I

"V

duction of religious issues into the field of political agitation and
by whom it was clone ?

Let us look a little further into their history and composition.
With these oaths, principles and secret machinery operating upon
bigotry and superstition, both too apt to be latent in the human
mind and breast, and easy to be excited to pernicious excesses,
especially if fanned by hopes of gain or advancement, many will-
ing brethren were found and many votaries were led up to the
secret recesses by the glimmering of the dark lantern; their
numbers and power continued to swell; scheming politicians now
began to calculate the chances of elevation by uniting with them.
These, at first timid and coy, only talked softly of the multitude
of citizens of foreign birth, and of bigotry and aggressive ten-
dencies in the Catholic Church, not doubting their existence
elsewhere, but rather whispering some doubt whether they had
taken deep root in America, but a doubt so faintly uttered as to
be taken as equivalent to an assertion that there was none; for a
diffusion and belief in this unjust and groundless charge was an
essential element of strength and success, and therefore never to
be questioned, except in a form which should confirm or strength-
en it. They (these political schemers) inclined to think, too, it
would not, or rather, might not be found, upon inquiry and ex-
amination, thereafter to be made, perfectly compatible with the
principles of American liberty, or the spirit, or, possibly, the letter
of the Constitution either of Maryland or of the United Slates,
to proscribe large classes on account of religious belief or place
of birth.

Other successes in local and general elections came. The
politicians' doubts vanished, and thousands, before wavering and
hesitating " 'twixt hope and fear," took the fearful plunge and
were soon professed Know Nothings, and more became cordial
sympathizers. The latter were necessary to full success, yet they
were troublesome, inasmuch as, looking to and expecting to fill
high offices, they found a remnant of something within them,
(which need not be named,) which, though it did not often trou-
ble them, still prevented them from perceiving how they could
well reconcile the incompatibility of taking the oath required
upon installation into office to support the Constitution, and be
at the same time bound by other oaths and doctrines which re-
quired them to violate it in some of its most material and essen-
tial parts. Something had to be done for these men of tender
consciences, and that something, when done, might relieve, or at
least mitigate the sufferings of brothers who had taken the degree,
but still were troubled with occasional qualms. A strong will,
we are told, can always find a way, and the scheme is said to
have been devised of usurping or borrowing from the Pope the

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