At last, a question I can actually answer by saying "I know nothing." Short answer, because they are irrelevant to today's society. Loooooong answer follows; The know nothings, were originally, starting about 1850, a loose organization of mostly secret groups of middle class Protestants of Northern European extraction that attempted to elect candidates from the 'official' parties who were sympathetic to their views. ( If a member of one of those secret groups was asked about the group or his membership, he was to answer, " I know nothing.") It was those views which, while they gained the know nothings initial support, also led to their demise about 1858. A contributing cause to their demise was a scandal involving, of all things, the construction of the Washington Monument, but it was primarily those original political views. The major beliefs uniting the various groups, and later, after 1854, the platform of the official "American Party" were; Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic countries. Restricting political office to native-born Protestant Americans. Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could gain citizenship Restricting public school teaching to Protestants. Mandating daily Protestant Bible readings in public schools Prohibition of alcohol. ( Hmmm.. it seems that at least a couple of those ideas may be regaining popularity.) The original groups had such names as The Order of the Star Spangled Banner, Pure Blooded Americans, and Native-Americans (not to be confused with the current use of that term, the Know Nothings were as anti-Indian as they were anti-"anybody except white Protestants." The movement was a reaction to the sudden influx of immigrants, especially the Irish, in the mid and late 1840s. In many ways, especially in Northern cities, the movement was just basically anti-Irish and the other planks of the platform were derived from that, as the Irish were Catholic and, as every 'true American' knew they were all drunkards. There were the same objections to immigrants then as there are today, they take jobs from 'real Americans', they speak and act differently, they form cliques of there 'own kind,' etc. The primary stimulus for the Know nothings though was political, for various reasons the immigrants tended to join the Democratic Party rather than the Whigs, and the Democrats began to gain political control. The increasing power of the Catholics in the Democratic Party fed the already widely held conspiracy theories that the Pope planned to take over the United States through the increasing number of his followers. The Know Nothings gained more support though by calling themselves the 'reform' party against the wide spread corruption of the Democrats, which of course was due to the 'foreignness' of that party. In fact they weren't so much against the actual corruption as they were against the corruption, power, patronage, and money being in the control of someone other than themselves. As long as the Whigs had been in control of all that, there had not been much concern over immigration and the other issues. It was the decline of the Whig party and organization due to the influx of new Democrats, and then the split of the Democrats over the issue of slavery that led to the election of officially unaffiliated but sympathetic politicians. There were significant victories in Congress, the state and especially local levels leading to the establishment of the official American Party in 1854. Membership went from 50,000 to over a million in just a few months. The American Party held no official view on slavery, individual members feelings ran from pro-slavery; " as nonwhites they need to be taken care of and kept in slavery." ( Northern members might add " as long as you keep them down there;" to antislavery " set them all free, but then ship them all back to Africa since they are not real Americans and will never fit in." In fact the party was as strong in the South as in the North, and the last bastion of the party was in the South just before the civil war. The elections of 1856 was both the nadir and the zenith of the party, the party nominated ex-Whig, ex-President Millard Filmore for President. The party was already becoming bitterly divided, most antislavery members had moved to the new Republican party, Filmore did get 20% of the popular vote and the 8 electoral votes of Maryland, a slave state, but lost to the Democrat Buchanan's 174 votes and the Republican Fremont's 114. The elections of 1860 and the Civil War that followed put the nail in the coffin for the party. Diehard Whigs and Know-nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party emphasizing their old platform and trying to ignore slavery, the Democrats split into Northern, antislavery and Southern pro-slavery factions. The Republican Lincoln won that election with 180 votes to the Southern Democrat Breckinridge's 72, CU's (Know Nothing) 39, and Northern Dem Douglas' 12. The issue of slavery, Civil War, reunification of the nation, assimilation of freed slaves into society, and the opening of the West were all more important than the Know Nothings old concerns. In fact many of those concerns were negated by events; many states sent entire units made up entirely of "non-natives" , Irish Brigades, Italian Brigades, and all Black units; afterwards RR construction, mining crews, and other crews consisted mainly of Irish and others, including Chinese and freed slaves who were way different from White Protestant "Americans" than the formerly feared immigrants; the troops who took part in the various Indian Campaigns were primarily 'non'-American', including the Black "Buffalo Soldiers. More recently, WWII, the election of a Catholic President, the civil rights movement and other events have made the Know Nothings and their tenets irrelevant with periodic outbreaks of such things as the Klan, Dixiecrats, the American Independent Party, and some more current stirrings. Whew! That's a long answer for someone who "knows nothing." For a dramatic and entertaining example of the activities of Know Nothings, Native Americans, and/or the American Party, at least on the local level, I recommend the movie "Gangs of New York". If you are still with me, not asleep or suffering a headache, and interested, I'll tell you about the Great Washington Monument Scandal that contributed to the downfall of the American Party. ( if you want to know nothing about it, I'll understand. ) The Washington National Monument Society was formed in 1833 and began to collect donations for the monument. Construction began in 1848 and continued until 1854 when donations dried up. Congress appropriated $200,000, the Society, to save money, increase interest, and as symbolic gestures, decided to accept donations of cut stone from the various States, and eventually, professional organizations, societies, businesses, American Indian tribes, and foreign nations. Pope Pius IX contributed a block of marble, the Know Nothings, alarmed at this un-American trend, staged a fraudulent election, took control of the Society in 1854, and tossed the Pope's stone into the Potomac. Congress rescinded the $200,000. The Know Nothings remained in control, accepted monetary donations, and added 13 courses of stone and masonry, which was of such poor quality it had to be removed amidst public ridicule. In 1858 the Party, unable to collect any more money, returned some rather suspicious records to the original Society and slunk out of town, having lost public support for their handling of the project and their practices in general.