Lewis Charles Levin - Scandal, Insanity, and Death

Scandal, Insanity, and Death

After leaving Congress in 1851, Levin continued to campaign for the Native American or Know-Nothing movement, as it became known. He attempted to campaign for U.S. Senator, which prior to the 17th Amendment was a seat elected by the state legislature rather than by popular vote. Levin was accused of bribing members of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and was subpoenaed by a state investigation in February 1855. The findings were inconclusive but Levin never again held office.

Levin and other Nativists helped tilt the 1852 Presidential election toward Democrat Franklin Pierce and away from the Whigs' candidate, the popular Mexican War leader General Winfield Scott. There were Catholics in Scott's family and he was accused of Papist connections. Levin was an organizing speaker of the first Know-Nothing Party convention in March 1855. Though in notably failing health, he was a featured speaker at the American Order's rally that autumn in a New York City park.

Levin was enraged and disgusted by the new Republican Party's nomination of John C. Frémont for President, at their convention in Philadelphia in June 1856. He wrote a lengthy diatribe against Frémont, which he delivered at a rally in Philadelphia's National Hall (now Independence Hall) shortly after Millard Fillmore had been nominated by both the Know Nothings and the Whigs. However, Frémont partisans pulled him off the stand. According to newspaper reports, Levin suffered a complete mental collapse and became so "deranged" that he was placed in the Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane, where he died of "Insanity" in March 1860. Levin was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Philadelphia. After his death, his wife and child converted to Catholicism, independently of each other.