would be taught in public schools, westerns of loyalty of catholic politicians, and job s with things like "no irish need apply." an hour and 10 minutes. >> welcome. we will be talking about the anti-immigrant movement that explodes in the 19th century, pretty much impacting all immigrants, but especially the irish. they are the most identifiable group. they stand out and generate an enormous opposition. before we get into that, let's back up a little bit. we are not just going to be talking about the irish today, because the nativist response irish generates actually existed before the irish got here. you can find early versions of the early 18th century and

you can find echoes of it still. it speaks to the larger american experience. it is a kind of phenomenon that we pride ourselves of being a nation of immigrants, but we are a nation that is always questioning that tradition. let's start with looking at things in 2014. what do americans think of immigration? if you go to ellis island, you will see this image, an american flag, very large. if you stand on one end, it has kind of a hologram effect. if you stand to be right side you just see a big flag, and if you walked to where i am standing, the image changes and you see these faces representing these different groups. to miss rates how much americans love immigration. this seems strange given the politics today, but americans, i would say most americans today in the 21st century absolutely

love immigration. as strange as that may sound, hold that thought. but we know from headlines, from politics, debates in congress and so forth then americans also hate immigration. explaining to the how that is possible, to love and hate something at the same time. it is not that half of americans love it and half of them hit it. it is that millions of americans at the same time love it and hate it. and there is a good reason for that and it has been the same reason for long, long time. two kinds of immigration. venture a guess? how is it possible for somebody, maybe if you go back to that earlier image, the woman standing holding the flag saying america is invaded. how does someone like that express love for immigration? what kind of immigration would she like? yes? >> she would like the old-style

immigration, not old, but immigration of the past? >> the key word is what? past. immigration from a generation or two or three or four ago. a welcomeseems to be thing, a positive thing, a contributing thing to the greater good of the united states. and what kind of immigration can you imagine americans hate, even the same people? a act against immigration, to announce immigration, whether it be legal or illegal? what do they dislike? jack, what is the likely -- someone who likes past immigration, has strong feelings about it, but -- would just be opposed to new immigration. illegal immigration. >> even legal immigration, some people are upset about coming people are coming to this

country legally. basically it is timing. we have looked at generations over time. we have compartmentalized our understanding of immigration. we think of it in a very positive setting in a museum setting. to ellis island and do their genealogy and millions of americans will tell you proudly about when their grandfather came over from greece or ireland and became part of the great american dream. but when it is happening around us whether it is us in 2014, in 1894 or 1844, it seems alarming. it seems quite alien and dangerous. that is the kind of dynamic we will be looking at today. where these ideas of -- two ways of thinking about immigration. and there is a variation of two kinds of immigration. if you think of the positive side, the way we think of it in positive terms. it is something i call the multicultural ideal.

that is -- especially in the 20th century, 21st century, we have developed this language of diversity, tolerance, multiculturalism. where the words we use express weight is a good thing. this is great historical depth to it. a series. john wrote of small essays about america. and he is really one of the first guys to really write down what this thing is, this america that is being born. and one of his most famous observations is that here, individuals from all nations and races are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day was great changes in the world. he is saying that it has this melting pot effect. it is people and ideas and traditions and melting them into a new race of people. that is not a new idea. periodk in the colonial

we had people thinking in these terms. as franklin, we think of him one of the great enlightened people, great services to his miss an literature and a great entrepreneur. but he is not above having that negative reaction to immigration as it happened. pennsylvania00s, experienced a big influx in german immigrants. franklin just goes off on it and says -- and he refers to them as palatine boors, which trust me, it is a nasty thing to say about germans. why should we suffer the s be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by hurting together establish their language and manners to the exclusion of hours? they will german ice us as

opposed to us anglo fighting them. we have a vivid expression of classic nativism. they are making the case, they will not blend in. they will bring alien ways. they will cause trouble. that may sound familiar. just to prove the point how time was those words are, we take what franklin just said in 1753 and change six words. we will set it in a modern context. this is what franklin said in 1753. if we swap out some modern words it reads like this. why should mexicans be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by hurting together establish their language and culture to the exclusion of hours? why should california, founded by americans, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to the span of size us instead of our americanizing them? expression.ss

deep, deep local roots. all right. anybody have any questions? all right. so, why do we think this way? let's jump into it. before we do, let's remind ourselves are where we are historically. we're almost halfway through our semester. looking at the history of irish-american immigration. we talked about famine migration and some of the struggles of those immigrants economically, socially, politically. the next part -- the biggest explosion of immigration that took place in the first two thirds of the 19th century. 8 million immigrants. they mostly come from northern and western europe. so you're talking about the irish, germans, english, scandinavians, and chinese. they do not come from northern and western europe, but they come to california during this time.

