I Know Nothing

In the early part of the 19^th century a group of Americans who were opposed to the immigration of Irish and German Catholics in the United States formed a secret society officially known as the Order of United Americans. Whenever a member was asked about the group, he would say, "I know nothing." Thus they became known as the "Know-Nothings." They accepted into their group only native-born Protestants who were unrelated to Catholics either by blood or marriage. Their movement to stop the flood of Catholic immigrants is known as nativism.

New Vatican in Ohio?
By 1825 over 100 periodicals were being published in the United States; 75% of them were religious and half of those were anti-Catholic. The nativists produced a vast amount of propaganda against the Catholic Church in the first half of the 19^th century. The great number of Catholics, mostly German and Irish, moving to the Midwest caused the Know-Nothings and other nativists to think that the power of the Pope might be transferred there. Many of these anti-Catholic publications stated that Catholics were not patriotic but owed their allegiance solely to the Pope and therefore could never be true Americans. The propaganda became increasingly absurd: some articles predicted that the Pope and a papal army would land on American shores to set up a new Vatican in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Morse code

Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, learned that a group in Vienna, Austria called the Leopoldine Society to Aid the Missions was making contributions to the bishop of Cincinnati to build churches and schools for the Catholics who were making Ohio their new home. Morse wrote a series of articles calling this a "foreign conspiracy." He urged Protestants to put aside their religious differences and unite against the Catholic schools, the bishops, the Jesuits and the lenient immigration laws which were continuing to allow the Catholics to move into the U.S. Morse dedicated the rest of his life to opposing the Catholic Church.

Another well known Know-Nothing was Lyman Beecher, a seventh generation Puritan preacher. Beecher moved from Boston to be the president of the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati so that he could educate ministers to protect the western United States from becoming a Catholic country. In one of the nativist magazines of the time, Beecher wrote that he came to Cincinnati "to battle the Pope for the garden spot of the world."

No insurance for Catholics
In 1834 Lyman Beecher returned to Boston to deliver three anti-Catholic sermons in various churches on a single day. He succeeded in rallying the Protestants together and the next day a mob gathered at the Ursuline School in Charlestown, carrying banners which said, "Down with Popery" and "Down with the Cross." Fifty men broke down the doors of the convent and set everything on fire. Although the arsonists were caught, none were found guilty. Mob attacks on Catholic churches in New England soon became so frequent that insurance companies refused to insure Catholic buildings.

Beecher returned to Cincinnati and published his rabble-rousing sermon as a pamphlet called "Plea for the West." He amplified the papal plot envisaged by Morse, maintaining that Catholic schools would win converts who would ally themselves with Catholic immigrants to control the west. Many joined Beecher, allying themselves against the immigrant Catholics.

The nativist presence under the leadership of Lyman Beecher in Cincinnati prompted the bishop of that city to erect a new cathedral which became the tallest building west of the Allegheny River at the time. The cathedral was designed without windows in the lower walls, rather only solid stone some 45 feet high to protect against anyone throwing bombs into the building as had been happening in the New England church burnings.

Maria Monk
A vast network of newspapers, magazines, lecturers and propagandists was set up from Boston to the Mississippi valley. The most infamous of the many propaganda works was Maria Monk’s Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal published in 1836. This book created a sensation despite the testimony of the Protestant mother of Maria Monk that her daughter had never been in a convent but had been paid a large sum of money by a Protestant minister to sign her name to the fictitious story. The book sold more than 300,000 copies.

Know-Nothing president
In the 1840s the Know-Nothings became more formally organized and became politically active. By 1855 most of the state senators and representatives were affiliated with the Know-Nothings. In 1856 they even nominated a Presidential candidate, Milliard Fillmore. Bigotry against Catholics continued, especially reaching unheard of bitterness in the national elections of 1856 when Abraham Lincoln wrote, "If the Know-Nothings get control, the Declaration of Independence will read: All men are created equal except for Negroes, foreigners and Catholics."

The Catholic response
The Catholics responded to the vicious propaganda campaigns, the terrorism and discrimination with remarkable restraint and a sense of humor. Many of them felt challenged to become better Catholics. Because of these persecutions in the first half of the 19^th century, the Catholic Church in the U.S. established a remarkable system of parochial schools and Catholics came together for a healthy and vibrant parish life.

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