The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-10-02
DEMOCRATS RESPONSIBLE FOR
KNOW.N0THINGISM.

John Brennan In a speech at Indianap0lis.J
The slavery holding States were the home OF
Know Nothingism. O'Connell had excited the
wrath OF Sout ern shareholders by spurning
their offers OF assistance and denopLcing their
institution OF slavery: and the cry OF Ireland
Tor the lrish," which the war cry of the re-
peal agitation, was paraphrased In the South by
the war whoop OF America for the Americans.
Know Nothingism was a Democratic bolt which
seriously threatened TO overthrow the regular
Democratic organization. A majority of the
Democratic leaders had sense enough to sc, that
this phase OF fanaticism could not succeed, and
to provide for its own perpetuation the Demo-
cratic party OF the period took sides against IL:
but 1t most found favor in the cities which
were then and now most powerfully Democratic
Places like st. Louis and Louisville ran red with
Irish blood, and the malice OF the mob found
vent In heartless excuses and cruelties.
Inc Know, Nothing rarity was IN the height Oh
of votes (47s,465) for Fillmore in the slave-hold-
ing States in 1856. At the same election John
Q. Fremont, the Republican candidate, received
less than one Thousand two hundred votes
u,l94 In all of the fifteen slave-holding States.
There was practically no Republican party in
the South in 1856. and in 1861 the vast Know
Nothing army absorbed bodily into the
ranks of the Democratic party or the PARTY OF
the rebellion, which In the South was one and
the same thing In 1860 the Democrats and
Know Nothings united in the State OF New
York, the Know-Nothing party receiving seven
electors and their share of the joint ticket.
Grover Cleveland was then Democrat, resid-
ing in the State of New York; and IL he voted at
all he voted for these seven Know Nothing
electors; and the chances are that he voted
WAS BLAINE A KNOW NOTHING?
The slanderers might as well saw that he AS
sisted at the crucihxion OF our Savior. He was
an active Republican in 1855; supported FIRE.
mont in 1856, and fought for Lincoln in 1860.
Know Nothing votes, while the little State of
not a Know Nothing. lie is the SON of a
Catholic mother, and he has declared in the
most emphatic terms that he would not for a
thousand Presdencies say one unfriendly word
against the religion of his mother. challenge
the Democratic press. defy the Democratic
bosses, TO produce single line or single word
that Blaine has ever spoken or written un-
friendly to the race or religion OF an Irishman.
1 will 20 farther The Republican party has
been In power for quarter OF century. IL
his been guilty OF its sins, and / am not its
apologist: but / will defend it against the
foul charges Of which it has been unjustly ac-
cused.
l challenge the Democratic party press; /
defy the party bosses; appeal to the letter of
history, and defy any man TO show me an act
upon any statute book enacted bv Republicans
infringing upon the rights of any man on ac-
count OF his race or religion. Its spirit and its
purposes have been utterly incompatible with
the objects of Know nothingism.
IL you want to find the flesh and bone and
spirit of intolerance which animated Know
nothingism in its lalmy days, i commend you
TO the Democratic party. In Mississippi they
apolis they seek TO ruin his business for
an opinion In the State OF Maine the
lrishman in efgy Tor the atrocous crime Of
rising above their preju tices, and the Demo
cratic State Convention OF Iowa Kisses the
name of Patrick Ford the fearless editor of the
irish World. You yourselves know well that
right here in Indianapolis your Irish candidates
on the Democratic ticket run behind their party
vote, Quite recently, l am informed, an esti-
mable young lrishman of this city was a candi-
date for City Clerk, and he ran more than five
hundred behind the party vote. Need / call
your attention to Mayor Grace, of New York,
hn on nn+ nt ia ra iOin "a vaf.a
behind his Democratic party ticket, or 10 sen-
ator Herman, one OF the most eminent men of
the Irish race, who lost the Governorship Of
New YORK through Democratic detection on ac-
count OF his religion
And yet you indu ge in the stale deusion that
the Democratic party is the guardian angel of
the lrishman in America. Open the eyes that
God has given you See the world promenading
past you. Seek knowledge for the purpose OF
being right. You have 1t in your hands to-day
to be powerful and respectable in American
politics, or 10 seek the graveyard and the gutter
and to Perish in them.
See your German fellow citizens. Do they
beg anybody's pardon for their opinions in poll
ticsI They n selt-respecting people who
change their politics to guard their interests,
while they at the same time vigorously insist
that the Irishman has no right to do the same
thing. They taunt You at the first mantle Ia
tions of awakening manhood You take it in
abject submission AMI crawl away like a youth
full spaniel freshly convicted of petty larceny
Shame on you'll Where is the courage of your
race?
Friends have warned me that / would he
stoned in Indianapolis for telling YOU the truth
/ said would face the music and abide the con-
sequences. The blood of the martyr is the seed
of the church." l am one Of you--bone of your
bone, flesh of your fiesh-every fber OF my body,
every pulse of my heart. | ask you TO be men,
thinking men: no longer the slaves of unmany
prejudces miserable delusions. You have
Rugged this Know Nothing humbug for a
quarter Of a century. Give 10 a decent burial.
Let the dead past bury its dead.
Act, act in the living present,
Hearts within and God o'erhead