whole events,
be filed among the papers of this district, as forming an
authentic record of the dreadful scenes and events º
7th of July 1844, and that the same be subject to the
inspection of any citizen of the district who may desire
to see and read the same.
J. FEINOUR, L. PAYNTER,
T. D. GROVER,
D. H. B.O.W.E.N.
ISAAC DUTTON.
*To be published by Baker and Elliot, Philadelphia.
The recent decision of Judge Rogers and all the
excuses which a venal press has seized upon to excite
prejudice againstour Native born citizens, relate entirely
to events which grew out of these foreign massacres.
With the excitement occassioned by these astounding
outrages; with the scenes that followed; the burning of
armed fortresses; the too hasty sacrifice of human life
by military leaders in quelling excitement which them.
selves had created; with the attempt to avenge the
blood of massacred citizens, the striking back of those
who had been fatally struck, with these, the natural re.
sult of unprovoked, merciless outrage upon unoffending
Americans we have nothing to do here. We are confined
to the single question upon which the whole matter rests,
the single object of exposing the foreign origin and
cause of all those appalling scenes, and this we have
thoroughly accomplished. We have presented the law,
the testimony, and the facts, which place the deep guilt
where it belongs, showing how thoroughly and entirely
it all rests upon the foreign serfs controlled and organized
by their Jesuit leaders.
FELLOW COUNTRYMEN.
We have filled up the space allotted to this subject
yet have not reached the mass of powerful testimony
before us. We are not able to add the legal testimony
of near one hundred witnesses in our courts of justice;
the powerful address of the Hon. L. C. Levin, the
eloquent appeal of General Smith, the plain but con-
vincing statement of Mr. Kramer, all eye witnesses of
the massacre; nor the masterly review of evidence by
the venerable Counsellor Peter A. Browne, Esq., the
would have been left upon another of all hº armed
churches in the city and county, ye ey. papist
fºreigners themselves owe not only their safety, but
their existence to the forbearance ºf the Nº. º
whom they so foully outraged, and whom they and the
friends have since united to slander.
Never since God made this world was there a more
brutal outrage perpetrated upon its fair surface Never
was there an act of violence committed for which there
can be found so little execuse ! And we may add
never was, an outrage so grossly distorted, and mis.
represented by partizan demagogues, never were victims
to a brutal massacre so foully vilified, slandered, and
abused. We close with an extract from the eloquent
Anniversary Address delivered on the 6th of May, 1845
by Reynel Coates, M. D. - -
As was naturally to be expected, the history of that
eventful time has been promulgated from one end to he
other of this vast continent-perverted, mis-stated, and
lºaded with error or falsehood, according to the preju-
dices or the factional views of each reporter.
It is by no means incubent upon us to defend the re-
putations of all the victims in the struggles of the sixth
and seventh of May, 1844, and in subsequent riots,
whose names may have been included without authority,
in the catalogue of Native Americans, by public ad.
dresses hostile to our movement—but it is our duty to
ourselves, our country, and the memory of the dead
who fell unarmed, and in the exercise of a constitutional
right before the premeditated assaults of an organized
banditti-it is our solemn duty to unmask the cunning
and expose the false issues by which it hast been at
tempted to fasten upon the victims of such outrage, the
crimes of their oppressors. Nor could there be a more
appropriate occasion than the present for the exercise of
such a duty.
So successful have been these misrepresentations,
that even this assemblage has been denounced in my
hearing by honorable, but sadly mistaken men, as a
celebration avowedly in honor of the memory of rioters,
fanatics and church-burners. We are taxed with being
enemies to the legal rights of citizens of foreign birth–
advocates of the disfranchisement of those who, by the
sacred laws of our country, have been invited to our
shores, and made our equals in every political privilege.
We have been taxed with the endeavor to establish an
odious distinction between different classes of the com-
munity, in open opposition to the first principles of re-
publicanism. We are charged with a fanatical spirit
urging us to a political crusade against aparticular sect of
Christians—the followers of a particular faith-in direct
defiance of the constitutions of our country and our state.
Ladies and gentlemen, were there a shadow of truth in
the least of these high charges, I should not stand here
the advocate of the doctrines thus misrepresented.
eason would revoltatthe folly: Patriotism would sicken
at the thought: the religious precepts of my childhood
would rise up in testimony against me : ancestors who
fled with Penn from the sectarian persecutions of Europe,
to plant the peaceful standard of universal toleration in
the western wilderness, would frown upon me from
indignant rebuke of The AMERICAN Advocate, or the
overwhelming argument of Dr. Coates. These are all
so many additional, solid links in the chain of evidence
which prove the lawful and peaceful conduct of our
citizens, the cool blooded atrocity of their foreign assas-
sins, and the depravity of professing Protestants who,
like the Judas Iscariots and Benedict Arnolds of old,
have united in defence of the foreign foe, and in spread-
ing malignant aspersions against the innocent. .
We have not room for this additional massofevidence;
nor, if we had, is it necessary. No honest man can
examine the proofs we have furnished without admitting
their abundant sufficiency. No honest man, with a
knowledge of the facts, can fail to appreciate the deep
depravity of the hired slanderers, who have made it
their business, for a year past, to distort the truth, to
coin falsehood, spread misrepresentation, and waste
their sympathies on cold blooded murderers, while
the victims of this worse than savage warfare are
their place of rest, and a spirit would whisper in my ear,
* Thou hast desecrated the memory of thy Fathers.”
No man is my political brother-no party is my party,
that raises voice or hand against the supremacy of the
law of the land, the priceless blessing of equal political
rights, or the º privilege of worshipping God-
each after the dictates of his own proper conscienceſ
Let us meet these charges-Let us examine the
causes, the action and the results of the meeting of the
6th of May. Let us endeavor to ascertain, from well
known facts and records—now part of the history of our
country—what were the objects and intention of those
who gathered, unarmed and peaceably, under the
shadow of the broad flag of their country, on the open
round at Kensington—what were the principles which
É. the gallant boy whose image graces that banner to
the ..f. where he offered himself an unarmed and
defenceless sacrifice to patriotism, in the attempt to save
from the rude tread of a foreign mob, the standard of
the stars and stripes! | ".
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