Preface
The reform-minded Ignorant Party has achieved remarkable political success at a time when xenophobia is on the rise and voters are fed up with established parties.
But they are declining as fast as they are rising. This could not have been achieved without the great divisions within the Ignorant Party over the issue of slavery.
At the same time, the incendiary xenophobia increased the number of votes, and the involvement or initiation of a series of violent incidents by the Ignorant Party, such as the Chicago Beer Riots of 1855 and the Baltimore Riots on the day of the 1856 presidential election, caused many voters to resent xenophobia and abandon their support for the Ignorant Party.
In February 1856, delegates from the state Ignorant Party convened a meeting in Philadelphia to nominate presidential candidates. Discuss the nomination of presidential candidates.
As the issue of slavery became a major concern for the American people, the issue of anti-Catholicism and anti-immigration was relegated to a secondary position.
At the same time, representatives of the Ignorant Party were deeply divided over the issue of slavery, and when party leaders tried to appease the Southern Ignorant with a platform that included acquiescence to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, most delegates from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, and New England left the venue in protest.
In addition, the meeting announced the nomination of former President Millard Fillmore as the party's presidential candidate.
However, Fillmore himself did not support an anti-Catholic platform, which in a sense transformed the Ignorant Party from a xenophobic organization into an anti-Democratic national party.
In the political elections of 1856, the Ignorant Party tried to attract voters with a program that would preserve the unity of the country and promote the harmonious development of the country, but the result was a complete failure. Buchanan, a Democrat, successfully ran for president.
In the entire Free State, Millard Fillmore received less than 14 percent of the total votes, winning only one state in Maryland.
In contrast, Fremont, the Republican candidate, received 45 percent of the vote in the Free State. After losing the 1856 election, the party disappeared from the national political scene.
The problem of slavery has intensified
The Ignorant Party gradually declined after the mid-50s of the 19th century, mainly because the issue of slavery became a major issue, and it was believed that slave owners were a greater threat to the United States than immigrants.
The way of life in the southern states was permeated with ancient traditions of white supremacy, and the predominantly agrarian economy relied on cheap slaves for labor, so the southern states saw slavery as essential for their survival.
The northern states enacted abolitionist laws and abandoned slavery. The North's economy was more dependent on industry than agriculture, and a steady stream of European immigrants provided the labor needed for the development of industry in the North.
And poor refugees who settled in the United States in the 40s and 50s of the 19th century because of the potato famine would have received even lower wages.
In the southern states, long growing seasons for crops and fertile soils established an agriculture-based economy, with white-owned plantations being a major part of their agricultural economy, which relied on slaves for a variety of duties.
After planning to develop into a national party, the Ignorant Party made the preservation of national unity and harmony its primary goal to cater to both Southern and Northern voters, and even included representatives of the Catholic region of Louisiana in its convention.
Its rise attracted not only anti-Catholic and anti-Irish immigrants, but also anti-slavery in the Northern states, anti-secession voters in the Southern states, and some former Whig and Democratic political opportunists who chose to join out of ignorance of the party's growing strength.
Because of the issue of slavery, the divisions within the party gradually intensified.
In order to appease the southern states, the Ignorant Party became moderate in its attitude towards slavery, and at the 1855 National Convention, the Ignorant Party leadership was vague about the issue of slavery, causing the anti-slavery delegates and most Northern voters to abandon the organization and join the newly formed Republican Party.
For example, Wilson G. Flint, a senator from San Francisco, Calif., who was an anti-slavery senator, was originally a member of the Ignorance Party, but in the January 1856 election to the U.S. Senate in California, the Ignorant Party selected Henry S.F. Ford, a pro-slavery Southerner.
In order to prevent Ford from being elected, Flint kept voting for the Ignorant Party's rival Democratic candidate, ultimately causing the Ignorant to lose the race, and Flint joined the anti-slavery Republican Party a few months later until his death.
Overall, the Ignorant Party's power base was in the Northeast, and as a result, its position on the issue of slavery hastened its decline.
And the mistake of the ignorant party in the decision-making of the presidential candidate nomination is also fatal. At the February 1856 presidential nomination convention of the Ignorant Party, Millard Fillmore was then elected as a presidential candidate.
The Ignorant Party leadership chose Fillmore because it wanted to use a moderate candidate to reconcile the Ignorant Party over slavery and to use Millard Fillmore's position as former president to get more votes.
