ness
and its secrecy were alike repugnant to their honest, brave
and liberty-loving souls. Sumner was advised, as the question
of his reelection was coming on in January, 1857, to keep
silent about Know Nothingism. He was told that the Slavery
question was enough for one man to deal with, and that if
he would only hold his peace all the parties would unite in
his reelection. He answered the advice with his brave challenge.
He went about the Commonwealth, denouncing the intolerant
and proscriptive doctrine of the Know Nothings. He told them:
"You have no real principle on which you can stand. You are
nothing but a party of Gardnerites."

Charles Allen addressed a little company, of which I was
one, in the City Hall at Worcester in the autumn of 1854,
when Know Nothingism was in the height of its strength. He
said:

"Perhaps I am speaking too boldly, but I learned to speak
boldly a long time ago. I will speak my sentiments in the
face of any organization; or, if it does not show its face,
though its secret mines are beneath my feet, and unseen hands
ready to apply the match, I will declare those sentiments
that a freeman is bound to utter."

The people of Massachusetts elected Gardner Governor in 1854,
1855 and 1856. But in the autumn of 1857 he was beaten under
the leadership of General Banks. The party lingered until
1856 when there was an attempt to keep it alive in the Presidential
campaign of that year when Millard Fillmore was its candidate
for the Presidency.

But it was destroyed in the consuming fire kindled by the
Civil War, and has not since been heard of by its old name.

The proscriptive and intolerant opposition to Catholicism,
especially against men of foreign birth, has shown its head
occasionally. It appeared in its most formidable shape in
a secret organization known as the A. P. A., of which I shall
speak later. It is utterly uncongenial to the spirit of true
Americanism, and will never have any considerable permanent
strength.

CHAPTER XII
ELECTION TO CONGRESS

In the year 1868 one chapter of my life ended and a very
different one began. In the beginning of that year I had
no doubt that what remained of my life would be devoted to
my profession, and to discharging as well as I could the
duties of good citizenship in the community to which I was
so strongly attached. But it was ordered otherwise. My
life in Worcester came to an end, and I shall if I live to
complete my pr