Rather surprised by some of the responses here this being as how Know-Nothingism was a radical Republican movement from the earliest days of the Party. In 1856 a soon to be senator from Illinois, one Abraham Lincoln, wrote of the Know-Nothings of his day:
"If the Know-Nothings get control, the Declaration of Independence will read: All men are created equal except for Negroes, foreigners and Catholics."
When the movement collapsed, many Know-Nothings joined the Republican Party taking their politics with them and giving President Lincoln no end of grief as he tried to prosecute his war for the Union. I suppose that they don't teach too much American history from the pre-Civil War era anymore.
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