butlatively small group, they, too, will generate a nativist response on the west coast. around 1880, a new flow, a much larger flow. look at the numbers. 8 million versus 20 million. immigration from east and southern europe. it is right in the middle of this old immigration that the nativist response just explodes. it turns out to be a full-blown political movement. what is this nativist tradition? let's talk about politically and historically what happened in the mid-19th century? first, we will break down nativism into its component parts. so here is an emblem of the know nothing party.

you know, the masons and so forth. part of the way they created an allure about themselves, it would not tell people about the organization. if somebody wrote up -- walked up to a member of the know say "i party, they would know nothing." full-blowna political movement in the mid-19th century. and 1855.ly in 1854 the american party -- it is important to point out, what is happening in 1854 is the whig party. remember this, the whig party and the democratic party. the whig party is disintegrating over the issue of slavery. we have this time where we have a main party and a whole bunch of splinter parties trying to

create a viable second party. in a lot of americans believed that the american party was the next big party, the replacement for the whigs. it turns out there is another movement out there more concerned about slavery, and that is the republican party. that is the one that will try of. but from here, it looks like the american party. the american party wins control of the state governments of delaware, pennsylvania, and massachusetts in 1854. in massachusetts, it is a complete suite. they take control of both houses --the legislator legislature, the lieutenant governor, the governor. a complete takeover. the next year, maryland and kentucky also, under american control. if there were political forecasts in those days, this anti-immigration movement seems to be the one that will coalesce into a viable second party. a couple more stats. they also had really strong

finishes and became quite powerful -- not quite dominant -- in states like new york and california. then in congress, 75 congressmen were elected with either explicit american party credentials or had the backing of the american party, so there was a lot of political influence, both locally and at the state level and also in halls of congress. all right. does anybody have any questions? ok, let's look at this. what were the nativists afraid of question mark they were afraid of a lot of things, and it does change over time. the order of priority, the order of things people worry about can change. but in 1850, the mid-19th century period when the know nothings emerge, religion is absolutely the number one issue. one of the readings i had to do was by samuel f. b. morse.

all americans with a sense of history can name the one thing he is famous for. he is the inventor of the telegraph. he is certainly the inventor of the telegraph the becomes the standard and really revolutionizes communications. that is a pretty big contribution to history. he is also well-known as an artist. he is one of america's better-known early 19th-century artists. he has a third feathering his cap in terms of making an imprint on society and that is the leading voice of anti-catholic alarmism. if you look at the title of his "the foreignion -- conspiracy against the liberties of the united states." pretty explicit. so, you had to do that reading last night. let's ask a few questions. what are some of the accusations he is making? the catholics

were following the rules of the pope and the priests would pretty much a man of them. shoot. that gets us started right there -- >> that it's a started right there. unlike individual americans who are beholden to no one but themselves, the idea that morse is conveying is that catholics are by nature authoritarian so believe in an authoritarian structure. the hierarchy of the church is un-american, undemocratic, an way of thinking and operating. that is a mark against them. but it gets even worse. what is the conspiracy? a really big connection between the catholic church and european influence. he sees catholics in america as still beholden to the pope without political influence in europe. >> notice he is saying before

and conspiracy. to most non-catholics, particularly those concerned about the rise of catholicism are saying catholicism by nature disqualifies you as a true republican citizen. because not only do you believe in this hierarchical way of operating society, but you also, according to their understanding, oh complete loyalty to a foreign king, a foreign power. in this case the pope. they see him as a different sort of thing, but they think of them in royal, monarchical terms. which is the opposite of political understanding of themselves. what else? can someone tell me a phrase or something that stood out? catholics "the enemy." wholeically says their goal is to rid the world of

liberty. not just america, but the whole entire world. >> he says protestantism is tied to liberty, republican liberty. and catholicism is tied to what? mid-19th century words. the d word. >> despotism? >> right. despotism. squelching freedom, freedom of conscience and so forth. americans, ashey, you look around and see all of these poor, hopeless, helpless irish coming into our cities, do fooled. this is part of an advance army of the pope who hates liberty, aides republicanism, and will destroyed as soon as he can, as soon as he gets enough bodies on the ground and they have leaders, the priest. the priests have leaders, the archbishops. the archbishops have leaders, the cardinals. and this is the command structure that will attempt to overthrow the republic.

