Lot 1
Handwritten Speech Defending Know Nothing Party
"I am no friend of Slavery, for it is a cursed Heaven insulting institution; yet where we have one reason to fear Slavery we have a thousand to fear from Popery."
This lengthy handwritten speech by an unidentified person discusses the origins and objects of the Know Nothing Party. In July 1855, abolitionist George W. Julian (1817-1899) of Indiana, who had represented northeastern Indiana in Congress from 1849 to 1851 and was the 1852 Free Soil Party nominee for Vice President, delivered a speech in Indianapolis. His speech was entitled "The Slavery Question, in its Precise Relation to American Politics." The National Era, an abolitionist newspaper in Washington, D.C., printed the entire text of Julian's speech in its monthly publication Facts for the People in August 1855.
This manuscript speech is in many respects a response to Julian's speech. Filled with anti-immigrant and especially anti-Catholic accusations and alarmism, it makes many preposterous and contradictory claims, such as that Catholics have been the "prime movers" of the antislavery agitation in the "public mind" and that but for Catholics, "Slavery in America would have been abolished before this day."
[AMERICAN POLITICS.] Manuscript Document, Know Nothing Speech, ca. August 1855. 28 pp., 5" x 8". Some toning; very good.
Complete Transcript
Origin & object of the * * * * * Geo. W. Julian, the Free Soil Candidate for vice President at the last National Election, in a letter to the National Era, says, that the Know Nothing party was formed at the South by Pro Slavery men since the passage of the Nebraska Bill for the purpose of breaking down the Anti Slavery excitement caused by that movement, by diverting the public mind to other objects, & also to form a new party to strengthen the institution & spread the domains of slavery.
I have not obtained all the facts in respect to the origin of the order that I desire; yet I have learned enough to know that those statements are far from being facts, for instead of it's being formed since the passage of the Nebraska Bill, it is two years or more since it originated—long before the Neb. Bill was dreamed of; & instead of the South among Pro Slavery men, it was first formed in the state of Ohio, & by the strongest friends of Liberty. They were men of sound heads & pure hearts, who had the love of their country at heart & who were actuated by some of the same spirit that fired the breasts of the Fathers of the Revolution when they penned & signed the Declaration of Independence. This order was not a thing of haste, the work of a moment; but it was the product of mature deliberation. They were not the men to act on the impulse of the moment; they know full well the danger of a secret political party to the Republic's yet they saw an important Era—a terrible crisis in the history of our country near at hand—a crisis that will tell fearfully for the weal, or wo of our Republic.
They saw the big cloud of danger loom up in the political horizon; they heard the distant mutterings of the thunder, they turned & looked anxiously towards the Old parties, but they saw no ray of hope. At the last national Conventions they all sold themselves as willing subjects to the Pope of Rome.
All passed resolutions inviting to our shores those tools of the worst despotism that ever cursed the earth. They bowed, they scraped all fondly hoping thereby to secure the foreign vote & thus carry the election.
They saw it was in vain to expect aught from them. They then thought of reviving the Old Native American Party; but well they knew the old political office seekers or gamblers would rise en masse & crush it in the dust.
Ignorance & lack of moral courage among the masses would render that scheme futile. To them it was a fearful moment to our country it was an epoch fraught with momentous interests.
What must be done? What course must be pursued? What plans can be laid to avert the impending danger? were questions propounded, & which they attempted to solve & how well they have solved them, time will soon determine.
They gazed back over the history of 1500 years & saw too plainly what Popery had done. And what has it not done? Let the millions of it's slaughtered victims reply.
Let the stake the block & the scaffold answer.
Let the dungeons of the infernal inquisition join in the tale of horror. 'Tis enough to curdle the blood to rouse the spirit to madness to read the torture practiced by Popish fiends upon their victims.
Upon the rack; limb after limb was disjointed but ere death came to relieve them they were taken from the bed of torture to linger in agony, again to be subjected to the same torture.
Some men sawn asunder others laid on beds of iron & roasted alive. So thousands were bound, naked upon the floors of stone & in silence left to die of hunger, cold, & pain. The old & the young, the man & the maiden, no age, no sex were exempt.
The Poison, the assassins dagger, the sword, the spear, the musket all performed the work of death till Europe flowed with blood, till the cry for vengeance rose on High & a fearful retribution fell on Italias plains and Spanish vales.
Yet why all these scenes of cruelty & blood? Why those little bands hunted down & killed like the wild beasts of the forest? They were not criminals, had not broken laws, but they loved & served their God. In Christ they trusted for salvation & would not bow to Papal images or pay homage to the drunken Licentious priests or acknowledge allegiance to the Popes of Rome who exalted themselves above all that is called God. They confessed to none but God, & for this they were persecuted, for this they were destroyed.
All the nations of earth rode against Christianity yet it still lives, for God upholds his own work.
