[Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) by James Gillespie Blaine]@TWC D-Link bookTwenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) CHAPTER VI 21/76
But its creed was narrow, its principles were illiberal, and its methods of procedure boyish and undignified.
The great body of thinking men in the North saw that the real contest impending was against slavery and not against naturalization laws and ecclesiastical dogmas.
The Know-Nothings, therefore, speedily disappeared, and a new party sprang into existence composed of anti-slavery Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats. The latter infused into the ranks of the new organization a spirit and an energy which Whig traditions could never inspire.
The same name was not at once adopted in all the free States in 1854, but by the ensuing year there was a general recognition throughout the North that all who intended to make a serious fight against the pro-slavery Democracy would unite under the flag of the Republican party.
In its very first effort, without compact organization, without discipline, it rallied the anti-slavery sentiment so successfully as to carry nearly all the free States and to secure a plurality of the members of the House of Representatives.
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