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. The foreign-born outnumbered the native-born inthe poorhouses of the nation in 1850; in some states, like New York, theratio was greater than 2:1.The problem worsened with the arrival of newimmigrants.Among the most serious difficulties newcomers encountered was Ameri-can intolerance for ethnic differences.Each immigrant group experiencedhostility in countless ways.The best jobs were closed to them, and employ-ers posted signs saying no irish need apply or some variation on that theme.Institutions dealing with the foreign-born almshouses, hospital dispen-saries, employment bureaus treated their clients with  a ridiculous, oftenbrutal disdain. Hardly any minority escaped the barbs of the prejudiced.TheGermans received abuse from several sides.Temperance advocates did notlike their making merry, drinking beer, and ignoring the Puritan Sabbath.Conservatives distrusted radical and reform-minded German exiles from theabortive revolutions of 1848 who supported the abolition of slavery, women srights, and other liberal causes in America.Economics in part explains ethnic intolerance.The increase in immigra-tion, especially of many poverty-stricken refugees from Ireland, arousedAmerican fears of having too many poor people.And large numbers of un-skilled laborers, it was argued, would depress wages and the American stan-dard of living.Americans also deplored what they considered the immi-grants striking personal deficiencies.A Massachusetts Bureau of LaborStatistics report in the 1880s censured the French Canadians for their lackof  moral character, their lack of respect for American institutions, theirfailure to become naturalized, and their opposition to education.Before the Civil War the most important source of conflict between na-tive-born and immigrant was religion.More precisely, the key battles werefought over American objections to Irish Catholics.The underlying issue re-volved around the American belief that Roman Catholicism and Americaninstitutions, which were based on Protestant concepts, were incompatible.In this view, if Catholics  took over America, the pope in Rome would ruleand religious and political liberty would be destroyed.Samuel F.B.Morse, in-ventor of the telegraph, believed that there was a Catholic plot to destroy theUnited States.He held that the Church was sending Jesuit-controlled immi-grants to America.Writing in 1835, he asked his countrymen not to be anylonger  deceived by the pensioned Jesuits, who have surrounded your press,are now using it all over the country to stifle the cries of danger, and lull yourfears by attributing your alarm to a false cause.To your posts!.Fly to42 A Wave of Immigrants, 1789 1890sprotect the vulnerable places of your Constitution and Laws.Place yourguards; you will need them, and quickly too. And first, shut your gates.Morse was not the only impassioned enemy of Catholicism.MilitantProtestants wrote sensational exposés of the Church.The most famous ofthe anti-Catholic diatribes was Maria Monk s Awful Disclosures of theHotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal, published in 1836.This gothic horror talewas frequently reprinted and sold several hundred thousand copies.Accord-ing to her inflammatory story, the author was compelled to live in sin withpriests in the nunnery and witnessed the execution of nuns for refusing tosubmit to the men s carnal lusts.She even insisted that babies were stran-gled and buried in the basement of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery.Such yarns cre-ated inevitable controversy.On the one hand, Monk s work was cited byanti-Catholics as proof of their worst fears, and on the other hand, indignantCatholics and skeptical Protestants denounced the book as a fraud.Investi-gations turned up no evidence to support her charges, and Maria Monk waspersonally discredited as a prostitute.Nevertheless, many believed herstory, and the book continued to inflame the passions of the anti-Catholiccrusade.Her success encouraged others to publish similar hair-raising stud-ies, and she herself added to the literature by writing Further Disclosures,also about the Hotel Dieu.These accounts fanned the passions of the day and contributed to vio-lence.In August of 1834 an angry mob burned the Ursuline Convent outsideof Boston.Nativist violence occurred in other places in antebellum Amer-ica, including a riot in Philadelphia in the summer of 1844.Most conflictsdid not lead to violence but involved controversies over control of churchproperty, religious teaching in the schools, and the general issues of separa-tion of church and state.Not satisfied with exposés and agitation, the nativists turned to state andnational politics for weapons against the detested Catholics.A few nativistpolitical organizations and parties existed prior to 1850, but the major na-tivist party flourished during the 1850s.Called the Know-Nothings, thislarge secret organization suffered from a number of sectional disagreementsand eventually fell apart as a national movement.At its peak it was held to-gether by a suspicion of the Roman Catholic Church.In 1854 the partyscored victories at the polls, won control of several state governments, andsent dozens of congressmen to Washington.The Know-Nothings werestrongest in the Northeast and the border states.Once in office the nativistsproposed a number of bills to restrict the franchise and to make naturaliza-tion a longer process.They also established legislative committees to inves-tigate alleged misconduct in Catholic institutions.Many Know-Nothingswho took Maria Monk seriously were convinced that nuns were virtualA Wave of Immigrants, 1789 1890s 43prisoners in convents, and they petitioned state governments to free thesewomen [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]