The Know-Nothing Party (summary)

http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1187766?sid=568167&cid=27&oid=262177&useConcept=False
http://history1800s.about.com/od/immigration/a/knownothing01.htm

The Know-Nothing party was origionally named the American Party, and it was founded around 1850 by members of the Order of the Star Spangled Banner in New York and other secret organizations in the North. The leader of the party was James W. Barker. The Know-Nothing Party was based on anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant feelings of the 1840's. The Know-Nothing's consisted mainly of conservative whigs who were not happy with the growing number of immigrants, and the resulting rise of Catholicism. The party earned its famous name from the determination of its memebers to remain mysterious about their activities. The party had some success in local and state elections. In the 1856 election, the Know-Nothings nominated former president Millard Fillmore as their candidate.

As immigration from Europe increased in the early 1800s, citizens who had been born in the United States began to feel resentment at the new arrivals. Those opposed to immigrants became known as nativists.Violent encounters between immigrants and “native-born Americans” would occasionally occur in American cities in the 1830s and early 1840s. In July 1844, riots broke out in the city of Philadelphia. Nativists battled Irish immigrants, and two Catholic churches and a Catholic school were burned by mobs. Several small political parties espousing nativist doctrine existed, among them the American Republican Party and the Nativist Party. At the same time, secret societies, such as the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, sprang up in American cities. Their members were sworn to keep immigrants out of America, or at the least, to keep them out of mainstream society once they arrived.

The Know-Nothings and their anti-immigrant fervor became a popular movement for a time. Many Americans, of course, were appalled by the Know-Nothings. Abraham Lincoln expressed his poor feelings with the political party in a letter written in 1855. When asked about the party, the Know-Nothings were instructed to say "I know nothing" in order to keep it a secret. The basic premise of the party was a strong, if not virulent, stand against immigration and immigrants. Know-Nothing candidates had to be born in the United States. There was also an effort to change the laws so that only immigrants who had lived in the US for 25 years could become citizens. If this would occur it would mean that recent arrivals, especially the Irish Catholics coming to the US in great numbers, would not be able to vote for many years.

In the mid-1850s, the American Party, which had been neutral on the slavery issue, came to align itself with the pro-slavery position. As the power base of Know-Nothings was in the northeast, that proved to be the wrong position to take. The stance on slavery probably hastened the decline of the Know-Nothings. By 1860 the party had fractured, and the Know-Nothings joined the list of extinct political parties in America. James W. Barker left the party in the late 1850s and threw his support behind Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860. The nativist movement in America did not begin with the Know-Nothings, and it certainly didn’t end with them. Prejudice against new immigrants continued throughout the 19th century has still never ended completely.