how policies, laws, or action by a branch of the federal government has affected you or your community. 200 cash prizes totaling $100,000. for a list of rules and how to get started, go to the website. >> next, holy cross professor edward o'donnell talks about the prejudice many immigrants faced in the 19th century with regard to religion, customs, and social status. professor o'donnell says this often led to fights over what would be taught in public schools, questions about the loyalty of catholic politicians, and job postings stating such things as "no irish need apply." this class is about one hour and 10 minutes. >> welcome to the latest chapter of the irish-american we -- experienced or today will be talking about nativism, the anti-immigration movement that explodes in the 19th century, focusing on pretty much

all immigrants, but really focusing on the irish, the biggest and most identifiable group. they are also in the crowded cities and so forth, so they stand out and generate an enormous opposition. let's we get into that, back up a little bit. because we are net -- not just talking about the irish today, because the nativist response to the irish generates actually existed before the irish got here. you can find early versions of it in the 18th century, and you also find a goes of it since that time. so this question about anti-immigrant sentiment speaks to the larger american experience. it is a kind of phenomenon that we pride ourselves as being a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation that is always questioning that tradition. let's start now, looking at things in 2014 very what do americans think of the migration? if you go to ellis island, you

will see this image, an american flag, very large. about 20 feet long, 10 feet high. if you stand on one end, it has a hologram effect. on the right side, you see a big flag. if you walk towards where i am standing, the image changes and you see these faces representing ethnic and racial groups. how muchand shows americans love immigration. this seems strange given the politics today, but millions of americans, i would venture to say most americans today in the 21st century, absolutely love immigration. as strange as that may sound, hold that thought or do we know from headlines, from politics, debates in congress, and so forth, that americans also hate immigration. it seems we have always hated it. we will get to the explaining how that is possible, the love and hate at the same time. it is not that half of americans love it and half of them hate it. it is that millions of americans, at the same time,

love it and hate it. there is a good reason for that, and it has been the same reason for a long, long time. two kinds of immigration. that is one way to look at it. who wants to venture a guess? how is it possible for somebody, maybe even if you go back to the earlier image, this woman standing and holding the flag thing america has been a dated -- how does someone like that express love for immigration? what kind of immigration which she like? collects she would like the old-style immigration, not old, but immigration of the past, probably when her ancestors came over. >> the keyword is what? past. immigration from a generation or two or three or four ago always seems to be a welcome thing, a positive thing, a contributive thing to the greater good of the united states. what kind of immigration can you the americans hate, even

some of the same people? like when people push back against immigration, denounce immigration whether illegal or legal, what kind do they dislike? jack, what is the likely -- someone who likes past immigration, has strong feelings about it, but -- >> obviously, they would be opposed to the new immigration. >> even legal immigration are some people are upset about people coming into the country. what we have basically done with society, generations over time, we have compartmentalized our understanding of immigration. we think of it in very positive terms in a museum setting. just like people go to the statue of liberty and ellis island and do their genealogy, and millions of americans will proudly tell you about when their grandfather came from greece or ireland or wherever and how they became part of the

american dream. but when it is happening around us, whether us in 2014, 1924, 1894, or 1844, it seems alarming. it seems quite alien and quite dangerous. that is what we're looking at today. where these ideas of two ways of thinking about immigration -- there is a variation. think about the positive side of immigration, the way we think about it in positive terms. something i call the multicultural ideal. the 21stespecially in century, we have developed this language of diversity, tolerance, and multiculturalism. we have words to use to express why it is a good thing. great historical depth to it. this is late 18th century. seriesst. john wrote a of small essays about america as america was being born. he is one of the first guys to write down what this thing is,

this america that is being born. one of his most famous offered -- observations is that he says, here, individuals from all nations are melded into a new race of men whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. so he is saying america is destined for greatness, and one of the factors is it has a melting pot effect. people and ideas and traditions and melding them into a new race of people. that is not a new idea. way back during colonial times, we had people talking in those terms. we also had people like in german franklin who we normally site is one of the most open-minded people in america, in the world, when at the greatest examples of the enlightenment. his services to science and public service and literature, and he is is a great entrepreneur. but he is not above having that kind of negative reaction to emigration as it is happening. in the mid-1700's, pennsylvania experienced a big influx of

german immigrants. they are settling in an area that is now called germantown. great desk franklin goes off on it, and he refers to them as which is a nasty thing to say about the germans. and he says, why are we letting them swarm in and establish their language and manners to the exclusion of hours? why would pennsylvania become a colony of aliens that will german eyes's, and they will never adopt our language and customs? so in 1753, we have a video -- vivid expression of classic nativism. lincoln says they will not blend in and they are going to bring alien ways and cause lots of trouble. this may sound familiar. to prove the point of how timeless those words are, if we just take what franklin just said in 1753 and change six words. we will set it in a modern

