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Do not deface books by marks and writine. Cornell University Library HS2330.A6 D46 The A.P.A. ""ftYSKmillllllllllllllllllllllllllll 3 1924 030 283 562 Clin Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030283562 The A. P. A. Movement. A Sketch By Humphrey J. Desmond. Author of "A History of the Know- Nothing Party." Washington : The New Century Press. 1912. K-ri\<=>H3. OOPYEIGHT, 1912, BX H. J. DESMOND. PREFACE. T N the early days of the A. P. A., -^ it was frequently remarked that the newspapers showed a peculiar re- luctance to mentioning the movement, even when it was already becoming the burden of conversation in con- ventions, commercial organizations, and social circles. There was a disposition to allow it all the privacy it desired, not through sympathy with its secrecy, but through dislike of its disturbing influence. After it went in- to decline, this disposition was again apparent. The public preferred to for- get it, having no pride in its occur- rence. To some extent, this is the spir- it also of the American historian. The Know-Nothing movement has a notice in such histories as those of Rhodes, all too brief, considering the stir it made at the time. Woodrow Wilson's five volume History of the American People (published in 1902), makes no mention whatever of the A. P. A. Still, these movements, though not subjects of national pride, have, in their narration, instructive lessons. 3 And, of course, they cannot profitably be ignored. The present sketch is of- fered upon that consideration. Written several years ago, for a pe^ riodical, it has since been somewhat revised. The first proofs sheets were sent to the founder and president of the A. P. A., with a request that any inaccuracies be pointed out. Mr. Bow- ers' reply is subjoined: Clinton, la.. May 16, 1902. Hon. H. J. Desmond, Dear Sir: After a close scrutiny of the manu- script submitted to my inspection, and to report upon the correctness of the "facts," as quoted by you in the his- tory of the A. P. A., you may be cor- rect in your conclusions as to the facts as stated, from your standpoint, but as I have heretofore stated, I am not in a position to give your facts as set out a positive sanction, for the reason I have not the Records at hand to conviuce me to the extent of a cer- tainty — therefore can but say you make a very good case, nicely and smoothly portrayed. With kind regards, I am Tours, etc., H. r. BOWEKS. 4 CONTENTS. 1. Under-ground Work, 7 2. Panic-driven, 18 3. Why the Crowd Came, - 27 4. Secret Purposes and Open Professions, 35 5. Personnel, 45 6. Incidents of the Movement, 52 7. Climax and Anti-climax, - - 63 8. Mixed in Presidential Pol- itics, 75 9. 1896 and After, 87 10. No Results in Legislation, 94 The A. P. A. Movement. UNDERGROUND WORK. /^N the night of March 13, 1887, ^-^ there was formed at Clinton, in the state of Iowa, the first council of what was afterwards widely known (by its initials), as the A. P. A.* The founder of the American Pro- tective Association was Henry F. Bow- ers, a lawyer of Clinton, a Marylander by birth, a man then about sixty years of age, who doubtless remembered the American party, which had flourishel when he was still a young man. Societies of this character, held to-i gether by a common anti-Catholic feel-\ ing, and organized for some more or •Richard Wheatley, D.D., In Harper'* Weekly, Oct. 27, 1894. 7 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. less temporary purpose of town or city politics, have come and gone as dj- tached and purely local occurrences in all parts of the country, since 1870. It is probable that the first members of council number one of the A. P. A. at Clinton, never expected that their ven- ture would get beyond the borders of their native state. Apparently, there were no special reasons why an anti- Catholic feeling should become epidem- ic in the last decade of the nineteenth century in the American republic. It is not easy to understand why the Clin- ton society did not share the fate of so many similar societies, which, after winning some local political ob ject, or losing the election, vanished wholly in the shadows from which thev first emerged. The Clinton A. P. A., however, slow- ly propagated itself — eastward and westward, throiigh the north Mississip- pi valley. W. H. J. Traynor, after- wards elected supreme president of the A. P. A., tells us that the mem- bership during the first years (up to 1893), never exceeded 70,000. Early in the year 1893, however, it had entered twenty states, and then public atten- 8 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tion, and especially the attention of the Catholic population, was thoroughly aroused to the existence of what was termed "the new-Kjjpw-Nothingism." The most interesting" aspeet of the movement, the course and methods of its early growth, the conditions and provocations, if any, which gave it such a widespread and numerous following, are precisely the aspects which are most hidden and m.ost difScult to de- termine. We have these as constant factors in the anti-Catholic situation: (1) The hereditary Protestant an- tagonism and suspicion of the Catholic Church and Catholic citizenship — fed systematically, if by the less intellec- ual, yet by the more vigorous Protestant pulpit; and re-inforced by certain ele- ments of immigration, more particu- larly the Scandinavian and the so- called Anglo-Canadians. The early day (1844-56) Know-No th- ingism was due to jealousy of the growing political strength of the Cath- olic immigrant. Later day Know- Nothingism (A. P. Aism) in the westj ^tis perhaps due as well to envy of the growing social and industrial strength 9 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. \ of Catholic Americans. ' In the second generation American Catholics began to attain higher indus- trial positions and better occupations. All through the west, they were tak- ing their place in the professional and business world. They were among the doctors and the lawyers, the editors and the teachers of the community. Sometimes they were the leading mer- chants as well as the leading politicians of their locality. They ofGlcered the trade unions equally with those of oth- er creeds; and in all the great corpora- tions, — railway and manufacturing— they were found working forward with the rest of their fellow-citizens and with not the slightest sense of inferior- ity. Envious sectarians, often new-com- ers or foreigners, believing themselves more to the manner bom, coveted what the Catholics possessed; and would conspire to relegate them to the posi- tion of hewers of wood and drawers of water, their proper place, forsooth, ' ' in this Protestant land." I (2) The prejudice, frequently en- /gendered by the conduct of Irish- Amer- / ican politicians, who evince the usual 10 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. greed of cliques and rings; and the odi- um of whose record is justly, or un- justly, laid at the door of their co-re- ligionists. (3) The Catholic attitude on the school question, as understood and misunderstood — more especially the project of a division of school funds and appropriations from the public treasury to Catholic charitable institu- tions. (4) The occasional Catholic society parade, or demonstration — including hehneted Polish and German knights, bearing drawn swords; harmless imi- tations, in their accoutrements, of the Templars and Pythians, but calculated to alarm bigotry rather than to im- press public opinion by their "show oi strength." We speak of these as constant factors in the anti-Catholic situation. They existed in 1885, and they exist now • — before the epoch of A. P. Aism and after it. We are to seek the special causes which, in 1892-4, gave the anti- Catholic feeling its sweep as a tangi ble and organized force. And these incidental circumstances may be mentioned, all or some of which, 11 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. may have had a bearing: [ (1) In the year 1892, there was a I marked loosening of party ties through- out the United States, evidenced by the presidential election in November, which proved the most signal de- feat that the Eepublican party hai ever experienced; and the significance of this defeat was political unrest, rath- er than a growing popular adhesion to Democratic principles. The subsequent utter imbecility of the Democratic congress in 1893-4, in its tarifF and financial legislation, illustrated this. (2) Added to this political unrest, came the industrial unrest, caused by the hard times which began in the sum- mer of 1893. (3) There were occurrences in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States during the same years which helped the alarm of bigotry. The special Catholic celebrations through- out the country (in October, 1892) of the Columbus anniversary, including huge parades of school children and Catho- lic societies; the coming, in the same year, of Msgr. SatoUi, the Papal dele- gate; and the prominence of parochial school questions in the public press, — 12 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. the Faribault system in Minnesota, th" Edwards law in Illinois and the Ben- nett law in Wisconsin, rrom Boston "a committee of one hundred" flooded the press and the legislatures from I880 to 1892 with "anti-Romanist" docu- ments. Subjoined is a letter from the found- er of the A. P. A., Henry F. Bowers, which bears upon this subject : Supreme Coufcjil, American Protective Association. Clinton, March 1, 1899. Hon. H. J. Desmond, Dear Sir:— Yours of Feb. 27th, duly received this morning and carefully read by me. You do me great honor, sir, to submit the questions that seem so simple, yet so profound. The first question, "In what terri- tory did the A. P. A. establish its or- ganization during the years 1887-88?" Answer: Iowa, Illinois and Nebras- ka. Q. 2 : Were there any local causes, such as the Bennett law agitation in Wisconsin, or the school agitation in Boston, which promoted its growth? A. : The Bennett law, as I under- 13 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. stand it, was subsequent to 1888, and I am not positive as to the date of its passage, but remiember the Bennett law agitation in Wisconsin at about the time of the organization in that state. I don't think, however, that the Bennett law had anything to do with the matter. The agitation in Boston did not affect us very much. It sealed what we had more firmly, and was simply an illustration of the facts that we had proclaimed. O. 3 : Was there any connection, in your opinion, with its growth and the Faribault school question in which Archbishop Ireland was interested? A. : I wish to state that I know that the Faribault school agitation, in which Ireland was so active, had a great deal to do with the building up of the order during that fight, from the fact that it was only giving to the public the evidence of the correctness of our declaration so far as the pub- lic schools were concerned, and the declarations of Bishop Hennessy as to the public schools of the country and American institutions generally. That stirred up the elements in this state 14 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. and Nebraska particularly, by reason of the fight between the priests and Bishop Bonacum, of Nebraska, in ■which Archbishop Hennessy, then bish- op, took active part with Bishop Bona.- cum, and also in which Archbishop Ire- land gave assistance against the priests of Nebraska, with whom we were greatly in sympathy. Q. 4: In your opinion, did the com- ing of Msgr. Satolli to this country af- fect its growth? A. : Very materially sir, very ma- terially, to that extent that in 1896 the secretary reports in the neighbor- hood of 2,000,000 and something over 500,000. We looked upon Satolli as a representative of the Propaganda at Rome to direct and influence legisla^- tion in this country, more especially his settling down in the city of Wash- ington, and several moves which were made, which I cannot just now call to mind, which gave rise to an opinion at least that he was interfering with the public institutions of this country. Q. 5 : Was its growth promoted by any strikes or clash between the em- ployees of railway companies on relig- 15 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. ious question? A. : No sir, the growth was not pro- moted by any strikes or clash between the railway employees, nor was there any visible difference of religious opin- ions discussed between the employees, as they worked in harmony until Arch- bishop Ireland and a committee visited certain railroad boards of directors of Chicago and demanded the discharge of Protestants, and that Roman Cath- olics be substituted. I have no person- al knowledge of this further than the reports coming to me, and also through the press at the time, I think. Q. 6: Can you state approximately to what extent it had grown in the years 1899-90-91? A.: I cannot, because the records containing the facts were destroyed by lire. I believe this answers the questions so far as I can at present. If there is anything that I can do and that is con- sistent, I will be glad to answer fur- ther. With kindest regards, I am. Tours, etc., H. F. Bowers. 