In 1855, Abraham Lincoln, writing to Kentuckian Joshua Speed, said, “As a nation, we began by declaring that “all men were created equal.” We now practically read it “all men are created equal, except negroes.” When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read “all men are created equal except negroes, foreigners and Catholics.” Lincoln was referring to a new political party in American politics, the American Party, also known and the “Know-Nothings”.
The Know Nothings were the most successful of the nativist parties which sprang up during the ante-bellum period. They came into being in 1850 and had three goals; to prevent non-native born citizens from holding office, to prevent Catholics from holding office due to their allegiance to the Pope and to defend the Union without regard to any sectional issues. The sectional issue of the time was slavery. They were, early in their existence, a secret society and were called the Know Nothings because when queried, they would respond, “I know nothing.” In 1855, they became and open political party, calling themselves the American Party.
The American Party was quite successful for a time, sweeping some state elections, electing nine governors and for a time, held the balance of power in Congress. Their members supported deportation of foreign beggars and criminals and instituting a 21-year waiting period for naturalizing immigrants. By 1860, however, when they failed to curb immigration, members lost faith and gravitated back to the Republican and Democratic parties and the Know Nothings faded from view. Former members though, did help elect Abraham Lincoln president in 1860.
Immigration in the 1840’s and 1850’s, much like today, was a touchy subject. In the period between 1820 and 1845, immigration was just a trickle. Between 1845 and 1854 that trickle turned into a flood. Due mainly to the potato famine in Ireland and political instability in Germany, 2.9 million people immigrated to the United States, many of whom were Catholic. In New York City, more than half the residents were foreign born with most of them being Irish. Then, like now, the immigrants bore the brunt of the blame for America’s problems and conspiracy theories abounded.
In Boston, posters proclaimed that Catholics were “vile imposters, liars, villains and cowardly cutthroats.” Convents were said to hold young women against their will where priests regularly raped nuns and then killed the babies which resulted. The QANON of the 19th century. Violence toward immigrants erupted with armed gangs formed by the Know Nothings spread to the major American cities burning churches and terrorizing immigrants.
The Know Nothings came into being due mainly to the inability of the dominant parties of the time, the Whigs and Democrats to address the problems to the satisfaction of the electorate. When Americans were secure in their own place in society, immigrants were harmless. When immigration began to rise in the setting of increased sectional tensions, the clash of cultures resulted in “native” Americans blaming the newcomers for all their problems. Rather than seeing American ideals and virtue as being strong and vigorous, native Americans became paranoid and fearful that American society was too weak to withstand pressure from the immigrant cultures and nativists put forth the theory that immigrants were coming to American to “infiltrate and subvert American culture.”
It wasn’t only American culture under attack according to the Know Nothings. The period between 1850 to 1854 was a period of alternating economic boom and depression. As a result of the California gold rush in 1854, inflation spiked at the same time immigration reached its peak. Nativists saw not only their ideals threatened but with immigrants competing for jobs, their economic security threatened as well. With the Whigs and Democrats failing to address nativist concerns, the Know Nothings came out of the closet and became the American Party.
The American Party, after an initial boost of public support and political success, began to lose support. Their focus solely on immigration as the cause of America’s ills while ignoring the rising sectional tensions caused by slavery virtually guaranteed their failure. The voters lost faith in the American Party’s ability to address their concerns and gradually gravitated back to the Democrats and the newly formed Republican Party.
The powder keg of slavery finally blew up with Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 and the Civil War shoved immigration far into the background. But it never really disappeared. Nativism and xenophobia has never gone away, and the legacy of the Know Nothings pop up again and again with each new wave of immigrants, whether they be German or Irish, Chinese, Italian, Eastern European, Asian, Mexican, or South American. Each group has, at one time or another, been blamed for America’s ills and for attempting to subvert American culture and each group has at one time or another, become the nativist turning on the succeeding wave.
Today, immigration is still an issue and like the 1850’s, emotions are hot. The MAGA wing of the Republican party is to 2024 as the Know Nothings were to 1850. Immigrants and refugees from Central and South America have replaced Catholics, Irish and German as a threat to American culture and way of life. The old rhetoric is used, and the old fears and hatreds are resurrected. What is different this time is that while the Know Nothings worked toward a solution, today’s MAGA wing, led by a demagogue, do not. To them, immigration is a political tool, a club with which to bash their opponents. Solving the problem would deprive them of that club and they work not to solve but to obstruct.
Unfortunately, history offers no solution, only, here we go again. Perhaps history’s best contribution is to remind us that America has never been that welcoming place suggested by the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, just as much as immigration has not resulted in the annihilation of American culture. If we can accept both these facts, perhaps we can cut through the noise and begin to address the issue dispassionately and logically and to begin to treat immigrants with some degree of respect and compassion.
Lincoln closed his letter to his friend, by saying, “I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty-to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.” Words for 1850 as well as 2024.