context to we will talk about mexican immigration in california. this is what franklin said in 1753, but if we swapped out modern words, it reads like this to why should mexicans he suffered to swarm into our settlements and establish their language and culture to the exclusion of hours? why should california, founded by americans, become a colony of aliens who will shortly become so numerous as to make us hispanics instead of us americanizing them? it is a timeless expression. they have deep, deep historical roots. all right, anybody have any questions? all right, so why do we think this way? with jump into this. before we do, let's remind ourselves about where we are historically. we are about almost halfway through our semester looking at the experience of irish-american immigration to we're situated in the middle 19th century, talking about the famine migration and

some of the struggles of emigrants, economically, socially, politically am and that is part of the old immigration. of immigrationon 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 i include chinese are they come through california during this time. there is not nervous, but there is a distinct group. they will generate their own nativist response on the west coast. around 1880, a new flow, a much larger flow. you can see the numbers -- 8 million versus 20 million. now they predominately come from eastern and southern europe. you still have irish immigrants and english, but the numbers are quite small. it is right in the middle of this old immigration that the nativist response just explodes. it turns out that it is more

than a lot of anger. it turns out to be a full-blown political movement. all right, so what is this nativist tradition? let's talk about politically and historically what happened in the mid-19th century first, and then we will break down nativism into its component parts. so here is a classic emblem of the know nothing party or the american party. the nickname was the know nothings. it is not entirely clear why they had that nickname except that the lore is that they were a secret society. century america loved its secret society and the masons and so forth. part of the weight they created and a lower about themselves, it would not tell people about the organization. you would walk up to a member of the know nothing party, and they would say i know nothing, and that heightened interest.

so it becomes a full-blown political movement in the mid-19th century, particularly and 1855 years the american party, it is important to point out -- what is happening in 1854 it it is a ,hig party which is collapsing disintegrating over the issue of slavery. so it is a strange time in 1854 and 1855 or we have one named party and then a bunch of splinter parties. a lot of americans believe that the american party was the next big party, the print -- the replacement for the whigs. turns out there was another movement more concerned about slavery, the republican party, and that one will try after it but here, it looks like the american party. look at the statistics. in 1854, the american party wins control of state governments of delaware,

pennsylvania, and massachusetts. in massachusetts, it is a complete sweep. the contrary -- they take control of both houses of the legislature, lieutenant governor, the governor -- a complete takeover. the next year, maryland and in techie come under american party control. a lot of people would be saying the american party seems to be the one that is the option to the anti-immigration movement seems to be the one that will coalesce into a viable second party. a couple more stats -- they had really strong finishes and became quite powerful, not quite dominant, in states like new york and california. in congress, 7500 men reelected elected with either explicit american party credentials or they 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 the halls of congress. all right. anybody have any questions?

look at this. what were the nativists afraid of? they were afraid of a lot of things, and it does change over time. during different times, the order of priority or the order of things that people worried about tend to change. but in 1850, the mid-19th century time when the know nothings emerged, religion is absolutely positively the number one issue. specifically, catholicism. one of the readings i had you do morse, andel fb morri.b. most americans can name one thing he is famous for. he is the inventor of the telegraph. he is certainly the inventor of the telegraph that becomes the standard and really revolutionizes communication spirits of that is a pretty big to be shantou history. he is also well-known as an artist. he is one of america's

better-known early 19th century artists. third feather in his cap in terms of being well-known and making an influence on society, and that is he is a leading voice of anti-catholic alarmism. if you look at the title of his 1835 publication -- the foreign conspiracy against the liberties of the united states. pretty explicit. you had to do that reading last night. let's ask a few questions here. who can tell me some of the ideas, some of the accusations he is making? >> pretty much that catholics were following the rules of the pope, and the priests would pretty much command them. .nd -- shoot >> that gets us started right there. unlike true born americans, individuals who are free and beholden to no one but themselves, the idea that he has is that catholics are, by nature, authoritarians and

believe in an authoritarian structure appeared so the hierarchy of the church reflects an un-american, on republican, undemocratic way of thinking and operating. so that is a mark against them. not just this hierarchical way of thinking. what is the conspiracy? >> a connection between the catholic church and european influence, so he sees catholics in america as still beholden to the pope, and with that political influence -- >> right. and he says foreign conspiracy. to most non-catholics, particularly those concerned about the rise of catholicism, by saying that catholicism nature disqualifies you as a true republican citizen. not only do you believe in this hierarchical way of operating society, but you also owe complete loyalty to a foreign king, a foreign power, in this

case, the pope. the pope was a civil leader. but they see him in royal terms, terms.arkle -- monarchy that is the op. cit. of americans' clinical understanding of themselves. what else? can someone to only a phrase or out? paragraph, he calls catholics the enemy. he says the enemy is awake. he says their whole goal is to basically rid the world of liberty. not just america, but the whole entire world. >> right. he's protestantism is tied to liberty, republican liberty. they are inseparable. and catholicism is tied to what? good mid-19th century word. ?> despotism >> despotism. it is essentially a religion of tyranny, despotism. a freedom of conscience and so forth. he is saying that as you look

