If You Were an Irish Catholic Immigrant in the 1850s, the Xenophobic ‘Know Nothing’ Party Tried to Suppress Your Vote

Brian Beihl

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 18, 2025

Photos: Villanova University Falvey Library, public domain. Important to note that “Native Americans” refers to American-born citizens of European descent, NOT to actual Native American Indians, who also suffered centuries of discrimination.

How quickly we forget.  If you were an Irish Catholic immigrant in the1840s through the 1920s, many of your Protestant fellow Americans, some of whom joined the xenophobic Know Nothing Party, tried to suppress your vote.  

A famine in Ireland and economic instability in Germany saw millions of immigrants coming to America beginning in the 1820s.  According to Smithsonian Magazine, between 1845 and 1854, 2.9 million immigrants arrived, including an estimated one-quarter of Ireland’s entire population. 

In cities like New York and Boston, the mostly Protestant American political elite, many descendants of immigrants themselves, saw Irish Catholics as a threat to their American culture.  In 1849, the shadowy Know Nothing Party arose, a cross between a political party and a street gang, and grew to America’s first sizable third party. Historian Jay P. Dolan found the Know Nothings elected 8 governors, 100 Congressmen and several mayors.   Abraham Lincoln wrote, “When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’

They proposed a 21-year wait time for foreign-born immigrants to vote, tried to ban Catholics and foreigners from holding office, and intimidated immigrants, even deporting 300 Irish immigrants back to Liverpool. 

But Irish immigrants, when they could vote, voted in higher numbers.  By the 1880s, they became a political force in Boston, New York, and Chicago. 

We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.  Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Smithsonian Magazine – How the 19th-Century Know Nothing Party Reshaped American Politics
Villanova University – The Know Nothing Party
History Channel – When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century’s Refugee Crisis
Historic Ipswich – 1854: Anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party Sweeps Massachusetts Elections
NPR – (2019) With Latest Nativist Rhetoric, Trump Takes America Back To Where It Came From
UC Berkeley News – How Trump’s immigration policies compare to those of America’s past

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #StPatricksDay #IrishAmericans #VoterSuppression