Anti-Immigrant Foundations in the United States of America

By Joshua D. Glawson

Many of the institutions within the US today are portrayed as being for the protection of Americans and American trade, yet they were directly established as being anti-immigrant, as the in-group versus the out, while systematically ensuring the perpetuation of these benefits for pro-American cartels. Not only did these corrupted institutions ensure cronyistic tendencies for these US syndicates, but even many laws, several departments, and some Constitutional amendments created along the way were to safeguard their ultimate objective of control.

As German, Irish, Catholic, Chinese, and others began immigrating to the US in the early 1800s, there was a growing concern among the pro-American and Nativist groups about the changes within the newborn country. As early as around 1820, Germans began pouring into the US in large numbers, eventually creating a German-speaking population as high as about 9 million which would have made Germans approximately 10% of the US population by around 1910. During the 1820–1860 time period, the Irish were also immigrating to the US by estimates of around 2 million. Of course, the majority of these Germans and Irish coming into the US were also Catholics, which was contrary to most of the settled Protestant sects and denominations, and the earliest Puritan establishments within the US. By the 1850s, the Chinese were immigrating to the US, specifically focused in California as a response to the new opportunities arising from the 1840s’ gold rush and westward expansion of US territories with work in and around railroad companies.

The significant influx in immigrants coming into the US since the early 1800s, eventually making Germans the largest immigrant group in the US between 1840 and 1880, helped prompt the US Census to begin recording every household as close to exact numbers as possible. These numbers were encouraged not only under normal census collection, but also in agriculture. Agriculture in the US was evolving into a means of living for a significant number of German settlers since the late 1700s well into the mid-1850s, and this shook the earlier agrarian republic establishment at its core.

For the Irish immigrating to the US, 1841–1860 saw the largest numbers of population growth, many of whom were Catholic. By 1850, with German and Irish Catholics, along with the end of the Mexican-American War which also produced Catholics of Mexico to be acquired in the new Southwestern region deals of the US, the population of Catholics in America was rising to a little over 6% of the total population. When immigrants move, they take with them their religions, cultures, philosophy, trades, and so forth, and this is often in stark contrast to that of the settling regions’. Tensions between Nativist groups, religious groups, and general pro-American groups, began rising in response to the changes and perceived threats coming from Europe within the US.

With Europe being in constant turmoil throughout the 1800s and swaths of Europeans fleeing sickness, persecution, famine, wars and rumors of wars, or even just seeking better opportunities in America, the United States began slowing down and even cutting off entry by almost every means possible. Refugees or not, the US was in no mood to have European control over the Americas and would continue to demonstrate this throughout US political history. These restrictions into the States included, but were not limited to, difficult entry into various markets, barred physical entry in the US, trade protectionism, unionizing American companies, tariffs, taxes, tests of entry, haughty ethical smear campaigns, outright persecution, and limitations to involvement in government for any group perceived as a threat to Americanism and American ethics of the time. Many of these policies, laws, and outright restrictions continue today as a direct response to the underlying anti-immigrant sentiments of the 1800s through the 1900s.

As a side note, ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment was just as much about being anti-immigrant as it was to empower men who were enslaved within the US, as it provided more rights to those born or naturalized within the US than those born elsewhere. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, granted the right of all adult male citizens to vote; and again, this not only allows for formerly enslaved men to vote, but the emphasis is on their Americanness as opposed to the color of their skin or the gory details of their attacked liberties in jeopardy.

One of the biggest contributions of Germans in America in the 1800s-1900s was their beer and drinking culture. Both Anheuser and Busch were major players in the beer manufacturing industry, with over 50 locations by the mid-1850s. Already, as of 1840, over 140 breweries were operating within the US, most of which were German-owned. Even the oldest brewery in the US today, Yuengling, is a reminder of its German origins; along with two other famous breweries, Pabst and Schlitz. Not only did these German immigrants help to create the American beer and drinking culture, but they also provided saloons that were family-friendly, along with beer gardens for sipping and family enjoyment. In German culture, especially, it was very common for adults and children alike to enjoy liquid bread daily. This was quite contrary to the norms of most Americans during this period. In the US, however, alcohol was being seen as the cause of much of society’s ills and the destructive downfall of the traditional family.

