In most, if not all, instances, a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the present can be gleaned by looking to the past. Consider the paragraph below, from a letter written by Abraham Lincoln in August, 1855, to his good friend, Joshua Speed.

“I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except negroes’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.'”

In her Smithsonian article, “How the 19th-Century Know Nothing Party Reshaped American Politics,” historian Lorraine Boissoneault outlines the history of that organization. A secret society, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner (OSSB), began in New York City in 1849. Along with secret passwords and hand signs members shared three characteristics — they had to be “pureblood” Protestant Anglo-Saxons by birth, hate all Roman Catholics and pledge never to betray the OSSB.

When questioned by outsiders about their beliefs, the standard OSBB response was “I know nothing,” hence, the name. By the time Lincoln wrote to Speed in 1855, the Know-Nothings, as Boissoneault notes, had been transformed into a formidable political organization, the American Party (AP). Of the 31 states in the mid 1850s, eight had AP governors and over 100 congressmen were from that party.

The AP and its supporters advocated for a 21-year naturalization period for immigrants, the elimination of Catholics from all public office and mandatory Bible reading in schools. For the AP, Catholics threatened the stability and sovereignty of the nation. immigration from predominantly Catholic countries (especially Ireland) had to be stopped.

Boissoneault notes posters in and around Boston proclaimed: “All Catholics and all persons who favor the Catholic Church are …vile imposters, liars, villains and cowardly cutthroats.” It’s hard to imagine the virulent hatred of Catholics of that time until one considers the intense animosity towards Muslims in the United States today.

Boissoneault cites the work of historian Christopher Phillips, who writes that Know-Nothings shared the characteristics of all “nativist movements.” First, they were ultra nationalists. Second was their religious hatred and discrimination. Third, by pandering to the ethnic and religious prejudices of working class Americans, politicians could side step more complex issues and societal problems, especially those wherein the upper class was a factor. Immigrants were highly visible, politically powerless scapegoats. Whatever problems existed in society were their fault.

“Know Nothing Riots” occurred in a number of cities including Philadelphia (1844), St. Louis (1854), Cincinnati and Louisville (1855), Baltimore (1856), Washington D.C., and New York City (1857), and New Orleans (1858). Know-Nothing affiliated gangs — including the “Bowery Boys” and “Plug Uglies” — attacked immigrants to prevent them from voting. In Ellsworth, Maine, in 1854, Know-Nothings were involved in the tarring and feathering of a Jesuit priest.

We shouldn’t be surprised by the virulent hatred in the Know-Nothing years — or today — as this country was built, in large measure, on greed and hatred. Slavery existed for almost 250 years from 1619 to 1865. Theological justification for human bondage by ministers (especially in the South) allowed slaveholders to believe that not only did God sanction that “peculiar institution,” but slavery’s supporters were better Christians and more faithful interpreters of the Bible than their abolitionist opponents.

In his March 21, 1861 “Cornerstone Speech,” Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Hamilton Stephens stated “the assumption of the equality of races” implicit in the U.S. Constitution “was an error.” For Stephens and secessionists, “the subordination” of slaves “to the superior [white] race is his natural and normal condition.” Hatred of African Americans persisted in the post Civil War era with the terror and violence of the Ku Klux Klan.

Native Americans were considered ignorant, pagan worshiping savages and their lands taken. The Requerimiento, a 1510 Spanish document, was read to the New World “savages” upon first contact. The Spaniards declared that all Indian territory now belonged to their king. Any resistance would be met with violence. And it was — for almost 500 years.

Today’s Know-Nothing MAGAs (along with many others) will soon be paying a price for their hatred. Kiplinger Magazine reports that a major consequence of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) is healthcare as “over 300 rural hospitals are bracing for immediate closure.” These hospitals have fewer financial reserves and may not survive Medicaid cutbacks. The big losers are households with annual incomes under $50,000. Food assistance programs that benefit the poor, school children and veterans will also be slashed. Financial aid for college students is on the chopping block.

The millions of Americans now concerned about Medicaid cutbacks can take comfort in the words of Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst who informed her constituents: “We are all going to die.” How can you argue with that wisdom? Don’t worry … be happy.

For an unknown number of MAGA diehards the BBB loss-gain calculus means nothing. They could be homeless and eating garbage out of dumpsters, but as long as they have assault weapons and a white nationalist Jesus who hates people from “s***hole” countries as much as they do, all is well.

Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this nation’s abhorrent, nativist history is how many of the hated have become the haters. According to Washington Post exit polls, 52% of Catholics who voted in 2020, and 57% who voted in 2024, cast their ballots for Trump.

In the final sentence of his letter to Joshua Speed, Lincoln wrote: “When it comes to this [the Know-Nothings] I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

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George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale and is retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego.