Providence, July 22, 1854 am). You will place your right hand on this holy 1. They HATE our Republic, and are trying to emblem (Bible). Know-Nothing Party overthrow it. Obligation. You do solemnly promise, declare, and 2. They HATE the American Eagle, and it swear upon that sacred and holy emblem before It is an over-simplification to state that the offends them beyond endurance to see it worn as Almighty God, and these witnesses that you will American colonies were founded by people who an ornament by Americans. not divulge or make known to any person came to the New World seeking religious freedom. 3. They HATE our Flag, as it manifest by their whatsoever, the nature of the questions I may ask It is true that the early settlers in the Northeast did grossly insulting it. you here, the names of the persons you may see seek freedom to worship in their own way—but it 4. They HATE the liberty of conscience. here or that you know that such an organization is was a freedom that they were not prepared to give 5. They HATE the liberty of the Press. going on as such, whether you become a member to others who might differ in belief. Religious 6. They HATE the liberty of speech. of our organization or not! (Candidate answers, I prejudice existed between sects, and it was 7. They HATE our Common School system. will) responsible for driving Roger Williams from 8. They HATE the Bible, and would blot it out And that you will true and faithful answers Massachusetts to Rhode Island, the Puritans from of existence if they could! give to all the questions I may ask you, (Candidate Virginia to Maryland, but it was particularly 9. The Priests HATE married life, and yet by answers, So help me God) virulent in the case of Catholics. them is fulfilled the Scripture, to wit: 'more are the Are you by religious faith a Roman Catholic? Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic movements children of the desolate, than the children of the (Candidate answers, I am not) in American political life had their inception in the married wife.' Were you born in this country? (Candidate 1840s, due to the arrival of large numbers of Irish 10. They HATE Protestants, and are sworn to answers, I was) immigrants at that time and the increasing role exterminate them from our country and the earth. Were either of your parents? Were either of being played by the Catholic Church in education 11. They HATE the name of WASHINGTON, your grandparents? Were any of your ancestors in and other areas of public life. The best known of because he was a Republican and Protestant. 12. this country during the Revolutionary War? these nativist groups, founded in 1852, came to be They HATE all rulers that do not swear allegiance If so then: called the American Party, and its adherents as to the Pope of Rome. Are you willing to use all your influence to Know-Nothings. The aim of the Know-Nothing 13. They HATE to be ruled by Americans, and elect to all offices of Honor, Profit, or Trust, none movement was to combat foreign influences and to say 'WE WILL NOT BE RULED BY THEM!' but native born citizens of America, of this uphold and promote traditional American ways. 14. They HATE to support their own paupers country, to the exclusion of all foreigners and to all Sworn to secrecy, the Know-Nothings derived and they are left to be supported by the tax paying Roman Catholics, whether they be of native or their name from their standard reply to questions Americans. foreign birth, regardless of all party predilections about their rituals and mysteries--"I know nothing 15. They HATE, above all, the 'Know- whatsoever? about it." The movement had considerable success Nothings,' who are determined to rid this country (Candidate answers, I am). in the 1850s, electing governors in Massachusetts from their accursed power. and Delaware, and placing Millard Fillmore (1800- —UNCLE SAM Hatred and distrust of Catholics, was and in 1874) on a presidential ticket in 1856. many ways still is, a common phenomenon in parts The Know Nothing Party spread like wildfire The "Obligation" assumed by prospective of America. throughout the country. “Americans must rule candidates for membership is spelled out in this America!” was the rallying cry. Under the Know document emanating from Newburg, near The Evangelization Station Nothings, religious bigotry reach a high point not Shippensburg, in Cumberland County, Hudson, Florida, USA previously attained. The party elected officials to Pennsylvania, July 1854. E-mail: [email protected] office, and for a time held considerable power; it www.evangelizationstation.com was anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, terroristic, and Examiner’s Duty brutal. The Know Nothings provoked riots in many Examination of Candidate. Are you a candidate for Pamphlet 190 sections of the country, each riot aimed at injuring membership to our order? (Candidate answers, I Catholic immigrants. On Election Day, 1855, in Louisville, candidates for the office of President. The greatest height of anti-Catholic sentiment in the 1850s, Kentucky, the Know Nothings attacked the homes tragedy was the violence the Know Nothings published the following party platform. of Catholics, setting them afire; the occupants were provoked. Catholics were kept from voting by The platform of the American Party called for, shot as they rushed out. It is not known how many beatings and killings. Catholic school children among other things: Catholics were murdered, but the newspapers were barred from public schools or forced to read 1.