this may sound crazy, but it made a lot of sense to people in that time. a connectionhave between this kind of conspiracy mania and a different time in american history? >> [indiscernible] >> yes, it is amazing. i swapped out those words of franklin and put in mexican. you could take the words that morse wrote and put in "communist." it works the same way. hey, america you are about to be taken over by communist spies. that was the message of mccarthy. these fears often have german dissimilarities to them. morse is not alone. there is a huge amount of anti-catholic literature. if you go into a barnes & noble today, there is the spirituality

section in the biography and history -- if there was such thing as a barnes & noble in 1835, a big section would be "the pope is coming to get us." and images. copy of thisa image in front of you or between you. take a look at it. do you see the connection? this is a visual representation from a different book published at roughly the same time that shows many of the messages, many of the ideas and accusations was making, but here in visual form. so, what you notice about the details? what are some of the -- >> the pope is on a throne. >> you could not look any more royal, right? if we did not know the context we would think, this is some sort of european king. he has a couple lackeys on either side of them, great a crown. the member, americans in the

19th century, when they think about what they are, they also think about what they are not. they are republicans and democrats with a big r and small d. what is the action in the image? >> toward the town, the american town. >> on the split screen, it is kind of hard to tell. ee is pointing towards america, he is pointing towards america, across the atlantic ocean towards a schoolhouse. will seenhouse, as he a few moments, that becomes the flashpoint of this anti-catholic mania. one of the flashpoints. anything else? >> it looks like he is standing on the bible? he talked about how the pope does not want anything to do

with the bible. that seems like a significant thing. >> that is an important detail. that is more the religious side of the argument. by now, it is 1855 when this image is first published. and the point that people would protestants believe in individualism and individual reading and interpretation of the bible and so forth, if you know your reformation history, and catholics had that authoritarian idea that only the pope and the bishops and the read certain parts of the bible to you and tell you what it means. that is exaggerated to say the pope is anti-bible, right? you can see where that comes from. the title of this book is called "the papal conspiracy exposed and protestantism vindicated" by edward beecher. popery undermining free schools. quickly start to see this

as a key part of democracy and a republic, and when the big debates in seo and this time about which bible -- not whether there will be a bible. nobody disagreed on that. it was what bible? cap with bible or protestants bible? then the propaganda flies. we are int far from massachusetts. in 1834, and ursuline convent was burned to the ground by an angry mob that showed up in august of 1834. there were wild rumors that the nuns had kidnapped a local protestant girl, were forcing her to become a catholic nun. up, agon byed preachers, and they burned the convent. luckily, no one was hurt. this speaks to the fear that people have for catholicism. a little more detail about this pope is coming to get us a literature we were talking about. 210his 40-year period,

books. you can read the numbers there. huge output of anti-catholic, catholic conspiracy literature. one after another. was more popular than antislavery or proslavery literature. this was part of the debate in the mid-19th century. and the best-selling book of all -- it is only did throne with "uncle tom's cabin." maria ful disclosures of monk." it was published in 1836. it was exposed to be a fraud, but it tells the story of a catholic girl growing up in canada. she goes to the convent, and as soon as the doors are shut, she found out the real story. most of it involved sexual impropriety, priest taking advantage, nuns, among other

things. there is a fear that there is an army of catholics about to overthrow the republic. there is also a fear of morally speaking that they pose a great threat to the republic. greatat is best -- this fear of confidence. is this huge bestseller. she goes on a big book tour. the baby she is holding is a baby she eventually becomes pregnant with. -- theed the confidence confidence because they were going to kill the baby to hide the evidence. she was exposed as a fraud and she died in poverty. there were court records about who actually wrote the book and all this. that earlier image

of the free school, the american school was one of the key flashpoints. so, what do americans think about schools, as they become key institutions and this emerging tomography? let me read these words here. you can basically put anything youo a public school and get a republican citizen. public schools take the child of the exile of hungry, of the half starved immigrant from the emerald isle -- there are the irish -- end of the hearty norwegian, and places them on the same bench with the offspring of those whose upontors' bones bleached the fields of lexington. long generations of american. as the child of the foreigner plays with his cool fellow, he learns to whistle yankee doodle and sing hail columbia. have this very positive feeling about the emerging public school system. and then comes along this large immigrant group, largely irish

catholics who say, we do not want to send our kids to public schools. we cannot, because they are immoral and they threaten the souls and well-being of our kids. an archbishop becomes the most prominent leader in the mid-19th century. says we could not discharge are conscientious duty to her offspring, if we allow them to be brought up our -- under the influence of these schools. he throws down the religious gauntlet. he says we will build our own parochial institution. it is a rejection of a key institution in american life. furthermore, what he does not say he is, those who do go to public school, we will fight for their right to read catholic bibles, not protestant bibles. this is not just an intellectual argument. in 1834, theia city of philadelphia in throes

called then rioting bible riots. these are real riots. they go on for days. 22 people killed, three churches burned, blood running in the streets. all right. and you can still see evidence of this. in new york, in the cathedral, saint patrick's, right in the middle of new york and midtown, an earlier version was down in what is now chinatown. this is the old st. patrick's cathedral. you will notice there is a very high wall around it. this is a 10 foot high wall all around the property. that was not there originally. the church was built in 1814. they built the wall because they were afraid the church would be destroyed because mobs bestantly were rumored to about to do so. this is a fortified cathedral.

