Know-nothing party

" Uncle Sam 's youngest son, Citizen Know Nothing"

Know-Nothing Party (Know Nothings, to German ignoramus ), actually American Party , was the popular name of a nativist political party in the United States , the mid-19th century, especially on the eve of the Civil War occurred. The party spoke out against further immigration from non-Protestant countries, in particular against Catholics who came to the USA from Ireland and Germany .

history

At the end of the 1840s, various nativist, anti-Catholic secret societies emerged from which the Know-Nothing party later emerged. In 1849, New York attorney Charles Allen founded the Order of the Star Spangled Banner . Only Protestant men of English origin had access here. Another precursor was the Order of the United Americans . In 1854, supporters of these organizations from thirteen states formed the American Party. Its founder was Edward Zane Judson (1820–1886), better known as Ned Buntline . The name of the party came from the fact that its members swore the oath not to reveal many secrets about the party in public ( English : to know nothing ); should they be asked about the party from outside parties, they should answer: “I don't know about anything.” They also called for Protestantism to be preserved as the dominant religion and for the trade and consumption of alcoholic beverages to be more closely controlled.

The main purpose of the party was to combat the influence of immigrants and the Catholic Church. There were repeated violent attacks by members of the American Party against Catholics, especially against Irish, but also against Catholic Germans. After the Great Famine in Ireland and the failed revolution of 1848 in Germany, hundreds of thousands - the so-called " Forty-Eighters " - streamed into the USA, in whose cities the indigenous population became a minority. This created fear and tension.

Election campaign poster from 1856 with candidates Millard Fillmore (left) and Andrew Jackson Donelson

The Native American magazine, founded in 1842, formed the nativist movement. The society, organized in 1854, emerged from the Native American Association founded in 1835 and initially appeared to play a significant political role, in agreement with the Democrats . In various states were Know Nothings in the Congress elected, including the future US Senator Joshua Hill from Georgia and Nathaniel P. Banks , later Speaker of the House , governor of Massachusetts and the Civil War a general of the Union .

The Knownothings claimed that Catholic immigration was part of a conspiracy by the Pope to undermine United States values ​​and subvert its institutions. Because of their obligation to obey the Pope, Catholics are fundamentally unsuitable for participating in a democratic state. They claimed an army of the Pope should go ashore in America and a new Vatican should be founded in Cincinnati . Such and similar conspiracy theories were spread among others by the inventor Samuel FB Morse or the Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher . Violent crowds repeatedly attacked Catholic churches in the New England states , which were particularly hard hit by the wave of immigration. The party advocated not admitting immigrants and Catholics to political office, increasing the length of residence required before possible naturalization from five to 25 years, making the right to vote dependent on passing an English language test and restricting the distribution of spirits.

When her specially capped presidential candidate Millard Fillmore , previously as a Whig 1850-1853 US President , the election of 1856 lost - he and his vice presidential candidate Andrew Jackson Donelson received only eight electoral votes from Maryland - and the newly formed Republican Party as a party, established by White Protestants took over some of the demands of the nativists, the Knownothings split up and lost all importance as a result of the civil war . In 1856 the party received just under a quarter of the votes cast.

Most of the ignorant supported Abraham Lincoln's election campaign in 1860 and formed a quasi-coalition with his Republican Party. Some party members also joined the short-lived Constitutional Union Party , whose presidential candidate John Bell was without a chance against Lincoln. Anti-Irish and anti-Catholic slogans lost their effectiveness in the civil war.

In fiction

In Martin Scorsese's feature film Gangs of New York (2002), the natives' hatred of new immigrants is the subject of discussion.

In the bestseller The shaman of Noah Gordon the subject American Party and forms Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner , an alleged secret organization of the AP, a central plot line.

Label American Party

In the history of the United States, the term American Party has been used for a number of other parties:

• The Toleration Party (also known as the American Party ) existed in the 19th century. It was founded in Connecticut to represent opposition to the Federalist Party .
• An American Party in Utah was an anti-Mormon party that existed in Utah between 1905 and 1911.
• In 1914, an American Party was founded by the ex-New York governor William Sulzer . It should serve him to be re-elected as governor of New York - but unsuccessfully.
• An American Party was founded in 1920 in Texas founded and served as a one-man vehicle for the candidacy of James E. "Pa" Ferguson in the presidential elections in the United States in 1920 .
• An American party was founded in 1924. For them, Gilbert Nations ran as a presidential candidate with former Congressman Charles H. Randall as runner-up for the 1924 election. The Ku Klux Klan is said to have supported the two. Both got 23,867 votes.
• An American Party was formed in Nebraska and served as the vehicle for Mary Kennery's candidacy for US President in 1952 .
• An American Party was formed in 1952 to support Herman W. Kolpack's candidacy for US President in 1952 .
• In 1969 an American Party was founded as a spin-off from the American Independent Party .

See also

• List of United States Political Parties

literature

• Tyler Anbinder: Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings, and the Politics of the 1850s. Oxford University Press, New York 1992, ISBN 978-0-19-507233-4 .

Web links

Wikisource: Know-Nothing Platform 1856  - Sources and full texts (English)

Wikisource: The New International Encyclopædia / Know-Nothings  - Sources and full texts (English)

• History of the party in the Handbook of Texas

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ray A. Billington: The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (1938); Aïssatou Sy-Wonyu: Know-Nothings . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 1, p. 413.
2. ↑ Louis D. Scisco, Political nativism in New York State (1901), p 267
3. ↑ Ray A. Billington: The Protestant Crusade, 1800-1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (1938), standard scholarly survey, pp. 337, 380-406; Aïssatou Sy-Wonyu: Know-Nothings . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 1, p. 413.
4. ^ Richard Carwardine: Lincoln. A Life of Purpose and Power. Vintage Books, New York 2006, p. 46.
5. ↑ Aissatou Sy-Wonyu: Know-Nothings . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 1, p. 412.
6. ↑ Aissatou Sy-Wonyu: Know-Nothings . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 1, p. 413.

literature

• Aïssatou Sy-Wonyu: Know-Nothings . In: Peter Knight (Ed.): Conspiracy Theories in American History. To Encyclopedia . ABC Clio, Santa Barbara / Denver / London 2003, Volume 1, pp. 412 ff.