Middle Ages.1 The Pope was held up as aiming to become supreme head of the world, and such authors as Bellarmine, Augustinus Triumphus, Avorus, Pelagius, Panormitamus, Hostiensis, Sylvester and Thomas Aquinas were appealed to in order to prove the indictment. Seldom had so much scholasticism been quoted in the exciting arena of American politics. Even the style of architecture of the churches was appealed to. It was said "they are built of solid masonry, gothic style of architecture, and easily convertible into forts; and any one who has been in a country where he has seen them used for forts can readily imagine why they are so strongly built in this country." Nor were the opponents of the Know Nothings at all sparing in the use of epithets. The party was characterized as a secret oath-bound, dark-lantern organization, meeting in the dead of night to concoct schemes and hoodwink their opponents.. Then again it was charged with being descended from the Hartford Convention and its leaders were denounced as traitors. The Know Nothings were denounced as Abolitionists in disguise, on account of the abolition tendencies of the Northern branch of the party, where indeed the cry of the order had by this time been changed from an Anti-Pope to Anti-Nebraska. The climax of these characterizations was reached by a Democratic leader in Western Maryland, who is reported to have said that "St. Paul was a Democrat and all the Jews were Know Nothings." A special point of attack was Henry Winter Davis, who was running for Congress in the Fourth District. His in "Popery as it was in the Middle Ages, and as it is in the Nineteenth Century," 25. "Sons of the Sires," 201. *"Reasons for Abandoning the Old Whig and Democratic Parties," 12. 'American, November 5, 1855. 'See Haynes in American Historical Review, for October, 1897, 79-80. 'Wm. T. Hamilton. Clipper, November 2, 1855. consistencies and change of front did not fail to be availed of by his opponents. Davis had been a Whig, but when the new party came into the field he went into it, and his great ability and magnetic power soon made him one of its leaders. In 1852 he had been presidential elector on the Whig ticket, yet only three years later, in 1855, he said of the presidential canvass, in which he had taken so active a part: "In 1852 the rumps of two broken-down and discredited factions usurped the name of national parties, entered the field under the old platforms and waged a scandalous contest of bribery and fraud, which ended in the election of President Pierce." In 1852 he had also published the "War of Ormudz and Ahriman in the Nineteenth Century," containing an account of the fight of freedom against despotism. In this work he eulogized the foreignborn citizen and delighted to do him honor, and he was the pronounced advocate of Kossuth and the policy of American intervention in the affairs of Europe. Yet in 1855 he was opposed to the election of foreigners and he favored as little connection with foreign nations as possible. In his earlier work he had stated that "the forms of democratic government admit of no concealment *** the quarrels are as open as the unity, the peace, and the love," yet in 1853 he became the member of this new secret organization in Baltimore. It was said that copies of this book could not be bought in 1855, although they were plentiful before Davis was nominated for Congress." Nor were the incidents of the campaign confined to a mere bandying of words. There was great political excitement, and fights and personal encounters were quite frequent. The Know Nothings while marching to their 'Ibid., 367, 393, 428. 1 "Origin, Principles and Purposes of the American Party," 19. '“Ormudz and Ahriman,” 344-348. "Origin, Principles and Purposes of the American Party," 26. • Ibid., 46. • "Ormudz and Ahriman," 352. American, October 6. 7 "Review of H. W. Davis," II. convention had a brick thrown at them while passing the Lexington Market and a riot almost resulted.' Sometime later a shot was fired from a Democratic parade into the office of the Clipper, the leading Know Nothing paper. In other parts of the State also much bitterness was manifested, and at Ellicott City, after the adjournment of a Know Nothing mass-meeting, the Know Nothings proceeded to the Union meeting, and set up such a shouting that it was impossible for the meeting to proceed. The day before the election the report was circulated that the government at Washington had sent five hundred horsepistols to the Democratic party. Davis himself reported this at a mass-meeting, and having one of them handed up to him, he declared that it had the government mark upon it.R The election passed off much like that of the year before. There was considerable fighting and rioting at various points between the Democratic and the Know Nothing clubs, and the jubilation of the victors was kept up far into the night and even into the next day. Indeed, the rioting on the day after the election was probably greater than on the election day itself. At one point a Know Nothing procession was fired upon from the second story of a building. The building was stormed and its occupants were glad enough to escape. 