let me show you a couple more images before we move on to another aspect of nativism. thomas nast, the great late 18th of the century. he cartoons everything. this gives you an idea of how this plays out over decades. bishops hitting the beaches and there is a schoolmaster protecting the schoolchildren of america from the foreign catholic influence. and then to give you a quick look forward, this is 1928. this is well into the 20th century. and the first irish cap like nominated by a major party, the democratic party, running for president and he just gets hammered by the republicans and the ku klux klan and other

nativist, anti-catholic groups. here he is shown conforming to the idea. he bows before a foreign king, kissing the ring of the pope. could you vote for him? the answer is obvious. you cannot have a catholic in the white house. 33 years later, john kennedy runs. he, too -- things are diminished by then, but he still has to answer the question. can you be a catholic and an independent political leader in the united states? and there are more than two dozen states that have statutes because people are imagining there is this conspiracy, sharia by stealth, this idea that sharia law, muslim law is creeping into our political system and they are heading it off at the pass this legislation. i think 30 or so states have done that by now.

or i shouldtion -- say perceived non-assimilation. it is in the eye of the shoulder. this is what new york city looks like in 1865. you can see there are two predominant ethnic enclaves. the our inch represents little germany. and the green boards represent an area where the irish are concentrated. today, we go to little italy and is pleasedand no one about this. effort seen as a willful not to blend in. this conforms to what ben franklin was saying. they are hurting together and refusing to assimilate. they will german eyes -- germanize us. this is a typical comment from this period. "there are portions of new york where the population is as

thoroughly irish as in dublin or cork." this is not an amused statement. you can see that they are clustered there at the bottom of the image. those are the irish neighborhoods. most people do not look at that sociologically and economically and say, oh, that is the worst housing. this is the one lays people will let them in. choosing not to assimilate. and our reading from last night touches on this issue from 1860. i should've given you a little bit of background on that. in 1860, the united states is going to welcome the prince of wales. it is going to be at big visit. palm and circumstance wherever he goes. part of the ceremony, there is this great big parade, the militias, the march. the prints will have a great big welcome. and an irish nationalist, one of these guys who is driven out of ireland -- we will talk about

him in a couple of classes. he says, we're not marching to that guy. he is the heir to the crown of the continent that oppresses ireland. we are not going to do it. he gets court-martialed. the only thing that saves them is a civil war breaks out. is a civil war breaks out. what is their interpretation of irish soldiers? tell, ithat i could seems like they were calling the irish i'm grateful. theyare going on about how have gotten land, pretty cheap land, they have been good to them. they have allow them to practice the polis is him. >> we have been tolerant. they say the irish are insubordinate. really.yal we have given you all of this. you do not deserve it.

you are filling our jails. you are filling our hospitals. you're jacking up our taxes. you are corrupting our democracy. we still let you stay. but still you pulled this incredibly embarrassing act of treason. this tells us you are probably not ever going to be good americans just because either it is your temperament or your religion or whatever it may be. so, it really angered the editors of "harper's," and this is one of those flashpoints where they put their cards on the table. you can see in the images, a pretty vivid example of how the irish are perceived. the message -- you see lady liberty, and she is stirring the pot of immigrants. you see all different kinds of ethnicities represented. he is eventually going to get in there, that is the implication, but he is going to have to be whacked over the head, right?

he has his irish flag. he is exhibiting the kind of anger and riotous notes -- people associate with the irish. it is no coincidence he is the one standing on the lip of the pot. another aspect of nativism. it is more vague. it is related to this idea of clustering together. this idea they are taking over. you hear this in the recent past. the cubans are taking over miami or whatever. this is an earlier version of that. we talk about these numbers where they go from being a small percentage of new york and boston, philadelphia to becoming include, 50%, if you their american-born children. 50% of the population. this is a cartoon from the 1860's. the great fear of the period. "uncle sam may be swallowed by

foreigners." they are literally devouring uncle sam in a kind of grotesque horror film way. this is actually the first panel. cartoon. multi panel in the end, the china men swallows the irishman. --ch gives you an idea someone who isf honest and mobile, they would choose the chinese, but the irish are right behind them. now we have the really shocking growth of the irish in this mid-19th century period. famine, butto before the famine we know there are roughly 45,000 irish living in new york city. this does not include their american-born children. 28% of people born in ireland. if you throw when their kids, you're talking 40%, 50% of the

