Lincoln's View of "Know-Nothings"

[Craig Hipkins]

One of my favorite Lincoln passages is found in a letter that he wrote to his friend Joshua Speed in 1855. He writes:

I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears tome to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "All men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty...to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.

I find it interesting that Lincoln (A Whig) not only took up the cause of the slaves, but also the bigotry that was prevalent in the north at the time as well. One of the reasons that the Whig party became a non-factor in U.S. politics was the fact that that there were major splits in the party on the understanding of what it was to be a true American. There were the Lincoln Whigs who understood the true meaning of American democracy, and there were the Millard Fillmore (Nativist) Whigs who believed that only a certain element in society should be entitled to the benefits of American democracy.

Craig