Dec. 16, Immigration & Nativism (1840s–1850s)

German Immigrants

  • Key difference: Germans arrived with money.

  • Mostly Protestant → faced less religious discrimination.

  • Settled in Wisconsin & Michigan; formed farming communities.

  • Bought land, became successful farmers.

  • Faced some nativism due to isolation, but far less than Irish/Chinese.

Irish & Chinese Comparison

  • Arrived poor, fleeing famine and war.

  • Took low-wage, undesirable jobs.

  • Faced intense racism, job discrimination, and violence.

Rise of Nativism

Know Nothing Party (American Party)

  • Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic.

  • Targeted Irish, Germans, Chinese.

  • Name came from members saying “I know nothing.”

  • Political cartoons portrayed immigrants as:

    • Alcoholic

    • Violent

    • Corrupting democracy

Political Machines & Elections

  • Urban political bosses controlled city politics.

  • Used immigrants to vote multiple times (“vote early, vote often”).

  • No election security → massive fraud.

  • Immigrants blamed, but machines caused corruption.

Mexican Americans After Mexican Cession

  • ~75,000 residents given choice:

    • Leave to Mexico

    • Stay and become U.S. citizens (≈90% stayed)

  • Promised full rights, but:

    • Faced racism

    • Treated as second-class citizens

    • Lost land through courts, fraud, and violence

  • Many eventually returned to Mexico.

Native Americans in California

  • Displaced, abused, killed.

  • Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (1850):

    • Allowed forced labor (slavery in practice)

    • Banned Native testimony against whites

    • Allowed “adoption” of Native children for labor

  • Law protected settlers, not Native Americans.

Slavery Compromises Review

1. Three-Fifths Compromise (1787)

  • Slavery made constitutional.

  • Ending slavery requires an amendment.

2. Missouri Compromise (1820)

  • Maintained Senate balance.

  • Established 36°30′ line.

Crisis Leading to Compromise of 1850

California Statehood

  • Gold Rush → rapid population growth.

  • Applied as a free state.

  • Threatened Senate balance.

  • Would break the 36°30′ line.

Why This Was Worse Than Missouri

  • No nearby slave territory to balance California.

  • New Mexico & Arizona far from statehood.

  • Balance likely gone permanently.

Compromise of 1850 (Henry Clay)

Key Figures

  • Henry Clay (Great Compromiser)

  • Daniel Webster

  • John C. Calhoun (pro-slavery extremist)

Main Provisions

  1. California admitted as free state (balance ends).

  2. Slave trade ended in Washington, DC (not slavery itself).

  3. Stronger Fugitive Slave Act:

    • Citizens required to help capture runaways.

    • Local law enforcement must assist.

    • Only one witness needed.

    • Judges paid more for returning slaves than freeing them.

    • Enraged Northerners and abolitionists.

Significance

  • North gains long-term control of Congress.

  • Fugitive Slave Act radicalizes the North.

  • Trust in federal government collapses.

  • Slavery increasingly seen as solvable only by violence.