population. and do not forget one thing in that statistic -- these are not just irish people. they are mostly irish catholics. this is a double set of fears there. i just threw this image in, too, to show you the other connections. this is from 1882. you see the caption at the bottom. "the dream of the choose realized." new yorkonist showing city completely taken over by jewish immigrants and they are taking down the sign that says john smith's drygoods. good american-born name, john smith. epsteincoming down and and sun is being placed up there. newnew harold is "the jerusalem harold." uc stereotypes of jewish people lording over the city. the funny thing is this is 1882 and the cartoonist is worried that there are too many juice in new york and it is just at this

moment that the real great way of for the -- there are too many it is just york and at this moment that the real jews comes, and this guy is freaking out. he has no idea what is about to hit american shores. matteris is not just a of thinking that immigrants are raising our poverty statistics. it is not just a matter of that. it has to do with our political culture and our sense of ourselves. what do americans think about when they think of themselves and their country and so forth? and the opposite, which is aristocratic, monarch vocal england.- monarchical there are huge numbers of poor

people there. even though there are poor people in america, people think that it is very small and they are temporarily poor. then you see this wave of or people from europe and they begin to fill things that we now call slums. people arey these artificially jacking up the poverty rate in america, a direct threat to our way of being. in 1850's.n new york 60% of the people who end up in poor houses are born in ireland. way disproportionate to their percentage in the population. you also probably noticed on --s teeter tottering boat we are literally importing, intoely importing poverty this republic. and here is an expression. america does not do poverty. we as a people, americans, are

intolerant of ragged garments and empty ponchos. we are a people who have had no experience in physical tribulation. as a consequence, the ill clad and destitute irishman is repulsive to our habits and our taste. associate ill clothing and destitution with ignorance and vice. here is one of the images that you have in front of you. this is a classic image of the irish, both male and female. the -- we can assume they are poor because they live in a shack. but what else you got what is the nature -- but what else? what is the nature? >> [indiscernible] >> that is the way the mid-19th century. you would be able to spot that in a second that that is an irishman. that is the way they look or the way they are shown. this is very much the typical way they are shown.

i did not give you the caption or anything, what else can you see without knowing? >> signifying irish laziness? >> he is definitely poor, but he is what? >> [indiscernible] >> again running counter to that bootstraps political culture we have. you've got to pull yourself up. >> [indiscernible] tropes, right? >> drunkenness and definitely significant features of the irish stereotype right there. >> he is not only poor, but these are associated vices. he is a drinker, which may explain why he is poor, and he is ready at the drop of a hat to wield his club and get into a scrape. but what is his attitude? to associateem

poverty with misery. >> [indiscernible] it is not really seem to care. -- contents.ooks not upset about his circumstances. obviously not saying what do i have to do to get out of the circumstances? this is a very un-american approach. you're supposed to be desperate, embarrassed, ashamed of your poverty, and doing everything in your power to get out of it. quite contente with their circumstances. and again, just to show you how this idea carries forward, this is an image from 1890 six, showing uncle sam at the gates of america, holding his nose. 1896, showing uncle sam at the gates of america, holding his nose. and we have this immigrant, a little jewish, a little russian -- a composite immigrant.

he has a cake on his act, -- she ack, whichon his b means he is not only a drinker, but he is thinking on the sabbath. is holding his nose. so those traits are not only representing the irish, but whatever unpopular group is coming. if you look at the republican institution records, hospital records in the mid-18 -- mid-19th century. these things are also being invented. the irish are a great disproportionate amount of the patients in the hospitals. bellevue hospital, a public hospital in new york, and it shows 85% of the foreign-born foreign.s are irish so just about everyone in that hospital for the public, for the poor, are irish born in the 1850's. there is a clear association

with disease, poverty, and so on. theetty vivid image from 1880's showing the grim reaper on the bow of the ship. that is arriving at manhattan island, which was when immigrants landed at that time. ellis island was a few years later. belt of the angel of death is cholera, right? 1849, there were epidemics, principally in cities. with associated immigrants, and particularly irish. it is not that they are in for housing. they are filthy people, right? they bring it on themselves. they had a hospital at the tip of manhattan island, because one of the things that they were concerned about was sick

immigrants coming in. staten island, where this hospital was built, a mob showed up and destroy the hospital. because they were so afraid that the spread of disease was going to be greatly increased by the presence of this hospital full of sick immigrants. another one, just to show the connection -- an anti-chinese cartoon from san francisco in san1880's showing parts of francisco, especially chinatown, leprosy, smallpox. these demons are labeled. this association of immigration and disease am a very, very tight. all right, nativism and crime. in a lot of these overlap, by the way. nativism and crime. new york city. we keep using new york, but is a great representation of the irish extremes. the% of those arrested in

