Know-nothings Quotes

This quotation, 500 years later, would be used by American anti-Catholics to justify their antipathy to the Catholic Church. This was about a most undemocratic statement about the common man and his capabilities which was completely counter to the American view. The fact that it was 500 years past or that many American Catholics did not believe it or that even if they did, it was restricted to matters of theological faith, was not considered by the Know-Nothings and others.

There was a private committee that was established to construct the Washington Monument. It’s cost was estimated at the huge sum of $1 million. Congress was willing to contribute the large amount of $200,000 but the rest had to be raised privately. The Committee invited all nations to contribute a block of stone to help build the monument. Pope Pius IX responded by sending an important, and historical block of marble which soon arrived in Washington, However, at the time, there was much anti Catholic prejudice in the United States. There was a very active third party populist movement and party—called the “Know Nothings” that, like the Tea Party of 2010, emerged rapidly and were quite influential politically. In particular the Know Nothings, self-professed great patriots, vowed that took no “Catholic Monument” would be part of the memorial to Washington, A group of them broke into the warehouse storing the marble block on October 20, 1853. The defaced the surfaces of the block and then dumped it in the Potomac River. Then they politically gained over of the Committee to see that such “anti-Americanism” would not corrupt Washington’s monument. The committee under the new leadership could not make any progress, and the monument, was not completed until 1884, long after the Know-Nothing Party was merely a historical footnote.

The brilliant inventor of the telegraph had a dark side. He was a virulent Catholic hater and a paranoid opponent of immigration. He was one of the leading political figures expressing these views and the author of several major publications including the one this quotation comes from.

The Nativists at first had a pathological fear of the government – not unlike the radical right of the late 20th century—and initially maintained a secret society culture (see “Know Nothings”). Later they had their own minor political parties like the American Party.

There are almost 200 different inscribed commemorative stones that were placed in the Washington monument at its original construction. These were sent from all over and were cemented into the inside and are still visible. However this particular stone roused the ire of the strong anti-Catholic element who violently opposed the concept that a Pope’s gift or anything from the Church would “blaspheme” the hallowed memory of George Washington. At the time, this Pope held temporal power in Italy as well as religious, and there was paranoid fear that with so many Catholics coming to America, they would want to turn over control of the American government to the Pope. A group of right wing Know Nothings broke into the warehouse and stole the Pope’s stone before it could be cemented into place. They then smashed it into pieces and spread the pieces in the Potomac River. The Know Nothings also managed to get control of the Washington Monument Society and then Congress cut off Federal Funds for the construction. When control had been wrested from the Know Nothings, the construction continued. However, the anti-Catholics had kept the Catholic stone out of the structure. In the1980s, the Papal gift stone was reproduced and placed in the Washington Monument with the other commemorative stones.

The “Know-Nothings” were populist extremists opposed to anything foreign and immigration and were religiously and racially bigoted—somewhat like the Tea Party of the early 21st century. The difference was that the Tea Party was not anti-Catholic and their bigotry was against foreigners and Blacks and Hispanics. However where the Know-Nothings were proud of their bigotry. Many Tea Party members were distressed by the racists in their ranks, However, they did little to stop bigots from having racist signs and slogans at rallies and did not purge the racists from their midst.