around and you see these poor, hopeless, helpless irish coming into our cities, do not be fooled. this is part of an advance army of the pope who hates liberty, hates republicanism, and he has designs to destroy it as an ethic can't, as soon as he gets enough bodies on the ground. and then they have leaders, priests. the priests have leaders, the archbishops. archbishops have leaders, the cardinals. the command structure that will attempt to overthrow the republic. this may sound crazy, a conspiracy theory gone awry, but it made a lot of sense to people during that time. a connectionhave between this kind of conspiracy mania during a different time in american history? >> [inaudible] >> yet, it is amazing for i swapped out the words of franklin and in put in mexican and california institute you can wroteome of what morse and instead of saying catholic,

put in the word communist. there was the message of mccarthy in the 1940's and 1950's. conspiracy theories often have tremendous similarities to them. morse is not alone. there is a huge amount of anti-catholic literature published in america. even if you go to barnes and noble today, there is the automotive section, self-help section, spirituality section, biography, history, and if there was such a thing as arnzen noble be1835, a big section would "the pope is coming to get us." papal conspiracy literature. you have a copy of this image in front of you are between you. take a moment to look at it and see the connection. this is a visual representation from a different book published at roughly the same time that shows many of the same messages,

many of the ideas and accusations that morse was making, but it is here in visual form. what you notice about the details? what are some of the -- >> the pope is on a throne. >> he cannot look any more royal, right? we would think this is some sort of european king. he is sitting on a throne with lackeys on either side of him, a great big crown. remember, americans in the 19th century, when they think about they are, they have to think about what they are not. they are republicans and democrats with a small r and s s all d. they believe in liberty. what is the action in the image? the direction of the image? the town, thed american town. >> it is a split screen.

rome, the basilica behind him, and he is pointing towards america, towards the atlantic ocean, towards a schoolhouse to the schoolhouse he comes the flashpoint of this anti-catholic mania, one of the flashpoints. anything else? it also looks like he is standing on the bible. and a lot of the things we read, they talk about how the pope did not want to anything to do with the bible. >> yet, he has his foot on the bible which is an important detail. it is more of the religious side of the argument. thisow it is 1855 when image was published, and the point that people would make is that protestants believe in individualism and individual reading and interpretation of the bible and so forth, and catholics had an authoritarian idea that only the pope and only the bishops and priests can read

certain parts of the bible to you and tell you what it means. that is obviously an exaggerated image to city pope is anti-bible. this comes see where from. the title of this book is called "the papal conspiracy exposed by protestantism vindicated" beecher. system is school being invented in the united states during this time, and people quickly start to see it as a key part of democracy and a republic. and when the big debates ensued during this time about which bible -- not whether to read the bible, nobody disagreed on that -- it was what bible, catholic or protestant? that was indent massachusetts, in 1834, and ursuline convent was burned to the ground by an angry mob.

there were wild rumors that the nuns had kidnapped a local protestant girl and were holding her against her will, for seeing her to become a catholic nun. the mob showed up and they burned the convent or likely, nobody was hurt but it stands as a vivid symbol of the conspiracy, the belief in the conspiracy, and the fears evil had four catholicism. detail aboutmore the literature we were talking about, just during this 40-year 1860, 210 1820 to books. anti-catholic, catholic conspiracy literature, one right after the other. this was more popular than proslavery or literature, and other greek debate in the mid-19th century. -- best-selling book of all

it only did its throne -- gets its -- gets an throw -- "uncle tom's cabin." the awful disclosures of maria monk. it was published in 1830 six. it was about what was really happening behind the walls, sexual impropriety, priests taking advantage of nuns, among other things. there is kind of a fear that there is actually an army of catholics about to overthrow the republic. there is also a fear of, morally speaking, they pose a great threat to the republic. fear ofwhy there was a convents and why the convent was burned. is a hugemonk bestseller and she goes on a big tour, telling the people her tale of woe.

the baby she has is a baby she became pregnant, according to her story, from an irish priest. they fled the convent because they were going to kill the baby to hide the evidence to was exposed as a fraud and ended up dying in poverty. the anti-catholic activists that sponsored her got all the money or do we know this because they all see each other. there are court records explaining who actually wrote the book and so forth. all right, you get the picture. we mention on the earlier image that the free school, the american school, was one of the key flashpoints. so what do the americans think about schools as they are becoming these key institutions in this emerging democracy? this is from the minnesota medical in 1850, making the case that you can put anything you want into a public school and out of it comes a republican citizen. public schools take the child of the exile of the hungry, the