This does not intend to neglect the mention of multiple organizations targeting the troubles of alcohol, as it were, since the early 1800s. With the growth in Moralist societies and religious groups in fear of the end of the world, came the advent of the American Temperance Society (1826), and the advance of the Washingtonian Movement (1840) which would eventually lead to the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous (1935). By 1833, there were over 6,000 temperance societies in the US. Overall, these anti-drinking, 1800s groups, were struggling to maintain power, keeping said power in the hands of the American religious, business, and political elite, as well as a push for removing all perceived un-American ethics, cultures, and habits, through the help of both the American government and British government propaganda machines.

The increase in membership among these various organizations, unions, and exclusive societies, was a reflection of the economic struggles of the day, the growth in American nationalism, the influx of European immigrants with different values of their own from unstable regions of the world, the push for American indoctrination and the Americanization and general Westernization of the American continent if not the entire world, and people’s general tendency to cling to religious leaders and cults for guidance in times of need. This occurred all while many religious groups were touting their pompous spiritually-intellectual pseudo superiority with false proclamations of approaching Apocalypse with societal doom-and-gloom sure to come if they were not in control or there to force the world into a better place for their utopian vision. The US government was also keenly interested in the further industrialization of the US and was in direct competition with Germany’s industrialization circa 1870. This became directly rivalrous between the two countries from around 1887 until 1914’s World War I.

The American government, eager to grow, established many of the earliest taxes imposed on Americans and this was achieved through taxation on alcohol and alcohol-related trades. Most studies suggest that nearly 40% of all US government taxes collected, prior to 1913, were from alcohol sales and related imports. As we can see throughout history, those who are paying into the government system the most will have significant influence over it so long as they are permitted to become involved.

Many Americans would become fearful of the changes and growing power among these targeted groups, especially German immigrants, prompting the rise of the Anti-Saloon League in 1893, which spread across the US by 1895 as an official national organization. Directly influencing the Anti-Saloon League was another Ohio organization known as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which began some 20 years before the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), in 1873. Even as of 1869, the political Prohibition Party began operating within the US. In the ASL, WCTU, and the Prohibition Party, the aim was to rid the country of alcohol as a direct attack on immigrant ethics versus that of Americans’, along with the push for voting rights as a means to achieve such a goal, as opposed to simply having the right naturally as free people.

This would give some evidence for the passing of the 19th Amendment and the reason women were given the right to vote after collectively, in mass numbers, agreeing to the American ethic of prohibition of alcohol found in the 18th Amendment, and both the 18th and 19th Amendments were both ratified between 1919 and 1920 in expectation for the 1920 election.

Both the WCTU and the ASL would help produce ethical extremists like Carrie Nation who would happily join in mob mentality, using a hatchet, to destroy alcohol-related businesses and products, especially with that of fellow female religious fanatics opposed to immigrant influence and the consumption of alcohol. This change in approach, from simply encouraging temperance to the coercion of abstinence, is one of the similar ongoing heated philosophical points of debate underlying much of American politics today.

With the rise of pro-American groups, Nativists, temperance movements, teetotaler prohibitionists, and growth in the number of pro-American labor unions, the aim was clear: immigrants were a perceived threat to the American establishment, and everything considered un-American needed restriction or a total ban. Alcohol was increasingly becoming the perfect scapegoat for these groups to target, along with anti-immigrant sentiments that regarded American jobs to be strictly for Americans as a positive right, as a not-so-disguised means to achieve their desired ends in hopes of purging the US of the growing influence of European immigrants, specifically Germans and the Irish, and then later the Chinese with the establishing of lists of treaties and laws outright banning Chinese immigration into the US.

The political Whig Party and the Know Nothing Party (1855), which was an out-in-the-open secret society of sorts, both stood firmly against immigration throughout the 1800s. It should also come as no surprise to anyone that Abraham Lincoln was an active member of both the Whig Party and the Know Nothing Party, and only publically came to the “support” of immigration once he was running for office; and, even that was inconsistent as his speeches, writing, and policies all reflected the further Americanization of immigrants and adamantly welcomed those that wished to solely support his Union military and his vision of US government and society. The Know Nothing Party was directly started as a response to anti-Chinese sentiments spreading across the US at the time, along with anti-German, anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, opposed to anything deemed un-American, and general anti-immigrant platforms.

