Enduring Vision

1
Enduring Vision

• Chapter 13

2
Whos Who in the White House
3
Go West, young man

• , go forth into the Country.
• Horace Greeley in 1837
• To encourage poor and unemployed to migrate
  westward from industrial East

4
Population Grows

• By several million immigrants
• 4.2 million European immigrants arrived between
  1840 and 1860
• 3 million arrived between 1845 and 1854

5
Push-Pull Factors

• Religious Freedom
• Mormons
• Norwegian Quakers
• Economics
• Letters home from earlier immigrants filled with
  hope
• Germans purchase farm land not rent as in Europe
• Rumors of so much excess food it rots in the
  streets

6
New Immigrants

• Primarily Irish German
• Germans
• Settled in upper Mississippi Ohio valleys
• Germany a collection of small kingdoms
• Avoided Southern slavery

7
Germans, cont.

• Many farmers but also other occupations
• Henrich Steinweg anglicanized his name
  (Steinway pianos)
• Levi Strauss a tailor from Bavaria
• Clannish, economically self-sufficient, common
  language, industrious, psychologically separate
  from Anglo-American society

8
The Irish

• Irony of the potato famine of 1845
• Urban areas of NY, PA, NJ and New England
• Competed with free blacks for menial labor jobs
• Primarily Catholic

9
The Irish2

• Labor for building canals railroads
• Construction gangs built houses, streets,
  aqueducts
• Cities provided social societies
• Friendly Sons of St. Patrick
• Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants
  from Ireland

10
Nativism

• Backlash to new immigrants
• Anti-immigrant sentiment
• Samuel Morse linked immigration with
  Catholicism giving Nativism a larger audience.

11
Nativism2

• Anti-Catholicism from native-born Protestants
• American republic could not be sustained with a
  large Catholic population.
• Puritans came to New World to flee papal vestiges
  in Church of England
• Southern colonists played Break the Popes Neck

12
Nativism on the Job

• Impact in workplace
• Immigrants depressed wages by working for less
• Employers used immigrant labor to replace
  striking workers
• NINA or No Irish Need Apply

13
Nativism Goes Political

• Native American Democratic Association
• New York
• One of first nativist political organizations
• Nominated Samuel Morse of telegraph fame for
  mayor
• 1836
• 6 of vote

14
American Republican Party

• 1844
• Elected 6 congressmen and dozens of local
  officials
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Boston

15
The Know-Nothings

• 1854
• Greatest Nativist political success
• Began as secret fraternal organization
• Wanted to curb political power of Catholics and
  immigrants
• Denied knowing anything if questioned about the
  party

16
The Know-Nothings2

• By 1855
• Renamed themselves the American Party
• Carried elections in 12 states
• Elected over 100 congressmen
• Thought could win presidency

17
The Know-Nothings3

• 1856 another story
• Promised sectional harmony
• Millard Fillmore their presidential candidate
• President 1850-53 Whig Party
• Succeeded Zachary Taylor
• Lost 1852 election bid
• Only carried Maryland
• By 1860, the Know-Nothing Party had disappeared

18
The Democratic Party

• Irish Germans overwhelmingly supported
• Helped immigrants
• Introduced them to national issues
• Assisted with acculturation
• Convinced them national expansion in their best
  interests

19
The Far West

• California coast trading posts
• Supplied around the Horn
• Welcomed by Mexican authorities
• Trading links established
• Mormon Trail (to Utah)
• Fur traders in Rocky Mountains

20
The Mormons

• New American religious sect led by Joseph Smith
  then Brigham Young
• Persecuted
• Fled along the Mormon Trail to Utah aka Deseret
• Outside US territory
• Irrigated Great Salt Lake Valley
• Built Salt Lake City

21
Mexico and the US

• Initially welcomed contact with US
• California Texas regions difficult to control
  after independence from Spain
• By 1830, Mexico tried banning further immigration
  to Texas
• Also forbid more slaves from US

22
Terms/People to Know

• Manifest Destiny
• Tejanos
• Empresarios
• Stephen Austin
• Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna
• Sam Houston
• Spotty Lincoln