Recollections of My Life and Reflections on Times and Events During It: A Memoir by Father W. J. Howlett

Know-Nothings

The Know-Nothings, a nineteenth-century American political organization, began as a secret organization and evolved into a well known third-party with hundreds of elected officials. The Know-Nothings harshly opposed Catholicism, even trying to bar them from holding public office. By the late nineteenth-century, most Know-Nothings were absorbed into the Republican Party. 

https://www.nps.gov/sand/learn/timeline.htm