KNOWNOTHINGISM
679
KNOWNOTHINGISM
In the Thirty-fifth Congress, which assembled in
December, 1855, there were seventy-five Knownoth-
ing members elected as such. In 1856 Horace Gree-
ley wrote: " The majority of the Banks men " — Banks
being the candidate for Speaker of the House of
Representatives — "are now members of Knownothing
councils and some twenty or thirty of them actually
believe in that swindle. Half of the Massachusetts
delegation, two-thirds of that of Ohio and nearly all of
that of Pennsylvania are Knownothings". In 1855
the Knownothing party suffered a serious reverse in
Virginia, when Henry A. Wise, the Democratic candi-
date, was elected governor of that state, chiefly on the
issue of his antagonism to Native American principles
and policies. In 185G, at Philadelphia, the delegates
of the Knownothing party held a convention at which
they nominated Millard Fillmore as candidate for
President. Opposed to them in that election were the
Democratic party and the newly organized Republi-
can party, both of whom had expressed their dissent
from Native American principles. Speaking of this
selection, Schouler says: "Their candidate Fillmore
met with the most ignoble defeat, receiving only the
eight electoral votes of Maryland, his adversary,
James Buchanan, the nominee of the National Demo-
cratic party being triumphantly elected. For the
Native Americans with their proscriptive tenets, the
defeat was overwhelming. It was apparent that the
American or Knownothing party had now nearly
evaporated" (History of the U. S., IV, p. 357).
The American people had weighed the claims of the Knownothing party to be regarded as the saviours of the republic and had witnessed the criminal excesses to which that party had resorted in its efforts to secure political control, and the sober sense of the great mass of the people had repudiated both. Moreover the great controversy over slavery coupled with the claim of the right of a state to secede from the Union was pressing upon the attention of the nation to the exclu- sion of nearly every other question, so that upon the election of President Lincoln (1860) Knownothingism as an organized party had ceased to exist, and only its disagreeable memory remained.
The history of Knownothingism would be very im- perfectly told without some account of the wrongs inflicted upon Catholics and the criminal excesses committed by the partisans of that movement. The same bitter attacks against Catholics and the same incitements to violence could not fail to produce results similar to those which had characterized the earlier Native .American movements. In 1851 the large Knownothing element in Providence, R. I., was excited over the establishment there of a commimity of Sisters of Mercy under the direction of Mother Xavier Warde. The cottage occupied by the sisters was attacked at night, and all the windows broken. In daytime, as the sisters passed through the streets, they were hooted at and otherwise insulted, and were openly threatened with the destruction of their con- vent. So persistent were these threats that the Mayor requested the sisters to abandon their resi- dence in Providence so as to avert the threatened disorder. Soon afterwards a mob of Knownothing partisans fully armed was assembled whose purpose of attacking the convent had been openly announced. The bishop's house and one or more of the churches were likewise marked for destruction. After fruitless appeals to the civil authorities for protection, the Irish Catholics of Providence, under the prudent and reso- lute lead of Bishop O'Reilh', prepared to resist the mob and to repel any violence that might be at- tempted. The mob marched to the convent, but, finding it guarded by a nunilier of Catholic Irishmen, with Bishop O'Reilly prcsinl .in.l di'claring that the sisters and their convent sin mid l.c pnili'i-tcd at what- ever cost, the KnownotliiiiL; hailir^ decided not to molest the convent, and the mob dispersed.
In 1S53, on the occasion of the visit to America of
Archbishop Bedini, Apostolic Nuncio to the Court of
Brazil, a great outcry was raised by the Knownothing
element throughout the country, with whom were
joined certain Italian refugees who had emigrated to
escape the consequences of their criminal conduct at
home. In all the cities visited by the archbishop
hostile demonstrations were made against him. At
Boston, Baltimore, Wheeling, St. Louis, and Cincinnati
where the Nuncio took part in various solemn religious
celebrations, there were scenes of disorder, and in
some cases of bloodshed, provoked by the Know-
nothing speakers both lay and clerical, as well as by
the anti-Catholic press. At Cincinnati, in December,
1853, a mob of 600 men armed with weapons of vari-
ous sorts, and carrying lighted torches and ropes,
marched to the cathedral intending to set it on fire
and, as was believed, to hang the Nuncio. There was
an encounter with the police, and the mob was dis-
persed, but not until after shots had been fired and
several persons wounded. During 1854 there were
numerous assaults upon Catholic churches through-
out the country by the Knownothing element. St.
Mary's church at Newark, N. J., was invaded by a
mob made up of Knownothings and Orangemen from
New York City; the windows were broken, some of
the st a t uary i Icstroyed, and one imoffending bystander,
an Irish Catholic, was shot and killed. In October
of the same year, at Ellsworth, Maine, Father John
Bapst, S.J., was dragged from the church, robbed of
his watch and money, tarred and feathered, and ridden
about the village on a rail.
On 4 July, at Manchester, N. H., St. Anne's church was attacked, its windows broken and furniture de- stroyed, the priest compelled to seek shelter away from his home, and the houses of Irish Catholics were likewise attacked, the inmates driven out, even the sick being dragged from their lieds. At Bath, Me., the mob broke into tlii' church and, after wn'cking the altar and the puljiit, set fire to the building which was reduced to a heap of ashes. At Dorchester, Mass., a keg of gunpowder was placed under the floor of the little Catholic church, it was fired at three o'clock in the morning and resulted in almost the total destruc- tion of the building. Another Catholic church, at Sidney, Ohio, was l)lown up with gunpowder. At Massillon, Ohio, another church was burned, and an attempt made to burn the ITrsuline Convent at Galves- tion, 'Texas. At Lawrence and at Chelsea, Mass., the Catholic churches wire attacked by the Knownothing mob, the windows srnaslicd, and luucli oilier damage done. St. Mary's church at Norwalk. Conn., was set on fire and later its cross was sawed oft' the spire. A fire was started in the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Brooklyn, and the building was saved only by the interference of the police aided by the militia, who drove off the mob. St. Mary's Church at Saugerties, N. Y., was set on fire and nearly destroyed by the fanatics, and an attempt made to burn the church at Palmyra, N. Y. The following year (1855), at Louis- ville, Ky., the elections were attended with such riot- ing and bloodshed, the result of Knownothing agita- tion, that the day (5 Aug.) acquired the name of "Bloody Monday". The cathedral was invaded by the mob and was saved from destruction only by the prudence of Bishop Spalding, who, in a letter to Bishop Kenrick summing up the results of the day's proceed- ings, said: "We have just passed through a reign of terror surpassed only by the Philadelphia riots. Nearly one hundred poor Irish have been butchered or burned and some twenty houses have been consumed in the flames. The City authorities, all Knownothings, looked calmlv on and fhcv are now endeavouring to lav the bl.arne on thi' Catholics" (see "Life of Arch- bishop Spalding", by J. L. Spalding, p. 18.5).
While their ignorant followers were engaged in these lawless proceedings the leaders were exerting them-