1850's were irish born. the prostitutes arrested in 1858 were irish born. wherever you turn, you found irish offenders. sometimes petty thieves, drunk and disorderly. sometimes much more serious stuff. from a judge. "there is a large class -- i was about to say majority -- of the population of new york and oakland to loan the rearing of two or more children inevitably means a boy for the present or a girl for the brothel." very blunt language. prisoners, i guess they are lining up or getting out of this wagon. known as?

anyone with personal experience? what we call it? >> paddy wagon. >> why? >> the name patrick? >> it was a nickname, sometimes pejorative, sometimes affectionate. why would they call this a paddy wagon? >> because it is full of irishman. -- irishmen. irishmen.k is full of it also may be because a large percentage of the men driving that van were irishman wearing blue uniforms. 1850's, 1860's over a quarter of the new york police department were irish born. it could be that they are showing up as criminals or members of law enforcement or both. the paddy wagon is born in that period. tominal attributions given them. these sinister chinese villain

emerges in the 1870's, 1880's popularmes part of fiction and dime novels. a classic example of that here. there is an image from 1909 call fool piedled the piper. it shows immigrants coming to america as rats. piper story,ied the pied piper leads the rats out and they drown. in the full pied piper, uncle sam, not knowing any better, leads these rats and anarchists off to america. and note the american officials on the shore there, jumping for joy. the americans taking all of the worst of european society. they are literally coming out of the sewers and the jails. this idea of criminality is deeply, deeply embedded. this is a dimension of

criminality. basically rioting. riding is a huge problem in the mid-19th century in most -- rioting is a huge problem in the mid-19th century in most american cities. actnow about the stamp riots and the 1860's and so forth. but those are demonstration riots. they are about pageantry and role-playing where they burn an effigy of the governor, break a few things. in the mid-19th century, riots become incredibly violent and deadly. people begin to die as a result of the clashes. this is the dead rabbits right of 1857, which was possibly featured in the movie "gangs of new york." this is from the 1840's talking about the characteristics of the irish, right? "the vice and drunkenness among the lowering laboring classes is growing too frightful excess, and the multitudes of low irish catholics, restricted by poverty

in their own country, run riot in this. as long as we are overwhelmed with irish immigrants, but -- so long will the evil abound." this is the opposite idea of a good republican citizen. a republican citizen is rational. determined to get ahead. and here is a thomas nast cartoon that shows a scene -- is aly exaggerated -- this st. patrick's day parade at an intersection with a parade. scuffle, butome nast blows it up into this full on hibernian riot. drawsll notice that he the irish as the savage beasts clubbing and beating bystanders and policeman. and it was on st. patrick's day that this happened. you know. what more could you possibly expect? all right, any questions at this

point? all right. there is more, right? nativism is multidimensional. there is a lot to it. nativism and labor. this will be familiar to our modern ears. the idea that immigrants steal jobs for lower wages. here's a poster from the 1850's. se!ives of the soil arou they will take our jobs out right, or they will work for less, and things will begin to decline. this is one for the american party, the know nothings. this is probably number two to anti-catholicism. you see this statement on the american association for the improvement of the condition of the poor basically lays this out saying increased immigration from europe in the late years

has operated adversely to the interests of the native laboring and mechanic classes in the city, both by crowding them out of employment, and diminishing the rewards of an history. needy foreigners accustomed to live upon less than our own countrymen. more intimately associated with this than the phrase "no irish need apply." people sometimes use it jokingly now. it has a really powerful place in irish-american historical memory. capture ahrases that big idea. the big idea here is when we came to this country in great numbers, americans hated us and discriminated against us. they made our adjustment to america all be more difficult. it was pretty difficult anyway because we were poor and did not have skills. it was doubled upon us as we

were discriminated against. they shut us out of lucrative or decent jobs. is, peopleting thing talk about it and they say, showed up atishmen factories, they saw the no irish need apply sign. when they went to coal mines, when they went to the waterfront. there has been a lot of historical research done in which historians have been looking for evidence. this is what we do, right? you do not just take tradition and accept it. what has happened is, there is very little evidence of that sort exists. there are fake vintage signs that were printed in me 20 century is almost novelties. so irishman -- at least as far as we know -- tend not to face -- at least these actual kinds. not to say they are not discriminated against. irishars the brunt of no

