The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-08-01
W KLUX KLAN IS NOT FIRST ORGANIZATION
FOSTERING RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS HATRED,
FALSE BASIC PRINCIPLE UNDERMINES Them

The Ku Klux Khan excludes from
its communion, not only the negro and ;
the Jew but two other important
classes of our population-the foreign
born and the Catholic. and apparently
seeks to debar these from equal
political rights.
1t is not the first society which has
drawn this line. Hostility to foreign
ers and to Catholics dates back to
colonial days and the Pedestrians were
apparently much more intolerant than
were the Catholics themselves.
For while the Puritans in New Eng
land were boring the tongues of Quak-
ers with red hot irons, while they
wero flogging Baptists and Quakers
at the cart tail and even inflicting the
death penalty upon heretics; while
the adherents of the Church of Eng
land IN Virginia were depriying both
Catholics and Dissenters of all civil
rights, it was the Catholic colony of
Maryland which established its gov
eminent upon the basis OF complete
religious liberation.
Many Go to Colony
Protestants as well as Catholics i'm
migrated to that colony to enjoy the
BLESSINGS of full religious liberty. So,
when we criticise, however justly,
Roman Catholic intolerance in other
countries and at other times, we ought
mot to forget that here in America
they took the first great step, a step
which up to that time was unknown
in the world, in establishing govern
ment founded upon complete religious
liberty.
After the Revolution, much of our
intolerance faded away. Yet as early
as 1907, an American" ticket was put
in the field in New York city This
was the first attempt to form a native
born American organization. The
ticket was defeated. In 1885 another
organization was formed which re-
ceived the name of the American
Democratic Association" 1t opposed
the Catholic church and all office-hold-
ing by the foreign born. The Wings
joined this organization but after
wards absorbed it and ruined it for
the time as native American move
ment
Other Organizations
In 1874, there was organized in New
York the American Republican Par
ty" which nominated candidates for
mayor and city council Similar or
CARNATIONS were formed in Boston,
Philadelphia, and St Louis and car
ried the elections. In the following
year an organization was formed called
the Native American Party" but each
year it declined in numbers and soon
passed out of existence.
Some years later there was organ
lied THE Order of the Star Spangled
Banner commonly called Know
Nothings" which established a system
of national, state and local councils
and in 1855, every state and territory
in the Union had been organized. On
June Ia, 1854, a general convention
met in New York and protested among
other things, against the evils of for
eign immigration as well as against
Romanism, which they looked upon as
a great conspiracy to ensnare Protest
ant America A ritual was adopted at
this meeting. To become member, a
person must be Protestant, born of
Protestant parents in the United
States, reared under Protestant influ-
ence and not married to a Catholic.
1t sought to conceal the personnel of
its membership and to keep absolute
ly all knowledge of the order from the
outside world To avoid questioning
, they protested ignorance of all matters
pertaining to the society, for which
reason they were dubbed Know Moth
ings."
First Indiana Lodge.
The first lodge in Indiana was or
ganiZed in February, 1854 at Lawrence
burg and the order spread rapidly
through the towns along the Ohio anC
later through the central and northern
part of the state. The Rushvillt
Jacksonian says, at is a rehash of ma
tive Americanism, gotten UP on such
a scale that Wing politicians can fol
low their instinct by joining withou
being exposed"
The Logansport Democratic Pharo:
says, Like an ill-omened bird of night
this society, afraid to meet the ligh
of day and honestly avow its purpose
holds it's gatherings in secret"
In July, 1854, it claimed member
ship of $4,000 in Indiana The oil
Burnt District (our OWN soon Lecam
a Know Nothing stronghold. The OF
der formed a fusion with the People
Party which held a convention at Ind
annapolis in 1854. Probably three
fourths of the delegates were Know
Nothings and fusion candidates wer
secretly nominated by the Know Moth
ing county councils On July IL,
state constitution was adopted. Georg
w. Julian said of the fusion CONVEX
ton: THE ticket nominated had beel
agreed upon by the Know Nothing
the day before in secret conclave a
the outside world afterwards learned.
The secrecy of the movement threy
1t open to many charges. 1t was cor
sidered cowardly and un-America
and preventive of the free expression
of the people at the ballot box.
Opposed by Morton
Oliver P. Morton was repealed b
its secret measures, its opposition t
the Catholic church and its desire t
SA1EHOUR STOMACH