half starved immigrant from the emerald isle, and the norwegian, places them on the same bench with the offspring of those whose ancestors' bones bleached upon the fields of lexington. long-standing generations of american. as the child of the foreigner plays with his school fellow, he learns to whistling yankee doodle and sing hail columbia. americans have this for a positive feeling about the emerging public school system. comes this large immigrant group, mostly irish catholics, who say we do not want to send our kids to public schools and we can't because they are immoral in the threatening well-being of our kids. here is archbishop hughes who becomes the most prominent catholic leader in the mid-19th century. brief expense of the public school system in the city of new york convinced us that we cannot to start our consciences duty to our off -- offspring, if we allow them to be brought under the

influence of the irreligious principles on which these schools are constructed. so we will bring our own school system at the costs of millions of dollars. it is a real rejection of a key institution in american life. furthermore, what he does not say here is, those who do go to public school, we are going to fight for their right to read catholic bibles, not protestant bibles. not public school stuff is just an intellectual argument. in philadelphia in the spring of 1844, the city explodes in religious sectarian rioting known as the bible riots. they are arguing about which bibles to use in the public schools. these go on for days. 20 people are killed. three churches burned. blood running in the streets over this issue of catholic or protestant bibles in public schools. you can still evidence of this. in new york, in st. patrick's cathedral on 5th avenue, the

earlier version was down in what is now chinatown. the old st. patrick's cathedral. you will notice it has a very high wall around it, a 10-foot high wall around the property. it was not there originally when it was built in 1814. 1840'silt a wall in the because they were afraid the church would be destroyed because mobs constantly rumored and threatened to do so. of theves you an idea fact that it is really a fortified with each role. a couple more images before we move on to a different aspect of nativism. cartoonist, a great who did cartoons of everything involving politics. he has a particular focus on the threat of the catholic church. this is the 1870's. these are not alligators hitting the beaches of america. these are irish bishops hitting

the beaches, and there is a schoolmaster protecting the schoolchildren of america run the foreign catholic influence. just to give you a quick look forward, this is 1928 , well into the 20th century. who we will talk about in a subsequent lecture, is running for president. he is the first irish-catholic to be nominated by a major party, the democratic party, and he just gets hammered by the republicans and also by the ku nativist,and other anti-catholic groups. it shows that he's conforming to the idea. he bows before a foreign king, kissing the ring of the pope. could you vote for him? he wants us to be placed in the white house to the answer is obvious -- you cannot have a catholic in the white house. 32 years later, jonathan kennedy runs, and he, too, has to answer that question. can you be a catholic and an independent political leader in

the united states? we also know -- if you look across the country today, more than two dozen states have statutesti-sharia law because people are imagining that there is this conspiracy. sharia by stealth, this idea that sharia law, muslim law is creeping into our political system, and they're heading it off at the pass by passing these resolutions. i think over 30 states have done so in recent times. so religion and nativism go hand-in-hand. nativism and perceived non-assimilation. it is always in the eye of the beholder. this is new york city in 1855. two dominant ethnic enclaves. the orange represents little germany. a concentrated area of germans. the three green areas are where the irish are concentrated. today, we go to little italy and chinatown in american cities to

try ethnic foods. nobody was pleased about this. this is seen as a willful effort not to blend in. in fact, this conforms to what ben franklin was saying. they are crowding together and refusing to assimilate they are going to try to german eyes or , rather than as americanize them. there were portions of new york where the population is as thoroughly irish as is dublin. it is about people not blending in. dotsou can see these clustered together, those are the irish neighborhoods. they are bunched together. most people do not look at that sociologically and economically and say that is the worst housing, the one place people will let them live. they're saying that these people are choosing to crunch together, choosing not to assimilate.

one of our readings from last night touches on this issue from 1860. i should have given you a little bit of background. in 1860, the united states is going to welcome the prince of wales, a big visit with pomp and circumstance wherever he goes. part of the ceremony will be a great big parade with all the different militias that will march. they will give the prints a great big welcome. michael corcoran, an irish nationalist, one of these guys who is driven out of ireland, he is the head of the irish regiment, and he says we are not marching to that guy. crown thateir to the oppresses ireland. him.ll not march to honor he gets court-martialed eventually. the only thing that saves him is that the civil war breaks out. so what is the harpers weekly irishial about our soldiers? what is their interpretation?

from what i could tell, it sort of seemed like they were calling the irish ungrateful. how theon about americans have given them land, cheap land, and they have been good to them, and them to practice their cult -- their catholicism or >> right, we have been tolerant. >> right. they're painting the irish to be insubordinate, just people they do not want in our country. >> disloyal, i mean, really. you do not deserve it. you are filling our jails and hospitals, jacking up our taxes, corrupting our democracy, and we still let you stay. yet, you pulled this incredibly embarrassing act of essentially treason to we cannot trust you. this tells us you're probably not ever going to be good americans because it is either your temperament or your religion or whatever it may be.

