Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-10-08
DEMOCRATS RESPONSIBLE FOR
KNOW-NOTHINGISM.

[John Brennan in a speech at Indianapolis.]
The slavery-holding States were the home OF
wrath OF Southern shareholders by spurn1ng
their offers of assistance and denounc1ng their
institution of slavery; and the cry OF Ireland
for the Irish," which was the war cry OF the re-
peal agitation, was paraphrased in the South by
the war whoop of America for the Americans.
Know Nothingsm was Democratic bolt which
seriously threatened to overthrow the regular
Democratic organization. majority OF the
Democratic leaders had sense enough to see thai
this phase Of fanatlGism could not succeed, ana
to provide for it's own perpetuation the Demo
cratic party of the period took sides against IL;
but it most found favor in the cities when
were then and now most powerfully Democratlc
Places like st. Louis and Louisville ran red with
Irish blood and the malice of the mob found
vent in heartless excuses and cruelties.
The Know No thing party was in the height or
its power in 1856 1t polled nearly half million
of votes 479,465) for Fillmore in the slave-hold-
ing States in 1856; At the same election John
@. Fremont, the Republican candidate, received
less than one thousand two hundred votes
Il 1914 in all Of the fifteen Slave-holding States
There was practically no Republican party IN
the South in 1866, and in 1861 the vast Know
Nothing army was absorbed bodily into the
ranks of the Democratic party or the party or
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 Known thlng 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 If he voted at
all he voted for these seven Know Nothing
WAS BLAINE KNOWNOTHING2
The slanderers might as well say that he as
sisted at the crucifxlon of our Savior. He was
an active Republican in 1855; supported Ere
mont In 1885, and fought for Lincoln in 1860.
The State of Maine never police quite 1000
Know Nothing votes, while the little State OF
Maryland gave Fillmore At 600. No. Blaine was
not Know Nothing. He is the son OF
Catholic mother. and he has declared in the
thousand Presidencies 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 I'M
friendly to the race or religion of an Irishman.
1 will go farther. The Republican party has
has been guilty of its sins, and l am not its
apologist, but / will defend it against the
foul charges Of which it has been unjustly &C
cused.
1 challenge the Democratic party press;
defy the party bosses; L appeal to the letter of
history, and defy any man to show me an act
upon any statute book enacted by Republicans
infringing upon the rights of any man on &C
count OF his race or religion. It's spirit and its
purposes have been utterly incompatible with
the objects of Know nOthingism.
If you want to find the flesh and bone and
spirit of intolerance which animated Know
nothingism in its palmy days, 1 commend you
shoot a man to death for an opinion, in Indian
apolis they seek to ruin his business for
Irish Know-nothings burn high-souled
lrishman in effigy for the atrocious crime of
rising above their prejudices, 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, / am informed an estt-
mable young Irishman 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,
who, on account of his religion. ran 10000 votes
behind his Democratic party ticket, or to SEN
the Irish race, who lost the Governorship Of
New York through Democratic detection on ac-
count of his religion?
And yet you indulge in the stale delusion that
the Democratic party is the guardian angel of
the Irishman 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 it in your hands to-day
to be powerful and respectable in American
politics, or to 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
tics? They are a self-respecting people who
change their politics to guard their interests,
while they at the same time vigorously insist
that the Ir1shman has no right to do the Same
thing. They taunt you at the first manifesto
tions Of awakening manhood. You take it in
abject submission and 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 I would be
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" am one Of you-bone of your
bone, flesh of your f1esh-every fiber of my body,
every pulse of my heart. | ask you to be men,
thinking men; no longer the slaves of unmanly
prejudices or miserable decisions. You have
Rugged this Known Nothing humbug for
quarter of a century. Give it decent burial.
Let the dead past bury it's dead.
Act, act in the living present,
Hearts within and God o'erhead.