The "I Know Something about 'The Know Nothings'" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Catchy title in my morning newspaper's "The Scribbler" column which read "Know anything about the county's 'Know Nothings'?" Seems that the Scribbler knew nothing.  But, fortunately, other people knew something!  The Know Nothings created a flash-in-the-pan political movement in the mid-1850s.  The party was, first and foremost, nativistic.  Primarily, its members believed that America should be for "Americans only" - which would exclude all foreigners, especially German and Italian immigrants.  The name of the party officially was the "American Party", but it was a secretive group, like the Masons, and when outsiders asked members about the party's purpose, they answered, "I know nothing."  Well, Lancaster county's own U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens briefly was a "Know Nothing" in transition from Whig to Republican.  Another Lancaster County native, Simon Cameron, led in early lobbying, but didn't receive the "Know Nothing" nomination for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania in 1855.  Seems the peak season (notice that's singular and not plural) for the "Know Nothings" political party was from 1854 to early 1855 when the party candidates performed well in municipal elections in Philadelphia, Lancaster and other cities in Pennsylvania and some other states.  Mr. Christian Kieffer, who had been elected mayor of Lancaster as a Whig in 1851, joined a "Know Nothing" lodge, but was expelled from membership in 1854.  "Why" I don't know, but the "Know Nothings" withdrew their support from Kieffer and helped elect Jacob Albright as a "Know Nothing" mayor in 1855.  By 1856 the party had declined, and following James Buchanan's election to the presidency as a Democrat in 1856, most "Know Nothings" joined the emergent Republican Party.  The never-say-die contingent held a state convention in Lancaster in 1857, but all candidates faltered and the never-say-die's died.  Mr. Jeremiah Black, Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court during this time, said of the "Know Nothings":  "They're like the bee, biggest when it's born; it will perish as quickly as it rose to power."  By 1858, the America-first party had finally died.  My information for today's story came from "The Scribbler" column in my morning newspaper as well as from local newspaper stories and articles written by Warren Hewitt from Pennsylvania History magazine in 1935 and Mark Dash for The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in 2003.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - I must add that I do usually "Know Something."