16 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Two other special factors are, how- ever, deserving of more extended notice as helping us to better understand why the A. P. A. spread and why thousands of men crowded into its councils. 17 11. PANIC-DRIVEN. WRITING in The Century Maga- zine for March, 1894, Rev. Washington Gladden, tells us that the A. P. A. movement began operations in each locality, where it spread, by "the furtive distribution" of certain documents calculated to engender fear and distrust of the Catholics. Of these documents there were two — • one purporting to be "instructions to Catholics", apparently bearing the sig- natures of eight prelates of the Catholic church; and the other, the famous Pa- pal bull or encyclical calling for the massacre of the Protestants "on or about the feast of St. Ignatius in the year of our Lord, 1893." 18 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. The "instructions to Catholics" ex- pressed alarm at the rapid growth of intelliirenee and educntion, and includ- ed an alleged compend of the canon law of the Catholic church, with the usual advice against "keeping faith with heretics." Perhaps half of the A. P. A. membership in 1893, believed the docu- ment genuine. Those who knew it to be a forgery defended it on the ground that if it was not edited by the Catho- lic hierarchy, it nevertheless, came close to being actual Catholic teachings. The famous Papal encyclical was first published in The Patriotic American, a Detroit weekly organ of the A. P. A. on April 8, 1893. One paragraph from this spurious document, to which the name of Leo XIII. was appended, ran as follows: "We likewise declare that all sub- jects of every rank and condition in the United States, and every individual who has taken any oath of loyalty to the United States in any way whatever, may be absolved from said oath, as from all other duty, fidelity, or obedience on or about the fifth of September, 1893, when the Catholic congress shall eon- 19 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. vene at Chicago, Illinois, as we shall exonerate them from all engagements, and on or about the feast of Ignatius Loyola, in the year of our Lord 1893, it will be the duty of the faithful to ex- terminate all heretics found within the jurisdiction of the United States of America." Every A. P. A. paper in the country published this bull as a genuine docu- ment and it was even inserted at ad- vertising rates in some of the daily pa- pers. Here also the authors of the fab- rication seem to have understood the extent of the credulity that they could count upon among certain elements of the people. Elbert Hubbard, afterwards of the Eoycroft fraternity, published an article in The Arena of June 1894, in which he says : "A year ago I was visiting an old friend in Illinois, and very naturally the talk was of the great Fair. Was he going ? Not he — ^he dared not leave his house a single day ; did I not know that the Catholics had been ordered by the Pope to burn the bams and houses of all heretics? It sounded like a joke, but I saw the gray eyes of this old man flash and I knew he was terribly in eam- 20 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. est. With tremblinff hands he showed me the Pope's encyclical, printed in a newspaper which had a deep border of awful black. * * * j -^^as taken to the two clergymen in the village, a Presbyterian and a Methodist; both were full of fear and hate toward the Catholics, with a little left over for each other. They were siare that the order to kill and burn had gone forth. "And so in many towns and villages as I journeyed I found this quaking fear. In many places men were arming them- selves with Winchester rifles; many preachers never spoke in public without fanning the flames.* * *" The Protestant ministers of Colum- bus, Ohio, were moved to issiie a public statement intended to quiet the alarm. They said: "The undersigned have learned through various sources, of a state of anxiety, amounting almost to a panic, in many of the communities of this region, over an apprehended uprising of the Roman Catholics to ravage the land. The following extracts from a letter written by a reputable physician living near the center of Ohio, will give some idea of the state of feeling exist- 21 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. ing in many places : " 'We have been and are still, having an excitement in our usually quiet town, in regard to the Catholic ques- tion. There is not a Catholic in the entire township; but a large number of our people are intensely stirred up, some almost prostrated with fear, afraid that the Catholics are about making a wholesale attack upon Protestants, kill- ing and plundering and destroying our schools and churches. Of course it ob- tains the strongest foothold among the ignorant and unthinking, yet it seems to cause great uneasiness and fear among many of the more intelligent. Copies of the Columbus Record have been distributed here, with its alleged letter of Pope Leo, of 1891, and with the other statements, with which, of course, you are acquainted. ... In what way can this feeling be allayed? Will you kindly aid me? Is not this alleged letter of Pope Leo's which is continually paraded in The Columbus Eecord, a bare-faced forgery? Is it true that every teacher in the Columbus schools was a Catholic, a year ago, until the A. P. A. took it in hand? In your opinion are the Catholics arming and 22 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. contemplating a war with Protest- tants?' ' ' Thus appealed to, we should be false to every impulse of justice and manli- ness if we did not promptly and une- quivocally respond. We are not in sym- pathy with Roman Catholicism, as a system. Doctrinally and ecclesiastical- ly, we are Protestants in our deepest convictions; it is because we are Prot- estants that we are ashamed and humil- iated by the kind of warfare described in this letter. In reply to its question, and to many similar inquiries, we wish therefore explicitly to say: "1. The alleged letter to the Pope, to which reference is made, which calls up- on the faithful to rise and exterminate the Protestants, and which has been kept standing in many newspapers, and scattered broadcast through the com- munity by means of leaflets and hand- bills, is a forgery. "2. The document entitled 'Instruc- tions to Catholics,' also widely publish- ed and disseminated, is another stupid forgery, etc., etc.'' The feast of Ignatius Loyola occur- red on the 31st day of July, 1893. Evi- 23 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. dent]y the faithful either neglected their duty or else they were unable to find any heretics "within the jurisdic- tion of the United States." But the scare did not end with the passing of the date set for the massacre. The Catholics "were still biding their time, waiting to find their Protestant neighbors off guard." After the Papal bull served its purpose as a document to inspire fear, it again came into the record as an evidence of Jesuit trick- ery. The American Citizen of Boston^ one of the strongest of the A. P. A. weeklies, said early in 1894 : "A favorite scheme of the Jesuit, is to cry 'wolf when there is no wolf, until the Protestants really be- lieve there never will be a wolf; and then, when off their guard, the wolf coines. This is being illustrated in ths matter of the bogus encyclical which was circulated by tens of thousands last year — the encyclical apparently signed by the Pope, calling for the massacre of Protestants, etc. The Citizen never admitted the thing to its columns — ■ knowing it to be a fraud, and declaring our belief that it was written by the Jesuits to bring discredit on the A. P. 24 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. A. movement. . . . "But many good people took stock in this bogus document; among them, we are sorry to say, nearly every A. P. A. editor in this country. . . . "What was the result? — Thousands of unwise people really thought thd Romanists would rise and massacre them the first of last September — as if the eight million Eomanists in this country had the physical or moral cour- age to face the combined Protestants of the nation!" Nevertheless, this fabricated bull was really responsible for a large sharj of the spread of A. P. Aism. Thou- sands of credulous people undoubtedly went into the ranks of the secret anti- Catholic society for protection against the menace of Rome's sanguinary on- slaught. During 1894, many amusing incidents of the scare came out in the papers. At Toledo, for instance, there was a verdict for $4,138 in favor of A. J. Rummel, a large dealer in fire arms, against one George H. Ostrander, as a result of a trial in one of the civil courts. The suit was for Winchester repeating rifles sold to Ostrander for 25 the use of members of Council No. 2 of the American Protective Association. The order was strong in Toledo; it claimed 7,000 voters on its rolls in that city. There were a number of witnesses examined, and the drift of the testi- mony was that just prior to Labor diy September 1893, there was a belief cur- rent among members of the order that on that date there would be an uprising of Catholics to murder Protestants. The arms were purchased and delivered to the A. P. A. council, but not paid for at the time. The daily press of the country also related the story that May- or Major of Toledo, had detachmf^nts of the Ohio National Guard on duty oontinuoTisly for a week, about Septem- ber 5, 1893, when the uprising of Cath- olics was expected. "During night and day for seven d'aya Ohio soldiers, fully uniformed and arm- ed, stood in readiness at the Tole! > armory for any outbreak that might oc- cur. On Labor Day, portions of he three companies of militia, one com- pany of cadets and one of artillerv, which constitutes this city's military force, joined in the labor parade. But detachments from all five remained at the armory, gtiarding the ammunition and Gatling guns." 26 ni. WHY THE CROWD CAME. I T was its temporary usefulness as a means of local offlee-getting and political power, that in reality, swell- ed tlie ranks of the A. P. A., and led, after the middle of th« year 1893, to its rapid growth. The old Know-Nothing movement be- gan by throwing its strength to a set of candidates selected in secret con- clave from names on the Democratic and Whig tickets. From this it pro- ceeded to nominate candidates of its own. The A. P. A. took the more di- rect method of capturing the machin- ery of one of the existing parties. It went into the caucusses of that party and dictated the nominations by 27 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. strength of numbers. Strongly as the political tide had set with the Democratic party in the latter part of 1892, it set even more strongly against it in the years 1893, '94 and '95. Hard times had come upon the country in the summer of 1893, and popular resentment seemed to hold tha Democratic administration responsi- ble. A nomination on the Republican ticket was in dozens of former doubt- ful, or Democratic localities, as good as an election. Ward and city politi- cians, understanding the usefulness of the A. P. A. council in carrying the caucusses, were inclined to pack the A. P. A. council first as a means of af- terwards sweeping the primary, or cau- cus. The bigger local politicians wera soon interested in the game of the small fry. In the scramble for local offices, American politics has never been remarkable for decency or principle. The end usually justifies the means The motto of the combatants is "any- -: thing to win." Doubtless, hundreds of i new members joined the A. P. A. from I October, 1893, to November, 1894, who ! cared little for its anti-Catholic pro- { gram. They were after the loaves and 28 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. fishes of city and county office, and the 1 control or possession of the local par- ' ty machinery. In the local elections of 1892 and 1893, Toledo, O., Keokuk, la., Peoria, 111., Saginaw, Mich., and South Omaha, Neb., theretofore Democratic towns, changed their politics, and as a result of A. P. A. machinations became strongholds of the new movement; al- though, nominally, the elections were Republican victories. This set thj pace in other localities. Under the caption, "The New Repub- lican Ally," The New York Sun of Sunday, Oct. 15, 1893, said, editorial- ly: "Our esteemed contemporary, The Sentinel of Indianapolis, Ind., a Dem- ocratic journal, gives without reluc- tance and with courage and concise- ness, the true cause of the recent defeat of the Democrats in