ad any but those anxious to be deluded and eager to be
led astray." This declaration of principles was summarised as
"Justice, Temperance, and Freedom." One delegate, amidst great
applause, said he felt glorified that the party was disenthralled and
redeemed. Roscoe Conkling, a vice president, spoke of the convention
as belonging to "the Republican party." Greeley declared the platform
"as noble as any friend of freedom could have expected." Other state
organisations also approved it. The anti-Nebraska convention, upon
reassembling in Auburn on September 26, adopted the Whig ticket. The
state temperance convention indorsed the nomination of Clark and
Raymond, and the Free Democrats accepted Clark. This practically made
a fusion ticket.

[Footnote 449: "I was a member of the first anti-Nebraska or
Republican State Convention, which met at Saratoga Springs in
September; but Messrs. Weed and Seward for a while stood aloof from
the movement, preferring to be still regarded as Whigs."--Horace
Greeley, _Recollections of a Busy Life_, p. 314.]

Early in October the Native Americans went into council. This
organisation, which had elected a mayor of New York in 1844, suddenly
revived in 1854; and, in spite of its intolerant and prescriptive
spirit, the movement spread rapidly. Mystery surrounded its methods.
It held meetings in unknown places; its influence could not be
measured; and its members professed to know nothing. Thus it became
known as the "Know-Nothing" party. Members recognised each other by
the casual inquiry, "Have you seen Sam?" and when one of the old
parties collapsed at a local election the reply came, "We have seen
Sam." Its secrecy fascinated young men, and its dominant principle,
"America for Americans," stirred them into unusual activity. The
skilful use of patriotic phrases also had its influence. The "Star
Spangled Banner" was its emblem, Washington its patron saint, and his
thrilling command, "Put none but Americans on guard to-night," its
favourite password. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts joined it as an
instrument for destroying the old parties, which he regarded an
obstacle to freedom; but Seward thought this was doing evil that good
might come. Everything is un-American, he argued, which makes a
distinction between the native-born American and the one who renounces
his allegiance to a foreign land and swears fealty to the country that
adopts him. "Why," he asked, "should I exclude the foreigner to-d