After Lincoln joined the Grand Old Party (GOP), i.e. the Republican Party, he did not make as many statements against immigrants as that of opponents, but he did advocate for the establishment of special protections for Americans and American businesses, pushed for high tariffs, supported strict antitrust laws and severe economic regulations, and some of his policies were direct limitations to human Liberty- even that of Americans. Lincoln’s most passionate cause was the unification of one United States of America, under his shared vision with fellow pro-Americans, and the Americanization of the country. He called upon War Democrats, Unconditional Unionists, the Union Party, etc. to join in his Civil War period ‘National Union Party.’ Again, the purpose of Lincoln’s platform and policies was a ruse to encourage Americanism throughout the country, as if the country were unified as a Nation-State under a shared belief or system of beliefs, as opposed to the traditionally shared ethnic background under a State or regime as most Nation-States would have it.

Abraham Lincoln also partnered with the US Patent Office and helped to establish the US Department of Agriculture, which its main function was the protection and management oversight of the American agriculture industry as opposed to that of other countries or immigrants coming into the US.

After some years, in 1906, the US government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act which its mission was to again, control, limit, or ban foreign foods and medical drugs or even anything deemed “addictive.” This was strictly focusing on seriously restricting the import of products by immigrants and limiting foreign companies looking to succeed in the US. This department became the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration and the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils (FDIA), which changed its name to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by 1930: again, anti-immigrant foundations and origins.

Education was another method used to quash growing differences between Americans and foreign immigrants. Horace Mann was not only a Whig, but he is also considered by many to be the “Father of the Common School,” better known today as the American public school model. Besides his political Whig background, he was also known as a phrenologist which means he believed education could eliminate or reduce human failings while compensating for biological flaws. It was under this ideology that Horace Mann pushed Americanism on students first through the removal of church hierarchies and religious liturgy from classrooms, aside from the Bible itself, while pontificating the complete obedience of citizenry to their government. This was to ensure the common view of sola scriptura in the US, as opposed to Catholics and other sects, denominations, religions, cults, and faiths as they were deemed un-American, while also seeking guidance solely from the government. In addition, Horace Mann held the view that women were more moral than men, so women should be the main instructors and teachers within the American education system, while they were also used to indoctrinate students with American values and beliefs.

Mann also focused on teaching agriculture and engineering to students as a means to compete against industrialized Europe, and to Americanize the agriculture and engineering industries within the US. Horace Mann’s efforts helped to keep a tight leash around American agriculture and industrial engineering sectors, as it was a systematic bottom-up approach to Americanizing the country while maintaining control over its cash cows of the day, with mainly American interests in mind.

Mann believed that education would be the best preventative measure in stifling the influence of immigrants of his day, and he encouraged instilling his American ethics into the hearts of all students and those who worked for the public education system, including advocating abstinence from alcohol. Horace Mann’s wife, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, worked directly with her sister Elizabeth Peabody who established the first American kindergarten in response to the growth in German kindergartens in the US at the time. Mrs. Mann’s other sister, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, was the wife of famed writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose work is still being taught and read in public schools across the US today.

What prompted Horace Mann and others of his day to encourage a unified American education system through education reform was, in fact, a direct response to the growing concern of the influence of immigrants who were seen to be the antithesis of all things American, especially the German population growing in the country around 1830. Which, this helps to explain why Horace Mann went to Prussia to learn how the Prussians were handling education, to replicate it in the US, in response to German uprisings and instability, and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire some years prior.

As the push for public education increased over the years, and with the eventual help of former Whig-to-Republican politician who also helped create the Republican Party, helped pass the 14th Amendment, and helped to establish US universities and colleges, was Justin Smith Morrill. It was under the Board of Agriculture that universities received funding via the newly established Department of Education (1867) to teach American ethics, agriculture, and mechanics for engineering to students; while simultaneously collecting statistics on students and reporting progress of their Americanization to appropriate politicians and other US government departments. This was to ensure their pseudoscientific progress was working, and to maintain social and political control over the American market, especially that of agriculture, engineering, ethics, and education.

Some years later, it would be during World War I that many schools would begin to eliminate teaching German in schools, initiating the banning of German literature and music from the public sphere, and propaganda spread that beer was unpatriotic and un-American.

