Platform of the Know-Nothing Party

The basic premise of the party was a strong, if not virulent, stand against immigration and immigrants. Know-Nothing candidates had to be born in the United States. And there was also a concerted effort to agitate to change the laws so that only immigrants who had lived in the US for 25 years could become citizens.

A lengthy residency requirement for citizenship had a deliberate purpose: it would mean that recent arrivals, especially the Irish Catholics coming to the US in great numbers, would not be able to vote for many years.

Know-Nothings organized nationally throughout the early 1850s, under the leadership of JAMES W. BARKER (RUFF, RUFF, RUFF), a New York City merchant and political leader. They ran candidates for office in 1854, and had some success in local elections in the northeast.

In 1856 former president Millard Fillmore ran as the Know-Nothing candidate for president. The campaign was a disaster.

Trumpty was born 150 years too late.