the Hoosier capi- tal, which went for Mr. Cleveland in November by 467 majority: " 'It is useless to attempt to disguise the fact that the A. P. A. is strong in this city, and that its work was effec- tive. There are not many Democrats in it, but comparatively few make a 29 TEtl A. P. A. MOVEMENT. grave difference in close party fights The organization has claimed 9,000 votes in the city. We do not believe it has any such number, but if it has drawn 300 Democrats into its embrace, the change would be sufficient to wipe out our fair party majority. Unques- tionably, the Democratic party in In- dianapolis and in Indiana has this en- emy to meet, and it may as well pre- pare for the struggle.' " "Since its establishment," continues The Sun, "this organization, three- fourths of the members of which are Republicans, has exercised a remark- able influence in Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. In the municipal elections of this spring in Michigan and Illinois, the candidates covertly en- dorsed and secretly supported by the A. P. A., triumphed unexpectedly in many cities heretofore stanchly Democratic." The writer of this article, (the late Charles A. Dana no doubt,) concludes by making a prediction, which was ver- ified: "It would not be surprising if ou' Republican friends, whose meagre tri- umphs in recent western elections are, in almost every instance, directly at- 30 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tributable to the support of their new found ally, should with many demon- strations of repugnance disavow A. P. A. support of their candidates herea- bouts. It may be so. But unless all present indications are at fault, thi.i organization will be heard from in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Penn- sylvania contests of this year, and, il may be, that New Tork, too, will fig- ure in the A. P. A. column. We shall see!" The truer estimate of the situation, however, was, not that the Republican party succeeded by the aid of the A. P. A. ( — That was merely a Democratic taunt) ; but that the A. P. A. came in- to office and power and notoriety by manipulating Republican caucusses at a time when the tide of politics had set strongly in favor of the Republican party. A writer in The Century Magazine (May, 1896), recognized this truth: "The political success of this con- spiracy is due, of course, to the machini politicians. A secret organization, whose vote can be controlled almost ab- solutely, whose official head can prom- ise to throw it bodily into either sidy 31 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. of the scale, does not need to have a very large membership in order that it may dictate nearly all the nomina- tions of one or the other of the two par- ties. If twenty, or over ten per cent. of the voters of a community can be handled in this way. one of the parties will be sure to give their leaders nearly everything they ask for. "Ambitious minor politicians wiU make haste to join the society, there will be candidates enough in its mem- bership to fill all the ofSces, and for a time the party which secures its al- liance is sure to elect its candidates. In this way, in many communities, the control of one or the other of the par- ties has passed ahnost entirely intj the hands of the 'patriotic' order." The zealots among the A. P. A. conn oils frequently threatened, during 1895 and 1896, to form a party of their own; but the shrewder and more mercenary elements knew that to depart from the Republican fold was to be stranded on the shoals of utter defeat. Patronage, and profit, and importance lay in fol- lowing the initial policy of riding on the crest of the tidal wave. f The plan of capturing Republican 32 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. primaries and conventions was, there- I fore, the predominant activity of the A. P. A. during the years 1893-5. That policy hoth swelled the numbers and rewarded the zeal of the A. P. A. It was thus a profitable policy and it was persisted in. The old time leaders of the Republican machines were, in soniri localities, retired; in many places casj in subordinate roles, but, as a rule, they held substantial control by biding their time, cultivating a discreet silence on the new movement, as it should be judged in the light of American politi- cal ethics, and conciliating the adhes- ion of A. P. A. supporters by the use of patronage. The Democratic party helped, by its strong anti-Know-Noth- ing attitude, to drive the A. P. A. whol- ly into the Republican ranks, and so cleared itself of the difficulty. "The kite is labelled A. P. A.— the tail, G. O. P.," said The Cheyenne (Wyo.) Leader (Dem.). While Democratic public men (Govs. Peck of Wisconsin, Altgeld of Illinois, Senators Vilas, Hill, Vest and many others), denounced the new Know-Nothingism, and Democratic conventions passed resolutions against the A. P. A., Eepubliean leaders 33 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. were for temporizing. At Kansas City, October 2, 1894, Gov- ernor McKinley of Ohio, (then the leading presidential possibility of his party), was addressing a large audi- ence on the issues of the day, when some one asked: "What is the matter with the A. P. AJ" Mr. McIIinley evaded the matter by rejoining: "Tha question with us is. What is the matter with the country?"* The chairman of the Republican state committee of Missouri, Mr. E. C. Kerens, a Catho- lic, sought to induce the New York leaders of his party to define their po- sition; but the Republican state con- vention of New York, in the fall of 1894, avoided passing a resolution con- demning the A. P. A. And The Chi- cago Times (Dem.), said that no Re- publican convention would dare to con- demn the A. P. A., that the party was "not only affiliated to the A. P. A., but dominated by it." So, at least, mat- ters appeared at the end of the year 1894. •This, and other quotations In the same paragraph, are taken from C. C. Robinson's article entitled the "Revival of Know-Nothlng-ism," in The American Journal of Politics (V. 504, Nov., 1894). 34 IV. SECRET PURPOSES AND OPEN PROFESSIONS. 'T'HERE were numerous publications of the A. P. A. ritiial and oaths. These were variously divulged — in some instances (as in the case of the expose by The St. Paul Globe), by the efforts of spies; in other instances, by the ad- missions of former members. We sub- join one of the A. P. A. oaths, printed in the petition of ex-Congressman H. M. Youmans, in his contest for the un- seating of William S. Linton, which petition appears in full in The Con- gressional Record aa referred, October 31, 1893, to the conunittee on elections of the House of Representatives. This is almost verhatim the same oath at- 35 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tributed to the A. P. A. in The St. Paul Globe's exposures; and it agrees, substantially, with the versions printed in the newspapers of the time as from various sources, and authorities: "oath no. pour. "I do most solemnly promise and swear that I will always, to the utmost of my ability, labor, plead and wage a continuous warfare against ig- norance and fanaticism ; that I will usa my utmost power to strike the shackles and chains of blind obedience to thd Eoman Catholic Church from the ham- pered and bound consciences of a priest-ridden and church-oppressed peo- ple; that I will never allow any one, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, to become a member of this order, I knowing him to be such; that I will use my influence to promote the interest of all Protestants everywhere in the world that I may be; that ~. will not employ a Roman Catholic in any capacity if I can procure the ser vices of a Protestant. "I furthermore promise and swear that I will not aid in building or main- taining, by my resources, any Eoman Catholic church or institution of their 36 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. sect or crend whatsoever, but will d . all in my power to retard and break down the power of the Pope, in this country or any other; that I will not enter into any controversy with a Ro- man Catholic upon the subject of this order, nor will I enter into any agree- ment with a Roman Catholic to strike or create a disturbance whereby the Catholic employees may undermine and substitute their Protestant co- workers; that in all grievances I will seek only Protestants and counsel with them to the exclusion of all Roman Catholics, and will not make known to them anything of any nature matured at such conferences. "I furthermore promise and swear that I will not countenance the nomi- nation, in any caucus or convention, of a Roman Catholic for any office in the gift of the American people, and that I will not vote for, or counsel oth- ers to vote for, any Roman Catholic, but will vote only for a Protestant, so far as may lie in my power. Should there be two Roman Catholics on oppo- site tickets, I will erase the name off the ticket I vote; that I will, at all times, endeavor to place the political posi- 37 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tions of this government in the hands of Protestants, to the entire exclusioi of the Roman Catholic Church, of the members thereof, and the mandate of the Pope. To all of which I do most solemnly promise and swear, so help me God. Amen, amen, amen." A comparison of the ritual and ob- ligations of the A. P. A. councils with those of the Know-Nothing lodges will show a general similarity. The older prescriptive organization, however, es- pecially after the adoption of its Un- ion degree, was undoubtedly possessed of a finer and more orderly ritual. The A. P. A. was at a disadvantage in this respect, in many localities, ow- ing to the number of foreigners and members froni the lower walks of life who flocked into its councils. While the oaths and obligations of the order indicated one thing, there was also a public statement of princi- ples: In the published declaration of prin- ciples by the session of "the Supreme Council of the American Protective Association of the World," held at Des Moines, la., towards the middle of 1894, the first clause makes "loyalty to true 38 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Americanism, which knows neither biTfhplacerface, creed nor party . . the iirst requisite for membership in the American Protective Association.'' The second disclaims political parti- sanship, and affirms that the order teaches its members "to be intensely active in the discharge of their politi- cal duties in or out of party lines, be- cause it believes that all problems of confronting our people will be best solv- ed by a conscientioixs discharge of the duties of citizenship by each individ- ual." The third holds that support of any ecclesiastical x^ower of non- Amer- ican character, and which claims high- er sovereignty than that of the United States, is irreconciliable with Ameri- can citizenship. Therefore it is op- posed to the trust of official functions in any political position to such sub jects or supporters. The fourth up- holds the constitutional guaranty of restricted to the individual, and not as permissive of claim by any un-Ameri- can ecclesiastical power to "absolute control over the education of children growing up under the stars and stripes." The fifth considers "the nor.- religious liberty, and interprets it as 39 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. sectarian free public schools" as "tho bulwark of American institutions," and protests "against the employment of the subjects of any un-American ec- clesiastical power as officers or teach ers of our public schools"* — a protest against the employment of Catholics, whatever their real merits or qualifica- *In a widely quoted speech at Boston in 1893, Theodore Roosevelt thus alluded to this idea: "Because we are unqualifiedly and without reservation ag-ainst any system of denominational schools, maintained by the adherents of any creed with the help of state aid, therefore we as strenuously insist that the public schools shall be free from sectarian influences, and, above all, free from any attitude of hostility to the adherents of any particular creed; and we denounce as the worst foes of the pub- lic schools those who, under the pretence of friendship for them, stir up hostility to- ward them by seeking to discriminate in their name against those people who hold a given religious belief. Exactly as we welcome to them alike the children of Jew and Gentile, of Catholic and Protes- tant, so we insist that in their managre- ment no one creed shall have any special Jurisdiction, but the professors of all creeds be treated alike, in order that ev- ery American citizen, without regard to what his own private religious belief may be, shall feel that he has an equal voice therein." 40 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tions. The sixth condemns "the support from the public treasury, by direct ap- propriation or by contract, of any sec- tarian school, reformatory or other in- stitution not owned and controlled by public authority."