Thomas Nast is probably best known for his cartoons that characterized NYC machine politician Boss Tweed as a villain. And primarily because of that Nast is considered the father of American political cartoonists. But did you know that besides creating the elephant to represent the Republican Party and advocating for abolition and against the KKK, he was also a vicious anti-Catholic xenophobe who propagated the slander that the Catholic Church was a threat to American values? He created a series of cartoons that were extremely anti-Irish, who he portrayed as drunk, lazy, violent, corrupt and in thrall to the Pope. This was a biggie back in the day:
Xenophobia has been a tradition built into the fabric of America, right from the beginning. Cotton Mather, the most famous Puritan minister in colonial Massachusetts, happily expressed xenophobic views in his writings and endorsed the idea of separating different racial and ethnic groups, emphasizing the superiority of the English colonists. The revered Benjamin Franklin, in his essay “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind” (1751), expressed concerns about the influence of German immigrants in Pennsylvania, suggesting that they could dilute the English cultural identity. “Why,” he wrote, “should the Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by herding together establish their languages and manners to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion?” Had these ideas taken root, perhaps there would be no Donald Trump to contend with today.
Another generally admired historical American figure, Samuel Morse, is celebrated primarily for two things— the telegraph and Morse Code and his career as a painter previous to that. But he was even better known in his time as a xenophobe and anti-Catholic nutcase who ran for mayor of NYC as an anti-immigrant lunatic. He wanted to prevent Catholics from holding office in the U.S. and worked to limit immigration from Catholic countries: “We must first stop the leak in the ship through which muddy waters from without threaten to sink us.” As you might imagine, he was also pro-slavery, claiming it was sanctioned by God: “My creed on the subject of slavery is short. Slavery per se is not sin. It is a social condition ordained from the beginning of the world for the wisest purposes, benevolent and disciplinary, by Divine Wisdom. The mere holding of slaves, therefore, is a condition having per se nothing of moral character in it, any more than the being a parent, or employer, or ruler.”
Yes, fear and hostility towards outsiders, has been present in various forms throughout American history, long before the emergence of Trump and the MAGA movement, targeting at various times immigrants from Ireland, China, Germany, Italy, Greece, Eastern Europe (especially Jews), Latin America, Japan, the Middle East… you name the national origin... there were always racists and bigots in the U.S. eager to demonize them. Did you know that in the late 1800s Maine and New Hampshire actually barred Catholics from holding public office, ostensibly based on concerns about papal influence? Even earlier (1850s) the Know-Nothing Party platform prohibited Catholics from holding public office and called for the repeal of all laws guaranteeing religious freedom. In 1834 a mob in Charlestown, Massachusetts, burned down an Ursuline Catholic convent, fueled by anti-Catholic prejudice and rumors of sexual abuse-- and ten years later Philly, NYC and several other cities witnessed riots targeting Catholic churches and immigrants.
It saddens me no end to see the descendants of immigrants embracing the MAGA movement today, almost always too intellectually retarded to understand the connection to their families' own histories. Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, for example, are overwhelmingly Trump supporters, despite the fact that Jewish immigrants faced discrimination and prejudice throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, fueled by the same kind of cultural anxieties that are fueling the xenophobia of today’s MAGA movement. This manifested in discriminatory practices against Jews-- especially recent immigrants from Eastern Europe-- like housing restrictions, employment and educational barriers and even violent attacks. Anti-Semitism is a distinct form of xenophobia with its own specific historical context and manifestations but it’s no less ugly to see Hasidic support for MAGA as it is seeing the descendants of Irish, Polish and Italian immigrants going down that same dark path.
If there's one movement in American history most similar to Trump’s MAGA movement it would be the Know Nothing movement of the middle 19th century, like MAGA both xenophobic and populist. Propelled largely by bigotry, nativist sentiments and anti-Catholic prejudice, the party (officially the Native American Party and then just the American Party) advocated for a 21-year naturalization period for immigrants, effectively making it much harder for them to become citizens and participate in politics, and proposed barring foreign-born individuals from holding public office. They elected 8 governors, over 50 members of Congress (including Nathaniel Banks, who became Speaker)… and President Millard Fillmore.