1 Sun, American, September 22. 8 'Ibid., October 27, 30. Sun, November 6, 1855. This was a favorite trick of the Know Nothings all over the country. George N. Julian thus describes this action in Indiana: "If a meeting was called to expose and denounce its schemes, it was drowned in the Know Nothing flood which at the appointed time, completely overwhelmed the helpless minority. This happened in my own county and town, where thousands of men including many of my old Free Soil brethren, assembled as an organized mob to suppress the freedom of speech, and succeeded by brute force in taking possession of every building in which their opponents could meet and silencing them by savage yells." "Political Recollections," 142. · * Sun, November 7. 'Sun, American, November 9, 1855. Ibid. The success of the Know Nothings was complete. Baltimore City and thirteen out of twenty-one counties were ranged in the Know Nothing column. Most of the Whig counties became Know Nothing, but there were three Whig counties where the Know Nothings never obtained a foothold. These were St. Mary's, Charles and Prince George's.1 In Charles and St. Mary's especially did both Whigs and Democrats unite in opposition to them. At the State Convention of the Know Nothing party in 1855 these two counties were not even represented. The reason for this was apparent. It was in St. Mary's County that the colony of Maryland had first been planted, and this and the adjoining county (Charles) had always had a large Catholic population. These counties were also adjacent to the Virginia line, and the defeat of the Know Nothings in that State in June, 1855, had also probably had its influence on the vote in this section. Again in other sections of the country were the Know Nothings victorious. In Massachusetts they elected their candidate for Governor and in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and Kentucky the party was again successful. On January 2, 1856, the new Legislature met at Annapolis. The Know Nothings had an overwhelming majority in the House of Delegates, while in the Senate they were only able to organize with the help of some of the holdover Whig Senators. In Massachusetts in the previous year the Know Nothing Legislature was marked by the great number of ministers elected to it, twenty-four clergymen being members, a number which has never been equaled since. Although many clergymen had taken an active part in the Know Nothing movement in Maryland 1 Sun, June 5, July.3 and 11, August 25; American, August 18 and 27. Easton Star, June 12. 'Know Nothing 54, Whig 1, Democrat 9, Union 10. 'Know Nothing 8, Whig 9, Democrat 3, Union 2. New England Magazine, March, 1897, 7. (a Presbyterian minister in Baltimore being especially prominent in the agitation in the preceding campaign and exceedingly persistent in his endeavors to suppress convents and nunneries), the Constitution of Maryland forbid any minister of the gospel from holding a seat in the Legislature. The House organized by electing Wm. H. Travers, of Baltimore, Speaker. George Wells, a holdover Whig Senator from Anne Arundel County, was elected President of the Senate." Hardly had the Legislature organized when its equanimity was rudely disturbed by the message of the Governor. Governor Ligon, as a Democrat, was naturally much opposed to this new party which was sweeping all before it, and in his official communication to the General Assembly he took pains to score the Know Nothings upon their secret organization. After reviewing the affairs of the State he considers that he would "fail to discharge a public duty” if he did not call attention to "the formation and encouragement of secret political societies." Continuing, he says: "But how much more are they to be deprecated, when those purposes tend to the subversion of the well and most dearly cherished principles of our Government, and to the establishment of rules for discriminating against large classes of citizens, not only unknown to the Federal Constitutions and those of the several States, but plainly prohibited both by the letter and spirit of each and all of them. If on the one hand we permit brute force to control the ballot-box and violence to deter the quiet and peaceably-disposed citizens from the exercise of his right of suffrage, or on the other hand to allow a citizen to be proscribed on account of his religious faith, we poison the very foundation of public security, our Con Senate Journal, 4 1Constitution 1850, Art. III, sec. 11. 'An ambiguity of which his opponents did not fail to take advantage. |