* The seventh holds that "exemption from taxation is equal to a grant of public funds," and there- fore demands "that no real or personal property be exempt from taxation, the title of which is not vested in national or state governments." The eighth protests "against the enlistment in the United States army or navy, or the militia of any state, of any person not an actual citizen of the United States." This was cheerfully waived when, in 1898, war was declared against Spain. The ninth demands "for the protec- •In this connection It may be of In- terest to note that In The Independent of Jan. 10, 1894, are the answers of twenty-nine Catholic prelates in reply to a circular asking- them whether they would countenance a movement for a. division of the school fund. Archbish- op Ireland said: "No thought, however remote, of a movement of that kind is entertained by them [the Catholics]." Archbishop Katzer wrote: "I have al- ways been, and still am opposed to the 41 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tion of our citizen laborers the prohib^ ■ tion of the importation of pauper la- bor, and the restriction ^f all iinmigra- tion to persons who can show their ability and honest intention to become self-supporting American citizens.'' The tenth demands the ''change of nat- uralization laws by a repeal of the act authorizing the naturalization of min- plan." Archbishop John J. Keane wrote: "No concerted action of the Church is proposed, and none is apt to be pro- posed in the future." Archbishop Bour- gade wrote: "Under no circumstances would I do so unreservedly" [coun- tenance a movement for division of the school fund]. Archbishop Janssen, of New Orleans, said: "It may be better and more prudent to bear a burden . . than to create a war of dissension and Ill-feeling among the largest portion of our citizens." Bishop McQuaid, of Rochester, said: "An ag-itation with a view to a division of the state school fund would, at the present time, be in- judicious and inopportune." Bishop Horstmann, of Cleveland, said: "To think at present of any division of the school fund in Ohio would be sheer fol- ly." Opinions of a similar character were expressed by most of the remaining prelates. Of the whole number, only Bishop Durier favored agitating for a di- vision of the school fund. The replies of Bishops Haid, Ludden, and Verdaguer, however, inclined that way. 42 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. ors without a previous declaration, and by providing that no aliens shall be naturalized or permitted to vote in any state in the union who cannot speak the language of the land, and who cannot prove seven years' continuous resi- dence in this country from the date of his declaration of intention." The eleventh protests "against the gross negligence and laxity with which the judiciary of our land administer the present naturalization laws, and against the practice of naturalizing aliens at the expense of committees or candidates, as the most prolific source of the present prostitution of Ameri- can citizenship to the basest of uses." The twelfth demands "that all hospi- tals, asylums, reformatories, or other institutions in which people are under restraint be at all times subject to pub- lic inspection, whether they are main- tained by the public, or private corpor- ations, or individuals." The oath above given, together with the foregoing schedule of political pur- poses very fairly exhibit the aims and purposes of the order. Just as the Know-Nothings had a se- cret name (the Order of the Star Spar- 43 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. gled Banner), so, it is alleged, the se- cret name of the A. P. A. membership was "Amoreans." The purposeToI "the secret nafae was not clear, unless it was to enable a member to deny that he was an A. P. A., having "in mental reservation" the thought that that wa;( not the real name of the organization. At any rate, not a little casuistry of this kind was learned in the process of campaigns by the members of the or- der. 44 V. PERSONNEL. THE most striking difference be- tween A. P. Aism and Know-Noth- ingism lay in the fact that the former invited and admitted to rnemha^hip foreign-born persons. The A. P. A, origin ated in the west, where, in some states, the foreign-Born voters actual- ly exceed the native-born voters. It is quite certain that in southeastern Michigan the strongest element in tht, A. P. A. organization were Anglo-Can- adians, many of them trained in the Oranges lodges of Ontario. In Milwaukee, the Germans and the Norwegians, in 1894, undoubtedly made up a clear majority in the councils. In Minneapolis, the Scandinavians 45 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. were the predominating element. In Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio, per- haps the native American leaven was strongest, although the foreign ele- ment was everywhere considerable. As to the Nebraska A. P. A. we have the testimony of Rev. Mr. Williams, pastor of St. Barnabas' church, at Omaha, an Episcopalian minister, who said in his Parish Messenger about Eastertide, 1893: "If the A. P. A. people were all, or the greater part of them, simon-pure Americans, sons of the Puritans, or of the Cavaliers, or of the Dutch of New Amsterdam, one might understaml their anxiety for the permanence of American institutions, and the reason for their secret conclaves. But they are not. They are a very cosmopolitan lot of people. Their backbone, if not their brains, is made up of English- men, Canadians, Irish Orangemen, Scandinavians, Germans, etc., etc." On the other hand, an A. P. A. paper in an article printed during the same year, informs us that "recent inquiry developed the fact that in the order there were nearly eleven hundred eler gjTnen of various Protestant denomi- 46 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. nations; there are college presidents and professors, editors by scores, school teachers by hundreds ; banlters, railroad magnates, merchants, manufacturers, professional men of every description; artists, mechanics, salesmen, soldiers and sailors. In some of the western cities every official, from mayor down, is a member of the order.'' [November, 1893.] The truth, perhaps, lay between these conflicting statements. With a good deal of ignorant material there was fused into the A. P. A., a fairly com- mon schooled element, recruited from all the average walks of life. Rev. Washington Gladden, discuss- ing in The Century Magazine (March, 1894), the attitude of the Protestant pulpit towards the A. P. A., said : "The silence of the pulpit is explain- ed by the fact that, in many instances, members of the church are members of the order, and the pastor is unwilling to alienate any of his supporters. There are few churches, 1 suppose, in the west- ern cities, in which members of this order are not found." That there were hundreds of minis- ters, scores of teachers and not a few 47 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. what they regarded as a trick of oppos- ing candidates to injure the favorite. And the cuhninating evidences that the tide of popular favor was with McKin- ley, undoubtedly led the political ele- ments of the A. P. A. to scramble for the loaded wagon. An A. P. A. commit- tee visited McKinley in May and upon its report, the national officers thought it discreet to again place McKinley's name upon the list of eligibles, though at the end of the list. Some bitter feel- ing ensued at the convention, perhaps most tersely expressed by the following report published in the papers a few days after the convention adjourned: "A condemnation meeting by some of the delegates of the A. P. A. claiming to represent twenty states, was held aft- er the adjournment of the convention on Monday night and the following pream- ble and resolutions bearing on the Mc- Kinley matter were adopted : "Whereas, Maj. McKinley did on May 14, 1896, to a committee of the Na- tional Advisory Board in the city of Canton, O., state that he heartily ap- proved the principles of the A. P. A. and on the following day gave an inter- view to the press denying that he had 84 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. met such a committee, thus giving the lie to the report of the committee which was composed of honorable and truth- ful gentlemen; anu "Whereas, The members of the Su- preme council have, during its session, been hounded and badgered by ; large McKinley lobby composed of members and non-members of the order that has used the most disreputable blackmailing methods to discredit the advisory board and to turn the supreme council into a McKinley ratiUcation meeting, and hav- ing signally failed to clear McKinley of the consequences of his pro-papal politi- cal record, today, after two-thirds of the delegates had started for home, attempt- ed to take revenge by abolishing the Na- tional Advisory board and accomplished the same by a vote of 30 to 29. "Eesolved, That the delegates in con- demnation meeting assembled, de- nounce the cowardly denial by McKin- ley of his endorsement of the principles of the order given him to our commit- tee, and "Eesolved, That because of his record as reported by the National Advisory board, we herewith pledge ourselves, by our influence and efEorts, to endeavor 85 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. stepped into national prominence as the head of the A. P. A. Charles T. Beatty of Saginaw, Mich., did yeoman service during 1892-3 in giving the order shape and direction in southeastern Michigan. He veas after- wards the supreme secretary of the A. P. A. "Prof." Walter Sims of Bay City, Mich., came into prominence in 1893 as an A. P. A. lecturer; but after- wards lost his faith in the movement (together with his employment), and proceeded to attack it as bitterly as he had before advocated it. Rev. Adam Faw- cett of Columbus, 0., and ex-priest Ru- dolph of the same state, were active in establishing the A. P. A. in their vicinity. J. J. Gosper of Los Angeles, J. H. Fryar, of Nashville, Tenn., "Judge" Stevens and "Judge" Jack- son (the latter excoriated by Editor Brann of The Iconoclast), J. C. Thomp- son of Omaha, editor of one of the ear- liest A. P. A. weeklies, J. W. Echols of Atlanta, Ga., supreme president of the order from 1896 to 1898, Rev. D. B. Cheney, president of the Wisconsin councils, Rev. Judson D. Fulton, a pro- nounced pulpit exponent of A. P. A. principles, were names prominent in the 50 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. leadership of the order from 1893 to 1898. In public life there were few men of f any official prominence who were mem- ' bef s of the order. Undoubtedly, it in- i itiated a number of mayors, sheriffs and local officials throughout the west; but with the exception of Governor William O. Bradley of Kentucky, and Oongressman William S. Linton of Saginaw, Mich., no men of higher than local official dignity were generally counted as representing the order; al- though, as in the case of Senator Bur- roughs of Michigan, and Senator Gal- linger of New Hampshire, and Con- gressman Hainer of Nebraska, there were some reflections. W. H. J. Traynor states that twenty members of the 54th congress, which held its first session beginning with December, 1895, were members of the A. P. A.* As in the case of all claims of this kind made by officials of the order to give it impor- tance in the public mind, there may be some grain of truth in this, after due discount. •North American Review, June, 1896. 