The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-12-13
SOME "kNoW-NoTHINes"
Who Were Given the Grace to Enter
the Church.

Now that religious hatred is being
stirred anew in this country it may be
we'll for Catholics to recall the die
tum: Treat your enemy as if he
were one day to be your friend"
Many of those who now burn with
hatred for the Catholic Church, many
who fear her political influence, will
in all probability sooner or later re-
ceive the gift of faith and learn to
love as a tender mother the Church
they now fear and hate. st. Paul's
conversion was a miracle; but there
are miracles of grace bringing souls
into Gods church every day. We
would do we'll to remember that big
otry is frequently but the diverse
side of zeal for what man belives
to be the truth. Such was the bigotry
of Saul of Tarsus. Such is the
bigotry of thousands of sincere and
earnest souls who may one day be
rewarded for their sincerity and zeal
as Saul was rewarded. If this seems
unlikely, let us quote from a recent
writer who has given us some results
of a similar wave of bigotry which
swept through the country some six
ty years ago. Scannell O'Neill writes
as follows in the Fortnightly Review.
Not long since, in looking up the
history of the men prominently identi-
fed with the old Know-Nothing move
ment, the writer was amazed to find
that with but few exceptions, almost
all of them either themselves became
converts, or gave some one or other
members of their immediate house
holds to the Church.
For instance, take Louis G. Levins,
of Philadelphia, who is generally con-
ceded to have been the founder of the
Native American party, and one of the
first members of Congress elected by
that body-his wife and family event
ually found their way into the Church.
Levins' intimate friend and fellow
laborer in the movement, William R.
Smith, of Alabama, who helped to
shape the policy of the party and for
years represented it in Congress, not
only witnessed the reconciliation to
he himself, shortly before his death,
also received the greatest grace of
conversion.
Editor McClaugherty, of Vincennes,
Indiana, was still another prominent
member of the party to become a
Catholic.
Then there was Andrew Jackson
Donelson, nephew of President
Jackson, and Know-Nothing candidate
for the Vice-Presidency of the United
States with Willard Fillmore, who
was destined to see his daughter and
her children enter the Church to
which he was so violently opposed. 1t
is interesting in this connection to re-
call that child of this daughter MARY
Emily Donelson Wilcox) was the first
child born in the White House, of
which she was later the gracious mis-
tress during the administration of her
grandfather.
There were the convert daughters
of such leading Know-Nothings as
Horace Maynard, Postmaster-General
and Minister to Turkey, under Hayes;
of Emerson Etheridge member of
Congress from Tennessee; of Edwin
Cowles, the vitriolic anti-Catholic edi-
tor of the Cleveland leader; of Hum
phrey Marshall.
Finally, if one were to visit an aged
convert of st. Paul, Mimi, Mrs. Re
becca Newell Morrison, she would,
doubtless, tell him narrowing tale
of having witnessed, while an inmate
of New England convent, the at
tempted burning of that institution
by a mob of bowling Know-Nothings,
who in their misplaced zeal sought to
rescue" her from the control of the
nuns. We hope, at some future time,
to continue this list of converts.