need apply? where can you find this repeated "?rase "no irish need apply irish women.for irish domestic servants. in which they say "no irish need apply." you see this idea embodied in this image come a also this image in front of you. we covered this in some respects. we can see who is the irish woman, very clearly. she's the one that looks like an ape. she also has the our edge shamrocks on her dress, just in case you did not get the idea that she has the orange shamrocks on her dress, just in case you did not get the idea. what else do you see in detail? >> [indiscernible] >> what is wrong with that? >> [indiscernible] -- boat she is >> she is supposed to be in

charge. it is her house. she is cowering in front of this figure. which is completely the opposite of how it should be. she should be meek and submissive before the employer. this is the female version of irishman.s she is riding in the kitchen, and we can see that because of ground.en dish on the what about this irish bridget? i should have said that. you know her name, even though you do not know her name. she would be called brigid, just like the men would be called pattys. what else? duty?lse about her >> she is uncooperative. >> and what about tonight's dinner? >> it is boiling over. americansd basically are saying, we need servants.

we are becoming a middle-class society. we need servants. so, the great majority of people showing up to do that kind of work are irish women. and there is this big pushback. if you read those ads, it will girl, preferred german or preferred swedish." apply."h need she is like amelia bedelia on steroids. why would her brother pat probably not face a "no irish need apply" at the waterfront? what is the difference between her job and his job? >> [indiscernible] easily temperamental and things that his job -- if you're doing a manual labor job at the docks, no one is really going to care. where is if you're working in someone's house, their obvious we going to get upset if you are wrecking their house and not

doing your job. >> and also you're dealing with children. so the sanctity of the american home. this ideal of domesticity is developing in middle-class american culture. the home is supposed to be clean and peaceful above all. and here comes this one-woman wrecking crew who is going to do a terrible job and, you know, who knows what with the children in the house? it is a conundrum. if you go into the historical database and type in "servant problem," you will find hundreds of new papers -- newspapers that have that in the headline. servant problems. the text from an ad. "wanted an english or american woman who understands cooking to assist in the work generally if wished. -- no need apply without recommendation.

irish -- in capital letters in case you did not get the message -- do not need apply." like you say, who cares about the behavior of an irish man on the dock, as long as he does his job? here we have that swarthy amalgam of eastern european, southern european characteristics. he is reaching -- notices little little- notice in his plume. he is reaching in and taking the food right off the table of the american-born workingman. result."itable one aimed at the chinese from the same time. with 10 arms doing all the jobs and the young american men kicking around on the right-hand side because reasonably they are unemployed. what shall we do with our boys, from 1880 two.

alright, there is more. nativism and rape. you probably picked up on this. this image of the irish as beasts is not just someone being mean. it is someone giving in to the idea of racial ideas and categories and so forth. take a look at two images close-up. this is not just to be mean to the irish. these people are indeed lower on the scale of humanity. they belong to a lower race that is not too far from the baboon as depicted here. george hamilton strong was a great civic leader and merchant in new york in the mid-19th century who kept a regular diary. a gold mine of resources for historians. he wrote a lot about the irish. almost always in horror. outchinese are the furthers in the spectrum of respect

ability. here is an image from an 1860's textbook. this is a book that should it is called physiognomy, the new physiognomy. of similarity between this and that servant picture, right? you have the beautiful, composed, intelligent american-born woman. on this side, florence nightingale, who was a real person. if you look closely, this is not even a woman on the far right. she looks apelike, dirty, and mcbruiser.s bridget there is no real person named bridget mcbruiser. even in their naming. in the textbook, they have the

physiognomy and so forth. in these images and documents -- here you can see the irish woman put side-by-side with an african-american woman, and notice in the age of raging how the irishsm are being shown here. the irish woman is being shown as lower, much more inferior, less desirable, less controlled than the african-american woman. and the irish woman is very upset that she is sitting next to a black woman, and the black woman is much more intelligent and much more middle-class than she is or ever will be. that image from thomas nast, again political commentary during the era of reconstruction, and he is basically saying there is a problem in the south that blacks should be given the right to

vote, and there is a problem in the north that everybody has the right to vote including these legions of irishman. morece becomes "scientific" in the light -- late 19th, early 20th century, the racial component becomes more pronounced. all right, nativism in politics. all of these and this is a horror to a lot of people. here you see an image of an irishman also with a german. they're in whiskey and beer barrels. they're running away with the ballot box. here hijacking democracy, literally. these are not intelligent citizens who think about the issues and take care in casting their votes. they're just winning elections because there are so many of them. harper's weekly in the article

we read last night, one of its indictments in 1860 was the system of universal sufferage in large cities has fallen into discredit through the incapacity of the irish for self government. they're pulling down sacredness of our democracy. another classic image of the irish is this political boss. his guy who's subverting democracy, choraling votes, enrich himself and his friends through corruption. you've got the bootle, that's a 19th century term, means corruption. his tle boss who's got thumb on democracy and his boot on the taxpayer. that's the mayor of new york shining the shoes.