51 VI. INCIDENTS OF THE MOVEMENT. SO far as the outside public was con- cerned, the A. P. A. gave the first sign of its life and purpose in the va- rious communities where it was grow- ing, by arranging for lectures by ex-, priests and "escaped" nuns, or, in some instances, by so-called "patriotic" lec- tures. Ex-priest Slattery was the occasion of a riot at Keokuk, la., in 1893, and ex-priest, or "Bishop" McNamara fig- ured in a like afiair soon afterwards at Kansas City. Both were former priests of the Catholic Church, Slat- tery having lost his standing by habit- ual drunkenness, and McNamara hav- ing left the Lazarist order in 18Y5, to 52 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. form an independent "Catholic" church in New York, of which he be- came bishop. Among McNamara's reg- ular attendants was Ann O'Delia Dis Debar, referred to in the press for many years as "the spook priestess.'' She was then known as the Countess Lands- feldt. She posed as a victim of Rome and proposed to marry McNamara and form a troupe to go about the world delivering lectures in the interests of the anti-Papal league. Later Bishop McNamara was received into the Bap- tist church by the Eev. Justin D. Ful- ton of Brooklyn. As a result of the Kansas City dis- turbance, "Bishop" McNamara was convicted and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. Another ex-priest of a quieter tem- perament, however, was D. George P. Rudolph of Ohio. Father Houek, chan- cellor of the Cleveland diocese, in a card addressed to The Cleveland Lead- er, May 27, 1892, says that "Rudolph was suspended from the functions of the priesthood by Right Rev. Bishop Gilmore, June 19, 1881. Prof. Ru- dolph, according to his published state- ment, went through a marriage cere- 53 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. mony before a civil magistrate." The woman he married was his housekeeper. A rrench-Canadian, Chiniquy, (or- dained a priest in 1833, and finally sus- pended in 1856), was famous as an ex- priest in the years prior to 1890. H« originated the canard that the assassin- ation of Lincoln was due to a Catholic conspiracy. A number of other "ex-priests" in A. P. A. days were men who had never been ordained, but who posed as former priests chiefly on the basis of a short attendance at Catholic institutions. Among these were Ruthven, Walsh, Koehler and Bluett. There were also a number of ex- nuns, the most notorious of whom was Margaret Shepherd, whose police rec- ord was well known, and who, despite her "disclosures," never had been a member of a Catholic religious order. i\ Eventually, even the A. P. A. be- i^dame itself nauseated over the "ex- '"priest" as a feature of its propaganda. "The average ex-priest is simply a leech sucking the life blood of the councils for his own enrichment," said President Jackman of the Iowa A. P. A. 54 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. The Iowa and Wisconsin A. P. A. voted to discontinue the services of the ex-priests. But the latter claimed that this action was a lapsing from the principles of the movement and a cow- ardly submission to Roman intimida- tion. The A. P. A. movement began to de- velop a press early in 1893 ;and in 1894 seventy A. P. A. weeklies were^ in ex- istence. Nearly all of these were pub- lications of very limited circulation — few of them printing, except around election time, more than a thousand copies. They used "plate" matter, and kept standing several columns of read- ing defamatory of the Catholic Church, such as alleged Jesuit and Cardinal oaths, "canon law," and a list of un- authenticated "quotations" ascribed to Catholic sources.* What Ignatius Don- •The Provincial of the Jesuits in Can- ada recently published an unequivocal de- nial of the "oath" in the Montreal Star. He wrote: "We vehemently repudiate as a barefaced forgery that absurd, filthy, and criminal oath, which no sane man could take or even believe in, and which, though a hundred times refuted and ex- ploded, has made its way from the in- itial forger, Robert Ware, in 1680, down to his latest progeny lecturing in a To- ronto church." 55 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. nelly said in the course of his discus- sion with "Prof." Sims, aptly applied to this matter: "I want to say, my friends, that I do not believe in some of the authori- ties quoted by the professor (Sims). I doubt their authenticity. When he comes up here and admits that the A. P. A. organization sent out an encyclical of the Pope's that was bogus and pub- lished documents which were forgeries, he cast doubt on every document he m.ay produce. False in one thing, false in all."* ,, ,i Among the A. P. A. papers earliest in the field (1892-3) were The True American, St. Louis; The American Idea, Des Moines, la. ; The American, An anti-Catholic paper, The American Citizen of Boston, (Feb. 17, 1912), said: "Nearly twenty years ago, the To- ronto Mail printed the so-called 'Jesuit Oath.' The paper was sued for slander. Court after court, as it was appealed, de- cided against The Mail, until the highest court of all in England was reached, and this, too, decided in the same way. It cost The Mail an immense amount of money to fight the case, and they could not prove that it was a genuine 'Jesuit Oath.' " ♦Debate with Prof. Sims, reported in Milwaukee Sentinel, March, 1894. 56 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Omaha; The Loyal American, Minne- apolis ; The Eocky Mountain American, Denver; The Northwestern American, Sioux City, la,; The Allied American, Cleveland, O.; The Patriotic Ameri- can, Detroit, Mich., the latter also the official organ of "the Orange Grand Lodge of the United States." In Boston the anti-Catholic element set up a daily paper called The Stand- ard, which failed after some two years of publication. One by one, with the collapse of the movement, the A. P. A. ; press began to drop off after 1895. Ini 1900 only three of the papers of the movement were left, the principal be- ing The American Citizen of Boston (with a circulation under 5,000), which, however, had existed before 1887. One line of alarmist stories common in Know-Nothing days was widely re- vived in the earlier years of the A. P. A. This was the rumor of arms hid- den under Catholic churches. For in- stance, at Toledo, Deputy SherifE Stan- berry of Lucas county, and Eev. W. S. Brackney, a minister in West To- ledo, went to visit the St .Hedwig's Po- lish Catholic church, which he believed was filled with arms and ammunition. 57 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. He admitted he was deceived in so thinjKing. The following Associated Press dis- patch from Los Angeles, Cal., under date of Sept. 30, 1894, is interesting in this connection: "J. K. Gosper, a local politician and an A. P. A. man, was invited to address the Unity club. In the course of his remarks he charged that under the Catholic cathedral in this city were 500 stand of arms. D. F. Donegan, a con- tractor, arose in the audience, and, dis- playing a $1,000 silver certificate, de- clared that the statement was a lie, ana that he would give the money to the A. P. A. if it were true. Much excite- ment followed. The chairman said that Gosper had violated the courtesy of the club. Gosper then said that he had been told the arms were there." At Peoria, 111., at Saginaw, Mich., at Omaha, Neb., and a dozen other places, similar reports were industri- ously circulated. The usual ante-election appeals of the A. P. A. are indicated by the fol- lowing extracts from The Rocky Moun- tain American, (Oct. 1893) : "Vote early and vote only for Prot- 58 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. estants and in this way you will pro- tect our free American institutions." "Let all who love our great Amer- ican republic and its free institutions, vote for Protestants". "It is of the utmost importance to the cause of Protestantism that Prot- estant principles shall prevail at the polls in this election, and that straight Protestant candidates shall be elected." Tickets containing the names of the candidates for the various offices, with their religious beliefs indicated, were circulated before election as a regular proceeding. Very naturally, Catholic citizens made a most vigorous opposition to the A. P. A., and almost everywhere they had the best of the battle in the open forum. Their press was unremitting in its assault upon the new movement. Large public meetings and anti-A. P. A. lectures and pamphlets were among the means employed. Here and there counter associations were formed for purposes of defense; and in many places the council meetings of the A. P. A. were systematically watched and lists of the members procured and cir- culated. The Catholic agitation against 59 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. it had localized it by driving it whoUy out of the Democratic party and ad- vertising it as a thing hated and de- spised by all Catholics. It did threat- en at one time to develop in the Dem- ocratic ranlis. There were Democratic papers, 1891-3, in Minnesota and Michigan, leaning towards it. The less defensible methods of break- ing into A. P. A. councils and obtain- ing the rjcords, and attempting to mob or interfere with ex-priest and an- ti-Catholic lecturers, were also episodes of the counter-movement in a few lo- calities. Perhaps the statements of "Prof." Walter Sims, made in April, 1895, dur- ing a course of lectures which he gave at Minneapolis, will give the reader a fair notion of the spirit of the times. In 1894 Sims was lecturing for the A. P. A. He says: "In one particular place, in the city of Oshkosh (Wis.) I went to the hotel, having been sent for by the committee of the council there — one council, if I remember right. I arrived at the hotel — they told me where to go — and I stay- ed there all day and never saw an A. P. A. : never one of them knew me or came 60 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. near me. About seven o'clock the op- era house b^an to flU up and I waited around there until eight o'clock. Then I said : What am I going to do ; nobody here to go on and open the meeting. Presently, three men sneaked up the back way and came up to me and said: 'Come, let's go down this way and back into this alley here.' Said I, 'Why, who is goinj; to introduce me?' 'I don't know; I don't want to be on the platform, you know; I must not be seen there, you know. It wouldn't do; nobody knows that I am an A. P. A.' " Under the stress of public discussion, the secret movement was at a disad- vantage, and time and again A. P. A. leaders confess^ 1 the desirability of discarding their secret methods and coming out in the^op'eiT aiid casting aside the intolerant features of their movement under the solvent influence of public opinion. In explaining the failure and sud- den collapse of the American party in 1852-7, Prof. Johnston says in the American Encyclopedia of Politics: "The existence of a secret and oath- bound party was always an anachron- ism in an age and a country where free 61 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. political discussion is allowed." This was recognized in more than one A. P. A. quarter, although another equally tnie remark by Josiah Quin.- cey was not as cordially appreciated : "The liberties of a people are never more certainly in the path of destruc- tion than when they trust themselves to the guidance of secret societies Birds of the night are never birds of wisdom. One of them indeed received this name, but it was not from his looha and not from his moral and intellec- ual qualities. They are, for the most part, birds of prey. The fate of a re- public is sealed when bats take the lead of the eagles." 62 VII. CLIMAX AND ANTI-CLIMAX. T_T F. BOWERS, who was its first ■^ -^ • president, informs the present writer that he can give no facts con- cerning the spread of the A. P. A. dur- ing its earlier years, because the rec- ords of those years were burned. Dur- ing 1893, the papers spoke of "the A. P. A. belt," that is, the region in which the movement proved a disturbing ele- ment. The territory comprised in eastern Michigan, northern Ohio, northern and central Illinois, the south half of Iowa and the north half of Missouri, extending west to the east half of Kansas and Nebraska, was termed the A. P. A. belt. The order had also entered nearly a dozen other states, but the public were 63 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. not as yet aware of it. Beginning at its home in Clinton, it extended to Keokuk, Missouri Valley, Council Bluffs, Lone Tree, Davenport, Boonsboro, Lake Uity^ West Liberty, Boone, Brooklyn, Des Moines and many other Iowa points. In 1891, it was strongly in evidence at Omaha, Neb., and at the city elec- tion that year it endorsed the Republi- can ticket and swept the town (hereto- fore usually Democratic), by large ma- jorities. It was estimated that the A. P. A. vote in Omaha reached 4,000. The Democratic ticket was heavily handicapped by rumseller candidates, and this partly explains the result. Local contention became so bitter as to injure business. "Neither settlers nor trade will come to a point when religious proscription exists." The A. P. A. seems to have moved down the Missouri river from Omaha. In Missouri, Kansas City was its first conspicuous base. After the fall elec- tions of 1892, a delegation represent- ing the A. P. A. of Kansas City, came to ask Governor-elect Stone to black- list all Catholics when making appoint- ments. "Tour association," replied 64 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Govenor Stone, "is undemocratic and un-American, and I am opposed to it. I haven't a drop of Know-Nothing blood in my veins." Bishop Spalding, the Catholic bish- op of Peoria, gave this survey of the progress of t e A. P. A. in Illinois up to 1893 : "In this diocese it shoves a certain vigor — ^here in Peoria, in Rock Island, Bloomington, Danville, Streater, Ot- tawa, and possibly in other of the larg- er towns. In Peoria we know the names of the A. P. Aists, and the oaths they take have been published in a newspa- per issued on St. Patrick's day, called The Irish-American. The A. P. Aists are mostly Republicans, only eight per cent, of them being Democrats here in Peoria. As the Whig party, when ruin threatened, sought to save itself by making an alliance with the Native American party, so the Republicans, here in Illinois at least, seem to have some sort of understanding with the A. P. Aists. Certain railroads, the Rock Island, for instance, seem to give them encouragement; and they do this, \t is said, not from hatred of the Church, to which, being soulless, they 65 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. are indifferent, but from a desire to weaken and cripple the labor unions. From one of the more respectable A. P. Aists, I hear their great grievance is the presence of the apostolic dele- gate."