Lincoln and the Know Nothing Movement
Washington DC: Public Affairs Press, 1954. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. 24 pages. Tabulations. Maps. References. Cover has some wear and soiling. This is one of the Annals of American Research series. This analysis addresses the relationship over time between Abraham Lincoln and members of the Know Nothing movement, including times when Lincoln supported Millard Fillmore and John C. Fremont politically. The author notes: The 1860 campaign is easily summarized. Bell drew votes which Lincoln could not draw, but he received few of the Know Nothing votes in the north. The majority of the new immigrant vote, which was anti-Know Nothing, went to Douglas. Democratic hopes were for an election by the House. A change to Douglas of one vote in twenty-sever in the northwest would have given him the salient states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, but it is clear that the Know Nothing vote had gone Republican in those states. Most of the Know Nothing vote of 1856 was Republican in 1860. Republican gains and Know Nothing losses show remarkable similarities. The Know Nothings were clearly responsible for the election of Lincoln. Know Nothing was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. Despite using the "Native American Party" name, its membership consisted of the descendants of colonists or settlers and did not include indigenous Native Americans. The Know Nothings were originally a secret society. It was primarily an anti-Catholic, Anti-Irish, anti-immigration, populist and xenophobic movement. It was progressive in its stances on "issues of labor rights, opposition to slavery, and the need for more government spending" as well as for its "support for an expansion of the rights of women, regulation of industry, and support of measures designed to improve the status of working people." It was a forerunner to the temperance movement in the United States. The Know Nothing movement briefly emerged as a major political party in the form of the American Party. Adherents to the movement were to simply reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its common name. Supporters of the Know Nothing movement believed that an alleged "Romanist" conspiracy was being planned to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States, and sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in what they described as a defense of their traditional religious and political values. The Know Nothing movement is remembered for this theme because of fears by Protestants that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters. In most places, the ideology and influence of the Know Nothing movement lasted only a year or two before disintegrating due to weak and inexperienced local leaders, a lack of publicly declared national leaders, and a deep split over the issue of slavery. In the South, the party did not emphasize anti-Catholicism as frequently as it did in the North and stressed a neutral position on slavery, but it became the main alternative to the dominant Democratic Party. The collapse of the Whig Party after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act left an opening for the emergence of a new major political party in opposition to the Democratic Party. The Know Nothing movement managed to elect congressman Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts and several other individuals in the 1854 elections into office, and subsequently coalesced into a new political party known as the American Party. Particularly in the South, the American Party served as a vehicle for politicians opposed to the Democrats. Many also hoped that it would stake out a middle ground between the pro-slavery positions of Democratic politicians and the radical anti-slavery positions of the rapidly emerging Republican Party. The American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election, although he kept quiet about his membership, and personally refrained from supporting the Know Nothing movement's activities and ideology. Fillmore received 21.5% of the popular vote in the 1856 presidential election, finishing behind the Democratic and Republican nominees. The party entered a period of rapid decline after Fillmore's loss in the 1856 presidential election and the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1857 further galvanized opposition to slavery in the North, causing many former Know Nothings to join the Republicans. The remnants of the American Party largely became part of the Constitutional Union Party in 1860 and disappeared during the American Civil War. Condition: Good.
Keywords: American Party, Know Nothing, Abraham Lincoln, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Curtin, Nativist, Republican Party, Elections. Presidential Campaigns, Statistical Analyses
[Book #82024]
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