SOUR-OES
 

In the American political system the political party is an
organization almost entirely extra-legal In character. It is
seldom recognized by the public records of the community.
In the study of a partisan movement, therefore, the ordinary
sources for political history very largely fail. The story must
be made up from the records of the organization itself, If any
exist, from the private papers of men who directed its work
and from the newspaper files which chronicled its various
moves in the never-ending game of poUtlcs. The nativist
political organizations had records of their own In their day of
activity. There were, presumably, minutes of the sessions of
its state committees and state conventions, of Its local execu¬
tive committees and party conventions In the localities where
it existed. There were certainly, during a part of the nativist
period, records of the secret bodies of one sort or another In
which the voters and adherents of the movement were organ¬
ized. Of these two sorts of records very little seems to be
now extant. The writer has found no manuscript record
whatever of committee or convention, and but small material
for the secret system. The great Know-Nothing Order has
left hardly a trace of itself In the way of records. Many of its
official documents were re-printed by the dally press at the time
they were issued, and these have been valuable aids in work,
but as to manuscript material the writer has found nothing.
The records of the Know-Nothing Grand Council are pre¬
sumed to have passed from one grand secretary to another
till the Grand Council ended ; but the late Hon. James W.
Husted, who was the last regular secretary of the state organi-
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