Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/242

Rh instinct, which fears an excess of foreign blood in our veins, and of foreign ideas in our consciousness; and they said, "Let us make use of that as a wedge upon which we can crawl up into office." They have, got in there; but before long they will fall out of their lofty hole, or, if they stay in, will be shrivelled up, dried clear through, and by and by be blown off so far that no particle of them will ever be found again. The American party just now, throughout all the United States, I fear, has fallen into the hands of this class of men. It does not any longer, I think, represent the instinct of the less-educated people, or the consciousness of the more thoughtful people, but the designs of artful, crafty, and rather low-minded persons.

But let no injustice be done. In the party are still noble men, who entered it full of this national instinct, with these three negations on their banner,—No Priestcraft, No Liquor, No New Slave States. Some of them still adhere to the worst of the leaders of their party^ Loyalty is as strong in the Saxon as in the Russian or Spaniard; as often attaches itself to a mean man. It is now painful to see such faithful worshippers of such false "gods." "An idol is Nothing," says St. Paul: it may also be a Know-Nothing.

This party, notwithstanding its origin and character, has done two good works—one native, one positive.

First, it helped destroy the Whig and Democratic party. That was very essential. The anti-Slavery man, the non-political reformer, wanted to sow his seed in the national soil. It was dreadfully cumbered with weeds of two kinds—Whig-weed and Democrat-weed. The Know-Nothings lent their hands to destroy these weeds; and they have pulled up the Whig-weed pretty thoroughly: they have torn it up by the roots, shaken the soil from it, and it lies there partly drying and partly rotting, but, at any rate, pretty thoroughly dead. They laid hold of the Democrat-weed. That was a little too rank, and strongly rooted in the ground, for them to pull up. Nevertheless, they loosened its roots; they gave it a twist in the trunk; they broke of some branches, and stripped off some of its leaves, and it does not look quite so nourishing as it did several years ago.

Now, this negative work is very important; for, if we