Embedded Files
Season 1: Episode 3
Season 1: Episode 3
As Immigration and Customs Enforcements Agents threatened raids to deport thousands of undocumented families, the President sent out tweets calling for sitting U.S. Congresswomen of color to go back where they came from. Actions and words which added fuel to the already raging flames of debate over how immigration ought to be handled in this country.
When looking for an analog in the past, we find the Know Nothing Party, the nation's first party that based its stances on the ideology of nationalism and being anti-immigration. What can the Know Nothing's teach us about today and how can the concerns of those drawn to nativism be addressed in a healthier way: this week on Context, Please.
Secret Orders and a False Past
Secret Orders and a False Past
This certificate from the Order of United Americans, a group similar in belief to the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, has its central image a portrait of George Washington. Underneath his face it portrays a quote attributed to his farewell address, "Beware of Foreign Influence."
Although Washington did speak about foreign influence in his farewell address, he never uttered that particular phrase in that speech or any of his recorded writings. What the quote did do effectively, was signify the strong nativist ideology of this and other secret orders.
Footnotes
Footnotes
- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/30/how-u-s-immigration-laws-and-rules-have-changed-through-history/
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/immigrants-conspiracies-and-secret-society-launched-american-nativism-180961915/
- https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/18/immigration_and_the_rise__fall_of_the_know-nothing_party_125649.html
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/2675102?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/1832809?seq=16#metadata_info_tab_contents
- http://www.westfield.ma.edu/mhj/pdfs/Taylor%20summer%202000%20combined.pdf
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=c4D1VD4x9M4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=%22Order+of+the+Star+Spangled+Banner%22&ots=_8BPAuHYnf&sig=Igb3CixZltDjOnEYcxCw_8l5oWg#v=onepage&q=%22Order%20of%20the%20Star%20Spangled%20Banner%22&f=false
- https://dp.la/exhibitions/outsiders-president-elections/anti-outsider-platforms/know-nothing-party-1856?item=2098
- https://www.loc.gov/item/sm1854.561860/
- https://exhibits.library.villanova.edu/chaos-in-the-streets-the-philadelphia-riots-of-1844/know-nothings
- http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003689252/
- https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:15134#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2346%2C0%2C7675%2C4375
- http://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/ppmsca/07500/07575u.tif
- http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Alien_Enemies_Act_of_1798/
- https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/21
- https://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/12/17/philadelphia-anti-catholic-riots-1844/
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/american-republican-party
- https://historicipswich.org/2015/12/09/know-nothing/
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