Perry, O'Malley link Trump to 'Know-Nothings'
Democrat Martin O'Malley and Republican Rick Perry don't agree on much, but both have linked Donald Trump to the "Know-Nothings" -- the 19th-century anti-immigrant movement that rocketed to political success in pre-Civil War America and flamed out just as quickly.
"Donald Trump is the modern-day incarnation of the know-nothing movement," Perry said on Wednesday in critiquing Trump's role in the Republican presidential race. "He espouses nativism, not conservatism. He is negative when conservatism is inherently optimistic."
Perry echoed the comments of O'Malley, the Democratic candidate who has also criticized the billionaire businessman for his claims that too many Mexican migrants are "criminals" and "rapists."
"If Donald Trump wants to run on a platform of demonizing immigrants, then he should go back to the 1840s and run for the nomination of the Know Nothing Party," O'Malley said earlier this month.
Trump, who is leading Republican presidential polls, says he opposes illegal immigration and a porous border -- a message he will deliver again Thursday when he tours the Mexican border near Laredo, Texas.
"The border patrols have invited me," Trump said on Fox News. "They want to do their job. They are not allowed to do their job at the border."
O'Malley, Perry, and other Trump critics are referring to one of the most remarkable movements in American political history.
Know-Nothing-ism essentially began with creation of the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner in New York City in 1849. Its members had criticized a spike in immigration throughout the 1840s, particularly of Irish Catholics, fearing that the flood of people would take jobs at lower wages and be more loyal to the pope than the United States.
The nickname for this and similar organizations sprung from members' responses to questions about their activities: "I know nothing." Adherents claimed the attempted slur, adopting the motto that "I know nothing but my Country, my whole Country, and nothing but my Country."
The loosely organized coalition began to coalesce and run candidates on platforms that included proposals to make it harder for immigrants to become American citizens.
And they found success, electing a mayor of Philadelphia and winning control of the Massachusetts legislature. In 1856, the organization known as the American Party nominated its own presidential candidate, former president Millard Fillmore. But he carried only one state (Maryland).
In building a political movement, the Know-Nothings took advantage of the fact that the two major parties of the time -- the Democrats and the Whigs -- split apart over the issue of slavery.
But slavery also divided the Know-Nothings, and the movement faded after their poor performance in the 1856 presidential campaign.
Their legacy lives on, however, and critics of the nation's immigration system over the years have been often been tagged Know-Nothings -- a group that now includes Trump.
The businessman says that politicians are attacking him because people are responding to his message about immigration.
Referring specifically to Perry, Trump said that "he's doing very poorly in the polls -- he put glasses on, so people will think he's smart."