The A.P.A. and the Fight Against Religious Bigotry
A scathing editorial decries the arrival of the American Protective Association in Seattle, denouncing its anti-Catholic secret agenda as 'idiotic' and a threat to American freedom.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
We understand that an organizer of a very stupid and mischievous secret political society known as the A.P.A. has recently visited Portland, Or., and is soon to visit this city. Secret political societies, even in countries that are not entirely free, work more political and social evil than they do good. The ritual is full of idiotic charges that the Catholic church is conspiring in America to control the state. No intelligent man can read this ritual through without wondering whether some bigoted, stupid, ignorant person had not written up the rhetoric of this ritual, which is as ventose as Peffer and as maniacal as 'Bloody Bridles' Waite. The attempt to organize this new secret political order of the A.P.A. in this country will prove a wretched failure; it may take feeble root in a few spots among ignorant people, but its purpose, which is to politically boycott all Roman Catholics, is so utterly revolting to all intelligent men that it only needs to be exposed to be brought into general contempt.
“The attempt to organize this new secret political order of the A.P.A. in this country will prove a wretched failure.”
This editorial from 1894 highlights a moment when nativist secret societies sought to leverage religious bigotry to control local politics. It serves as a reminder that Seattle’s 'Queen City' identity has long been contested by exclusionary movements that target immigrants and minority faiths, a dynamic that remains a recurring feature in American civic life.
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