Dazed and Confused

It seems that all of the immigrant bashing going on now happened once before...back between 1830-1860. the "Know Nothing party" reacted strongly against the 4.9 million Germans that immigrated to the USA from Germany during those times.

Yep, we German-Americans are the biggest ethnic group in the States. It was by only one vote in Congress that we do not now speak German as our first and official language today. But yet, we've "blended in". Who is to say that all of the immigrants coming in today won't, as well ??

The 4.9 million immigrants who arrived from Europe between 1830 and 1860, among them 1.36 million German-speakers, met head-on with a well-defined "Americanism." The conflict was accentuated when several Midwest states started to grant voting privileges well before the five year waiting period for citizenship had transpired. In Minnesota, a male adult got the right to vote practically upon arrival. Only four months had to elapse after he declared his intention to become an American citizen. Using all available xenophobic arguments, the immigrant-bashing nativist American Party, popularly called the Know-Nothings, tried to extend the waiting period for naturalization and for voting to 21 years instead of the five required by law. In addition, immigrants were to be permanently excluded from holding public office; and the poor, those with criminal records, and the loyal subjects of a "foreign power" -- above all members of the Roman Catholic Church -- were not to be admitted into the country at all.