They were aware that Popery was a deadly foe to Civil & Religious Liberty, for in fact such a despotism can never be found elsewhere.
It is the worst system of Slavery ever palmed off on humanity. It not only enslaves the body & shackles the mind but it fetters the soul.
It makes the priests, fiends & the masses it converts into willing tools to accomplish his diabolical designs.
Never have they obtained firm foothold in any nation without crushing its power, sapping its prosperity & destroying its influence & corrupting its morals.
Why are Italy & Spain so weak? so poor? They were once the most powerful nations in Europe, they possess the most fertile soil & the mildest climate. Why can they not compare with Germany & England?
Why cannot Ireland with here fertile soil & balmy climate compete in wealth & intelligence with the rough & colder regions of Scotias isle?
Why cannot Mexico with far the greater natural advantages bear some comparison with the United States? The tale is quickly told. They have been governed by Papal priests.
Civil & Religious Liberty are the legitimate offspring of Protestantism & cannot exist save in Protestant Governments, & should Popery ever obtain the sway in our land; that moment they are dead.
They were aware too, that nearly one third of our present population are Roman Catholics & that they are flocking to our shores at the rate of half a million annually. Some tell us but a million [?]
Why do they come? They come to occupy our lands, to become citizens, to place Papists in power to destroy our institutions, take away our liberties, & grind us beneath the iron heel of the Papacy.
Will Americans suffer this? Our institutions, our Liberties were God given; our fathers purchased them with their blood.
Long & bloody was the contest yet they thought them worth the price they paid.
With such a glorious example of patriotism before us; shall his services be permitted to have a voice in the business, & then should say that he had a better right than the children because forsooth they were simply born there, but he came there from choice.
The framers of this organization were aware that the Romanists are united Politically, socially & morally.
Morally they have ever been united through the past 1500 years, as a body they have ever been opposed to all moral reforms, & in our country, Temperance & Anti Slavery have not other so bitter enemies as Papists.
Those that come to our shore are the very worst of that body—the scum of Europe. It is a notorious fact that the old countries empty their poor houses, jails, & prisons & send their inmates to this country, thus deluging our land with paupers & criminals, who are immediately naturalized that they may become the tools of scheming politicians or rather that they may have the more power to advance the interests of his wickedness, the Pope.
Often we hear it said that foreigners are a peaceable & industrious class of citizens. Let us look facts in the face & see if it is so.
In Mass, New York, in Penn & many other states, more than two thirds of the paupers, & criminals are Roman Catholics. Is not that a fact that should startle Americans.
Socially too they are united & who that has not been in the large cities or villages in our Union but has seen it. They mingle with the Protestants no more than they are obliged to in order to transact business, or to act as spies.
And as spies they act well their part. There is not a true Papist in a family in the United States, but is a spy, & all their business & secrets that they can obtain are revealed to their Priests, thus giving them knowledge that places a fearful power in their hands.
Politically we know too well the Union that exists among them. For the last twenty years, by acting in concert they have controlled our national Elections. M. V. Buren was elected by R. C. votes. So was Wm H. Harrison James K. Polk & Z. Taylor. And Frank Pierce owes his present station to Papist votes & influence & dearly too has he paid for it.
Of the 3,000 offices filled by the appointment of the President, more than 2200 are filled with Roman Catholics—a fact that should startle Americans & rouse them to defend their rights from the encroachments of the Beast of seven heads and ten horns.
The Elections in many of the states have been controlled by their influence. The candidates that would bid the highest for their suffrages; that is, would place the most Papists in office & would do the most to forward their diabolical designs, obtained them. For nearly half a century these minions of the Pope have been laboring with untiring assiduity & with a zeal worthy of a better cause, to subvert our Government, to crush our liberties & destroy our institutions.
To accomplish this, they send their tools, swarming like locusts to our shores ready to eat up every green thing.
Priests, Friars, & monks accompany them, in their robes, & wearing their sanctimonious faces, but were these the only enemies that come among us we should not need much fear, but another class secret as the grave, cunning as the serpent, & fiendish in their designs as the spirits of the infernal regions flock hither by hundreds & thousands their descendants stand still & see those precious treasures wrested from us without one noble struggle; shall we suffer it & then submit to a system of oppression, in comparison with which the galling yoke thrown off by our fathers was liberty?
Shall we tamely submit to see our Churches turned into inquisitions, our Academies & colleges into convents (or in other words brothels for priests & monks) shall we give up our wives, our daughters, & our sisters to gratify the lust of those devils in their black robes?
When Americans stoop to this they deserve to suffer what will surely be their lot.
In the language of one of the heroes of seventy six I ask "What will our children say when they read the history of these times& they find that we tamely gave way without one noble struggle the most invaluable of earthly blessings. As they drag the galling chain will they not execrate us?
