Untitled - Digitizing America

year, these Nativists equalled, and in some areas
topped, their previous victories.
ln western regions, where populations were more
scattered and the people were mostly hardworking
farmers, they had become accustomed to
the few "foreigners" in their midst and had no fears
of a "papal invasion." But there were many
reasons for the success of the American party in
the more densely populated and immigrantchoked
East.
The many years' long exodus from faminestricken
and politically pressured lreland to the
"welcoming" shores of America had caused a proliferation
of "shantytowns" in and around our
coastal cities. Most of the lrish chose to remain
where they landed, in the commuter communities
rather than again risk the terrible disasters inflicted
on them by the farmlands of their mother country.
While on one hand they were filling the
almshouses and costing the taxpayers money,
those employed were willing to take less for their
labors than the natives and so posed threats to
their livelihoods.
By 1850, Roman Catholic-to date a maligned
minority-had increased mainly through immigration
to numbers exceeding that of any other
denomination-1.75 million. Then, in the ensuing
decade, that figure doubled. "Armies of the
Vatican!"
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Add to this Pope Pius lX's unfortunate timing in a
move to quell trusteeism, an internal problem that
the Know-Nothings also tried to turn to their advantage.
Monsignor Gaetano Bedini was sent from
Rome in 1853 as a papal representative to tour the
country and help restore peace to troubled
parishes. Everywhere he went, this symbol of
"foreign intervention" sparked controversy and
riots, actually contributing to the Nativists' cause.
The Know-Nothings felt confident of a presidential
victory in '1856 and seemed to be imbued with
political insanity as the hot and heavy campaigns
built to a crescendo. On Election Day, 1855, in
Louisville, Kentucky, they attacked and set ablaze
Catholic residences. As families fled from their
burning homes, they were shot. Various newspaper
estimates counted twenty-five to one
hundred dead.
The presidential contest evoked other fistfights
and shootings, but the newly organized Republican
party and the growing concerns of a new
threat-the slavery issue-helped to divide and
weaken the Nativists. The election of James Buchanan
did not quellthe struggle, but it soon would
be eclipsed bythe rumblings of secession threats.
Happily, these historical facts reflectthe headlines
of their day. Though the occurrences were typical
of similar ones in other locations, they did not
seriously impede the progress of Mother Church in
the New World, and there were still communities
where Protestants and Catholics lived in harmony.