Native American Party

Know Nothing
"Citizen Know Nothing": the Know Nothing Party's nativist ideal
First Leader	Lewis Charles Levin
Founded	1844 (1844)
Dissolved	1860 (1860)
Preceded by	Whig Party
Succeeded by	Constitutional Union Party
Headquarters	New York, New York, U.S.
Secret wing	Order of the Star Spangled Banner
Ideology	American nationalism Right-wing populism Anti-Catholicism Republicanism Nativism
Political position	Right-wing
Religion	Protestantism (Temperance)
Colors	Blue, red, white (American colors)
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

The Native American Party, renamed the American Party 1855 and commonly known as the "Know Nothing" movement, was an American Nativist political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. It was an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant movement, generally taking the form of a secret society. Adherents to the movement were to reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders, thus providing the group with its common appellation.

The "Know Nothings" believed a "Romanist" conspiracy was afoot to subvert civil and religious liberty in America and sought to politically organize native-born Protestants in the defense of traditional religious and political values.

In most places "Know Nothingism" lasted only a year or two before disintegrating because of weak local leaders, few publicly-declared national leaders, and a deep split over the issue of slavery. While the party is remembered for its anti-Catholicism, based on Protestant fears that Catholic priests and bishops would directly control a large bloc of voters, in the South it gave much less emphasis to Catholicism.

Among the party's few prominent leaders were Speaker Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts and former U.S. Representative Lewis C. Levin. The American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election, although he kept quiet about his membership.

Anti-Catholicism had been a factor in colonial America but played little role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics in the 1840s. It then reemerged in nativist attacks on Catholic immigration. It appeared in New York politics as early as 1843, under the banner of the American Republican Party. The movement quickly spread to nearby states, using that name or Native American Party or variants of it. They succeeded in a number of local and Congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, where the anti-Catholic orator Lewis Charles Levin was elected U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania's 1st District. In the early 1850s, numerous secret orders grew up, of which the "Order of United Americans" and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner came to be the most important. They merged in New York in the early 1850s as a secret order that quickly spread across the North, reaching non-Catholics, particularly those who were lower middle class or skilled workmen.