If we have any regard for things sacred? any respect for the dearest treasure on earth; if we have one tender sentiment for posterity; if we would not be despised by the whole world"; let us unite in one solid phalanx & scourge this hydra headed monster back to his home of darkness across the ocean & on our banners bear the motto, Liberty or death.
Yet Catholics tell us & their allies (Political Gamblers) echo the sound that they have better right here than we ourselves; for say they, we were simply born here but they forsook home & friends & came here from choice. Came here from choice when two thirds came because the heels of justice were too fast for them on the other side of the water
As though a friendless vagabond should be received into a family employed & well remunerated for to work among us their deeds of darkness & death.
Who has not heard of the order of the Jesuits? It was originated for the purpose of extending the domains of Papacy, to uphold its then tottering walls. It is a secret society bound by the most horrid oaths, composed of the worst of men for the worst of purposes. What they cannot perform by cunning & bribes, they hesitate not to accomplish with poison or the dagger. They pause at nothing provided it be for the good of the Church. Once it became so powerful that the Pope began to fear it would take the power from his hands & for a time the order was abolished; but Popery declined & it was revived to save the Church. So intriguing & fiendlike are the members of this order, that of late in most of the European nations they have been expelled—yes even in Roman Catholic Spain & the other countries they have been banished yet they are permitted to come to our country & live unmolested plan & carry out their designs against the republic against freedoms.
They built their convent & nunneries to entice the daughters of the most wealthy & influential to their schools, & then by force or fraud induce them to become nuns or in other words shut them out from the world, permit no one to visit them to find out if they are well used or content & then compel them to submit to the licentious desires of their confessors—the priests & monks.
But some may inquire if this is so in every nunnery. There is not one in the United States, (if we can believe reformed Catholic priests, who ought to know) but contain the young, beautiful & accomplished that tongue cannot tell the miseries they endure & would give the world could they escape.
Some may doubt in regard to their doing much in our country toward subverting our government.
Ever since the subject of slavery commenced agitating the public mind they have been the prime movers of it, & had it not been for them, Slavery in America would have been abolished before this day.
Slavery has never had so strong an ally nor could it have from any other source.
They have had a twofold object in this, one to divert the attention of Americans from them; the other & the principal one, to sow discord, engender strife between different sections of our Union & in time bring on war, in which they would rise & crush the government. What hurled this firebrand of disunion Fug slave law into Congress & forced it through contrary to the wishes of the people? What influence passed the Infamous Neb. Bill?
Jesuitical intrigue & gold. The same influence that is now using every measure to divide the American party, on the question of Slavery & in that way destroy its power. And they are not alone in this work. Editors professing to be Americans & friends of Liberty join with them fondly hoping to create division & destruction.
How well they will succeed is only known to Him who knoweth all things. But should it be so & the American party be disorganized not ten years will pass ere they will see the day. I am no friend of Slavery, for it is a cursed Heaven insulting institution; yet where we have one reason to fear Slavery we have a thousand to fear from Popery. The Bible has been a persecuted book by papists. They have endeavored to cast it out of our schools & in many places by the aid of truckling politicians (be it said to the shame of Americans) they have succeeded.
Not content with that; they are now exerting every effort to break down our common school system, which, next to the religion of our country, is the strongest pillar of our republic.
Light, that church of darkness fears, for without the influence of Ignorance it could not exist a single day. This the leaders know full well, & hence they try to blot out not only every moral, but every intellectual luminary.
Against Religious Liberty too, they have levelled their batteries, to say that the doctrine of permitting men to worship God according to the dictates of their own Consciences is one of the most damnable doctrines ever promulgated. Hear the Pope in his Bull issued Aug 15th 1852 which sentiment was endorsed by every Priest in America & circulated by every Popish journal.
He calls our Liberties Insane liberties & says our "Absurd & erroneous doctrines or ravings in defence of liberty of conscience are most pestilential errors, a pest most of all others most to be dreaded in a state."
So we see that let Romanism obtain the sway & Religious Liberty is at an end.
Yet after all, some tell us that we need not fear Roman Catholics they do not intend making any demonstrations against us.
When then do their actions mean? Why are they filling their churches with arms & ammunition, & doing it too in a secret manner?
Why are they sending revolvers, muskets, & Bowie knives in coffins & boxes all over the country? Why then are they forming secret military companies, & in the darkness of the night, drilling them in their churches? Why are they sowing the seeds of discord & strife all over our land? If they like our Government & are willing to support it; why do they bear about their flags bearing the inscription Americans shall not rule us? With the throat of the Am Eagle cut & a priest standing on its head? Or Washington (name so dear to us) kissing the toe of the Pope?
There is danger & imminent danger too. But these wrongs not long shall linger &c. This the formers of this organization saw, & but one ray of hope appeared to their minds; & that was in the formation of a secret political party opposed to Roman Catholicism & foreign influence.
