stances, expose the name of any member of this order, nor reveal the existence of such an organization. To all the foregoing you bind yourselves under the no less penalty than that of being expelled from this order, and of having your name posted and circulated throughout all the different councils of the United States as a perjurer and as a traitor to God and your country, as a being unfit to be employed and trusted, countenanced, or supported in any business transaction, as a person unworthy the confidence of all good men, and as one at whom the finger of scorn should ever be pointed. So help you God."

As each oath-taker said to this harangue, "I do," it is not surprising that, on being questioned by an outsider as to what this new association was, he always answered, "Oh, I know nothing about it." And it was from the continual reiteration of this assertion that the organization gained the nickname of the "Know-Nothing Party."

For a brief period the whole of the United States was aflame with this new thing in politics. It swept along like a prairie fire, and then disappeared in the sea of the anti-slavery agitation. But the leaders of the Know-Nothings knew what they were about. For the time it was successful. Know-Nothings gained the mastery in the Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire State elections by a judicious

combination of Anti-Catholicism, Abolitionism, Freesoilism, and the old Whig party. Mr. Gardner, who was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1855, disbanded several military companies of militia who were born in foreign lands. John Mitchel, the wellknown Irish revolutionist, who at this time, after his escape from Van Diemen's Land, was editing a paper called the Citizen, denounced the disbanding of Irish militia companies in strong language.

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"Since the Citizen was established," he says, seeing that the existence of separate Irish-German and Native-American companies could not be helped, we have earnestly impressed upon the Irish soldier that he bears arms solely for his adopted country, whose laws he is bound to obey, and whose flag and constitution he is to defend with his life. We have loudly condemned the anomaly and absurdity of what is called the Irish vote' (another mischief invented and used by American politicians), and exhorted our countrymen not to vote in masses or batches as Irishmen, nor suffer electioneering intriguers to make capital' of them by a few blarneying phrases. . . . But submit to no brand of inferiority, no shadow of disparagement at the hand of these natives. . . . We are happy to find that Colonel Butler, of Lowell, refuses to brook the outrage. He declines to transmit the order for disbandment, invites a court martial, and

appeals to the law. And the Shields Artillery of Boston have taken like action in the case. If, however, the final decision be against you and Colonel Butler, and if the military companies of foreign birth are actually disarmed and disbanded, then for every musket given into the State armoury, let three be purchased forthwith; let independent companies be formed there are no Arms Acts here yet; let every 'foreigner' be drilled and trained, and have his arms always ready. For you may be sure, having some experience in that matter, that those who begin by disarming you mean to do you a mischief. Be careful not to truckle in the smallest particular to American prejudices. Yield not a single jot of your own; for you have as good a right to your prejudices as they. Do not by any means suffer Gardner's Bible to be thrust down your throat. Do not abandon your post or renounce your functions, as citizens or as soldiers, but after the last and highest tribunal is open to you, keep the peace; attempt no 'demonstrations,' discourage drunkenness, and stand to your

arms."

Such were some of the civil, political, and religious troubles of the Irish during the period extending from the commencement of the naturalization question, down to the war of rebellion. They have left their marks to the present day. There is still considerable

jealousy of the Roman Catholic Church, and of the increasing political power of the Irish, though it is not expedient for American politicians to proclaim it from the housetops. Native-Americanism and KnowNothingism is now only a sub-mental feeling, but, like some of the subterranean rivers of America, it runs strong and deep.

CHAPTER V.

PRESENT POSITION OF THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

SINCE the final issue of the American war of Rebellion, the position of the Irish in America has in every way changed. They have been acknowledged as a power in politics, in religion, and society. They have not increased in popularity as a section of the American population, principally because they have always persisted, against their own interests, in keeping up their distinctiveness of race and religion in a manner antagonistic to the great mass of the American people. Their bands, their societies, their newspapers, and their foreign politics, all very well when unobtrusive, have from time immemorial been distasteful to the undemonstrative and more Puritanic or native American. But the Irish have grown great in numbers, and the shrewd Yankee caucus-man has long since appreciated the big battalions of the Irish at the ballot-boxes, and votes are facts in America often more potent than even dollars.

But the subject of the Irish in America when