Know Nothings

Know Nothings (Boyer, 2008)

Textbook
The Know-Nothings evolved out of a secret nativist organization, the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner, founded in 1850. (The party's popular name, Know-Nothing, derived from the standard response of its members to inquiries about its activities: "I know nothing.") This order was one of many such societies that mushroomed in response to the unprecedented immigration of the 1840s. It had sought to rid the United States of immigrant and Catholic political influence by pressuring the existing parties to nominate and appoint only native-born Protestants to office and by advocating an extension of the naturalization period before immigrants could vote.
Paul S. Boyer, et al., eds., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, 6th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 406.
Date Event
The 29th Congress of the United States opens in Washington, DC
The 34th Congress opens in Washington, DC
American Party nominates Millard Fillmore for president
Whig National Convention opens in Baltimore
Widespread violence in Baltimore as the state elections are held
State wide elections held across Louisiana
Maryland Legislature censures Congressman Henry Winter Davis for voting for Pennington
Ohio Republican congressional candidate leaves party over platform plank on immigrant voting
Prominent New York American Party politician James O. Putnam endorses Abraham Lincoln
At a Lincoln rally in New York City, Horace Greeley woos former Whig and American Party voters
New York, NY
Date Title
Abraham Lincoln to Richard Yates, October 31, 1854
David Davis to Julius Rockwell, March 4, 1855
Abraham Lincoln to Owen Lovejoy, August 11,1855
Abraham Lincoln to Joshua Fry Speed, August 24, 1855
Washington (DC) National Era, "Black Republicanism in Missouri," January 1, 1857
Washington (DC) National Era, "The Future Judged by the Past," January 1, 1857
New York Times, "The American Party," March 3, 1857
New York Times, “The Americans in Kentucky,” April 10, 1857
New York Times, “Desperate Riots in Baltimore,” October 15, 1857
New York Herald, "Political Agitation in this Metropolis," Febraury 26, 1858
New York Times, “Further Excitement in New Orleans,” June 7, 1858
New York Times, “End of the New Orleans Rebellion,” June 9, 1858
New York Herald, "Found At Last," June 13, 1858
Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln, July 19, 1858
Thomas J. Pickett to Abraham Lincoln, August 3, 1858
Owen Lovejoy to Abraham Lincoln, August 4, 1858
New York Times, “The Union Meeting at the Cooper Institute,” September 8, 1858
New York Times, “Fusion in the City,” October 4, 1858
Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, "Divided We Fall," October 25, 1858
New York Herald, “The Struggle Among the Virginia Democracy,” December 5, 1858
Memphis (TN) Appeal, “The Plans of the Opposition for 1860,” January 9, 1859
New York Herald, “The Presidential Question,” January 24, 1859
New York Herald, “The Gubernatorial Contest in Virginia,” April 3, 1859
Charleston (SC) Mercury, "Correspondence of the Mercury," April 15, 1859
Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel,“The Massachusetts Two Years’ Amendment,” May 24, 1859
New York Herald, “Bloody Riots in Baltimore,” August 3, 1859
New York Times, “The American Convention,” September 23, 1859
Greensboro (NC) Patriot, "Maryland Election," November 11, 1859
Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "The Plea Will Not Avail Them," November 17, 1859
Richard W. Thompson to Abraham Lincoln, June 12, 1860
Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, “Decidedly Wrong,” July 7, 1860
Abraham Lincoln to Abraham Jonas, July 21, 1860
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, "No Go Yet," August 23, 1860
Cleveland (OH) Herald, “A Two-Edged Sword,” September 3, 1860
Chicago Style Entry Link
Anspach, F. R. The Sons of the Sires; A History of the Rise, Progress, and Destiny of the American Party, and its Probable Influence on the Next Presidential Election. To Which is Added a Review of the Letter of the Hon. Henry A. Wise, Against the Know-Nothings. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1855.
 View Record
The American Text Book, for the Campaign of 1856. Baltimore, MD: Bull & Tuttle, 1856. View Record
Anbinder, Tyler. Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850's. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. View Record
Baker, Jean H. Ambivalent Americans: The Know-Nothing Party in Maryland. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. View Record
Birkner, Michael J., ed. James Buchanan and the Political Crisis of the 1850s. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1996. View Record
Cantrell, Gregg. "Sam Houston and the Know-Nothings: A Reappraisal." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 96, no. 3 (1993): 326-343. View Record
Dykstra, Robert R. "The Know Nothings Nobody Knows: Political Nativists in Antebellum Iowa." Annals of Iowa 53, no. 1 (Winter 1994): 5-24. View Record
Frederick, Jeff. "Unintended Consequences: The Rise and Fall of the Know-Nothing Party in Alabama." Alabama Review 55, no. 1 (2002): 3-33. View Record
Hansen, Stephen and Paul Nygard. "Stephen A. Douglas, the Know-Nothings, and the Democratic Party in Illinois, 1854-1858." Illinois Historical Journal 87, no. 2 (1994): 109-130. View Record
Hansen, Stephen, and Paul Nygard. "Abraham Lincoln and the Know Nothing Question, 1854-1859." Lincoln Herald 94, no. 2 (1992): 61-72. View Record
Horrocks, Thomas. "The Know-Nothings." American History Illustrated 17, no. 9 (1983): 22-29. View Record
Shade, William G. "Know Nothing Populism and the Origins of the GOP." Pennsylvania History 71, no. 2 (2004): 227-231. View Record
Taylor, John Charles Randolph. "Virginia Know Nothings: Whigs in Search of a National Party." Masters Thesis, University of Virginia, 1974. View Record
Towers, Frank. "Violence as a Tool of Party Dominance: Election Riots and the Baltimore Know-Nothings, 1854-1860." Maryland Historical Magazine 93, no. 1 (1998): 4-37. View Record
How to Cite This Page: "Know Nothings," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/9591.