Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-08-19
From the ". y. Evenins Post.l
The Know NoIhings i'm Mnssn chusetts
RosroN. AUGUST Q. 1874


Probable Effect on oar IoatScS.
There is no state of the Union in which tn,
order of the Know Nothings are more power.
full than they are in Massachusetts,, or where
they have so fast risen to Importance. A veal
ago they were as unknown as the Nebraska
bill, and were not, indeed, heard of until
! about the middle of December, 1853, when
| their demonstrations first began to be visible
| and affected the municipal elections that took
| place about that time in Boston, Roxbury, and
| Charestown. If they had an existence pre-
vious to that time, it must have been of a most
undemonstrative character, for no mention was
ever made of them out of their own circle.
Even after the municipal elections mentioned
had been decided adversely to the whigs con-
trary to what might have been reasonably ex-
pected, especially so far as Roxbury was con-
cerned, no suspicion seems to have been en-
tertained that we had an organization in our
midst as astutely contriyed as 1t was powerful
in giving blows. The subject began to be
talked of in the latter part of last January,
but most people laughed at the stories that
were in circulation. 1t was said that the new
party numbered many thousand voters, that
its meetings of which no outsiders had any
certain knowlege, were attended by hundreds
everywhere; that there was to be regular
series of assaults made on the wings. who at
that time were dominant over almost the whole
state, and insoent as the full flush Of victory
ever makes that half savage, halt crazy party;
and that victory would everywhere follow the
exertions of this new band Of reformers, who
labored in secret that they might be rewarded
openly. The old political stagers laughed at
all this, shaking their empty heads with .sem-
inent gravity" and asking those who brought
them such stories if they really believed that
the Massachusetts, wing party could be beaten
in any such way as that or IN any way The:
month of March let these old gentlemen into
the secret that the wings here were not irwin
chile, point concerning which some useful
information might have been obtained, were
they capable Of learning anything in any way
from the history Of the coalition. But our
wings are good deal like the French military,
who will not admit that they ever were fairly
beaten in the field. but We're cheated or be-
trayed out of such fields as Cressy and Agin-
cour, and Blenheim, and Waterloo. Just so
our wings, after having been in minority for
dozen of years, and beaten again and again.
will insist upon it that their unsophistcated
innocence was taken advantage of by those
satyrs and wild men of the woods the demo-
Gratis and freesoilers, who met them in the
fields and ravished victory from them-which
is much as if Greatheart and his pilgrims had
Bubble | don't know whether the Know
Nothings cheated the wings, but am certain
that they inflicted upon them large number
of unmercilul threshings. Many of our city
and town elections take place in March, and
in almost every one of these the wings were
completely routed the most signal defeats
they suffered occurring i'll the very places
where they had for years been victorious, and
where, indeed, it had been considered impossi-
Bile to oppose them with any prospect of sue
cess: in Salem. in Cambridge and other places
where genuine, unadulterated whiggery, oil
the most thickheaded description, had pre-
vailed without molestation ever since the days
OF the witchcraft The wings stood aghast at
such evidences of their hour Of extinction be-
ing at hand. If Salem and Cambridge couldn't
be depended upon, what places could:
How far the Know-Nothing organization
| extended in March last, the Know Nothings
themselves alone know. The probability is
| that they were not at that time very numer-
| Gus out of the cities and large towns, but that
the remarkable success which had attended
all their labors, ENCOURAGED them to that per-
| severance and to those eXertions the end
whereof is victory. The Apect of the politi-
cal field was such as would have encouraged
far less intelligent men than those who are
evidently at the head Of this movement. The
democratic party, so far as effectiveness was
concerned, had been completely =" crushed
out" of existence by the hard labors to that
| end of those two notorious aSSassins, Gushing
and rockingham. Not even hope was left to
it. The freesoilers hati not then revived from
their depression, caused by the coalition defeat
of 1858, under the influence of the Nebraska
| bill, introduced into Congress for the purpose
| OF putting stop to agitation. The wing par
Il LII.
| policy of the present slp-slop state admins
tration. The political sea was covered with
drift-wood which the Know Nothings
thought mi ht as well be gathered in.
They went vigorously to work. and for some
months they have been engaged in pushing
their labors all over the state. There is not a
county and hardly town, save some of the
smallest, in which they have not regularly ad-
mitted members. l should say, i,idging from
such imperfect information as l have been able
to obtain, that they have almost three hundred
lodges in Massachusetts, some of which num-
Der their mem bcrs by thousands. Aftermak
ing all reasonable allowances for exaggerations,
L do not think that the reliable strength of the
| party can be put down at less than forty thou
sand voters Whether this number will be
| increased or even maintained, are points
about which it would be not very profitable
to speculate.
| The Know Nothing movement originated
in hostility to foreigners. II is the natural re-
| action consequent on the manner in which
our parties have treated foreigners, who have
| been appealed to, particularly the Irish Cath
| olics, BE- pretty much all our public men and
political organs, until they have come to con-
slider themselves power in the state, apart
from all things, and to display their insolence
which is always the result of the conscious
ness of strength on the part of the Ignorant.
| There has been growing interference in mol
itics by the Catholic priests, sometimes OH one
side and then on the other, until last fall when
their action was SO open and on so great q
scale that even those least disposed to be alarm
lists were compelled to admit that the matte,
had become decidedly serious and worthy o.
the gravest attention of all patriotic citizens
The rejection OF the new constitution and tho
defeat of the coalition consequent on thai
event. were the deliberately arranged work Of
the Catholics, who acted under the direction
of their priests, who had themselves beer
hired or otherwise induced by the leadlno
wings to array their obedient followers on thu
side of the very party which, throughout it,
history, had been distinguished for its settled
aversion to foreigners, and against the party
which had always advocated and supported :
liberal policy towards them. AT the time o.
the adjournment of the constitutional conyen.
ton there was not man in Massachuse+t,
who doubted OF the new constitution heinz
adopted The wings were in despair, ant
were not able to pluck up courage until tn,
very last days OF the contest, after the Boston
| whin LADDERS had made their har,,o,n ,,.;.l. Il