jjares reviewed The Know Nothing Party: The History and Legacy of America?s Most Notorious Nativist Political Party on + 3262 more book reviews
Immigration into the US exploded in the 1850s, causing some people to worry about the future of America. Because citizens saw themselves overrun by immigrants, they feared that the interests of the native-born would be subsumed by the interests of the larger number of immigrants.
The people arriving on the US shores were primarily Catholic. This was worrisome to the Protestant majority in the country at the time. The book makes a point of saying that few of the immigrants settled in the South because of slavery. Immigrants were afraid that they would have to compete with slaves for work; and that the competition would keep them from earning a living wage. Thus, immigrants surged into the North and the anti-immigration sentiment was generally a Northern issue.
I think we have a hard time imagining that states could or would threaten to leave the Union, as they did during the years of anxiety over free-states vs. slave-states issues. The federal government has assumed authority -- and the states now have those powers that the federal government has not taken. That is very different from the times before the Civil War; the states seemed to have more power than the federal government.
During the 1850s (and until about 1860), the Know-Nothing Party (also known as the American Party) rose briefly, leading to the ruin of the Whig Party. From the ashes rose the Republican Party, the Know-Nothing Party, and the Free-Soilers. Within 10 years, the two parties we currently have would become the most powerful of the political parties, and the others would fade away. By 1860, there were four parties that fielded a presidential candidate: the Republicans, Democrats, Southern Democrats, and Constitutional Union Party.
The people arriving on the US shores were primarily Catholic. This was worrisome to the Protestant majority in the country at the time. The book makes a point of saying that few of the immigrants settled in the South because of slavery. Immigrants were afraid that they would have to compete with slaves for work; and that the competition would keep them from earning a living wage. Thus, immigrants surged into the North and the anti-immigration sentiment was generally a Northern issue.
I think we have a hard time imagining that states could or would threaten to leave the Union, as they did during the years of anxiety over free-states vs. slave-states issues. The federal government has assumed authority -- and the states now have those powers that the federal government has not taken. That is very different from the times before the Civil War; the states seemed to have more power than the federal government.
During the 1850s (and until about 1860), the Know-Nothing Party (also known as the American Party) rose briefly, leading to the ruin of the Whig Party. From the ashes rose the Republican Party, the Know-Nothing Party, and the Free-Soilers. Within 10 years, the two parties we currently have would become the most powerful of the political parties, and the others would fade away. By 1860, there were four parties that fielded a presidential candidate: the Republicans, Democrats, Southern Democrats, and Constitutional Union Party.