* The cities of Epckford and Freeport were speedily overrun by the A. P. A., but although an organ of the order was established in Chicago, it made no suc- cessful impress on the politics of that city. The early activity of the A. P. A. in southeastern Michigan, led many persons to suppose that it was an off- shoot of the Canadian Protestant Pro- tective Association. The latter, how- ever, seems to have been, in its origin, subsequent to the A. P. A. A. P. Aism had figured in many bitter political contests at Saginaw, especially during 1892. Ex-Congressman Tarnsey, a Catho- lic, is quoted as saying early in 1893 : "There is not a merchant in this city [Saginawl that has not felt the effects of the boycott for the last year. If he is not boycotied by one, he is by •Catholic Citizen (Milwaukee) April 8, 1S93. 66 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. the other. The Catholic is boycotted i by the A. P. A., and the A. P. A. pos- I sibly lost some of the trade of his Oath- ' olic neighbor. I wouldn't be surprised. A. P. Aism has driven business away from your city. Empty stores and va- cant residences, signs 'To Rent,' indi- cate the injury that the A. P. A. has done in a business sense to this entire community. Omaha anJ. Saginaw are known to the world as two black spots upon the American continent where proscription exists, the proscription that precedes de^-ay and ruin." In Ohio, a broad band of territory, extending southward from Cleveland (the home of much nativistic Puritan- ism) to Cincinnati, witnessed many A. P. L. outcroppiiigs during the latter part of 1892. At Toledo some success- es were scored. Father Quigley's ac- tion in opposing the compulsory educa- tion law had much to do with this. A good deal of A. P. A. activity was also noticeable in Columbus and Cincinati. During the presidential campaign of 1892, the A. P. A. showed itself very friendly to the candidacy of Benjamin Harrison, a friendship that was stim- ulated, so it seems, by liberal assistance 67 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. from the Eepublican campaign fund. For this, Clarkson, the Eepublican na- tional committee man from Iowa, is said to have been chiefly responsible. Up to the middle of 1893, it is proba- ble that the strength of the A. P. A. in the United States did not exceed 100,000. It had, however, been organ- ized in twenty states, according to W. H. J. Traynor ; and the foundation laid for its subsequent rapid growth during the year 1894. ' In the North American Eeview for June, 1896, its then president, Traynor, 'tells us that as a result of this growth, it had, by the end of 1894, entered every state and territory in the union, disturbing the political machinery of the Eepublican party more or less, in New York, Michigan, Ohio, Massachu- setts, Missouri, Kentucky, and show- ing itself influential in Nebraska, Kas- sas, Minnesota, California, Tennessee, Washington and Oregon. The follow- ing cities are among the more impor- tant centers of population, which were generally regarded as under A. P. A. political dominance during all, or a portion of the period 1893-5: Omaha, Kansas City, Eockford, 111., Toledo,. THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Duluth, Saginaw, Louisville; and to some extent, Detroit,* St. Louis and Denver. In New York, its principal activity was at BufPalo and Rochester. Penn- sylvania, where the so-called patriotic societies were always numerous, was also stirred by the new movem.ent. In Massachusetts, according to the editor of The American Citizen of Boston, there were one hundred and seventy-four councils, with a membership estimated at 75,000. Connecticut and Rhode Is- land were also overrun, politically, by the new order, but it does not seem to have been an especially active factor in the other New England states. If we except Kentucky and Tennessee, the A. P. ii. made but little impression in the south, although there were mild outcroppings in Georgia and Texas. The southern Democrat regarded it as a strictly Republican campaign ad- junct. President Traynor, in the North American Review (June, 1896), says •"Indeed, Detroit has now hardly one Catholic appointed official, for wherever the authorities could displace a Catholic they have done so." — [American Journal of Politics, V. 504, Nov., 1894. 69 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. that twenty members of the Fifty- fourth Congress (1895-7) were m.em- bera of the order, and one hundred "were elected by it and went back on it." This is probably one of the vain boasts which the leaders of the A. P. A. were disposed to make, in view of expected recognition at ti.e hands of the Republican party. Traynor also, in this connection, refers to the A. P. A. as "so dominant before, and so insigni- ficant after election." He claimed for it (June, 1896) a membership of 2,500,- 000, and threatened that should the old parties absolutely refuse to endorse its essential principles, "it is absolutely certain to put up an independent pres- idential ticket." Speaking at Minneapolis, in April, 1895, Prof. Walter Sims, however, gives quite an opposite estimate of the A. P. A. membership: "And now I am going to take you into something of the strength of this order. It is a great bugaboo. In the city of Chicago today there are not 1,000 paying members — members in good standing. The state of Michigan used to have 20,000 members. Today the state of Michigan has not 5,000 70 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. members. They never had 120,000, as they claimed. There is not a member- ship in the United States of 120,000, but they call it a million. Why, I thought we had a million members, un- til I began to look the thing up. I looked into the reports at the last meet- ing of the supreme council, of which I was a member, and I found we had no such number. We did not come up to 100,000 in the whole United States. Since that time the membership has not been growing, but it has been de- creasing. At that time we could count a membership of 10,000 in Cook county and in the city of Chicago, while today there is not a membership of 1,000 there. It has decreased rather than increased. But why this boastful- ness ? In order to bear down upon pol- iticians — that is the reason of boast- fulness." The truth may have lain somewhere between the calculating boastfulness of Traynor and the resentful dispar- agement of Sims. In their character for veracity, both were of equal repute. There is no reason to think that in its palmiest days the A. P. A. could count on its roster of membership over a 71 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. million voters. Numerically, it never equalled the old American party of 1854-7, v^liich once had five United States senators and twenty-three con- gressmen wearing its livery. We begin to hear much of a reac- tion in the move -lent, towards the end of 1894. Under the title of the Inde- pendent American Citizens party, the Chicago A. P. A., in the fall of 1894, nominated a full county ticket, which they claimed would receive 40,000 votes at the November election. The actual result at the election of Nov. 6, (as re- ported in the Chicago daily papers), was as follows: Vote for County Judge, "witli 54 city and 7 county precincts missing : Carter, Rep 126,313 Scales, Dem 86,851' Cox Peoples' 18,091 Mitchell, Prohibitionist 1,401 McMillan, Am. Cit. (A. P. A.) 917 Vote for County Superintendent of Scliools : Bright, Rep 123,149 Babcock, Dem 86,570 Bea'-'eam, Peoples' 37,330 "Wadhams, Prohibitionist 1,627 Sluaght, Am. Clt. (A. P A.) 796 So out of a total vote of over 243,- 000. the A. P. A. polled about 1,000, and not 40,000 votes. 72 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. The New York Nation, commenting on the elections in April, 1895, at Brad- ford, Mass., and Bridgeport, Conn., saw in the result "a reaction against A. P. Aism." In 1895, the A. P. A. was overthrown in the local elections at its earliest stronghold; Saginaw, and in 1896 its defeat here was further emphasized by the failure of Congressman Linton to secure a re-election. Bryanism wiped the Omaha and Nebraska field clean of A. P. Aism the same year, and in Toledo, "Golden Rule" Jones de- prived it of its last local citadel in 1897 . Against the shock if a vigorous at- tack, all along the line, it ceased to grow and began to decline. Free dis- cussion was uncongenial to it. It fell a prey to unprincipled politicians. The mine that it worked was in all cases, local politics, and its aims rose and sank in petty political jobs. Such in- terest as had existed for the A. P. A. council was soon absorbed by the Re- publican club, and the meetings of the former gradually became scant and in- frequent. Its chance for a larger scope was the presidential campaign of 1896, 73 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. but the small jnd ridiculous figure it cut in the campaign was an eye-opener e'o'en to the most stupid politicians. 74 VIII. MIXES IN PRESIDENTIAL POLI- TICS. ■p^RESSED in a little brief author- *-^ ity, the leaders of the A. P. A. saw, what they thought a grand oppor- tunity for personal importance and profit in the making of the candidate that the Republican party should nom- inate for President in 1896. They be- lieved, or affected to believe, that they held the balance of power between the rival candidates; and that an expect- ant nation was breathlessly awaiting their decree in the matter. During the latter part of 1895, under the skillful management of Mark Hanna, the can- didacy of Major McKinley had made great progress throughout the west, among the Republican rank and file. The A. P. A, was, apparently, as 75 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. friendly to him, as to Allison, Reed, Morton or Harrison, the other candi- dates most frequently mentioned for President on the Eepublican ticket. In forming a preference for presidential candidates, the rank and file of the A. P. A., thought and acted as Republi- cans without looking particularly to their leaders for advice. But, it ap- pears, that ad -ice was forthcoming. It is alleged that J. M. Olarkson, an adroit Republican politician from Iowa, acting with Matt. Quay of Pennsylva- nia, concluded that one proper meas- ure in stemming the political tide setting in for McKinley was to manip- ulate the A. P. A. against him by "fixing" the leaders. Another rather plausible explanation — and slightly more creditable to the A. P. A. ofiicials — was that they desired to send a large delegation into the Republican national convention pledged to Bradley and Lin- ton (the two public men most promi- nently identified with tlie A. P. A.), not with the hope of nominating them, but as a means of holding a compact vote, which could be turned over to the successful candidate in consideration of pledges. 