'National Platform of the Know Somethings' broadside   Save
Ohio History Connection Archives/Library
Description: This broadside outlines the National Platform of a political party calling itself the Know Somethings. Their platform emphasizes the importance of liberty, the threat of slavery to the Republic, and therefore the necessity that slavery not expand outside the current slave states. Their name is clearly a response to the Know-Nothings. Additional points of the platform support religious freedom, temperance, free schools and labor, and improvement of shipping infrastructure. The Know-Nothing Party, also known as the American Party, was a prominent United States political party during the late 1840s and the early 1850s whose members strongly opposed immigrants and followers of the Catholic Church. Critics of this party named it the Know-Nothing Party because its members would not reveal the party's doctrines to non-members. Know-Nothings were to respond to questions about their beliefs with, "I know nothing." Know-Nothings wielded some power in Ohio, and several cities, including Youngstown and Cleveland, had newspapers that touted Know-Nothing beliefs. Ohio's Know-Nothings formed an alliance in the early 1850s with the Fusionist Party, a precursor of the Republican Party, but as a result of the party's refusal to take a position on slavery, the Know-Nothing Party declined by the presidential election of 1860. The party did not run a candidate for president in this election, as many of its followers had joined the Republican Party. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: OVS4965
Subjects: Ohio History--Slavery, Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights; Political parties; Elections;
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)