Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest

1. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Anti-Catholicism • Native born hostilities against Irish often took the form of anti-Catholicism • Occurring since Puritan days • 1825 – 1850 saw an upsurge in Anti-Catholic feelings • A Plea for the West, Protestant Lyman Beecher warned of Catholic plot to send large enough numbers west to control the area.

2. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Anti-Catholicism • Maria Monk – Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery in Montreal • 1840’s saw the formation of (anti-immigration) societies • American Republicans • United Order of Americans • Some secret or semi secret

3. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Anti-Catholicism /Nativists • Order of the Star Spangled Banner, evolved in 1854 into the “Know –Nothings,” or American, party • This party became a major political force in the 1850’s

4. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Anti-Catholicism /Nativists • 1840’s most societies only fought battles such as which book Catholic students should use for scripture readings, Douay or the Protestant King James version. • Protestant mobs descended on Catholic neighborhoods in the “Bible Riots” • 30 buildings burned and 16 people dead

5. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Anti-Catholicism /Nativists • Protestants felt more democratic – each persons ability to interpret the Bible on their own. • Catholicism made doctrine the province of the pope or bishop • Panic of 1837 had lowered wages. Immigrants who were willing to work for almost nothing were a threat to their jobs.

6. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Land Reformers • Agitators began to advocate land reform as a solution t economic problems • 1844 George Henry Evans organized the National Reform Association - slogan, “Vote Yourself a Farm”. • Evans advocated neo-Jeffersonian plans for the establishment of “rural republican townships” 160-acre plots for workers. • Supported by artisans – preferred “agrarian” notions to industrial order

7. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Land reformers • workers engaging in wage labor abandoned any hope of achieving economic independence. • Appealed to radical, educated workers, artisans who were threatened by industry

8. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Land Reformers • Lack of land reform left Labor Unions appealing to workers • Some believed they could gain more by unions and strikes than by plowing and planting. • Commonwealth v. Hunt ( 1842) Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that labor unions were not illegal monopolies that restrained trade. (less than 1% of workers were unionized therefore had little impact)

9. Anti-Catholicism, Nativism, and Labor Protest • Land Reformers • differences between native born and immigrant would eventually become intertwined with the political divisions of the second party system