Preface
In September 1854, a party known as the Ignorant Party unexpectedly won control of the state government in Massachusetts, Delaware.
In 1855, however, in 1855 the party encountered a series of problems in the process of developing from a regional party to a national party.
First, the scandal in Massachusetts. Then, as a result of the National Convention, not only was there a serious split within the party over the issue of slavery, but anti-slavery supporters within the party also opted out because of the party's ambiguous stance on slavery.
Coupled with the lack of experience in political struggles, its members have repeatedly failed in political struggles.
The political bitterness soon followed, and only a few months later, in the 1856 election, his nominee for president, Millard Fillmore, was defeated in the presidential race, leaving New York and never entering politics again. Why did the Ignorant Party rise and fall so quickly? The whole process seems confusing.
In fact, the rise and fall of the Ignorant Party is closely related to xenophobia, as historian Eric Fonter has argued: the rapid rise and decline of the Ignorant Party is a useful indicator of political xenophobia.
The years 1854 and 1855, when political xenophobia reached its peak, were due to its ability to fill the political vacuum created by the decline of the Whigs, and the fact that the party was to some extent a truly reform-oriented party, but also inseparable from the influx of European immigrants that caused fear among native Americans.
Rise
In the middle of the 19th century, the xenophobic party of its xenophobic nature came into view. It may seem like it became famous overnight, but it's not. Because from the thirties of the 19th century, xenophobic organizations that appeared one after another in various places created the conditions for the rise of the party and laid the foundation for its development.
From the thirties of the 19th century onwards, there was a sharp increase in the number of urban immigrants. In New York, for example, there were 17,400 foreigners in New York City in 1830, mostly Irish. "
The New York Commercial Newspaper of November 3, 1835, reported that the total population of New York at that time was about 270,000, of which 28,000 were foreigners.
In 1836, 76,000 immigrants came to the United States, including 30,000 Irish, most of whom remained in New York.
In the eyes of native Americans, these immigrants are not only numerous, but also fond of living in clusters, culturally distant from their own, and mostly poor, non-assimilating groups, and social problem makers.
As a result, the influx of migrants has been accompanied by ethnic conflict and rising anti-immigrant sentiment, which has led to the emergence of xenophobic groups everywhere.
In July 1835, the Native American Democratic Association was founded in New York to oppose foreigners holding public office, to oppose the immigration of poor and criminals to the United States, and to cooperate with the Whigs, but they were absorbed by the Whigs as xenophobic sentiment waned and internal divisions subsided.
The organization was the first significant xenophobic political organization in New York City and the forerunner of the xenophobic political parties of the 19th century's '40s and '50s.
In June 1843, the American Republican Party, an exclusionary organization, was founded in New York, and in the spring elections of 1844, it successfully ran for mayor and most of the city council members, a xenophobic movement that spread throughout New York State.
Similar organizations have been formed in Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New Orleans. Among the programs of the American Republican Party, which had an impact on the future, were:
Extending the waiting period for naturalization to 21 years, giving equal opportunities for employment for local citizens and foreigners, and calling for complete separation of church and state, etc.
In May and July 1844, fierce clashes broke out between the Irish and Native-born Americans in Philadelphia, with serious violence and the Kensington and Southwark riots, which killed 20 people and injured more than 100, which made more Native-born Americans turn averse to the Irish. Contributed to the development of xenophobic organizations. The number of members has skyrocketed.
According to newspapers at the time, in April 1845, the number of people involved in the xenophobic movement was 48,000 in New York State (18,000 of them in New York City), 42,000 in Pennsylvania, 14,000 in Massachusetts, and 6,000 in other states.
The American Republican Party held its national convention on July 4, 1845, attended by 141 delegates from 14 states, and the party changed its name to the NativeAmerican Party.
With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, large inter-ethnic violence temporarily disappeared, enthusiasm for the xenophobic movement gradually cooled, and the party's political influence waned.
On May 4, 1847, the party's Second National Convention was held in Pittsburgh, with only 11 states participating. In 1845, the party helped six xenophobic politicians succeed in being elected to the Twenty-ninth Congress (four from New York and two from Pennsylvania).
