The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-10-12
KnOw-Nothingism Revived.

huOW-NUtuluSISm hcNAtCu'
A few days ago the Associated Press sent
intelligence to every hamlet in the land that
ACKNOWLEDGMENT had been revived under
the name of "The American Reform party"
1t would be safe to wager a large sum that
the new venture in politics would no: receive
very hearty welcome. The country has
now presented to it the spectacle of so many
elderly gentlemen in both parties who are
trying to disprove their connection with the
original Native American organization, that
young and sagacfous politicians are not likely
t, repeat the mistake. Nominations for
Office for some years past have been only
preliminary to fierce charges of know-noth-
ing antecedents, which, being repealed with
still greater warmth, have been most fruitful,
of controversy. So it is no wonder that all
the papers look with great disfavor upon ''the
American Reform party" though it disclaims
the religious intolerance and the absolute
prescription of foreigners which made the
first American party intolerable. So con-
trary to the democratic spirit and to the ira
ditions of this Republic is anything which
seems to shut our doors to fugitives from
European despotism, that nothing can re-
ceive the populai approval which is not free
from all faint of exclusiveness. The new re-
formers will receive little sympathy, therefore,
though they declare that their only aim is to
see that all citizens recognize the fact that
paramount allegiance is due to the United
States rather than to any foreign power or
nhItrab Thau RI admit forpirparS
coming to this country when less than twenty
years of age to citizenship and its privileges,
and to tolerate all forms of religion; but they
mean to take good care, if we understand
them, that men who think themselves bound
to obey their spiritual advisers and the
Pope first and the civil authorities afterwards,
shall not be ''placed on guard" or elected to
Office They mean to make war on the assump-
ton of the Catholic church that it has the
power to annul the DEGREES of all rulers and
powers, and to give laws to its subjects sub
versive of the statutes imposed upon them
by temporal authority.
We believe that it is entirely unnecessary to
make use of prescription as a means of re-
sisting the usurpations of the Catholic church.
Our common school system with its wonder
full assimilative power which makes the sec
ond generation of Irishmen or Germans quite
undistinguishable from native Americans,
furnishes a sufficient safeguard against the
danger apprehended by the old ''Know-
Nothings'' or the new "Americans." 1t is
only when Catholicism has succeeded in gen
orally Withdrawing children of foreign parents
from the public schools, and thus putting
stop to the assimilating process now constant
ly going on, and preventing the formation of
homogeneous people out of the diverse ele-
ments that make up the great body of Amer
lean citizenship-it is only then that extraor-
binary measures will be necessary to tear the
hands of Rome from the throat of the Repub-
lie. So long as the mill is in motion into
which foreigners and Catholics are thrown
who presently reappear American Protestants
or Catholics having an intelligent apprecia-
ton of the advantages of a democracy over
the Pope's obsolete theocracy, there is little
danger that the latter potentate will gain a
dangerous ascendency in the government of
the United States.
Our first care as democratic republicans
should be, then, to encourage the common
schools. We have already provided the Cath
olics with the only weapons they possess, by
endowing Protestant sectarian schools with
money that ought to be used to support and
improve the public schools. It is no wonder
that Catholics who are taxed just as Protes-
tants are, should demand the bounty of the sew
eral States for their schools which is so freely
bestowed on Protestant institutions. 1t is 1o
wonder that where they have the power, as in
New York through the occasional ascendency
of the Democratic party, they carry out their
cherished plan of diverting their share, and
often much mole than their share, of the pub
lie money from the public schools and bestow-
ing it on institutions of their own which pu |
pills enter as foreigners and leave az anti-re- I
publican foreigners they enter Catho- |
lies and leave confirmed bigots with the infal |
libility of Rome as their leading tenet. We
ought never henceforth to endow with the |
States money any school which is under the |
control o religious denomination. Then |
we can justly and consistently resist the de-
mands of the Catholics for the maintenance
of separate schools. If Maine and all the
other States would adopt this wise policy
there would be little need of Know-Nothin
parties or dark-lantern coIclaves.