it really angered the editors of harpers and this is one of the flashpoints where they put their cards on the table. you can see in this image pretty vivid example of how the irish are perceived. the message of this is -- you see lady liberty, and she is staring a pot of immigrants. you see all different kind of ethnic groups represented to her but notice the wind as she is eventually going to get in there. that is the implication. he will probably have to be whacked over the head. he has his irish flag, his knife, and he is exhibiting anger and righteousness that -- ousness people associate with the irish. it is no coincidence he's the one standing on the lip of the pot. there is another dimension of nativism. it is more vague. it is related to the idea of

clustering together, the idea they are taking over. this is an earlier version when the irish came in such enormous numbers. we talked about some of those numbers with a go from being a small percentage of new york and boston and philadelphia to becoming 30%, 40%, 50%, if you include their american-born children, 50% of the population. cartoon fromvid the 1860's -- the great fear of the period. uncle sam may be swallowed by foreigners. this is actually looking from canada. you have the irish on the east coast and the chinese on the west coast, and they're literally devouring uncle sam in a grotesque way. this was a multi-panel cartoon. in the end, the china man swallows the irish which gives you an idea that if people had to choose who they thought was the most dangerous, they would choose the chinese, but the irish are right behind them. so we see in this image the

rapid and really shocking growth of the irish population in this mid-19th century time, largely due to the famine. but we know before the famine, there were already 45,000 irish living in new york city. include theirnot american-born children. it is twice i percent, 28% of people born in ireland. if you throw in their kids, you are talking 40% or 50% of the population. do not forget one thing in that statistic, these are not just irish people. they are also mostly irish-catholics. a double set of fears. i split this image to show you the connections with other groups. this is from 1882. it says "the dream of the j and theized,"

cartoonist is showing new york city completely taken over by the jewish immigrants and they are taking down a sign that says john smith's dry goods. good american-born name, john smith. that is coming down, and epstein and sons is being placed up there. the new harold is "the new jerusalem herald." you see 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 jewish in new york and it is just at this moment that the real great and this guycome, is freaking out, so to speak, in 1882 and he is no idea what is about to hit the american shores. all right, nativism and poverty. this is not just a matter 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 when they think about themselves and their country and the republic and so forth? in the opposite, which is ?ristocratic england in that place or in europe, there are fixed classes in huge numbers of poor people. that is a symbol of an un-republican government. americans like to think it is very small and people are temporarily poor. and then you see waves of poor people from europe begin to fill things that we now start to call slums. there is a calculus that says these people are artificially jacking up the poverty rate in america which is a direct threat to our way of being. so the irish in new york city in

the 1850's, 64% of the people who ended up in the pour house are born in ireland. that is way disproportionate to the percentage in the population. and there is a teeter tottering boat that says we're unwisely .mporting poverty here is an expression of this idea that america just does not do poverty. it is not part of our political, social make up. we as a people, americans, are intolerant of ragged garments and empty punches. we are a people who has had no experience of physical tribulation. the destitute irish man is repulsive to our habits and our taste. we associate ill-clothing and destitution with ignorance and vice. characteristics. here is one of the images you have in front of you. kind of a classic image of the

irish, both male and female. what is the -- we can assume they are poor because they live in a shack. but what else is -- what is the nature? looks like an animal, almost like an ape. >> mid-19th century, you would spot that in a second and a political cartoon or poster that that is about the irishman. this is very much the typical way in which he is shown what else do we know about him without really knowing a caption or anything? asked the man is sitting down to her die do not note that is supposed to signify irish laziness. >> he's not only poor, but he is what -- >> [inaudible] runs counter to the bootstraps political culture we have. you have got to pull yourself up out of poverty.

>> [inaudible] violence,s and definitely significant features of the irish stereo plate. they're both right there. >> so he's not only poor. these are associated vices. he is age rink or which may explain why he is poor, and he is also ready at the drop of a hat to wield his club and get into a scrape. what about his attitude? most of us think of poverty and misery together. >> he does not look happy, but he does not really seem to care. noteah, he looks content, upset about his circumstances. obviously not saying, what do i have to do to get out of these circumstances? to the american viewer, this is a very un-american approach to

poverty. you're supposed to be desperate and very embarrassed, ashamed of poverty, doing every thing in your power to get out of it. they seem to be quite content with their circumstances. to show you how this idea carries forward, this is an image from 1896 showing uncle sam at the gates of america and holding his nose. the immigrant here is an eastern european, a little bit jewish, a little bit slavic, a little bit italian, who knows what, a composite immigrant. he is carrying a bag labeled disease, label poverty, sabbath desecration. he is not only a drinker but he is drinking on the sabbath. and uncle sam is trying to stop him. the associations are not exclusively attributed to the irish. they are reused depending on which group is coming. he had a bag labeled disease. disease is another crucial component. if you look at the medical public institution