76 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Whatever the precise character or motive of the plan, the A. P. A. lead- ers, at any rate, began early in 1896, to antagonize McKinley: ISfot alone "Judge" J. H. Stevens, president of the national advisory board, but President Traynor also, and the conspiracy reached out beyond the national board to the state presidents in Ohio, Ken- tucky, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa. Early in April, 1896, a circular was issued by the national executive board of the A. P. A. against McKinley, par- agraphs of which are here subjoined: "After carefully analyzing the evi- dences adduced, the committee found to be true the charges made against one of the candidates, viz. : Ex-Gov. McKinley, of discriminating in his ap- pointments in favor of Romanists and against American Protestants because the latter were members of the Ameri- can Protective association. * * "Among the managers and active sup- porters, secret or public, of Major Mc- Kinley, are Eichard Kerens, a Eoman- ist, of Missouri, who has again and again in the public nress denounced the A. P. A. organization in the most vin- 77 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. dictive terms, and sought, but in vain, to have the national Republican com- mittee denounce the organization; also Stephen Elkins of West Virginia. "Of the other candidates, viz. : Wil- liam M. Allison of Iowa, Senator Quay of Pennsylvania, Senator Cullom of Illinois, Governor Bradley of Kentucky, Governor Morton of New York, Ex- President Harrison and Thomas B. Reed, the committee was satisfied with their Americanism and sympathy with the principles of the order." Judge Stevens subsequently explained the genesis of this fulmination as fol- lows: "The national advisory board of the A. P. A. met in Washington, D. C, on March 26, to take action regarding its place and work in the coming presi- dential campaign. Information from the various states which had favorite sons was put before us by representa- tive A. P. A's from those states, and from Ohio evidence was submitted to us by Adam Pawcett, who was twice honored with the supreme vice-presi- dency of the organization, showing that sve could not support Mr. McKinley. * * "The results of the investigation of 78 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. our sub-committee were of such a char- acter that left us, friendly though we were to Mr. McKinley, no alternative but to repudiate him and fight him to the end." The pronouncement against McKin- ley was followed by many concurring interviews, declarations and circulars from A. P. A. sources, and by the usual output of alarming and damaging sto- ries so characteristic of the A. P. A. propaganda. It was necessary for Mark Hanna to deny that his candidate was a member of the Ancient Order of Hi- bernians, and Major McKinley thought it proper to write that he was not con- nected with the Young Men's Institute — a Catholic fraternal society. Among those present at an anti-Mc- Kinley conference at Cincinnati, in April, were Supreme President W. J. Traynor, Supreme Secretary C. G. Beatty, Supreme Treasurer M. L. Ry- an, National Executive Committeeman Thompson and Judge J. H. Stevens of the national advisory committee and chairman of the propaganda and cam- paign committee. The latter issued an- other circular to correct some "mis- ptatfnienti in thp pr=;-.s," die sutiftanoe 79 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. of which T7as : "The hostility of the order to Mc- Kinley is not against the man but against him for his antipathy to the order, shown in his appointments while governor. The order has made every effort consistent with manhood to reach McKinley without success." President Traynor was widely re- ported in an interview as saying: "A review of his [McKinley's] politi- cal career brings to light many inci- dents showing that he has deliberately catered to the Catholic vote for no oth' er reason than because he thought it was a vote that could be influenced in his behalf by special favors. It was generally understood that, while gover- nor, McKinley was unduly under the influence of Bishop Watterson of the Catholic diocese of Columbus. A lead- ing citizen of Toledo showed me a let- ter a few days ago, received in answer to one written to McKinley, charging McKinley with allowing under his ad- ministration the use of public funds in buying Catholic paraphernalia for the use of priests in the prisons, other churches furnishing their own supplies. McKinley made an equivocal denial of 80 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. this, if I am not mistaken, throwing it on others. While governor he appoint- ed more Roman Catholics to office than any other Republican governor Ohio has had." A. D. Hubbard, president of the A. P. A. in Kansas, declared: "Hanna is a Romanist, and I know it, and so does every other A. P. A. I can say posi- tively, that unless McKinley declares himself soon, the A. P. A. will fight him to a finish." The Indiana state A. P. A. annual convention was held in Muneie in April. After a stormy session, which lasted all day, the association decided to oppose McKinley's candidacy be- cause of his alleged inclination towards Catholicism. The circular sent out by the advisory committee of the A. P. A. denouncing McKinley was read in all the A. P. A. councils of Illinois. Resolutions were adopted, in some places, denouncing Mc- Kinley. The state president, Johnson, came out flatly against McKinley. EUis Pierce of Des Moines, la., state secretary of the Iowa A. P. A., declared that the order was prepared to make a strong fight in the state against Mc- 81 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Kinley for president under orders from the national officers of the order. The national convention of the A. P. A. was called to assemble in Washing- ton, D. C, on May 12, 1896, and the anti-McKinley propaganda was, in the meantime, pushed by the national offi- cers with the vigor of desperation. Our extracts are from the daily papers of April, May and June, 1896, which (par- ticularly those of the West), give the topic considerable attention. Space, of course, limits us to but a mioiety of the better verified matter. Late in April, the executive board came out with yet another anti-McKinley circu- lar, in which occurred these allega- tions : "The Eoman Catholic hierarchy, see- ing no probability of electing one of its cowardly tools to the presidency on any ticket other than the Republican, has through its leaders and followers mass- ed its strength and resources to the sup- port of Major William McKinley. As an unanswerable evidence of this state- ment it is sufficient to say that Arch- bishop Ireland of St. Paul, the most Jesuitical and dangerous Papal leader in this country; Bishop Watterson of 82 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Ohio, for years the intimate and confi- dential friend and advisor of Major Mc- Kinley, and the most influential factor in McKinley's administration as gov- ernor of Ohio ; Tom Carter of Montana, Steve Elkins of West Virginia, whose daughter was married to a Papist by Archbishop Corrigan, and whose 83Tn- pathies were publicly announced in the United States senate when he fought the passage of the Indian Appropriation bill as amended on motion of Congress- man Linton in the house, and passed by that body; and every other promi- nent as well as obscure Papist claiming to be a Republican; last, but not least of one, Richard Kerens of Missouri, who in his private car a few months ago entertained as his guests Archbishops SatoUi and Corrigan and other cele- brities of the Roman Hierarchy, in a transcontinental trip to Arizona and re- turn, his car decorated with the Ameri- can colors, and the Papal colors above them, are each and all ardently advocat- ing the nomination of McKinley and using every means at command to ac- complish that end." Meanwhile, the friends of Major Mc- Kinley were busy in counteracting "83 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. what they regarded as a trick of oppos- ing candidates to injure the favorite. And the cubninating evidences that the tide of popular favor was with McKin- ley, undoubtedly led the political ele- ments of the A. P. A. to scramble for the loaded wagon. An A. P. A. commit- tee visited McKinley in May and upon its report, the national officers thought it discreet to again place McKinley's name upon the list of eligibles, though at the end of the list. Some bitter feel- ing ensued at the convention, perhaps most tersely expressed by the following report published in the papers a few days after the convention adjourned : "A condemnation meeting by some of the delegates of the A. P. A. claiming to represent twenty states, was held aft- er the adjournment of the convention on Monday night and the following pream- ble and resolutions bearing on the Mc- Kinlej' matter were adopted: "Whereas, Maj. McKinley did on May 14, 1896, to a committee of the Na- tional Advisory Board in the city of Canton, O., state that he heartily ap- proved the principles of the A. P. A. and on the following day gave an inter- view to the press denying that he had 84 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. met such a committee, thus giving the lie to the report of the committee which was composed of honorable and truth- ful gentlemen; and "Whereas, The members of the Su- preme council have, during its session, been hounded and badgered by i. large McKinley lobby composed of members and non-members of the order that has used the most disreputable blackmailing methods to discredit the advisory board and to turn the supreme council into a McKinley ratiication meeting, and hav- ing signally failed to clear McKinley of the consequences of his pro-papal politi- cal record, today, after two-thirds of the delegates had started for home, attempt- ed to take revenge by abolishing the Na- tional Advisory board and accomplished the same by a vote of 30 to 29. "Resolved, That the delegates in con- demnation meeting assembled, de- nounce the cowardly d,3nial by McKin- ley of his endorsement of the principles of the order given him to our commit- tee, and "Resolved, That because of his record as reported by the National Advisory board, we herewith pledge ourselves, by our influence and efforts, to endeavor 85 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. to accomplish his defeat." This of course indicated a split in the A. P. A. forces, which was further em- phasized hy the election of a complete new set of national officers: President, Z. W. Echols of Atlanta, Ga. ; vice-president, Henry S. Williamfl of Boston; secretary of state, H. P. J. Swaine of California; chaplain, W. H. Gotwold af Washington, D. C. ; secre- tary, W. J. Palmer of Butte, Mont; treasurer, C. C. Campbell of Minneapo- lis, etc. The present writer, sojourning for a few days in Washington, at the hotel which was made the headquarters of this gathering of the A .P. A., was in- terested in noticing the average charac- ter of the delegates present, which to his observation did not vary greatly, (except, perhaps in the inferiority of the leaders), from the usual American political convention, state or county. IX. 1896 AND AFTER. A BOUT the middle of June, 1896, •^*- the Republican national conven- tion met at St. Louis to ratify, what was already a foregone conclusion, — the nomination of Maj. McKinley. All semblance of A. P. A. opposition to this candidate had died away, out of prudent regard to the popular drift in his fav- or; and yet, in view of their long ad- vertised promise to play something like the role of "7'^arwick in the presiden- tial election of 1896, the leaders of the A. P. A. were on hand, eager for some stroke out of which they might make capital and reconcile themselves to the party. Their plan was to secure recog- nition in the platform for one or more of the principles of their order, prefer- 87 TEE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. ably for that opposing appropriations to sectarian institutions. The Asso- ciated Press dispatches tell of the re- sult in an interview with Col. Sellers, the A. P. A. representative who had the matter in charge. Col. Sellers is quot- ed as saying that he gave a copy of the platform of the " patriotic ' ' societies to Mr. Poraker, ano also to Senator Gear of Iowa. He was told by the latter that the paragraph declaring against the appropriation of money from the United States treasury for sectarian purposes would be incorporated, and that the committee had taken favorable action upon it. Later in the day, he was surprised to learn from a member of the committee that its action had been reconsidered, and that there would be nothing m the platform in that re- gard. The sudden change in the at- titude of the committee was explained by a telegram of Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul. The Associated Press dispatches also present, what purports to be Archbish- op Ireland's telegram, as follows: "St. Paul, Minn., June 17, 1896.— To Hon. Thomas H. Carter, national committeeman, St. Louis, Mo. : The THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. clause in the proposed platform oppos- ing the use of public money for sec- tarian purposes and union of church and state is unnecessary and uncalled for. It is urged by the A. P. A. Its adoption will be taken as a concession to them; will awaken religious animos- ity in the country and do much harm. The Republican party should not low- er itself to recognize, directly or indi- rectly, the A. P. A. I hope the clause, or anything like it, will not be adopt- ed. John Ireland." We can never be certain, in a his- torical sense, of all that may have gone on to sway the deliberations of a na- tional convention, or its committees. Herein, history is at the mercy of ru- mor. In this instance, the shrewd pol- iticians of the Republican party seem- ed to have recognized that the curren- cy question was going to work a new alignment in party allegiances, and that the support of thousands of Catholics in New York and the east might come in the ensuing campaign to the Repub- lican party. It was said that the de- cision to omit the plank asked for by { ( the A. P. A., was arrived at through the influence of R. C. Kerens, Edward TBE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. Lauterbach, and several gentlemen "who are known to be Protestants, but who were anxious not to antagonize the Catholics," and that the committee on resolutions was almost unanimous in its final determination of the matter. The A. P. A. leaders were, of course, disappointed and even indignant. In an interview published in The St. Louis Republic, Col. Sellers was quoted as saying : "I am going from here to the Demo- cratic convention in Chicago, and I will present the same plank to the reso- lution committee of that body.