However, there is only one member of the 30th National Assembly who has an xenophobic stance. Not a single one in the 31st Congress. By 1847 the party had disappeared from the political scene.
develop
As anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic xenophobic sentiment intensified, the xenophobic nature of the Ignorant Party provoked a response from former xenophobic members. In addition, the increase in the membership of the Ignorant Party is also a reason why people are dissatisfied with established parties and prefer to choose obscure and reform-advocating parties.
From 1854 onwards, more and more voters began to grow tired of the hypocritical politicians of the established parties who ignored the will of the people, and the "ignorant party" saw this situation clearly, showed a resolute resistance to professional politicians, and even blamed them for the difficulties encountered by the state.
It claims to bring down selfish lawyers and wealthy businessmen, and pay attention to the toiling masses. In the election, the Ignorant Party proved its determination to sweep away the hypocritical politicians who had failed the citizens.
None of the members they sent to the state and local elections were career politicians or lawyers. Most of them are young teachers, pastors, farmers, doctors, and laborers.
Not only that, but the measures taken by the Ignorant Party in some northern states also show that it is to a certain extent a party that is concerned with social issues and has a passion for reform.
In an effort to gain more support, the party tried to address social problems that were ignored by other parties and were relevant to people's daily lives, especially the Ignorant Party of Massachusetts, who launched a series of reforms that touched on major social issues after taking control of the state in 1855.
For example, in education, cities and towns are required to provide public education to children in neighborhoods without a public education system, school-age children are required to attend school for at least 11 weeks a year, financial aid to public schools and libraries has been increased, state subsidies have been increased by one-third for the Perkins school for the blind, and state schools have been established for children with intellectual disabilities.
In public health, school children are required to be vaccinated and funds are allocated to build a municipal hospital for poor residents in Boston.
In terms of infrastructure, the Ignorant Party has initiated large-scale infrastructure projects, built sewage treatment systems, and increased the safety of passengers on railways and passenger ships.
On the economic front, the Ignorant Party sought to break the business community's grip on legislation: it unified the weights and measures of grain on the market: it cracked down on the sale of diluted milk.
and the adoption of laws to protect debtors from creditors, and the abolition of the system of imprisonment for debtors; In the area of women's rights, we support women in their struggle for more freedoms.
For example, the recognition of married women's personal property rights, the right to sue, do business or work without their husband's consent, the use of one-third of her husband's property as maintenance if the husband is in a psychiatric hospital, the relaxation of divorce laws to make it easier for women to file for divorce and obtain alimony and child custody.
Convicted women are allowed to care for their children while incarcerated. These measures, before they caused the problem of excessive taxation, were also the reason why the Ignorant Party was once prevalent.
More importantly, traditional political parties are unable to confront bitter divisions and conflicts. If no anti-alcohol legislation has been enacted.
At the same time, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 is seen as ample proof of the inability of traditional political parties to deal with the conflict.
In the early '50s, Northern voters became increasingly disillusioned with the Whigs and Democrats, and this sentiment reached its peak after Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Many northerners decided at this time to abandon the old party they supported to show their disgust with the law. The Democratic-controlled U.S. government passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, removing a major legal obstacle to the westward expansion of slavery.
A few months later, in the 1854 midterm elections, angry anti-slavery northern voters expressed their displeasure with the decision, and the Democrats lost nearly half of their House seats.
And in the South, voters who insisted on slavery abandoned the Whig Party, which opposed the bill, and the Whig Party lost a quarter of its seats in Congress, but Whigs were no longer able to occupy the White House because of the loss of support in the South.
With the collapse of the old party system, the Ignorant Party came into the spotlight when the Whig Party collapsed, attracting the attention of a large number of undecided voters because of its radical anti-immigrant policies and the fact that the Ignorant Party in various regions knew how to adapt policies to attract voters, leading to the belief that the Ignorant Party would become an important party in addition to the Whigs and the Democratic parties.
For example, the Indiana Ignorance Party revised the criteria for membership to increase the number of enrollees.
To attract Prohibition supporters, the Indiana Ignorance Party asked members to pledge to support Prohibition; In an effort to capitalize on the state's voters' antipathy to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, opposition to slavery was added to the party's advocacy.
As the influence of the Ignorant Party grew, and the ideas it embodied in the election campaign, a group of prominent politicians under the original Whig Party also changed sides and chose the Ignorant Party.
Such as the addition of anti-slavery representative Schuyler Colfax, and the famous former Whig Godlove S. Orth became the leader of Indiana.