many misgivings about its moral and religious destiny. This arose almost entirely from the hostile feeling that prevailed extensively throughout the country at a certain period against the Roman Catholic religion. The crusade against the Church - for it practically amounted to that - attained its greatest power during the existence of the so-called Know-nothing party, between 1850 and 1860. This ephemeral organization, characteristic of the nervous energy of a rapidly developing country, was founded in 1852. It was at first a secret, oath-bound, political fraternity, whose object it was to exclude aliens from office. It was the first formidable expression of public alarm at the rapid influx of immigrants and the growth of Roman Catholicism in the United States. Opposition to the extension of slave power was another of its tenets. When it entered the political arena, it did so under the name of the American Party, and its motto was, "Americans must rule America." It was popularly known as the Know-nothing party, because, in its earlier history, its members, when questioned about the doings of their organization, answered " I don't know." In 1854 it carried several northern states, including New York, and in 1856 elected thirty-two "American" governors. In the latter year it ran a candidate for the presidency, but carried the electoral vote of only one state, Maryland. Thereafter its fortunes rapidly declined and by 1860 it had practically passed out of existence.
During the active history of this organization public feeling against the Roman Catholics ran high and in many cases amounted to outrageous persecution, wholly inconsistent with the principle of religious liberty which is fixed in the foundation of our government. It made a deep and lasting impression upon Father De Smet, as we now know from his personal letters to his friends in Europe. We might quote at great length from his expressions upon this subject, some of which disclose a degree of bitterness quite as extreme as the persecution at which