This is a collection of articles about the Know-Nothing Party in Lauderdale County and editor Charles Wheeler of the American Democrat. ]]> According to Florence historian Lee Freeman, “Know-Nothing” was the nickname given to the Native American Party, which was comprised of native-born white Protestant Americans who feared America was being overrun by immigrants, esp. German and Irish Roman Catholic immigrants. Founded in 1843 and especially active between 1854-1856, it got the nickname “Know-Nothing” due to the secrecy of its beliefs—when asked members refused to talk about the party’s real aims, claiming to “know nothing.” In the 1840s and early-mid 1850s “Know-Nothingism” was the hot topic of discussion in all the newspapers. The extremity of its views, coupled with the party's secrecy caused it to be mistrusted by many however the fact that many Know-Nothings were also abolitionists made them even more despised politically, esp. in the South. As the party grew in numbers and importance in the 1850s it shed its clandestine character and adopted the name "American Party." With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 the American Party won additional adherents from the ranks of conservatives who could support neither the proslavery Democrats nor antislavery Republicans. When Congress assembled on December 3, 1855, 43 representatives were avowed members of the Know-Nothing party. That was the peak of Know-Nothing power as, the next year, at the American Party convention in Philadelphia the party split along sectional lines over the pro-slavery platform of the Southern delegates. Swept up in the sectional strife, the American Party fizzled out after 1856, as anti-slavery members flocked to the newly-founded abolitionist Republican Party and pro-slavery members defected to the pro-slavery Democratic Party. By 1859 the Know-Nothings were confined mainly to the border states and in 1860 the remnants of the American Party joined forces with the old-line Whigs to form the Constitutional Union Party, which nominated John Bell of Tennessee for president (who of course lost to Abraham Lincoln), coming in fourth in the election.

By the 1850s if not earlier, the Know-Nothing Party had supporters in Lauderdale County. Because our extant newspapers are so scarce for this period we know little of what the Know-Nothing Party in Lauderdale actually did. We do know it had its own newspaper, the *American Democrat* published in Florence, of which we have two extant issues from September of 1856. We know that Centre Star in east Lauderdale County had a large contingent of Know-Nothings because the Tuscumbia (then in Franklin County) *Enquirer* reported on Wednesday, June 27, 1855 that “the know nothing order at Center [sic] Star, in Lauderdale county, has busted asunder from all its oaths, and forty of 125 of that council came out in a card in the Florence Gazette, denouncing the know nothing order.”]]> Also according to Freeman, "As for the *American Democrat,* it was founded in July of 1855. by "Messrs. Peters and [Charles L.] Wheler" with the intent of supporting the "American Platform, as adopted in Philadelphia," with Wheler as editor.

I have been researching Charles L. Wheler for ten years and unfortunately don’t know much more about him now than I did when I started. Attempts to locate other records about him have proven extremely difficult. He was supposedly born and raised in Concord, New Hampshire, working as a printer and having “been engaged in several literary enterprises here which fell through” (in 1851 he published a volume of poems), one of which was the “abolition sheet” the *Concord Tribune,* which endorsed the abolitionist Whig candidate Gen. Winfield Scott for president over the pro-slavery Franklin Pierce, and which published from September to November of 1852. By July of 1853, leaving his bulls unpaid, Wheeler had clandestinely relocated to Lewisburg, in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia) where he edited the *Western Era* newspaper ("a rabid Know-Nothing paper") which had apparently folded up by September of 1854. That month Wheeler was one of several secretaries listed in connection with a railroad convection held at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. According to the *Tuscumbia Enquirer* Wheler was in Franklin County, Alabama for a couple of months before the Know-Nothing Party of Lauderdale County helped him establish the *American Democrat* in Florence in July.


Wheler was "outed" by the *Athens Herald* as a free-soiler and abolitionist and, on October 4, 1855, fled to parts unknown, apparently leaving his bills unpaid. In late September, 1855 Wheler had created a stir by questioning in the pages of the *Democrat* the legality of Lauderdale County Sheriff Robert McClanahan's stint as sheriff based on a legal technicality involving the deadline for newly-elected sheriffs to post their bond.

What became of Wheler is a total mystery. Maury County, Tennessee editor John E. Hatcher (1828-1879) replaced Charles L. Wheler as editor of the *Democrat.* By November 24 of 1856 the *American Democrat* had ceased publication and John Hatcher took the job as editor of the *Columbia Mirror,* in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee."]]> (2) McClanahan, Robert.
]]> (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7) 1855-10-06]]> (3, 8) 1855-10-11]]> (9, 10) 1855-10-17]]> (11, 12) 1855-10-23]]> public2.jpg
public3.jpg]]> athens2.jpg
athens3.jpg
athens4.jpg
athens5.jpg
athens6.jpg]]> An April 4, 1861 Florence Gazette reprint of an earlier, Valley Sentinel (a newspaper from Virginia) article, arguing that the main issue behind Southern secession and the impending war was "abolition with the north or slavery with the south. There is no middle course."]]> 1861-04-10]]> A November 25, 1868 reprint of a "card" originally placed in the Florence, AL LIterary Index on September 30, 1868 by Florence freedman Martin Conner/Connor (ca. 1821-), who stated that:

"I wish to say that I was a member of the Union League, but I am convinced that I was wrong, and have been for some time. I take this public way of saying so and that from this time forward, I am for the interest of the people that I live with and am for Seymour and Blair."

Until FDR's New Deal in the 1930s courted away the black vote, most blacks voted Republican, as it was the party of Lincoln and emancipation however in Florence-Lauderdale perhaps 10-15% of black voters voted Democrat.

