Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/758

 KNOWNOTHINGISM

678

KNOWNOTHINGISM

American and Knownothing movements which Amer- ica has witnessed, pohtical hostility and religious prejudice, the one supplementing the other, appear as the motive and inspiration. Knownothingism was only the development and application of the principles of Native Americanism whose character and origin we have briefly sketched.

During the half-century preceding the Knownothing era, the questions involved in that movement had been frequently agitated. Catholics and foreigners were denounced, mainly from Protestant pulpits, as enemies of the Republic. Books and newspapers cal- culated to inflame the passions of the mob against their Irish and Catholic neighbours were extensively circulated. Catholic bishops and priests were ma- ligned, their religion misrepresented and ridiculed, and acts of violence were committed against Catholics and their property. The burning of the Convent of the Ursuline nuns at Charleston, Mass., in 18.34, by a Native American mob, and their cruel treatment of the unoffending nuns and their pupils, were the most not- able manifestations, up to that time, of the evil effect of religious hatred. In 1835 the first formal organiza- tion of the partisans of the Native American move- ment under that name, was effected at New York City. Various newspapers, such as "The Protestant", "The Protestant Vindicator", "The Downfall of Bal> ylon", and the like, were established in New York and New England as aids to the movement. The "evils of Popery" and the danger to arise to the Re- public from tolerating the practice of the Catholic religion were staple topics of discussion by no incon- siderable number of ministers of religion, and under the impulse of these incitements the spirit of religious prejudice was kept alive; there were new aggressions upon the rights of Catholic citizens, the peace and order of the community were occasionally disturbed by acts of violence, and another decade in the history of Native Americanism terminated in the bloody riots which occurred at Philadelphia, in 1844, when several Catholic churches were attacked by the Native Ameri- can mob, and two of them, St. Michael's and St. Augus- tine's, were deliberately fired and reduced to ashes, and the safety of those that remained were so endan- gered by the hostile demonstrations of the mob that public worship was suspended by order of Bishop Kenrick, and on Sunday, 12 May, 1844, all Catholic churches in that city were closed. Many houses ten- anted by Irish Catholics were likewise wantonly de- stroyed by fire, some of the inmates were shot down at their own doorsteps, and a number of other unoffend- ing citizens lost their lives.

The party whose members were soon to be described as " Knownothings" was formally organized in 1852 in the City of New York. Although begun as a local society, it was designed to become a national organi- zation. Its leaders had planned to concentrate in a single party the membership of various Native Ameri- can orders already in existence and the "American Republicans", the "Order of United Americans", " Sons of America", and "United American Mechanics of the United States" formed the nucleus of the new party. It adopted the title of "National Council of the United States of North America." Among the initiate it was called the " Supreme Order of the Star- spangled Banner" and was sometimes familiarly spoken of as "Sam". Its published ritual declared (Article II) the purpo.se of the organization to be "to protect every American citizen in tlic legal and proper exenHse of all his civil and religious rights and privi- leges; to resist the insidious p<]!i<'y of the Church of Rome and all other fonign iiiOuence against our re- publican institutions in all lawful ways; to place in all oHiccs of honour, trust, or prolil in the gift of the peo- ple or by appointment none but Native America m I'rut- ei-tuMt citizens" (see American Politics, Book I, pp. 57-9). Article III declared "that a member must be

a native-born citizen, a Protestant either born of Protestant parents or reared under Protestant in- fluence, and not united in marriage with a Roman Catholic no member who has a Roman Catho- lic wife shall be eligible to office in this order", etc. There were several degrees of membership as there were also state, district, and territorial councils, all of them subordinate to the National Council. The organization had the usual equipment of secret signs, grips, passwords, and the like. Upon his admission the member was required to take the following oath: —

"In the presence of Almighty C!od and these wit- nesses, you do solemnly promise and swear that you will never betray any of the secrets of this society, nor communicate them even to proper candidates, except within a lawful council of the order; that you never will permit any of the secrets of this society to be written, or in any other manner made legible, except for the purpose of official instruction; that you will not vote, nor give your influence for any man for any office in the gift of the people, unless he be an Amer- ican-born citizen, in favor of Americans ruling Amer- ica, nor if he be a Roman Catholic; that you will in all political matters, so far as this order is concerned, com- ply with the will of the majority, though it may con- flict with your personal preference, so long as it does not conflict with the Constitution of the United States of America or that of the State in which you reside; that you will not, under any circumstances whatever, knowingly recommend an unworthy person for initia- tion, nor suffer it to be done, if in your power to pre- vent it; that you will not, under any circiunstances, expose the name of any member of this order nor reveal the existence of such an association; that you will answer an imperative notice issued by the proper authority; obey the command of the State council, president or his deputy, while assembled by such notice, and respond to the claim of a sign or cry of the order, unless it be physically impossible;. . . ."

Although the existence of the new party was gener- ally known, and its political activities soon became manifest, all inquiries by outsiders respecting its organization and purpose, and especially as to the names of members, were met by those identified with the movement with the answer: " I don't know ". This was in conformity with that part of the oath which forbade the member " to expose the name of any mem- ber of their order nor reveal the existence of such an association", and from this answer so uniformly re- peated the nickname "Knownothing" was invented and was applied to the party and its members, and thus the Native Americanism of that period has passed into history under the name of Knownothingism. Within three years state councils of the order were established in thirty-five states and territories, and its advocates claimed that it controlled one and a half million legal voters, or nearly one-half of the entire popular vote cast at the presidential election in 1852. For a time it confined its political activities to sup- porting candidates approved at the secret meetings of the councils who had been nominated by one or other of the older political parties, and the leaders of those parties were frequently surprised at the unexpected strength thus developed by the secretly favoured candidates; but by 1854 it directly nominated the candidates to be voted for. The part>- had been succes.sful in the municipal elections in Pliiladeljihia, Baltimore, San Francisco, New Orleans, and for a time in New York City. In 1854 the Knownothings sent forty representatives to Congress, and elected their candidate, Gardiner, Governor of Massachusetts, with a legislature of the same type. In New York, in the sanu' year, the party polled 122,(l votes and in the next vear was suecessl'ul in that stale, iiolling 14,(l0 votes'. In lS5r) New llanipsliire, Connecticut., and Rhode Island ea<-li elected a Knownothing governor, and the party carried the elections in nine dift'erent states.