The "Know Nothing" Party

[cthulu2016]

Not stoking resentment of Catholics or resentment of resentment of Catholics. Just some American history that is now long enough ago that it is more comical than menacing.

Attitudes toward Catholicism were long tied to attitudes about immigration, and both opposition to immigration and its associated nationalist politics, were typically anti-Catholic. (Our first settlers were mostly Anglican and other protestant sects, but subsequent waves were predominantly Catholic.)

If there were only a few "white" Catholics in America today that would remain true—conservative protestants would view Catholicism as a heretical trait of incoming Hispanics. But since the entire brain-trust of American conservatism is now Catholic (Recall the loneliness of both RW supreme court justices and protestant Republican presidential candidates) we do not see Hispanics bashed for their religion much.

The "Know Nothing" name was originally about secrecy rather than proud ignorance.

Nice to know that the man on the $50 bill voted the straight Know-Nothing ticket in the 1850s.

The Know Nothing was a political movement by the nativist American political faction of the 1850s, characterized by political xenophobia, anti-Catholic sentiment, and occasional bouts of violence against the groups the nativists targeted. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being subverted by Catholic Americans as well as by new German and Irish Catholic immigrants. In Know-Nothing rhetoric these native and immigrant Catholics were described as hostile to republican values and likely under the control of the Holy See. Enrollment was advertised as limited to Protestant males of British American ancestry, but there were many members of Jewish, Dutch, German, and other backgrounds.

At its peak from 1854 to 1856, Know-Nothingism campaigned to curb immigration and naturalization, but met with only limited success. For a brief while there were many prominent leaders, including ex-President Millard Fillmore, Massachusetts Governor Nathaniel P. Banks, and former congressman Lewis C. Levin. Future President Ulysses S. Grant also voted the Know-Nothing ticket in the mid-1850s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

[pampango]

1. They've renamed it - the tea party - for the 21st century.

The Know-Nothings and their anti-immigrant and anti-Irish fervor became a popular movement for a time. Lithographs sold in the 1850s depict a young man with the caption, "Uncle Sam's Youngest Son, Citizen Know Nothing." The Library of Congress, which holds a copy of such a print, describes it by noting the portrait is "representing the nativist ideal of the Know Nothing Party."

Lincoln noted that if the Know-Nothings ever took power, the Declaration of Independence would have to be amended to say that all men are created equal "except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." Lincoln went on to say he would rather emigrate to Russia, where despotism is out in the open, then live in such an America.

The basic premise of the party was a strong, if not virulent, stand against immigration and immigrants. Know-Nothing candidates had to be born in the United States. And there was also a concerted effort to agitate to change the laws so that only immigrants who had lived in the US for 25 years could become citizens.

The nativist movement in America did not begin with the Know-Nothings, and it certainly didn’t end with them. Prejudice against new immigrants continued throughout the 19th century (and, of course, it has never ended completely).

http://history1800s.about.com/od/immigration/a/knownothing01.htm

Of course, our modern Know-Nothings focus more on Hispanic and Muslim immigration rather than Irish and German immigrants of the 19th century.

[cthulu2016]

2. Interestingly, the population of the Union increased during the Civil War

That is almost unheard of, for a war of that scale—consider not just men dying, from from men being away from home.

But European immigration was so high it balanced the war effects.

And, of course, we know there were a lot of new Irish folks around since our worst race riot was newly arrived Irish New Yorkers objecting to being pressed into the Union Army and, as mobs typically do, taking it out on an inappropriate target.