Former New York Governor Horatio Seymour (1810-1886) and Francis Preston Blair, Jr. (1821-1875) were the Democratic nominees for US president and vice-president in the 1868 elections, losing out to Republican nominee and former Union Army General Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877). During that presidential campaign several Florence freedman formed a Seymour and Blair political club.


]]> 1868-11-25]]> An August 26, 1868 Florence, AL Literary Index newspaper announcement by the Democratic Party of Lauderdale of an upcoming mass meeting and barbecue to be held Tuesday, September 1, 1868, at which several notable speakers would be present, including future AL governor Robert B. Lindsay (father of noted children's educator Miss Maud Lindsay) Nathan Bedford Forrest, Gen. George S. Houston, Gen. Albert Pike, etc.. The ad also notes that "Ample accommodation will be provided for all the Colored people who may attend." ]]> 1868--08-26]]> An August 26, 1868 Florence, AL Literary Index newspaper article regarding the aim on the part of a group of Florence freedmen to found a "Seymour and Blair political club."

Former New York Governor Horatio Seymour (1810-1886) and Francis Preston Blair, Jr. (1821-1875) were the Democratic nominees for US president and vice-president in the 1868 elections, losing out to Republican nominee and former Union Army General Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877).

Until FDR's New Deal in the 1930s courted away the black vote, most blacks voted Republican, as it was the party of Lincoln and emancipation however in Florence-Lauderdale perhaps 15-20% of black voters voted Democrat.

The article uses the formation of this club as political propaganda and insists that it is proof that at least some local blacks were growing tired of "loyal leagues" (Union Leagues) patriotic clubs which were formed by the Republican Party in the North in 1863 to bolster pro-Union loyalty and which moved down South after the war. The leagues often met at night in secret (for fear of the Klan or other white harassment) to discuss politics and recommend candidates for office. One such Union League met at the Pisgah ME Church 10 miles north of Florence near Rawhide (since 1889 Cloverdale ) in March of 1867.]]> 1868-08-26]]> This is a quote from candidate James T. Rapier, during his bid for the Alabama 2nd Congressional District in 1872.]]> 1872-10-29]]> This is a newspaper article imploring African American voters to vote for Horace Greeley, a liberal Republican candidate in 1872.]]> 1872-10-29]]> This is an account of a political rally in Florence in 1872. ]]> 1872-10-08]]> massmeeting2.jpg]]> This is a letter to the editor written by James Goin, who is attempting to refute allegations that he was employed by the Democrat (Conservative) Party because of his endorsement of the Republican residential candidate Horace Greeley, who was backed by the Democratic Party--which opted not to run a candidate in that election--as the lesser of two evils. ]]> 1874-04-22]]> These are two newspaper clippings about James Goin. The following was contributed by Florence historian Lee Freeman: James Goin (1836-aft. 1892) was a free person of color, (a mulatto) who moved to Florence, probably from Lawrence County around 1857. The apparently educated Goin was a barber, the second in Florence, the first being John H. Rapier, Sr. Goin had at least one brother who he says was conscripted into the Confederate Army (probably a labor battalion) during the Civil War but escaped. In 1855 Goin married Mary Jane Logwood in Lawrence County, AL and the couple had at least five children, two of which John B. and Logwood, became physicians. In July of 1871 Goin went into partnership with John Calhoun.



During the Civil War Goin served for three months in 1861 as the cook of the 4th AL Inf, CSA, being paid $40 a month (he was hired by Wat Foster). Also, during the war, Goin says "Col. [James] Jackson [of the Forks of Cypress] of the 35th [AL Inf, CSA] regiment told me to stay there and he would protect me from the Confederates while he was there." Goin had earlier worked for Jackson & Cheatham for three years prior to opening his barbershop in ca. 1857.


After the war Goin filed a (disallowed) claim with the Southern Claims Commission (which reimbursed Southerners who could prove they had been loyal to the Union for livestock and provision confiscated by the Union Army during the war), among other things claiming he spied on Hood's movements for the Union Army and aided a Union spy named Maggie Mitchell in reaching the Union lines in 1864. When asked by the Commission examiners how he could claim to be a Unionist when he had voluntarily served for three months as a cook in a Confederate mess Goin basically replied that the 4th AL needed a cook and he needed the $40 a month, but that, while present with the 4th AL at the battle of First Manassas, he "didn’t take any arms (take up arms).” Former Unionist and Lauderdale County Probate Judge the Hon. Thomas T. Allington testified in Goins' claim that he and others believed that "claimant was carrying news and supplies from the Federal lines to the Confederates all the time he put on a show of loyalty . . ."

In 1874 Goin unsuccessfully ran for probate judge of Lauderdale County. Earlier, in October of 1872, Goin had made a well-received speech "on behalf of Greeley and Brown," which the editor of the Lauderdale Times averred was "one of the best speeches we have heard during this canvas." He had also attended the Republican Convention in Decatur as a delegate. During his 1874 campaign some sort of issue was raised wherein Goin was accused of being in the employ of the Democrats or perhaps, out of feelings of revenge that he had announced himself a candidate to “create confusion in the Republican party.” In a letter to the editor of the Florence Times-Journal published on April 21, 1874, Goin responded to these allegations, emphatically denying them.

In 1880 Goin left Florence with his family. By 1892 he was living in Birmingham, AL, where his sons John B. and Logwood became physicians.

James Goin most likely died in Birmingham, Alabama though no death record has been found as of yet.]]> 1872]]>