Covers the rise of nativism during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, focusing on the actions of Tammany Hall, the Know Nothing Party, and the Ku Klux Klan.

1. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 3: Reconstruction and Urbanization
Part 3: Ulysses S. Grant (I)

2. GRANT’S
MAJOR ISSUES
Immigration and the nativist backlash
Conflicts with the Lakota Sioux

3. IRISH IMMIGRATION
TO AMERICA
• Between 1845 and 1852, Ireland
suffered a period of great famine.
• This famine led many Irish people
to emigrate to the United States.
• Over a million Irish immigrants
arrived in America at this time,
when the nation had a population
of about twenty million.
• Another three million arrived
between 1850 and 1900.

4. TAMMANY HALL
• Many Irish immigrants arrived
and settled in the northeast,
mostly New York and Boston.
• At the time, politics in New York
City was strongly influenced by
a powerful organization known
as Tammany Hall. Tammany
Hall was founded in 1786 and
named after Tamenund, a
revered Lenape chief.
• The men associated with
Tammany Hall corrupted the
politics of New York through
patronage and graft.

5. TAMMANY HALL
• Graft is akin to bribery and/or
extortion. Patronage is a means
of providing rewards to political
supporters. Tammany Hall
would use these methods to
shore up votes for its members
in New York’s electoral ‘wards.’
• Wards were the smallest unit of
political representation in New
York. The men responsible for
using graft and promises of
patronage to swing the vote in
the wards were known as ‘ward
bosses’ or ‘ward heelers.’

6. TAMMANY HALL
• Tammany Hall gained and
maintained its power by
operating largely as a provider
of welfare to the underclasses
of New York, including the
many new Irish immigrants.
• In times of hardship, Tammany
men could lend money, provide
food, offer shelter, and so on.
• Tammany men also acted as
intermediaries between the city
government and the immigrants
who were unfamiliar with it.

7. TAMMANY HALL
• Finally, Tammany men gave
new immigrants a readymade
opportunity for social contact,
and helped them to integrate
into American society.
• In 1853, William M. Tweed,
known as ‘Boss Tweed,’ was
the head of Tammany Hall.
• He made particular efforts to
help Irish immigrants achieve
naturalization as American
citizens, and, in return,
Tammany Hall received a huge
percentage of the Irish vote.

8. TAMMANY HALL
• In 1858, Tweed was elected as
‘Grand Sachem’ of Tammany
Hall and used this position to
effectively take control of the
government of New York City.
• He appointed friends and allies
to city planning boards. He also
started major projects such as
the Brooklyn Bridge and the
Metropolitan Museum.
• Irish immigrants mostly worked
as laborers on these and other
projects, and Tweed prided
himself on his control of them.

9. NATIVISM IN AMERICA
• Nativism is an ideological position that demands political favoritism for the
native-born inhabitants of a particular society or nation.
• In the two decades before the Civil War, the white American working classes
became increasingly nativist in response to immigration.
• Nativism also increased after the Civil War, in response to the Emancipation
Proclamation and Congressional efforts to expand African American rights.

10. THE KNOW
NOTHING PARTY
• The Know Nothing Party was
founded in 1845, in direct
response to Irish immigration.
• It was a national party whose
political objectives included
halting immigration and the
naturalization of immigrants.
• Only white Protestant men
could be members.
• The party’s most prominent
member was former President
Millard Fillmore, who ran as the
Know Nothing candidate for
President in 1856.

11. THE KNOW
NOTHING PARTY
• The party took its name from
the notion that members would
publicly avow that they were
not involved with it. When
asked questions about the
party, their response would be
simply ‘I know nothing.’
• The party declined in 1857, due
to Fillmore’s loss and a split on
the issue of slavery triggered by
Dred Scott v. Sandford.
• Most abolitionist members
joined the Republican Party.

12. THE KU KLUX KLAN
• Several years after the Ku Klux
Klan was founded in 1865,
Confederate General Nathan
Bedford Forrest was appointed
‘Grand Wizard.’
• The Klan effectively became a
nativist insurgent organization
staffed by former Confederates.
• Although the people targeted
by the Klan were technically
natural-born Americans, the
Klan viewed them as second-
class citizens who did not
deserve full citizenship.

13. THE KU KLUX KLAN
• In 1870, the Klan was officially
declared a terrorist organization
by a federal grand jury. An
investigation into Klan activities
uncovered enough atrocities to
fill twelve volumes of reports.
• In 1870 and 1871, two laws
known as the Enforcement Acts
were passed to stop the
activities of groups like the
Klan. The first act made it illegal
to prevent African Americans
from voting. The second
allowed African American
voters to receive support from
federal troops at polling places.

14. 1871: A YEAR OF
CHANGES
• In 1871, in response to
shortcomings in those two
laws, Benjamin Franklin Butler,
the House Representative who
‘waved the bloody shirt,’
drafted the Civil Rights Act.
• Ulysses S. Grant had
specifically requested this
legislation from the Congress.
It empowered the President to
suspend habeas corpus in
order to fight and disband the
Klan and similar organizations.
• Within a few years, Grant had
completely dismantled the Klan.

15. 1871: A YEAR OF
CHANGES
• Also in 1870 and 1871, Irish
immigrants in New York
engaged in two major riots
known as the Orange Riots.
• The riots pitted Irish Protestants
against Irish Catholics, almost
all laborers loyal to ‘Boss’
Tweed and Tammany Hall.
• The second riot resulted in
more than sixty deaths and 150
injuries, and demonstrated that
Tammany Hall could not control
its loyal supporters.

16. 1871: A YEAR OF
CHANGES
• The riots put Tammany Hall
under increasing pressure from
nativists in the New York press.
• ‘Boss’ Tweed was removed
from power later in 1871.
• Taking place against the
backdrop of Grant’s response
to the activities of the Ku Klux
Klan, the riots demonstrated
the power of nativism in post-
Civil War America. Natural-born
Americans were becoming
more protective about who
could and could not participate
in American society.

17. A SURVEY OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit 3: Reconstruction and Urbanization
Part 3: Ulysses S. Grant (I)