Nativist Politicians in the 1840s and 50s Did a Lot of Damage to America. Their Own Violence Ultimately Defeated Them.

-

• Between the late 1840s and 1856, the Know Nothing/American political party elected mayors, governors, members of the House, and United States Senators.

• They were nativist, virulently anti-Catholic, and opposed to Irish and German immigrants.

• They accused Catholics of stuffing ballot boxes and stealing elections by having non-citizens vote.

• In San Francisco they opposed Chinese immigration.

• They passed anti-immigration laws making it harder to become a citizen.

• They were white supremacist Protestants. Public schools were required to use the Protestant bible.

• In August 1855, twenty-two people were killed in a Know Nothing Riot against Catholics. 

• There were similar anti-Catholic riots in Baltimore.

• In Maine, they tarred and feathered a Catholic priest, and burned down a Catholic Church.

• Their last year of real power was 1856.

• Those politicians who supported them left office or joined other parties.

• That we will suffer more violence at the hands of Donald Trump inspired Trumpers, there is no doubt.

• However, the seizing of the Capitol was a wakeup call to millions of Trump voters and those corporations who financially supported him.

• There are days in our country when a politician must choose. The 147 members of the House, and the six senators who challenged the election of Joseph Biden after the Capital was invaded, chose wrongly. It is my hope that they will now fade away, so we as a nation can get back to the real issues that face us.


Copyright 2021 James J Brosnahan 

Mr. Brosnahan has argued many Constitutional cases including in the US Supreme Court. He teaches a class at a Bay Area Law school. He has practiced law for 60 years. For further comment, call: (510) 549-2531.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The American Establishment Wants to Stop Voter Theft

-
       The business community and the legal community have had enough of the public vote theft. There is a full-page advertisement in the  New York Times  today listing approximately 100 major American corporations and almost all of the large law firms (including Morrison Foerster LLP) in the United States, in opposition to the public voter theft being enacted in several states.      Senator McConnell has overplayed his hand and is now in political trouble. It is often the American establishment that has to step forward and save our democratic form of government. Forty-seven states have pending or enacted statutes with the aim of reducing the vote. Those statutes eviscerate our democratic form of government. The immediate and widespread reaction of citizens was to stop doing business with any company that tolerated voter reduction or theft, and so it should be.      A bill pending in the congress now would establish a bipartisa...
Read more

Senator McConnell Has Inverted the Process of Democratic Discussion by Telling His Base of American Business to Stay Out of Politics

-
  Senator McConnell’s lecturing of American business to stay out of politics was hastily followed by his statement he was not talking about contributions . That lecture represented a reversal of normal political dialogue. In a democracy it is the voters who tell the office holders what they need and what they want. It is not the office holders who instruct the voters as to what they’re allowed to do. Under the First Amendment as declared by the US Supreme Court on several occasions, corporations have a right to express political opinions. Efforts to reduce the vote is among the most important subjects for public discussion. There’s something more important about what McConnell did. He took an axe to the republican base. For a number of years the republican hierarchy has been trying to manage a joining of American business with right-wing groups, some of them with extreme positions. It has been effective at times. But the recent praise by Senator Johnson of Wisconsin, lavished o...
Read more

John F. Kennedy's Speech on Religion - September 12, 1960

-
On Sept. 12, 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy gave a major speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a group of Protestant ministers, on the issue of his religion. At the time, many Protestants questioned whether Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith would allow him to make important national decisions as president independent of the church. Kennedy addressed those concerns before a skeptical audience of Protestant clergy. The following is a transcript of Kennedy's speech: Kennedy: Rev. Meza, Rev. Reck, I'm grateful for your generous invitation to speak my views. While the so-called religious issue is necessarily and properly the chief topic here tonight, I want to emphasize from the outset that we have far more critical issues to face in the 1960 election: the spread of Communist influence, until it now festers 90 miles off the coast of Florida; the humiliating treatment of our president and vice president by those who no longer respect our power; the hun...
Read more