On Nativism and Slavery

Before reading this work, I only had passing familiarity with the Know Nothings, and I’m glad I took the time to read it. Anbinder sought to make this the standard narrative text on the Know Nothings in the North, but I’m not sure that he quite succeeds on that front.

In short, the “Know Nothings” were a secret fraternal order that emerged under the name “Order of the Star Spangled Banner” in 1854, and its primary goal was to oppose Catholics and immigrants. The Know Nothings were supposedly so secret that they weren’t even supposed to acknowledge the existence of the order. When they were asked, they would say that they “know nothing,” hence their unofficial name. The rapid increase of Irish immigration in the 1840s made the early 1850s fertile ground for anti-Catholic sentiment. Additionally, Know Nothings opposed state funds being granted to private schools, they opposed the visit of Papel Nuncio Gaetano Bedini, and they could not stomach the appointment of the United States’s first Catholic postmaster general. Although the Know Nothings’ chief aim was opposing immigration, northern Know Nothings also came to oppose the extension of slavery and were die-hard participants in the temperance movement.

Ultimately, the Know Nothings’ ideology had six primary tenets, five of which dealt with immigration and religious concerns:

1. Protestantism is what defines American society
2. Catholicism is not compatible with American values
3. Catholics hold political power disproportionate to their number
4. Immigrants and Catholics acquire power through fraudulent voting and the use of election-day violence
5. Establishment parties and politicians aid immigrants and Catholics attain political power
6. Liquor consumption and the extension of slavery should both be restricted

To counter the increasing role of Catholicism and immigration in American society, they had two solutions:

1. The five-year probationary period that immigrants were required to wait before applying for citizenship should be extended to twenty-one years
2. Voters should only elect native-born citizens that would not offer patronage to immigrants

Although an organization of only 43 members in 1852, by the end of 1854 it had over one million adherents, six governorships, and countless state congressmen. The success of the party cannot be separated from the collapse of the Second Party System, where northerners lost all faith in Democrats and Whigs alike. With so many Northerners searching for a new political home, the Know Nothings stood out because they were not a political party but a secret order. Know Nothings swept the elections in late 1854 and into 1855, but winning elections and governing are two very different experiences. Although members of the Know Nothings agreed on anti-Catholic and immigrant sentiment, they could not agree on anything else, factionalizing the entire project. It got so bad that, despite holding the majority of seats in Pennsylvania after the election of 1854, one of Pennsylvania’s seats in the federal Senate remained vacant because legislators could not agree on a Senator.

Furthermore, while most Know Nothings did oppose slavery, many in the South did not, and many Midwesterners were not sure where they stood on the subject. With the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Know Nothings factionalized further. Southern members wanted to maintain the act, while Northern members sought to repeal it. As a result of infighting, the Republican Party—the other beneficiary of the collapse of the Whigs—swallowed the Know Nothings in Ohio. Infighting between Know Nothings continued, and the party was forced to fight against both Republicans and Democrats in the election of 1856. Because of northern infighting between Republicans and Know Nothings, the reprehensible James Buchanan was swept into the White House, setting the stage for the American Civil War.

In the years between 1856 and 1860, anti-immigrant sentiment became notably less important, and the ultimate goal for northerners was to “maintain the harmony of the Union.” On this subject, the Republican party was far more clear, and the Republicans managed to absorb the rest of the Know Nothings. The most vocal Know Nothings opposed Republican-Know Nothing fusion, but they were edged out by the rest of the party. By 1860, Northerners won a victory with the election of Abraham Lincoln, but a much larger crisis would unfold.

I learned a ton from this book, but I’d be much more interested in seeing a social and cultural history of the Know Nothings to fill out the picture—this is a work of political history at its finest, but it lacks everything else.