Before the Great Famine, in America, conflict between Protestants and Irish Catholics erupted. Bible riots of 1844 created mobs who torched houses and destroyed churches. The bishop of New York built a wall around Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Of course, maltreatment of immigrants was not limited to the Irish, but they were particularly mistreated by Anglo-Saxon Protestants who had come to America to find refuge from papism. Feelings toward Catholics had not softened since landing of the Mayflower. But there were Protestants who started America’s first foreign disaster relief effort delivering food to Ireland. However, in America, many Protestants saw a papal plot working in the United States. Some Protestants believed that the Pope and his army would take over the government and establish a new Vatican in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that Catholic rule would take over America.
Immigration rules and regulations were left to the states and cities. Boston, which had a population of 100,000, had 37,000 Irish arrive in just a few years. It was hard to integrate these immigrants into city life. The Irish were given the most menial, dirty, dangerous jobs. They laid rail lines, dug trenches for water and sewer pipes, cleaned houses, toiled in textile mills, and cut canals.
The prejudice against the Irish was not subtle or hidden, it was right out in the open. Newspapers ads for jobs stated, “No Irish need apply.” Cartoons in newspapers showed Irish as monkeys with monstrous appearances and sloping foreheads. Secret societies grew across the country wanting an America they used to know without immigrants. A political party grew out of this hatred, which was anti-Catholic, anti-Immigrant, called the “Know Nothings,” because they claimed to know nothing when asked about their politics. The American party vowed to vote only for native-born citizens, as long as they were not Catholic. The American party elected 8 governors, more than 100 congressmen and mayors of cities including Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago in the mid 1850s. Their greatest success was in Massachusetts where all states offices, the entire State Senate and all but a few seats in the House chamber were elected. In Massachusetts, they mandated the reading of the King James bible in public schools, disbanded Irish milita and taking their weapons and deported nearly 300 poor Irish because they were a drain on the public system. Naturalized citizens were barred from voting until they had been in the US 21 years.
Millard Filmore, the former president, ran on the American Party’s ticket in 1856 Presidential election. He courted the votes of the American party, and blamed “foreign Catholics” for his defeat in the 1844 New York gubernatorial election. Many mobs roamed the country. In Bath, Maine, a Catholic priest was dragged into the streets, stripped, tarred and feathered. The pews of the Catholic church in Bath were destroyed, an American flag was hoisted, and the church set on fire.
In Louisville, Kentucky, on election day, 1855, Know-Nothing members were guarding polling stations and started street fights with German and Irish immigrants. Homes were torched. A Catholic priest who was attending a dying parishoner was killed along with between 20-100 immigrants. No one was ever charged for “Bloody Monday” crimes.
Abraham Lincoln was among many Americans disturbed by the nativist movement. He wrote in a letter, “we began by declaring that all men are created equal,” and “when the Know Nothings gain control, it will read all men are created equal, except Negroes, foreigners and Catholics.” But the slavery question splintered the Know Nothing groups over the immigrant menace.
The Irish had just been given the right to vote by the British before they emigrated and after centuries of denial, they were deeply devoted to the political process in their new country. They voted in larger numbers than any other ethnic group. William R. Grace became the first Irish American mayor of New York City in 1880 and the first Irish American mayor of Boston 4 years later.
In in the late 1800s, Chinese emigrated to this country. Now that the Irish were not on the lower rung of the immigrant ladder, they dished out the same bigotry toward newcomers that they had experienced. They had failed to learn the lesson of their own story.
Yes, the Irish transformed America, strengthening the country and the almost 32 million Americans with Irish roots today helped make this country what it is. A country that once reviled the Irish, now wears green on St. Patrick’s Day. Many lessons to be learned of the Irish experience in the United States.
History.com provided some of the above information.
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