Garen Jarvan on 1899.4.4
I was wandering around at downtown New York. A kid ran to me and said: Sir, would you like to have a newspaper?”
“Why not?” I replied.
I gave him two cents and started to read. After I read an article about how Jewish immigrants ruined the stability of the United States. I knew it was written by a nativist and nativism had really been a problem to this country.
American nativism movement was a theoretical foundation to xenophobic ideas to against the Catholic, Jewish, Asian and Latin American immigrants as the main task. It was the movement to maintain the white American culture in American history.
Before 19th century, there were a lot organizations such as Tammany, the Federalist Washing ton Benevolent Society. In the beginning, those organizations had the purpose to protect local American residences’ benefits not get violated. Therefore, American people did not wildly accept the nativism. However, in 1840s, those organizations started to against foreign immigrants especially Catholic and Jewish people. And they started to involve in national polity. So, white American started to admit the American nativism movement. (Knobel).
There was a climax of American nativism movement from 19th century to the beginning the mid 19th century. I would specifically talk about the one happened in 1840s-1850s, to which the Know Nothings as the representative of nativist organization set off a movement against those poor Irish Catholic immigrants.(Swain and Nieli). The Know Nothings Party also was known as American Native Party or American Party. It was established in 1849. This party had the development that based on the Order of United Americans. The name Know Nothings was originally said by new reporter named Horace Greeley. Because those members in this party made a promise that when they got asked about the activities they did. They would say know nothing. What those members thought was that the United States was belonging to white American; therefore, local residences should control the government system.
In 1840s, the Know Nothing Party even tried to be the third party to run for the President campaign. At that time period, the U.S. public concerned the abolition of black slavery. Even though the party was neutral about other political issues, they still stood against the abolition problem. Therefore, the Know Nothings Party decided to take the stand to southern Democracy Party to maintain the slavery. This movement caused the anger of members in the party who opposed to slavery. This determined that the Know Nothings Party was unlikely to be successful.(Kruschke). So, even though the Know Nothing Party had huge success in the campaign among some bid cities and some states, like: they had 19 out of 33 seats in New York States conference; 1/3 seats of both houses in New York; Mayors of Philadelphia and Chicago; governors of six states.(Scisco). As the Civil War started, the Know Nothings Party started to quit the political stage. However, the failure of the Know Nothings Party didn’t mean the failure of the nativism movement.
I think it is reasonable to have the nativism movement idea. For example, half of the crimes were Irish immigrants that recorded in NYPD. In the view of nativists, immigrants could not handle the freedom as they had in Europe. They thought that crime and violence would destroy the freedom of native-born Americans.
Keep walking on the street; I felt that the nativism was an unavoidable problem in the history of the United States. Human are naturally tending to reject outcoming things especially they have the different concepts of the life. I had no idea what the movement would be in the future. I just hoped it should not get more serious. People from outside of this country tried to have better lives here. I didn’t believe their purposes come here was to destroy the freedom of this country. They really needed to have time to adjust into the United States. Besides, we need more people come here to build up our country. Probably many years later, the immigration policy will become a lot strict. So, there will not be that many immigrants and the nativism problem will not be a problem anymore. I saw people walking on the street; they were not same race but they really smiled to each other. What a harmonious picture! I hoped everything would be better. Let’s make the United States of American a better country.
Sources:
Hrebenar, Ronald J., Matthew Burbank, and Robert C. Benedict. Political parties, interest groups, and political campaigns. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 1999. Print.
Knobel, Dale T.. America for the Americans: the nativist movement in the United States. New York: Twayne Publishers ;, 1996. Print.
Kruschke, Earl R.. Encyclopedia of third parties in the United States. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1991. Print.
“Nativism (politics).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_(politics)>.
“Nativism in 19th c. America.” Nativism in 19th c. America. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/nativism/pages/historical_bg.html>.
“Nativism: American Anti-Catholic Sentiment, 1830-1845.” Nativism: American Anti-Catholic Sentiment, 1830-1845. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://are.as.wvu.edu/baker.htm>.
Scisco, Louis Dow. Political nativism in New York State. New York: Columbia University Press ;, 1901. Print.
Swain, Carol M., and Russell Nieli. Contemporary voices of white nationalism in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.
Picture:
Life of the Nation - an Early 19th C. Journalism Project 