The American Republican Party was a minor

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestantism, Protestant states, ...

anti-immigration Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...

, and nativist

political organization A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in poli ...

that was launched in New York in June 1843, largely as a protest against immigrant voters and officeholders. In 1844, the American Republican Party carried municipal elections in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and expanded so rapidly that by July 1845 a national convention was called. This convention changed the name to the

Native American Party The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

and drafted a legislative program calling for a twenty-one-year period preceding

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

and other sweeping reforms in the immigration policy. Failure to force congressional action on these proposals, combined with the growing national interest in the Mexican problem before the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, led to the party's rapid decline. Its founders included

Lewis Charles Levin Lewis Charles Levin (November 10, 1808 – March 14, 1860) was an American politician, newspaper editor and anti-Catholic social activist. He was one of the founders of the Know Nothing, American Party in 1842 and served as a member of the United ...

, Samuel Kramer, "General" Peter Sken Smith, James Wallace, and John Gitron.John A. Forman
“Lewis Charles Levin: Portrait of an American Demagogue
��, ''American Jewish Archives''.

The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, founded in 1947, is committed to preserving a documentary heritage of the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of American Jewry. It has bec ...

, Cincinnati, OH, (October 1960): 150–94

References

Sources

* Adams, James Truslow. ''Dictionary of American History'', New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. Defunct political parties in the United States History of immigration to the United States 1843 establishments in New York (state) Political parties established in 1843 Defunct far-right political parties in the United States {{US-party-stub

See also

References

Sources