* * I do not expect to receive any worse treatment at the hands of the Demo- cratic convention than I received here. I will come here to the Populist and Silver party convention, July 22, and present the plank. If the result is the same, I believe it is the duty of the American people to prepare for the organization of an American party, pure and simple, based upon the origin- al idea of our fathers. In my judg- ment, political death stares the Repub- lican party in the face, and its ghost was plainly seen by more than one of the prominent gentlemen who were del- 90 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. gates to the convention. But what else can be expected? Every tradition of a patriotic character, based upon a genuine American policy, has been vio- lated." The other parties would have noth- ing to do with the envoys of the A. P. A. ; and very little was heard of the or- der in the ensuing campaign. Its threat to put up an independent ticket was seen to be a very ordinary piece of blufE, and in national politics, at least, it was discredited beyond the hope of rehabilitation. President-elect McKinley's appointment (March, 189Y) of. a Catholic (Judge McKenna, of Cal- ifornia), in his first cabinet, probably best illustrates the subsequent estimate that the Republican leaders had of the importance of the A. P. A., or of the necessity of being regardful of its re- sentments ; and although this act of the new administration, as well as the ap- pointment of Bellamy Storer to an im- portant diplomatic mission, and of Terrence V. Powderly as commissioner of immigration, drew forth bitter pro- tests from the prescriptive leaders, there was not a ripple of antagonism in either house of congress or in any 91 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. of the great newspaper organs of the party. It may have been that many Republican leaders rather enjoyed the discomfiture of the A. P. A., in view of the swaggering tone many of its fol- lowers had taken on in its more pros- perous days. For not a few prominent Republicans like Senators Hoar and Hawley, Thomas B. Eeed, Levi P. Mor- ton and John Sherman had been made the targets of its bitter attack and in- uendo. In fact, it seems probable that during the year 1895-6, the A. P. A. was considerably more of a vexation to the leaders of the Republican party than to the prelates of the Catholic Church. \ The loss of prestige due to these sev- jeral notable discomfitures in national / politics, told on the membership of the ; A. P, A. It was deserted by thousands of those who had gone into it for pol- itics, and had no use for it when it bet- came merely a discredited faction in the party. Its councils failed to meet, its state organizations fell into desue- tude, and although it preserved its na- tional organization by elections up to 1900, its history may be saicf to nave 92 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. closed for all purposes of general in- terest. H. F. Bowers was re-elected its national president in 1898, an office which he held up to his death in 1911. 93 NO RESULTS IN LEGISLATION. A LTHOUGH the A. P. A. had a ■^^ platform calling for not a few changes in the laws, and in the policies of government, it failed to establish any of its demands, or to bring into our history any new departure in state- craft. Perhaps the largely foreign element in its membership disqualified it to in- sist verj' effectively upon further re- strictions upon immigration — although the tide of immigration had changed (1894-99) from the prevailing Teutonic type to the Slavic and Italian type. Nor could the requirement of seven years' residence for naturalization, or familiarity with the English language as a condition of citizenship, be argued 94 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. with very sjood grace in hundreds of A. P. A. councils, made up of Scan- dinavians and Germans. Upon two matters only did the A. P. ; A. leave a record, though a rather in- ; effective one, in Congress. It joined \ in the for-sometime-existing opposi- i tion to further grants of federal money to the Catholic Indian schools; and it \ sought to prevent the acceptance by Congress of the Marquette statue, pre- sented by the state of Wisconsin to the nation, pursuant to a law of Congress. In 1870 President Grant established what is known as the "Indian Peace Policy," outlined in his message to Con- gress on tte 5th of December, 1870, in the following words : "Indian agencies being civil offices, I determined to give all the agencies to such religious de- nominations as had heretofore estab- lished missionaries among the Indians and perhaps to some other denomina- tions who would undertake the work on the same terms — i. e., as missionary work. ' ' Under this policy, the govern- ment, in its work of caring for the In- dians, called to its aid the several re- ligious denominations of the country. Cii'cnlars were sent to the representa- 95 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. tives of all the religious denomina^ tions, requesting them to report to the government regarding their willingness to participate in the work. Several religious denominations took up the work and received their respec- tive shares of public funds. This ar- rangement continued up to the year 187T, at which time what was known as "The Catholic Indian bureau," at Washington, offered to provide proper buildings, furniture, etc., and furnish board, lodging, tuition and clothing to the pupils, if the government would al- low a fixed annual per capita compen- sation. Thereupon contracts on that basis were entered into from year to year, between the commissioner of In- dian affairs and the Catholic bureau, the compensation for the pupils educat- ed being $100 to $150 per capita, annu- ally, for children in boardiiig schools, and $30 per capita for pupils in day schools. Like contracts were made with the representatives of other de- nominations for the continuance of their schools. This was the so-called "contract" system. It was not long before it was per- ceived that the Catholics were getting, 96 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. under this system, a gieat share of the public funds; and other creeds, partic- ularly the Methodists, turned against the system chiefly on that account. In 1884, Hon. Henry M. Teller, s&- cretarj' of the interior under President Arthur, expressed a determination to do away with the contract system. But the establishment of government schools, in place of the Catholic and Protestant schools, was not a purpose to be accomplished in a few years, or under one administration, although In- dian Commissioner Morgan, under the administration of President Harrison, prosecuted the endeavor with great en- ergj' and with a zeal against the Cath- olic Indian schools, that gave the ad- ministration, in Catholic opinion, a decidedly hostile appearance. Still, the Catholic institutions received un- der the established system (and despite a desire to rather disfavor them), large sjms of public money. In the Con- gressional Record, Wednesday, July 18, 1894, we find Mr. GaUinger, sena- tor from New Hampshire, declaring: "I feel bound to say that the Catholic Church in this country has received, during the last eight years, in appropri- 97 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. ations from Congress for the educa- tion of Indians, $2,366,416, while fif- teen other denominations have received $l,400,-000, or a little more than one- half the amount received by that one great religioud organisation. In view of this fact, church and state in this country ought to be divorced and for- ever kept apart." Now the A. P. -A. participated, and threw all its strength with the previous- ly-existing movement to do away with the contract system of Indian schools. And it is in this behalf that we find it active in the debates in Congress es- pecially after the House elected in No- vember, 1894, had entered upon its work in the session which opened December, 1895. The A. P. A. desired that the appro- priations to contract Indian schools should cease at once. The nature of the issue, as it was joined in Congress during the discussion in April and May, 1896, is made apparent by the action of the Senate. The Indian appropria- tion bill, as it came from the House, appropriated $1,135,000 — increased by the Senate to $1,335,000— for support of day and industrial schools for In- 98 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. ilian eliildren. But this appropriation was accompanied by a provision abso- lutely prohibiting future payment for the education of Indian children in sectarian schools. Senator Coekrell (Dem.) moved an amendment, adopted by the Senate, to substitute for that provision a declaration that it is "the settled policy of the g:overnment to make no appropriation whatever for the education of Indian children, in any sectarian school just as soon as it is possible for provision to be made for their education othei'wise. " This was, substantially, the final dis- position of the matter for that year. It was evident, however, that the pol- icy of Congress, in this respect, was fixed not by A. P. A. demands, but rather by concurrence of the leaders of the Democratic and Republican par- ties. Under the administration of President McKinley, Indian Commissioner Jones continued the poliuj' of his predecessor in office. The result is evident in the diminishing appropriations to the Cath- olic Indian schools. In 1892, the amount appropriated was $394,756; in 1893. $375,843; in 1894, $389,745; in 99 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. 1895, $359,215; in 1896, $308,471; in 1897, it fell to $198,228; in 1898, $156,- 754, and in 1899, $116,872. In the meantime, the other denom- inations which, in 1892, had received a total of $316,814, had ceased to receive any appropriations. In February and March, 1896, there was a fight against certain appropria- tions to charitable institutions includ- ed in the appropriation bill for the Dis- trict of Columbia. The opposition to certain grants to Catholic institutions was led by Congressman E. J. Hainer ' of Nebraska ; but eventually the appro- ipriations were substantially made as I heretofore. 1, The A. P. A. also made an ineffective fight against the placing of a statue of "Father Marquette in the old hall of the House of Representatives. The tender of this statue came from Wisconsin in the following letter of Governor Up- ham: "Executive Chamber, Madison. Wis., March 19, 1896.— Hon. Adlai Steven- son, Vice-President United States and President Senate, Washington — Sir: It gives me pleasure to inform, through you, the honorable body over which you 100 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. preside, that the state of Wisconsin, Ln response to the invitation extended to the states of the union, under Section 1814 of the Revised Statues of the United States, and in accordance with the resolution passed at th« first ses- sion of Congress in 1893, has placed in the old hall of the House of Repres- sentatives, at the capitol of the United States, a marble statue of Pere Mar- quette. ' ' This statue was made in pursuance of the act of the Legislature of this state, at its biennial session, and is the work of an Italian sculptor, Mr. G. Trentanove, of Florence, Italy. I have the honor, in behalf of the state of Wisconsin, of presenting this statue to the Congress of the United States. "I am, sir, very respectfully yours, "W. H. Upham, "Governor of Wisfif^nsin." The statue was set up in Statuary hall at the Capitol, February, 1896. The Senate thereupon adopted, with- out dissent, Senator Palmer's motion, "that the statue be accepted to remain in the national statuary hall, and that a copy of these resolutions, sigrned by the presiding officer of the Senate and 101 THE A. P. A. MOVEMENT. House of Representatives, be forward- ed to bis- excellency, the governor of the state of Wisconsin." But this resolution, on going to the House, was pigeon-holed in the library committee, and did not emerge durrng the life of that Congress. In Wiscon- sin, a bill providing for the return of the statue, was presented in the L^s- lature by A. P. A. request, but it was killed by an overwhelming vote. Fin- ally on January 30, 1904, the House unanimously adopted a resolution in- troduced by Congressman Otjen of Milwaukee, accepting the statue, and the Senate unanimously concurred in this . resolution Feb. 1, 1904. 102