records, hospital records in the mid-19th century, these things are also being invented along with public school spirit you see the irish are a huge, great disproportionate amount of the patients and the hospitals. bellevue hospital shows that 85% of the foreign-born admissions are irish-born. so almost everybody in that hospital for the public, the poor, are irish-born in the 1850 's to her to there is a clear association with disease, poverty, and so on. image from the 18 80's showing the grim reaper on the bow of the ship, and it is arriving at manhattan island, before ellis island opened a few years later. belt of the angel of death says cholera. epidemic of 1849 kills 4000

people in america. over almost half of them were irish-born. so in association with immigrants, particularly the irish. they are filthy people, right? they essentially bring it upon themselves. this is an immigrant hospital prior to the days of ellis island, new york landed people at the tip of manhattan. they also had a hospital. they are concerned about sick immigrants coming in. in staten island where the hospital was built, and mob showed up and destroyed 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. here is another one just to show the connection -- this is an anti-chinese cartoon from san

francisco in the 1880's showing parts of san francisco, specially chinatown, with leprosy and smallpox. the demons are labeled with the diseases. the association of immigration and disease is very, very tight. all right, nativism and crime -- a lot of these overlap, by the way. high rates of poverty, you also find high rates of crime. new york city, we keep using new york but it is a great representation of the irish experience. 55% of those arrested in the 1850's were irish-born. probably another 20% if you include irish-american spirit 35% of the prostitutes arrested in 1858 were irish-born or to wherever you turn, you found irish offenders, sometimes as petty thieves or drunk and disorderly, sometimes much more serious stuff. quotation about the irishman 1880's by a judge --

class, the majority of the population of new york and brooklyn to whom the rearing of two or more children inevitably means a boy for the penitentiary and a girl for the brothel. blunt language saying whenever the irish have a kid, it is either a future prostitute or future criminal. this images from the early 1870's interest prisoners lining up or getting out of this wagon. wagon known as? what do we call it? >> paddy wagon. >> right. why? it comes from the 1850's, the term >> the name patrick? >> yes, the nickname. sometimes pejorative. sometimes affectionate. why would they call it a paddy wagon? >> because it is full of irishmen. >> yes. it is also possible that it refers to the fact that a very

large percentage of the people driving that van were irishmen wearing blue uniforms. the 1850's, more than a quarter of the new york city police department is irish-born. it can mean that they are showing up as criminals or it could be that they are increasingly members of law enforcement or both. the paddy wagon was born during that time. all right, other groups with certain kinds of criminal attributions given to them. the sinister chinese villain emerges in the 1870's, 1880's him and becomes a part of me novels.ction and din here is an image from 1909 that shows eastern european immigrants, jewish, italians, greeks, so forth, coming to america as rats. in the real story, the pied piper places pipe and the rats

are let out to sea and drown. ,hese are labeled as thieves anarchists, and it says off to america. the europeane officials on the shore there. the americans are taking the worst of european society. they are literally coming out of the sewers and out of the jails. this idea of criminality is deeply embedded. all right, nativism and disorder, a dimension of criminality. basically, rioting. rioting is a huge problem in the mid-19th century in most american cities. we know it goes back to the colonial times, the 1750's with the stamp act right here at but those were usually more demonstration riots, showing anger and pageantry and role-playing where they burn an effigy of the governor or break a few things. in the mid-19th century, riots become incredibly violent and

deadly. people began to die in these riots. this is the dead rabbits riot which was partially featured in the movie "gangs of new york." this is from a new york city merchant in the 1840's, talking about the characteristics of the irish. 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 our own country run riot in this. thes deeply embedded in irish nature to be riotous and uncontrolled. ofs is the op. cit. idea being a republican citizen who is self-controlled. here is another thomas nast cartoon from the 1870's showing a scene that is greatly

exaggerated. a st. patrick's day parade, and an intersection ran with some traffic. scuffling, but it is blown up into this full on riot. notice that he draws the irish as savage beasts who are clubbing and beating bystanders and policemen. he had the double delight that it was on st. patrick's day that this happened. what more could you possibly expect? all right, any questions at this point? , there is more. nativism, i tell you, is multidimensional. thatism and labor, one will clearly found some earlier -- sound familiar to our modern ears. the idea that immigrants still jobs or lower wages. here is a poster from the

1850's. shall america labor be protected? cheap labor from abroad. they either take our jobs out or they worked for less. the wages of bricklayers and teamsters began to decline. this is one for the american party, the know nothings. toty number two anti-catholicism. the statement by the american association for the condition desk for the improvement of the condition of the poor lays this out saying that increased immigration from europe has had a negative impact on the laboring and mechanic classes of new york city, both by crowding them out of employment and diminishing the rewards. the solution, restrict immigration. what about this one? intimatelything more associated with the irish and this question of labor then the irish need apply."

