American "Know-Nothings" of the early to mid-19th century
Dunno in all his glory!
But the most famous among them was a little boy named Dunno. They called him Dunno because he knew nothing. This Dunno wore a bright blue hat, yellow, canary-yellow pants, and an orange shirt with a green tie. He loved bright colors. Dressed as a parrot, Dunno would wander around town all day, making up all sorts of tall tales and telling everyone. He also constantly bullied little girls. So, upon seeing his orange shirt from afar, the little girls would immediately turn around and hide in their homes.
Nikolai Nosov. "The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends"
Nikolai Nosov. "The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends"
History, which few people know. It so happened that on our website "VO" an article by Viktor Biryukov appeared, dedicated to the specifics of two important historical events in American history – the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. In the comments, a number of our readers expressed some pity for the defeated Southerners. They claimed they were the bearers of patriarchal values, while the Yankees brought the cult of greed to the fertile South. Well, that's partly true. Moreover, there are two very interesting books: "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Moreover, while the former was written in 1936, the latter in 1852, that is, right after the war.
If we were to evaluate them in the most basic terms, one would be "for" and the other "against" the situation that developed in the United States on the eve of the Civil War. But both books examined its causes. These were also examined by Soviet-era US history textbooks, and, again, many of them cited these causes. However, far from all of them. This is because the problem with our humanities was that… far from all the laws of social development were known at the time these books were written, or were known but ignored. Therefore, they tended to adopt a highly simplified view of events. But life, as it turned out, was far more complex than those same Marxist models, even if at first glance they appeared harmonious and logical. And so today we will become acquainted with one aspect of American life on the eve of the Civil War, something I recently promised to write about to a number of our readers.
Let's start with the fact that everyone has probably heard of our Soviet Dunno, Nikolai Nosov. But... if we were transported in a time machine to the United States, say, in 1850, we might easily encounter people there who were also called... "Know-Nothings." And all because, to a whole series of questions, they unanimously answered: "I know nothing!" And there were quite a few such people there, a veritable mass movement, which was called "the party of the Know-Nothings" or "the party of the Know-Nothings."
Followers of the "Know-Nothing" movement believed there was a "Romanist" conspiracy to undermine civil and religious freedom in the United States, organized by Catholics—that is, in modern parlance, they were all victims of a "conspiracy theory." The "Know-Nothings" sought to unite native Protestants in defense of their traditional religious and political values—that same original patriarchal system brought to America by the Pilgrim Fathers on the "May Flower."
Protestants feared that Catholic priests and bishops would control a significant portion of the voters among immigrants who had become American citizens. However, in most places, the Know-Nothing movement's ideology and influence lasted only one or two years, after which it disintegrated due to the weakness and inexperience of local leaders and a deep division over slavery. In some Southern states, their party, unlike in the North, did not emphasize anti-Catholicism and took a neutral stance on slavery; nevertheless, it became the main alternative to the dominant Democratic Party.
Interestingly, anti-Catholic sentiment was widespread in colonial America, but it played a minor role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and German Catholic immigrants in the 1840s. The result was a movement of nativists, or "native American Protestants," directed against them. They made their presence known in New York as early as 1843, after which their movement quickly spread to neighboring states under the name "Native American Party." They achieved success in a number of local and congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, where anti-Catholic orator Lewis Charles Levin was elected representative from Pennsylvania's 1st District.
In the early 1850s, numerous secret societies emerged, the most important of which were the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. They emerged in New York City in the early 1850s as secret organizations that quickly spread throughout the North, attracting non-Catholics, especially members of the lower middle class and skilled workers.
Interestingly, the name "Know Nothings" originated in the party's semi-secret organization. When asked about their activities, members were expected to answer, "I know nothing." Outsiders derisively referred to the party members as "Know Nothings" or, more colloquially, "Know-Nothings," and the name stuck. And in 1855, the Know Nothings first entered politics under the name "American Party."
The collapse of the Whig Party after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 paved the way for the emergence of a new major political party opposing the Democratic Party. The essence of this law was that whether or not slavery would be allowed in a state was to be determined by a simple majority vote of the state's residents, and understandably, it outraged Northerners. The split between pro- and anti-slavery forces not only led to the disintegration of the Whig Party, with most of its northern members joining the new Republican Party, but also led to armed clashes in Kansas, known as "Bleeding Kansas."
The tensions created by these events became one of the main causes of the American Civil War. This was especially true because Kansas joined the Union in 1861 as a free state, while Nebraska only achieved this status after the war ended, in 1867. And in all these events, the "Know-Nothings" played a very active role, adding fuel to the fire of political confrontation between the North and the South.
The Know-Nothings initially succeeded in electing their representative, Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts, and several others to Congress in the 1854 elections, after which they united to form a new political party. In the South, it became a tool for politicians opposed to the Democrats. Many members and supporters of the American Party also hoped that it would occupy a middle ground between the pro-slavery Democratic Party and the radical anti-slavery elements of the rapidly growing Republican Party.
It also nominated former President Millard Fillmore for the 1856 presidential election, but he kept his membership in the party secret and personally refrained from supporting the activities and ideology of the Know-Nothing movement. In the 1856 presidential election, Fillmore received 21,5% of the vote, losing to both the Democratic and Republican candidates. Henry Winter Davis, an active Know-Nothing supporter, was elected to Congress from Maryland as a member of the American Party. Once in Congress, his first act was to blame "un-American" Irish Catholic immigrants for the recent election of Democrat James Buchanan as president. Here's what he said:
"The recent elections have exacerbated all the problems the American Party opposed. Foreign allies formed the country's government—people who received citizenship by the thousands on the eve of the elections. Once again, in the fierce struggle for power, people forgot the Republic's prohibition on religious interference in politics. These factors led to a huge turnout of foreign-born citizens who have no understanding of American interests, harbor no American sentiments, and are guided by foreign sympathies when voting on American issues. And these votes, in essence, led to the current result."
This all reminds me of something, doesn't it? And there's something very familiar in his words...
A "conspiracy theory" is generally irrational, and the fears it generates are usually existential. But in this case, the immigration of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics to the United States between 1840 and 1860 turned religious differences between Catholics and Protestants into a serious political issue. Sometimes, brawls broke out at polling stations, with the use of weapons.
Protestants claimed that Pope Pius IX had contributed to the failure of the liberal revolutions of 1848 in Europe and called him an enemy of liberty, democracy, and republicanism. One Boston priest called Catholicism "an ally of tyranny, an adversary of material prosperity, an enemy of thrift, an enemy of railroads, caucuses, and schools." Conspiracy theorists actively spread information about the Pope's intentions to subjugate the United States through a steady influx of Catholics controlled by Irish bishops, who answered only to the Pope and were personally appointed by him.
Immigration in the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times higher than the previous decade. Most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic farmers or workers from Ireland and Germany, who settled in the tenements of large cities. Social welfare spending, naturally, immediately skyrocketed. Crime also increased. For example, in Cincinnati, the crime rate tripled between 1846 and 1853, and the murder rate increased sevenfold. During the same period, Boston's spending on welfare for the poor tripled. So, to a certain extent, the situation was similar to what we face today!
To be continued ...
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