ng in of a lower class of labor he was elevated
to a higher place, but never driven out of work. The prejudice
of which I have spoken showed itself in some terrible Protestant
riots in New Orleans and in Baltimore, and in the burning
of the Catholic Convent at Charlestown.

There was also a strong feeling that the compact body of
Catholics, always voting for one political party was a danger
to the public security. Of course this feeling manifested
itself in the Whig Party, for whose adversary the solid Irish-
Catholic vote was cast. As early as 1844, after the defeat
of Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster made a suggestion--I do know where
it is recorded now, but I was informed of it on good authority
at about the time he made it--that there must be some public
combination with a view to resist the influence of our foreign
element in our politics.

But there was no political movement on any considerable scale
until 1854. In that year there was a very dangerous crusade
which came very near National success, and which got control
of several States.

In the fall of 1857 the Republican Party elected its first
Governor. The slavery question was still very prominent,
and the people were deeply stirred by the attempt to repeal
the Missouri Compromise. So in that year, under the leadership
of Nathaniel P. Banks, Gardner, the Know-Nothing Governor,
was defeated, and from that time the strength of Know-Nothingism
was at an end. I was elected to the Senate in the fall of
1856 as the Republican candidate from the county of Worcester
over the Know-Nothing and Democratic candidates.

It is a remarkable fact that of the men known to join the
Know-Nothing Party, no man, unless he were exceedingly young
and obscure when he did it, ever maintained or regained the
public confidence afterward, with the exception of Henry Wilson,
Anson Burlingame and Nathaniel P. Banks. These men all left
it after the first year. Wilson and Burlingame denounced
it with all the vigor at their command, and Banks led the
forces of the Republican Party to its overthrow.

I ought to say, however, of this movement and of the A. P.
A. movement, as it is called, of which I am now to speak,
that I do not think the leaders in general shared the bitter
and proscriptive feeling to which they appealed. The secret
organization, founded on religious prejudice, or on race prejudice,
is a good instrument to advance the political fortunes of
men who could not gain adva