ST. ALBANS, Vt., Jan. 18, 1855.

MY DEAR DOUGLASS:—It is reported that
there are sixty clergymen in the Legislature
of Massachusetts, and all connected with the
Know Nothing order. And it is a fact, well
understood, that that order has the reins of
State government in their own hands. Many
alarming circumstances have created fearful
apprehensions, that some secret machinations
of the Catholic power will yet undermine
the foundation of the temple of freedom.
The idea of an inquisition, the fagot
and the stake, in Republican Protestant
United States, is, to many, a terrible one.—It carries with it to the mind all the horrors
of the martyr age, daguerreotyped at one
view. It almost echoes to the ear the death
groans of Latimar and Ridgley, or old John
Rogers, while the emissaries of bloody
Mary were drenching England's soil with
blood. O, horrid! cry these sixty Know
Nothing New England clergymen, while
many of them have always been dumb and
silent, and deaf to the cry of agony of three
million of poor victims of American despotism,
writhing in the most bitter agony. I
have yet to learn which has inflicted the
greatest cruelty on the human race, Pope or
Protestant. Some as cruel mandates have
gone out from slavery tribunals, sanctioned
by American Protestantism, as ever emanated
from the Vatican at Rome; and crimes
equally as revolting to human nature, and in
the sight of high heaven, have followed those
mandates.

Now, if, the real design of the Know
Nothing organization is to oppose the
ascendancy of the Catholic power in this
country, the ministry and church would have
shown more magnanimity and practical
christianity to have let the weight of their
influence be on the side of humanity, in
opposition to American slavery, instead of
gaining the influence of pulpit and church
with that of political demagogueism, to cry
down anti-slavery. The fact is, these ministers
are ashamed of their neutral or conservative
conduct. They had not moral courage
or moral honesty enough to confess their
anti-Christian conduct like men, but wiggle
about in a sort of good lord, good devil-manner,
through the anti-slavery excitement,
until a sort of popular enterprise is got up in
the new organization. Now they are trying
to show themselves great philanthropists and
benefactors of mankind. There are in the
New England States, anti-slavery men in
perfect ecstacy at this great movement.—They are kind hearted, honest men, yet they
seem to be bewildered at the enthusiasm,
and conscientiously believe that Know Nothingism
is an efficient auxiliary to the anti
slavery enterprise—that it will create a new
element in the great political bodies of the
country. Say many, let them alone; they
have got the ministry with them; they will
get New England and the country around
right yet. Perhaps they will; yet, with them,
anti-slavery is only a secondary object, when
it should be the first, as it was first in the
field. The Know Nothing organization cannot
urge a more important element into the
old organization than that which has been
urged on them by the Liberty Party for
years—the principles of impartial freedom
to the whole human race—principles that
none but a cold-hearted pro-slavery
misanthrope could feel to reject. It is an element
drawn from the purest fountain of life, and
which commends itself to the noblest spirit
of patriotism.

Now, sir, I would say to every friend of
the slave, never lower the true anti-slavery
standard. Don't relax the noble effort that
has thus far driven the old slavery-cursed
parties to the most important crisis in the
nation's history. Don't be too sanguine of
practical help from the new organization.—The old liberty ship is in good repair yet,
and she will effectually bombard the citadel
of despotism in this nation. The arm of
Infinite Omnipotence is making bare to avenge
the wrongs done to the poor and defenseless.
The language of Jefferson was to the point,
"The Almighty hath no attribute," &c.

Yours as ever,
JOHN W. LEWIS.