Abstract
To truly understand our country’s politics and presidential outcomes, it is important to examine past elections with similarly divisive campaign issues. The election of 2016 has brought into the open the feelings of anxiety, hatred and divisiveness towards Muslims and other minorities. Unfortunately, this chapter of our political history has been played out before in the 1856 presidential election. The American Party, or as is it better known the Know-Nothing Party, was anti-immigration and anti-Catholic. And leading the ticket in 1856 was a former president—Millard Fillmore.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
CNN Library, “September 11th Hijackers Fast Facts.” CNN, September 5, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/27/us/september-11th-hijackers-fast-facts/.
- 2.
Humphrey J. Desmond, The Know-Nothing Party (Washington: The New Century Press, 1905), 10.
- 3.
Desmond, 14.
- 4.
“Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association and Other Inhabitants,” George Washington, December 2, 1783, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/address-to-the-members-of-the-volunteer-association/.
- 5.
Reports of the Immigration Commission. Washington Government Printing Office, 1911, 9.
- 6.
New England Historical Society, “Anti-Irish Know Nothing Mob Burns a Charlestown Convent in 1834.” 2016, http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/know-nothing-party-takes-root-in-ashes-of-destroyed-charlestown-convent/.
- 7.
John Hancock Lee, The Origin and Progress of the American Party in Politics (Philadelphia: Elliott & Gihon, 1855), 15.
- 8.
Andrew Glass, “U.S. enacts first immigration law, March 26, 1790.” POLITICO, March 26, 2012, http://www.politico.com/story/2012/03/the-united-states-enacts-first-immigration-law-074438.
- 9.
Jack Lynch, “The Alien and Sedition Acts.” Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Winter 2007, http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter07/alien.cfm.
- 10.
Densho Encyclopedia, Alien Enemies Act of 1798. 2017, http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Alien_Enemies_Act_of_1798/.
- 11.
Mark Sumner, “Fox News says Donald Trump’s proposals are like the Alien and Sedition Acts—they’re right.” Daily Kos, August 16, 2016, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/16/1560707/-Fox-News-says-that-what-Donald-Trump-proposals-are-like-the-Alien-and-Sedition-Acts-they-re-right.
- 12.
The River Boyne was located about thirty miles north of Dublin, Ireland.
- 13.
Francis W. Hoeber, “Drama in the Courtroom, Theatre in the Streets: Philadelphia’s Irish Riot of 1831.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. CXXV, No. 3, July 2001, 229.
- 14.
Hoeber, 230.
- 15.
Reverend M.D. Lichliter, History of the Junior Order United American Mechanics of the United States of North America (Philadelphia: Press of J.B. Lippincott Company, 1909), 2–3.
- 16.
Zachary M. Schrag, “Nativist Riots of 1844.” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2013, https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/.
- 17.
Lynn Bridgers, The American Religious Experience: A Concise History (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 104.
- 18.
Education News, “American Public Education: An Origin Story.” April 16, 2013, http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/american-public-education-an-origin-story/.
- 19.
Joel Spring, The American School (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008), 106.
- 20.
River Campus Libraries, William Henry Seward Papers. http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/1136#miscspch.
- 21.
Robert P. Lockwood, “Anti-Catholicism and the History of Catholic School Funding.” Catholic League, February, 2000, http://www.catholicleague.org/anti-catholicism-and-the-history-of-catholic-school-funding/.
- 22.
Patrick Young, “The Know Nothings Launch a Civil War Against Immigrant America.” Long Island Wins, December 9, 2011, https://longislandwins.com/news/national/the-know-nothings-launch-a-civil-war-against-immigrant-america-2/.
- 23.
Lockwood.
- 24.
John Hancock Lee, The Origin and Progress of the American Party in Politics (Philadelphia: Elliott & Gihon, 1855), 229.
- 25.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Bud Kennedy, “Irish fought for Mexico? Yes—all in the name of St. Patrick.” Star-Telegram, March 16, 2017, http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article139012213.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Volle, J.J. (2019). The Original Know-Nothings. In: Donald Trump and the Know-Nothing Movement. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78334-5_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78334-5_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78333-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78334-5
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)