, Autograph Letter Signed, Rockville, Maryland, September 18, 1853, to Thomas P. Jones, Cecilton, Maryland, Predicting a “Know Nothing” Electoral Victory in Baltimore

quarto, 1 page, with original mailing envelope, in good legible condition.

"… I suppose that your Society called 'Know Nothings' are still increasing, how does G. B. P. and John W. Morgan get along? I suppose that they have not gone quite crazy yet, but I really am afraid there is danger of their doing so. We have in the neighborhood of two hundred and fifty in Rockville and not less than a thousand in the County, a clear majority. I guess that Baltimore City will astonish the nation next month when she casts her vote for Mayor. I expect the K. N.s will carry the City bay at least five thousand majority…"

Mace's political prediction proved accurate. The so-called Know Nothings, originally a Nativist, anti-Catholic secret society, was in the process of transforming itself into a respectable "American" political party. In the Baltimore city election of October 1853, for the first time, an avowed "Know Nothing" – Samuel Hinks, a grain merchant – was elected Mayor, his two years in office being a time of constant political violence, with shots fired by competing mobs (Know Nothings vs. Democrats). It was also a time of national political ferment, with over 100 Congressmen, soon to be allied with the new anti-slavery Republican Party, expressing their commitment to Know Nothing "principles", as foreign-born Democratic workingmen in the north showed open support for the slave system in the south.