—Repeal of all Naturalization Laws. estimated the number as between twenty-five and the Protestant Bible. 2.—None but Native Americans for Office. one hundred. Xaverian Brothers, who conducted a Despite their evil accomplishments, the Know 3.—A pure American Common School school in Louisville, were warned that the Know Nothings represented no one but themselves—a System. Nothings were marching on it with the intention of bigoted and lawless minority. Abraham Lincoln 4.—War to the hilt, on Romanism. setting it afire. For two days the Brothers had to was only one of many Americans who repudiated 5.—Opposition, first and last, to the formation hide in the countryside. The Louisville Journal had them. He once wrote against the Know Nothings in of Military Companies composed of foreigners. the effrontery to blame foreign residents who words that almost might be applicable today. He 6.—The advocacy of a sound, healthy, and had—supposedly—been incited by their priests. said: “I am not a Know Nothing; that is certain. safe Nationality. The Know Nothings set torches to a Carmelite How could I be? How can anyone who abhors the 7.—Hostility to all Papal Influences, in convent in Baltimore and an Ursuline academy oppression of Negroes be in favor of degrading whatever form, and under whatever name. near Boston. Churches in New York and classes of white people? Our progress in 8.—American Institutions and American Philadelphia were burned. In Boston, New York, degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a Sentiments. Paterson, Philadelphia, and Louisville, the Irish nation we began by declaring that ‘all men are 9.—More stringent and effective Emigration residential areas were attacked. In Maine, Father created equal,’ Now we practically read it, ‘all men Laws. John Bapst, a Jesuit, was caught by Know are created equal, except Negroes.’ When the 10.—The amplest Protection to Protestant Nothings and was tarred and feathered, simply Know Nothings get control, it will read, ‘all men Interests. because he was a priest. are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners 11.—The doctrines of the revered Washington One of the most spiteful and petty acts and Catholics.’ When it comes to this, I shall and his compatriots. committed by the Know Nothings was carried out prefer emigrating to some country where they 12.—The sending back of all Foreign Paupers in our nation’s capital. The Washington Monument make no pretense of loving liberty—to Russia for landed on our shores. was being completed, and some foreign instance, where despotism can be taken pure and 13.—The formation of Societies to protect all governments sent granite or marble blocks to be without the base alloy of hypocrisy. American Interests. used in the construction. The gifts were made in The undoing of the Know Nothing movement 14.—Eternal enmity to all who attempts to honor of the Father of our country and to show resulted from mob violence, plus the incompetence carry out the principles of a foreign Church or friendship. Pope Pius IX, as sovereign of the Papal of persons the members of the movement elected State. States, sent a block to be set in the monument— to office. Gradually sensible Protestants worked 15.—Our Country, our whole Country, and and his gift cause a furor. Critics proposed that a against the Know Nothing party, and it nothing but our country. block with an anti-Papal inscription be set next to disappeared beneath the weighty problems facing 16.—And finally,—American Laws and it. The quarrel was settled when a mob of Know America in pre-Civil War days. While there was a American Legislation, and Death to all Foreign Nothings seized the block one night and threw it in basic mistrust and suspicion of Catholics, the root Influences, whether in high places or low! the Potomac River. That block was never of the problem was fundamentally economic. — The Know-Nothing: and American recovered. There was a fear that Catholic immigrants would Crusader - 15 July 1854. The Know Nothings gained control of many depress wages and take “Protestant” jobs. There State legislatures and therein they passed nuisance was also the threat of political control by the Below is an example of the anti-Catholic laws against Catholics. Particularly offensive were growing number of urban Catholics. (Re-printed rhetoric that spewed from the pages of this the “nunnery inspections” laws, which allowed from ‘Our American Catholic Heritage’ by Albert J. publication on 29 July 1854. civic officials to invade the privacy of convents at Nevins, M.M.) awkward hours. Those laws were later found The Know Nothing and American Crusader, a Things Which Roman Catholic Priests and unconstitutional. The Know Nothings Even put up nativist newspaper published in Boston at the all True Roman Catholics Hate.