10 Facts About Know Nothing

Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s.

Supporters of the Know Nothing movement believed that an alleged "Romanist" conspiracy by Catholics to subvert civil and religious liberty in the United States was being hatched.

The Know Nothing movement is remembered for this theme because Protestants feared that Catholic priests and bishops would control a large bloc of voters.

The Know Nothing movement managed to elect congressman Nathaniel P Banks of Massachusetts and several other individuals into office in the 1854 elections, and it subsequently coalesced into a new political party which was known as the American Party.

Name Know Nothing originated in the semi-secret organization of the party.

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In San Francisco, a Know Nothing chapter was founded in 1854 to oppose Chinese immigration—members included a judge of the state supreme court, who ruled that no Chinese person could testify as a witness against a white man in court.

In Virginia, the Know Nothing movement came under sharp attack from both established parties.

Nativist, anti-Catholic spirit of the Know Nothing movement was revived by later political movements such as the American Protective Association of the 1890s and the Second Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.

However, the Know Nothing Party was not a mouthpiece for anti-black racism and anti-Semitism in the manner in which the 1920s-era Klan was.

Know Nothing has become a provocative slur, suggesting that the opponent is both nativist and ignorant.