The Know-Nothing Party: The American Party

The Republicans chose Rutherford B. Hayes as their presidential candidate for the election of 1876. The Democrats chose Samuel J. Tilden.

In the summer of 1854 a group of former whigs met in Ripon, Wisconsin to discuss forming a new political party, with the platform of stopping slavery http://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm. There were two types of whigs, the Conscience Whigs and the Cotton Whigs. The Conscience Whigs were abolitionist and the Cotton Whigs were pro-slavery supporter. The party was made up of Anti-Nebraska democrats and anti-Nebraska whigs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3D37o7KD1s. The textbook states that “In 1854 the republicans chose candidates to challenge the pro-slavery Whigs and Democrats in state and congressional elections.” The party took Michigan and made advances in other states in the North, by 1855 they soon won control of the House of Representatives and other state governments(Mr. Adreon notes and Discovering our Past; The History of the United States Early Years p.433 ). On February 22 of 1856 in Pittsburgh, the Republican Party attended their first organizing convention. http://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm. William H. Seward was considered as nominee but John C. Fremont was chosen. Fremont had no political record and led several expeditions in the West. Fremont went against a former president part of the Americans or Know Nothings political party, Millard Fillmore. The democratic nominee was James Buchanan. At this election the Republican Party had a few platforms and that was to denounce Kansas and Nebraska act, denounce the spread of slavery, and advocate internal improvements. The Republican Party won several North and Northwestern states, receiving almost no support in the south. James Buchanan won all southern states, midwestern states, and California. The Southern states threatened to secede if a Republican became president. The Know nothings only won Maryland. Even though the Republican Party failed in their first election, they grew. The Know

December 2 1840 - President Martin Van Buren is defeated for reelection by William Henry Harrison. Harrison a whig receives 234 electoral college votes to 60 and also wins the popular vote contest.

In the decades before the Civil War, there was a growing anti-immigration atmosphere in response to the population boom brought on by European immigrants. There was a fear that these new immigrants were either immoral, ‘not good enough’ due to race or religion, corrupt, or stealing jobs from the hard-working ‘native’ Americans. A new political party, members called ‘Know Nothings,” was formed, in an effort to regain control of the population. Some methods they wanted to use were requiring the ability to read and write in English in order to vote, banning certain types of people from holding political office, and making the process of becoming an American citizen more difficult. This party had some mild success in the Northeast, particularly in Massachusetts, but they fell out of favor and vanished shortly before the Civil War.

was the great awakening of religious beliefs. This took a lot of their time trying to

The Native American Party, renamed the American Party 1855 and commonly known as the "Know Nothing" movement, was an American Nativist political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. It was an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant movement, often taking the form of a secret society. The movement briefly emerged as a major political party in the form of the American Party. Adherents to the movement were to reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders, thus providing the group with its common appellation The "Know Nothings" believed a "Romanist" conspiracy was afoot to subvert civil and religious liberty in America and sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in the defense of traditional religious and

When James Buchanan ran for president in 1856, his popular vote was 1,838,169 and his electoral vote was 174. He was running against John C. Breckinridge and the votes were very close. President Buchanan was the 15th President, and at the age of 65, some people even thought that he was too old to run their country. Some people called him Old Buck, because of his age. President Buchanan was not married, but his niece was his housekeeper and was his only close relative, so they named his niece the First Lady. Her name was Harriet Buchanan.

It was the beginning of the first formal national movement of the United States and they use their political position to create alcohol laws to regulate the availability of the alcohol.

The relationship between the collapse of the Whig Party, the divide in the Democrat Party, and the Republican Presidential victory in 1860 was a reflection of how deeply the country was divided over the issue of slavery. Although anti-slavery sentiment was growing in the north, it was the expansion of the west and whether or not to allow those territories to become slave states that caused tremendous eruption on both sides of the issue. In as much as both parties tried to find a compromising solution, it was problematic and created divisions in the parties that could not be easily mended.

On the other hand, the American party began to collapse sharply soon after it reached its phenomenal growth. Members of the party continued to split on the issue of slavery, which eventually led Party to fall into oblivion. The party’s presidential nominee, Millard Fillmore carried only Maryland in the 1856 presidential

Democracy in the United States is based on the indirect representation of the people by elected officials who are usually chosen by direct vote. Almost from the beginning of the United States' history, however, two parties have shared the great majority of the elected positions from the local level to the presidency. However, up until the mid-1850's when the Republican party was formed, other parties such as the Whigs, Federalists, and Anti-Federalists did not last very long. The Democratic Party has existed for much longer, tracing its roots from Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Republican Party beginning around 1792 (Encarta). The two largest parties have changed, third parties have

The privately organized American (Know-Nothing) movement, appeared in the Northeast on the 1840’s, and strived to preserve past ideals and the rights of the people against the danger caused by Catholics and immigrants (Cole, n.d). As the the time passed and after plenty of achievements in the 1850’s the Know-Nothings lost their ideals, fell victim to party politics, and shortly disappeared from the place, but not until they had assisted with developing a up to date political party system. Removing the image of being chuvanist or extremist, the Know-Nothings are now apart of American political history prior to the Civil War.

     The Republicans and Democrats didn’t really have strong opposing beliefs during this period. The Republicans supported high tariffs and sound money. The Democrats supported lower tariffs and expanded currency. Both rural and urban classes supported each party. They worked with spoils and local issues. Both

Enter the presidential election of 1860, which brought these problems to a collision with dramatic consequences. The Democratic Party split into three groups along their regional lines, with each one vying for control of the party and each holding different ideas about how to deal with slavery in the West. They camps consisted of John C. Breckinride, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas; their efforts would be worthless however, as Abraham Lincoln would win for the Republican Party. Lincoln stood on the grounds that the West should be absolutely free of slavery entirely; which apparently was enough as he won the election with less than forty percent of the popular vote. On a side note about the election, fifty-nine percent of the Electoral College did vote for Lincoln;

The Know Nothing Party was also known as the American Party. “The Know-Nothing part was an outgrowth of the strong ant-immigrant and especially anti-Roman Catholic sentiment that started to manifest during the 1840’s” (Britannica, 2016). A rise in immigrants, mainly the Irish in the East and the Germans in the Midwest began to pose a threat to the native-born Americans. Nativist groups began to pop up everywhere, there was one that was the most influential and that was the Know Nothing Party. As its membership and the importance of the group grew, they took on the name the American Party. “As a national political entity, it called for restrictions on immigration, the exclusion of the foreign-born from voting or holding public office