people used to say it jokingly. sometimes you see it as a "nina" sign. inhas a powerful place irish-american historical memory. the big idea is when we can to this country in great numbers, americans hated us and discriminate gated -- discriminated against us. it made our adjustment to america all the more difficult. it was difficult the cause we were poor and did not have skills. it was doubled upon as because we were demonstrated -- we were discriminated against. they shut us out of lucrative jobs. irishmeny, yeah, when showed up at factories, they saw the "no irish need apply" sign. they saw it at coal mines and waterfronts. a lot of historical research has been done which historians have been looking for the evidence of

what we do. we cannot just take tradition and accept it at face value per at what has happened is there's very little evidence of that sort that exists. there are no signs. there are a fake vintage signs people have that were printed in the 20th century, almost like novelties. so irish men, at least as far as face -- atnd not to least these kinds, not to say they were not discriminated against. so who bears the brunt of "no irish need apply"? it was a repeated phrase. it is in classified ads for irish women, irish domestic servants or domestic servants. in which they say "no irish need apply." you see this idea embodied in this image in front of you. we have already covered this in some respects feared we can see the irish woman very clearly.

she is the one that looks like an eight -- ape. she also has orange shamrocks on her dress and case we do not get the idea. what is something else you notice? woman --erican [inaudible] >> what is wrong with that? >> it is fear. >> she is the employer. this is her house, her kitchen, and she is cowering in front of .his guerrilla-like figure it is the opposite of how it should be. the help should be submit this -- submissive. this is a female version of the riotous irish man can she is rioting in the kitchen, and we can see that with the rope can dish on the ground. what else? what is another problem with the bridget, the irish bridget?

it is a nickname. name, even though you do not know her, she would be called a bridget, just like the man would be called a paddy. what else about her duty? >> she is very uncooperative. >> and what about tonight's dinner? >> boiling over. >> yes. something is burning in the oven. america is basically saying that we need servants. we're becoming a middle-class society. we need servants pizza they begin hiring, but the great majority of people showing up to do that kind of work are irish women. there is a great big push back weary if you read the classified ads, people say "wanted, protestant girl, preferred german or swedish or preferred american, no irish need apply." so she is this very unlikable figure. she is like a malia bedelia --

bedelia on steroids to achieve is and terrible at her job. why would her brother pat probably not face at sign the waterfront? what is the difference between her job and his job? if you're doing something like a manual labor job, working on the docks, no one will care of your temperament. if you're working and someone's house, they will get upset if you are wrecking their house and not doing your job. >> and also dealing with children and the adult spirits of the sanctity of the american home, the ideal of domesticity is developing in the 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 who knows what with the children and with

the house. it is a conundrum. if you go into a historical database and type in "servant problem," you get hundreds of articles in newspapers that have that in the headline, servant problems. we need lots of servants, and the only ones we seem to get our women from ireland. here is the text from an ad -- wanted, and english or american woman who understands cooking to assist in the work generally if wished. also, a girl to do chamber work. .o irish people need apply it goes on from there. it is aimed at bridget, less so than pat. because two cares about the behavior of an irishman on the dock or at a coal mine as long as he does the job? this isn't image of sort of that swarthy southern european, eastern european koester works -- characteristic. it says poor labor, and he is

of thethe food right off table of the american-born workingman. so we need to control our immigration so that jobs and wages are preserved. this one is aimed at the chinese during the same time. showing a chinese immigrant with 10 arms, doing all these different jobs, and the young american man is kicking around in the right-hand side because, presumably, they are unemployed. what shall we do with our boys from 1882? there is more, nativism and race. you probably already picked up on this. the image of the irish as east is not just among being mean. somebody dipping into the emerging idea of racial ideas when racial categories and so forth. if you look at two images close up that we have already seen, you see that this is not just to be mean to the irish, but it is to say these people are lower on

the scale of humanity are they belong to a lower race that is , astoo far from the baboon depicted here. george hamilton strong was a great civic leader and merchant in new york in the mid-19th century and kept a big diary, a regular diary, just a gold mine of resources for historians and he wrote about the irish, almost always in horror at their alien ways and behaviors. he said our celtic citizens are almost as remote from us as the chinese, and the chinese are the furthest out in the spectrum of respectability. here is an image from the 1860's is calleda book that "the new physiognomy." in see a lot of similarities the pictures. you have a beautiful, composed, intelligent american-born woman,

in this case, florence nightingale, a famous figure who is a real person. if you look closely, what is the name of the woman on the far right? she looks like an ape. she is dirty and dump your tournament is bridget mcbruiser. there is no real person with that name. and this was in a textbook explaining the connection between physiology and personality and intelligence and so forth. sometimes race is explicitly shown in these images and documents. here you can see the irish woman with ant site-by-side african-american, and notice in the age of raging slavery and anti-black racism, and see how the irish is being shown here. the irish woman is being shown as much lower, much less

