The American or Know-Nothing party was a major political movement in the United States during the 1850s, on the eve of the Civil War. Their chief goal was to prevent Catholic immigration into the country, from places such as Italy and Ireland...
Recently, this writer came across an interesting letter while researching the subject of Catholic immigration into the United States from other countries in the mid-19th century. On April 18, 1856, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt. Reverend Michael...
It’s not every day that a comparative handful of people can break up a major political party, but it happened in the 1856 Presidential election, and politicians in Springfield, Massachusetts were largely responsible for it. It all began in the early...
An air of low comedy somehow hangs over the Know-Nothing movement, despite serious issues being involved. The Know-Nothings were a political party which enjoyed a phenomenal, though brief success in the 1850s. Their guiding belief was a dislike of...
The Know-Nothings’ involvement in Washington Monument history includes far more than the 1854 theft of the Pope’s stone. The very next year, in fact, the Know-Nothings took over the Washington National Monument Society itself, in a disputed election...
One of the more vivid stories of the Washington Monument is the theft of the Pope’s Stone in 1854, apparently by members of the anti-Catholic, anti-Papist Know-Nothing Party. It all began with the American nativist movement of the mid-19th century...