it's a powerful association with very much the irish. no one's really complaining about german or italian political power. we're getting close to the end of this list. radicalism, this becomes a big point. we talked about the incidence of rye of thing and strikes as well. as the 19th century vun unfolds, the industrial revolution gets more advanced and the size of factories, so forth, strikes become a big feature of american life. people are stribing and strike -- strikes become vicinity sometimes because people aren't being paid enough. they say people are y of thing because that's in theirself nature. they're foreigners and they're predisposed to rye of thing. the city has become a rob maness to our civilvation. it has a peculiar attraction for

the i am grant. here roughs, gamblers, thieves, robbers, lawless and desperate men who are ready on any pretext to raise riots. like socialism and anarchism. here you see the irish kind of lumped in with a whole variety of groups. this is columbia, lady liberty stopping these unwanted immigrants in the 1880 es 's. you see communists and socialists coming in. in the lower right you see the irishmen because -- and notice what he's carrying. he's carrying a bag labeled "dynamite." they were involved in the effort to free ireland. that involves a certain level of violence and raising money for eventually terrorism, which is our next -- yeah.

>> i've seen that on a couple of the -- >> it has two meanings. it's a nickname for the mafia. it also refers to eastern european radicals, an,ists. you see them used interchangely cartoons.ost tombs -- >> [inaudible]. >> the irish refuse ution airy brotherhood. they say our goal as irish americans, irish i am grants is o raise money to form an armed insurrection which involves assassinations, blowing occupy of ships as need be. that's where the association of irish and terrorism. here's the image from the foot of manhattan island. uncle sam is watching the immigrants landing and it says

the mafia in new orleans, reference to the italians. they're referring to germans. sornlist in new york means radicals galore. new york is kind of the capital of socialist america. another one, uncle sam here, trying to protect america and american institutions from riffraff immigration and all of these faces are labeled communists and anarchists, so forth. high tide of immigration. i mentioned terrorism but let's talk a little in particular. in the 1880's we think of terrorism as a relatively new thing and the association of immigrants from certain places and terrorism is a new thing. but it's not. it goes back to at least the 1870's, 18980's when the irish are raising this money. this is a parody of a meeting in agitation hall and they're requiring all theseage stators

to check their bombs at the door before they go into the meeting. this very movement in the early 1880's, the finian is raised a lot of money and used the money for different purposes. they raised money to bailed submarine. john holland came from ireland and he designed a functioning submarine in new york harbor. e of the first functioning submarine. it was called the fenian ram. it never was put into action, never got past the test stage. holland became a famous father of the modern submarine program. ok. well, all of this leads to -- and we should see how we're doing on time. we're getting close. all of this leads to, this sort

of amalgam of ideas, both the irish with all these other groups, there's a lot of agitation about immigration in the 18 50's, 60's, 80's, and into early 20th century. the successors of the no-nothings, that are committed to restricting agree if not cutting it off aultogget and they're unsuccessful for one thing. immigration means endless streams of cheap labor, so if you own steel mills in pittsburgh, you don't want immigration cut off that's an inexpensive source of labor. politically, they oppose immigration restriction because they don't want to see the door shut at least on their people.

eventually, world war i, some of the strike waves after world war i, continuing rising concerns about the heavy impact of immigration on american society leads to the restriction movement, the success of the restriction movement. laws are passed that greatly reduce the amount of immigrants coming to the country from about a million a year down to something like 150,000. so it's not completely staunched but it's greatly reduced as a result of this. it's going to stay that way with some exceptions all the way into the 19th century. when beallow for a freer flow of people. there's that 40-year of restriction, which is the exception to the american tradition. all right. we have about five minutes left. does anybody have any questions? anything about these ideas, about the way these things are

ranked? i mean, i've already said that immigration and -- you know, anti-catholicism was crucial, and labor, but anybody have any other questions or questions about the documents from last night? all right. well, if we've maxed out on nativism for the day, i will call it ah day and say we'll see you on friday. all right? >> join us each saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern for classroom lectures from across the area. lectures in history are also available as podcasts. visit our website at

span.org/history/podcast or download them from itunes. >> next on american history tv, author and history professor michael ross discusses his book on the 1870 kidnapping of molly mollie, the child of poor -- mollie digby. digby was abducted by two black women and the case exacerbated racial tensions. the pratt library in baltimore hosted this 50-minute event ---month event. >> it's nice to be here surrounded by pictures of edgar allen poe and books about pow and baltimore in many ways has a feel a lot like new orleans, an old port city with traditions and a quirky and sometimes spooky history. and i always kind of feel at home in baltimore just as i feel