But Fillmore's desire to coexist with slavery led many Northerners who believed the Ignorance Party to be anti-slavery and left the party, and members of the Ignorance Party in the North drafted a statement questioning the Party's insistence on anti-slavery and the admission of Louisiana's Catholic representatives, and demanding that the party reconvene in New York on June 12 to nominate a new presidential candidate.
In addition, Fillmore's identity as an ignorant party is questionable. Fillmore himself was initially hesitant to accept the nomination of the Ignorant Party, and when he was nominated, he was in Europe, out of touch with the rapidly changing political situation.
Ignorance of the internal problems of the party
The Ignorant Party is a young party, mysterious and vibrant, and as such it attracts quite a few new members.
However, its lack of political experience, the lack of a respected core leader in the party, and the problems of the organization itself, the rapid pace of development, and the lack of firm positions of its members all contributed to its eventual decline.
Its chairman, James Barker, has appointed regional representatives to run campaigns in various places, but there is no unified plan.
In addition, as mentioned above, the ignorant party does not charge membership dues, and the funds required for its operation come from voluntary donations from members.
But it's also starving them of the funds to fund a nationwide campaign. President Barker's requests for contributions from various chapters were ignored, and candidates sometimes refused to pay out of pocket. At the same time, they also lack the support of newspapers due to lack of funds.
Thomas S. R. Whitney, from New York, was one of the most important leaders of the Order of United Americans, and one of the founders and spokesmen of the Ignorant Party.
Whitney was influential among xenophobia, and even then, he could not impose his views on the young people who were drawn to the new party.
In addition, some of the ignorant politicians who joined the ignorant party just followed the trend, and just wanted to use the ignorant party as a post station to accumulate political experience, so their position was not firm, and it was easy to be co-opted by other political parties.
As soon as the ignorant party loses power, it immediately collapses. Not only that, but the Ignorant Party also appears to be in a hurry in choosing its leaders.
The Ignorant Party chose former Whig member Henry Gardner to lead the Massachusetts Ignorant Party chapter because of his extensive political experience (serving on the Boston Public Committee, the Massachusetts State Assembly, and the Central Committee of the Whig Party).
But in the subsequent election, Gardner immediately chose to abandon the Ignorant Party in order to guarantee his re-election as governor of Massachusetts.
In addition, the ignorant party lacks political experience and has failed to fulfill the promises made in the election. If you fail to pass the 10-hour workday or secret ballot, you will lose some of your working-class support.
Although the party is opposed to corruption, people who engage in embezzlement or bribery are prohibited from holding public office. It stipulates that public officials shall possess the moral characteristics of "piety, justice, moderation, moderation, moderation, diligence and frugality".
But when the Ignorant Party came to power in Massachusetts, they legislated that public school students read the Protestant Bible every day, hoping to encourage Catholic children to become Protestant, and banned the Irish militia and removed Catholics from state public offices and replaced them with Protestants.
The new legislation established a commission to investigate the Catholic monasteries in an attempt to prove that the monasteries were sinful.
The press soon discovered that the main promoter of the commission had embezzled public funds for prostitution. It is tantamount to knowing the law and breaking the law, and the party's position in the hearts of the people has also plummeted.
After the results of the next election, the ratio of MPs from the "Ignorant Party" to those of other parties was completely reversed.
Moreover, the inexperience of members of the Ignorant Party in public office, for example, less than one-tenth of the more than 300 members of the Instellary Party who serve as legislators in Massachusetts have political experience, and the policies they have enacted are unrealistic and radical, and some reforms have failed to control the budget.
If the restrictions on alcohol are too harsh, the penalties for alcoholics are extreme, including imprisonment, demands for the dismissal of prison guards who drink alcohol, and banning alcoholics from working in the railroad industry.
Aggressive reform programs in public health and education spending have led to a spike in state budgets.
In 1855, Massachusetts, which was controlled by the Ignorant Party, saw a 45 percent increase in state spending over the previous year, a 40 percent increase in welfare expenditures in one year, and a 50 percent increase in annual town taxes.
Record spending on public schools has sparked backlash among alcoholics, conservatives and taxpayers, and the party's declining prestige and negative propaganda from its political opponents has made it difficult for the party to be re-elected.