Transcript The Know Nothing Movement

The Know Nothing
Movement
The Know Nothing – a nativist
American political movement of
the 1840s and 1850s.
Empowered by popular fears
that the country was being
overwhelmed by German and
Irish Catholic immigrants
Originated in New York in 1843 as the American Republican
Party, spread to other states as the Native American Party
and became a national party in 1845. In 1855 it renamed
itself the American Party.
Underlying issues
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The increasing rate of immigration in the 1940s - religious
differences between Catholics and Protestants became a
political issue.
‘Catholicism is the ally of tyranny, the opponent of
material prosperity, the foe of thrift, the enemy of the
railroad, the caucus, and the school.’
Dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party. Activists
formed secret groups, coordinating their votes and
throwing their weight behind candidates sympathetic to
their cause.
Rise
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1854:
Robert T. Conrad - mayor of Philadelphia.
John T. Towers – mayor of Washington DC.
Stephen Palfrey Webb – mayor of San Francisco.
J. Neely Johnson – Governor of California.
The results of the 1854 elections were so favorable to the
Know Nothings that they formed officially as a political
party called the American Party.
Rise
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1854, California - Sam Roberts founded a Know-Nothing
chapter in San Francisco.
spring 1855 - Levi Boone was elected Mayor of Chicago
for the Know Nothings (barred all immigrants from city
jobs ).
Statewide, however, was blocked by Republican Abraham
Lincoln.
Violence
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August 6, 1855 – the Louisville riot in Kentucky. In a
hotly contested race for the office of governor of that
state, Know Nothings killed 22, injured many more, and
destroyed property.
Violence
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In Baltimore the mayoral elections of 1856, 1857 and
1858 were all marred by violence.
1851, Maine - the tarring and feathering of a Catholic
priest, John Bapst
1854, Bath - the burning of a Catholic church.
Decline
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The party declined rapidly in the North in 1855 and 1856.
In the Election of 1856 it was bitterly divided over
slavery.(Millard Fillmore – president candidate, Andrew
Jackson Donelson – vice-president candidate, both lost)
Although most of the new immigrants lived in the North,
resentment and anger against them was national, and the
American Party initially polled well in the South,
attracting the votes of many former southern Whigs. But
in the 1850s, no party could ignore slavery.
1855 - the American Party split into northern (antislavery)
and southern (proslavery) wings.
Legacy
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The nativist spirit of the Know Nothing movement was
revived in later political movements, such as the Ku Klux
Klan and the American Protective Association.
George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign was said by
Time to be under the "neo-Know Nothing banner".
Editor Fareed Zakaria has said that politicians who
"encouraged Americans to fear foreigners" were becoming
"modern incarnations of the Know-Nothings".
References
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/message/ps-knownothing.html
http://law.jrank.org/pages/8005/Know-Nothing-Party.html