It was a hazardous measure & a desperate remedy. Yet the only chance of salvation to our free institutions, & if this fails years will not roll away ere our Government will be in the hands of a Papist.
Among the many objects of this order I will present the leading ones. They intend to remove all Roman Catholics from office. And why should they not? They owe no allegiance but to this Pope of Rome & all for the good of the country only as far as it is for the welfare of the church.
But we are asked "Did not foreigners fight for our liberties? Did not they assist in achieving our Independence?
Some of them did & fought nobly too. Long will be remembered & revered too the names of Pulaski & DeKalb, Layfayette & others. Next to "The Father of his country will the name of Layfayette be cherished in the hearts of true Americans.
In the time of peril that tried men's souls he came with his fleet & troops all at his own expense & side by side with Washington fought for freedom & rights & when victory crowned our arms, he refused compensation for his services, & returned to the land of his birth.
After our constitution was adopted & this became a Republic he came to view the stupendous fabric. He gazed upon it with joy as he saw it was built on the glorious foundation of Civil & religious liberty, cemented by the blood of patriot martyrs.
As he gazed at the mighty column his thoughts looked on into the future And what was his prophetic declaration? He doubtless saw that sectional differences might arise, but when Americans turned & witnessed the despotisms of Europe & compared them with our own happy land, they would vanish before their love for the Union. But he saw further as he exclaimed, No power but that of Popery can crush it, & if it ever falls, that will be its destroyer.
But we are asked by Catholics And was not Montgomery an Irishman? He was, he came to America & became an American joined our cause & was promoted to the highest office that could be bestowed on him & in our countrys cause he fell. But was he a Romanist? Never & that is not all the tale; his Father was burned at the stake by Papal hands. When you asked if Montgomery was not an Irishman first relate that fact. One Catholic officer they may boast of Riley.
Repeal or modification of the Naturalization laws is another object of the order. Of the foreigners that come to our shores, not one fourth after they have been here the specified time to become a citizen know as much about the principles of government as a Yankee boy ten years of age, yet they are permitted to vote.
But that is not the worst of it most of them are Romanists, (& it matters little however with them how much or little they know as knowledge does not govern them in that act) & they are controlled by their Priests in giving their suffrages, & their ghostly advisers give their influence for him who will do the most for them.
Another object is to bury in political oblivion all old office seekers who love office more than they love their country all who have or will cater for R. C. votes. Opposed to filling our country with paupers & criminals from Europe. Opposed to establishing any more convents or nunneries in our land, & in favor of having those examined that now exist & know if any are confined against their wishes & if they are bad houses for the accommodation of the priest have them broken up & the owners suffer the penalty of the law. Our legislature appoints men to visit Banks, Prisons & Insane Hospitals, & let men be appointed to visit the nunneries & let the world know their true object. If it is good, they will not oppose it & if bad it should be destroyed.
In relation to the extent & numbers of this organization, I can simply say, it is calculated that if the National election were to take place today; if we were united we should carry the election.
Yet to continue the existence of this party perfect secrecy is indispensable. To some it may not seem necessary at the present time, yet it is more so if possible than ever before. The reason & only one too why it has been so highly prosperous is because it has been concealed so entirely from old leading politicians. They knew not what it was doing till it rose a thing of gigantic size. They knew not how to oppose it, how or where to strike.
They are not the men to die now. They are only disappointed & maddened & if art can destroy this order it will soon perish. They are not fools but men that understand human nature well that know how to play on the passions & feelings of men.
They know how to create prejudice & excite dissension & depend upon it if the veil of secrecy is torn from this organization it will not survive 5 years. A knowledge of what R. C. is, & what it is doing around us is another important thing in the advancement of this order. & to obtain this knowledge we ought to take some N. Am papers & then we shall know what we are doing. The Star & Cin Times.
But I must close these remarks for I fear I shall if I have not already wearied your patience.
In conclusion I will say Let us fight on unitedly in the great cause of freedom & Right & bear on our banners, While we live Americans shall be free.
Historical Background
The Know Nothing arose in the early 1850s as a nativist political party and movement. Its secretive nature and the response members gave when asked about it—"I know nothing"—led to its informal name. More officially, it was the Native American Party before 1855 and the American Party thereafter. Fearful that Catholic immigrants would undermine civil and religious liberty in the United States, the movement organized native-born Protestants to defend their traditional religious and political values.
The party achieved some successes in 1854 and elected Congressmen from Massachusetts and other states. However, by the later 1850s, concerns over the spread of slavery overshadowed the threat of foreign Catholicism, and the party dissolved by 1860. Many abolitionists and Republicans, like George W. Julian and Abraham Lincoln, opposed the hostile anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic stance of the Know Nothings and were especially troubled when the movement threatened to divide antislavery political coalitions of former Whigs and Democrats.
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