desirable, less controlled, less intelligent than the african-american woman beside her the point at the cartoon is this 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 probably ever will be. another image of imagery during reconstruction -- the blacks have been given the right to vote and everyone who is white and a citizen can vote, including these legions of irishmen. it is tapping into two kinds of racial ideas. i'm putting up my fingers -- as race becomes more scientific and the late 19th and early 20th century, ideas like eugenics develop and the racial component of nativism becomes more pronounced. nativism and politics -- because all of these people, all of the

men above a certain age become citizens and can vote, this is a horror to a lot of people. you see a mid-19th century image of an irishman with a german. the irishman is in a whiskey barrel and the german is in a year barrel and they're running away with a ballot box. they are littler -- literally running away with democracy. theseare not citizens -- are people winning elections because there are so many of them and turning it into that kind of system. one of the indictments among many was the system of universal suffrage in large cities has fallen to discredit the the incapacity of of the irish for self government. they're filling our jails and hospitals, filling our slums and pulling down the sacredness of our democracy. another classic image of the political boss --

a guy subverting democracy, corralling votes, using the poor immigrant vote to his advantage to game the system and then enrich himself and his friends through corruption. you have the poodle boss with this on democracy in his boot on the taxpayer. on the right hand side, tammany hall has its boot on city hall, that's the mayor of new york shining the shoes. it's a powerful association with the irish. notice complaining about italian or german political power yet. thisism and radicalism -- becomes an important point as cities develop and we talked about the incidence of writing and strikes. as the 19th century unfolds, the industrial revolution gets more

advanced and the size of factory -- size of factories and so forth and strikes become a big feature of american society. a lot of americans say people are striking and strikes become violent sometimes because people are not being paid enough -- they say people are writing because that's in their nature. these are foreigners who come in don't understand our ways and are predisposed to writing. josiah strong wrote these words -- the city has become a menace to our civilization. it's a attraction for the immigrants. gamblers, thieves and desperate men of all sorts gather together to raise riot for the purpose of destruction and plunder. they are treated to immigrants with riotous majors and -- riotous natures and political ideologies. see the irish lumped into a whole bunch of groups. is columbia, lady liberty

stopping these unwanted immigrants. they are not a pleasant looking group. easy anarchists and communists coming from eastern europe. on the lower right, you see the irishman. he's carrying a bag labeled dynamite and that's because irish immigrants, irish-americans were deeply involved in the irish nationalist movement and that involves a certain level of forence and raising money essentially terrorism, which is -- >> what does the black hand mean? >> it has two meanings all stop it's a nickname for the mafia and refers to eastern european radicals, anarchists and so forth all stop you see it used interchangeably in these kinds of cartoons. >> [inaudible]

>> the irish revolutionary brotherhood. they make no bones about it. as irish goal immigrants in irish-americans is to raise money to foment an armed insurrection in ireland that will throw the british colonial rule off. that involves assassinations, sowing up relationships, and forth. that's where the association of -- uncle samrorism is watching these scary looking immigrants land and that his seat is a document that them anarchists in chicago, referring to german. these radicals galore. trying to protect american revolutions from riffraff -- riffraff immigration.

high tide of immigration -- i -- wened terrorism, let's think of terrorism in the 1880's as a relatively new things and this association of immigrants and terrorism is a new thing, but it goes back to the 1870's or 1880's will stop this is a parody of an irish national meeting, meeting in agitation hall. they are requiring all of these agitators to check their bombs at the door before they go into the meeting. 1880's,ement in the they raise a lot of money and use it for different purposes. one of the things they did was raise money to build a submarine and got this guy john holland who came from ireland and was a trained engineer and architect. he designed a functioning

submarine in new york harbor. one of the first functioning submarines in america. the idea was is going to shrink -- going to sink british ships. it never got beyond the test phase. to john hollinger went on become an important figure in the american navy and the father of the american summering program. to thishis leads amalgam of ideas about the threat post by immigration. agitation.ot of eventually organizations begin that are committed to restricting immigration if not

cutting it off altogether. are unsuccessful to a large degree because american business interests love immigration. you don't want immigration cut off. ethnic groups, once they get a foothold, a plan to bring opposeamily, so they immigration restriction because they don't want to see the door shut on their people. great strike waves and concerns about the impact of heavy immigration on american society leads to the restriction movement. in 1920 one and 1924, law for past that greatly reduce the amount of immigrants from nearly a million a year down to about 150,000. the flow was not completely

staunch but is greatly reduced and it will stay that way with some exceptions into the 1950's at which point we redesign our immigration program and allow for much freer flow of people to command. but there are 40 years of restrictions to the american tradition. we have about five minutes left. does anyone have any questions? anything about these ideas, about the way these things are ranked? was crucial and labor -- do you have any other questions about the documents from last night? if we have maxed out on nativism

for the day, i will call it a day and say we will see you on friday. >> you are watching american history tv -- 48 hours of program on american history every weekend on c-span three. follow us on twitter for information on our schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. >> next on american history tv, author and history professor michael ross discusses his book on the 1870 kidnapping of 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.