Even the sacred land protected by the National Park Service has anti-immigrant, pro-American, and even a eugenics background to its creation. John Muir, William Kent, Reed Smoot (his name and part are infamous in the Smoot-Hawley Tariff), Robert Underwood Johnson, and others in the formation of the Sierra Club as well as these government departments, were in support of eugenics, anti-immigrant policies, and pro-American policies. The significant reasons for the push of protected land in the Western region of the US was a direct response to increased migration into the region and the idea that only white-Americans could protect this land or best utilize it. Of course, by the late 1880s, eugenics was being taught in American schools, touted as genuine science at the World’s Fair, supported by Scientific American, The American Museum of Natural History hosted large conferences, and Social Darwinism was among its most frequently cited works since one Eugenics’ biggest proponents was in fact Charles Darwin’s half-cousin and friend Francis Galton. Other prominent supporters of eugenics at the time included but not limited to, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, Alexander Graham Bell, John D. Rockefeller Jr, and many others in the growing American economic powerhouse. Some other, perhaps not-so-surprising, supporters of such ideology included John Maynard Keynes, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Marie Stopes, Winston Churchill, Margaret Sanger, William Beveridge, and Jacques Cousteau.

The ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913, which was an intentional attack on liquor sales, gave Congress the authority to levy income taxes instead of increased taxes or tariffs on alcohol, while eventually banning alcohol business altogether by 1919 with the ratification of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act (1920), which sparked a 13-year dry period for Americans known as the Prohibition (1920–1933).

1913 was also the year of the Federal Reserve Act, which was to further control the monetary and economic policies of the US against that of immigrants through false hopes of quantitative easing, nepotistic discount rates for Americans and American businesses, control over competition in the American marketplace, as well as the inevitable and eventual debasement of US currency riding more on fiat and faith rather than backed by a commodity or anything of real-world value. The establishment of the Federal Reserve was just as much anti-immigrant as those that spoke out against immigrants directly.

Such is the disguise of the vast majority of policies in the so-called Progressive Era, they were to establish the American elite over that of immigrants and foreign competition under the guise that it was to protect or fulfill some void or need of the American people. When in fact, the Progressive Era would only lead to more American unions, redistribution of wealth to Americans, restricted markets for those not American, limiting or even banning of immigration from certain countries, falsified prices in various markets to maintain American control and dominance, and the Americanization of the world via various companies, institutions, organizations, publications, and entertainment.

Between 1900 and 1915, more than 15 million immigrants were coming into the US, which was already more than double that of the past 40 years combined. Around three-fourths of New York City was made up of immigrants or first-generation Americans. So, throughout the Progressive Era, the focus was on Americanization within the US; and by World War I, the focus had shifted to Americanizing the world as well. From US entry into the first world war, 1917, throughout the 20th Century, policies were put into place to put restrictions on immigrants as a means to maintain control of America in the hands of Americans because outsiders were continuously distrusted or seen as possibly infiltrating to take control over the increasingly unified country.

Throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries, the US government would continue to push new legislation and policies that would directly impact immigrants and their process of immigration, from restrictions to complete bans, and would extend their influence to other countries as a means to Americanize the world before even stepping foot in the US. Today, many of the immigrants that migrate to the US are already Americanized through general media, film, music, books, magazines, US presence in their country, or the internet. It is much easier to have immigration in a time and place where the whole world is already willing and able to familiarize themselves with the American culture and even acculturate themselves without mandate.

Whether or not these choices are free and voluntary is another discussion, altogether. However, it is important to understand that the option to Americanize was not so significant or readily available to the world, to the degree it is today, prior to the interventionist policies and anti-immigrant stances throughout US history. This does not mean that it never would have happened, or that good ideas cannot become shared or agreed upon. Instead, this reaffirms the US’ historical precedent of being more restrictive with immigrants than those born in the US.

This also does not mean the US is any worse, or even better for that matter, than other countries and their various stances on immigration or foreign policy. Simply put, the research shows the US has not always been as welcoming to immigration as many would have you believe; and many of the institutions, policies, and laws in place today are substantial evidence of the anti-immigrant sentiments and immigrant biases in the US.

In the 21st Century, today, we can see the rise of anti-immigrant positions as it pertains to those from Mexico, South America, the Middle East, and China. Some of these positions are reflections of the various trade deals taking place at the government level, along with trade wars, growing military tensions, US interventionist policies, instabilities, blowback, and media influences.