The significant influx of immigrants in the early 1850s
created tensions in the United States. Considering many of the newly arrived
immigrants were of Catholic Irish or German stock and some had fought in the
recent revolutionary upheavals in Europe, there were the concerns over the
dilution of the Protestant nature of the country, loyalty of Catholic to the
Pope, unacceptable drinking and Sabbath habits, and finally the fear of rubble
rousing red revolutionaries. New demands to protect the native population, here
native born white population, grew louder. Part of the general spirit of
reform, which desired temperance and moral character, foreign born residents
seemed to undermine the country and need reforming. The nativists focused
especially on Catholic immigrants and had their strongest showing where Irish
Catholic residents were visible, such as Boston and New York. Already in 1836,
Samuel Morse had claimed the New York City mayor job with a nativist agenda. In
December 1844, Philadelphia was hit by nativist riots. Giving order to these
organizations, Charles B. Allen created the secret Order of the Star-Spangled
Banner in New York in 1850, which became popularly known as the Know Nothings
(members would claim they “know nothing about” the organization). With political
realignment in the early 1850s, the nativists created in 1854 the American
Party, which wanted to pass laws making immigration more difficult and
naturalization a longer process. The party assumed to have a national issue,
but the Kansas conflict undermined their appeal.
Image: "The Propagation Society. More Free than Welcome." Graphic. New York: Nathaniel Currier at no. 2 Spruce St., c1855. From the Library of Congress: Popular Graphic Arts Collection.