I saw a History Channel presentation on the Washington Monument last night, and the details behind it's construction. Everybody knows about Freemasonry's involvement in building the Monument and laying the cornerstone.

But I was very surprise to learn that, at one point in its construction, the monument's society was taken over by a secret society that I have never before seen mentioned on ATS... the political party/ secret society called the Know Nothings.

Does anybody know anything about these guys? Apprently, as a short lived political party before the civil war, they met in secret and, when asked about their membership, simply replied "I know nothing." I thought it was pretty cool, does anyone have any more info on this?

your post seems like a request for information, so you got some .

Perhaps if you frame it as a question or theory you will get more contributions.

I couldn't get into that link but what I remember from US history class many years ago was that it was a 19th century populist political movement. I'm not sure why a political party would control the society involved with running an historical monument, however.

Originally posted by niv
I couldn't get into that link but what I remember from US history class many years ago was that it was a 19th century populist political movement. I'm not sure why a political party would control the society involved with running an historical monument, however.

The show I watched gave this as the reason:

In order to raise funds for the continued and expensive construction, the society offered stones from various states, countries and organizations to be set in the monument, for a fee. Many groups sent stones, including one by the pope. The Know Nothings, being anti-catholic and anti-immigrant, were infuriated by this (apparently they didnt like any of the foreign stones), stole the pope stone and destroyed it. I guess afterwards they took control of the society in order to protect its interests.

When this happened, the original society refused to give up power and they both operated while trying to maintain control of the construction of the monument. Just before the civil war, the Know Nothings dissolved over internal disagreements over slavery, and the original society returned to control the monument's construction once again.