Volume 18 , Issue 39

Know-Nothingism in America

In a speech of ex-governor Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, against the organization of the "Know-Nothings," at Columbia, 23 August 1855, as it appeared in the Semi-Weekly Standard, Raleigh, North Carolina, 19 September 1855, Wednesday, page 2, Brown was quoted as saying the following:

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"As these attacks have been continued upon me after the election, I have no alternative left but to continue my defense against them. They do not annoy me, as my assailants vainly expect them to do, but they furnish me with opportunities, which I desire to have, to exhibit to my countrymen some new and horrid features of Know-Nothingish, more revolting than any which they have ever yet contemplated - so revolting that, when seen, they must and will overwhelm the present organization of this party with universal execration."

"If I could but arrest the attention of the religious community to this great point in our subject, and prevail on them to abandon Know-Nothingsim, until Know-Nothingsm abandons its wicked and unlawful organization, I would willingly consent to bear all the slanders and abuse which bad men could heap upon me!"

"You are commanded by your Heavenly Master to go forth into the world shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; but Know-Nothingism commands you to go forth with the preparation of the bowie-knife and the revolver; but Know-Nothingism arms you with different weapons than these - with the sword of persecution and death! In his own emphatic language, "he that liveth by the sword shall die by the sword." - your usefulness in the ministry will die - your congregation will fall off and desert your churches; and thus the cause of religion will be made to reel and stagger, for the time, under blows received from hands announced to uphold and sustain it."

Brown also stated: "Let me propound yet another question to all men, whether in the church or out of it - when this party, being secret and oath-bound, shall be once firmly established, must not, and will not, all other parties follow the fatal example? When that is done, what will our country become, but one vast camp of secretly armed people, ready to rush to combat on the dropping of a red piece of paper, or the shrill outcry of a preconcerted signal? Then, indeed, that song, which now only serves to adorn the legends of a lawless age in its bloody variations, may become our national anthem, sung by conflicting bands as they rush into battle."
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