CHAPTER IX

LOCAL NATIVISM IN NEW YORK CITY,  1854-1860

The local history of the nativist movement in New York
city possesses a special interest not attached to Its existence
in any other part of the state. It was here that it had Its
origin and its greatest real strength. Probably there was no
other place in the state where the movement was so largely
based upon actual antipathy for the foreign element which It
desired to limit. In New York city, too, lay the strength of
the earlier governing cliques of the Know-Nothings and
kindred orders. Their personal Influence in the secret associ¬
ations to which they belonged kept them in their place. In
the local columns of the New York press can be read more
clearly than anywhere else, the evolution of the secret move¬
ment and the causes of its decay.

The story of nativism as a local force in New York city
may be taken up again In the summer of 1854, when It was
differentiated from the wider interests of the secret order by
the entry of the latter Into the field of state politics under the
direction of President Barker. The managers of nativism at
this time were not the less attentive to New York city on
account of having the whole state to engage their attention.
On the contrary, their personal interest lay more in city poli¬
tics than In state affairs. The situation in the local poHtics of
New York city at the opening of the campaign of 1854 was
very similar to that in the state at large. There were two old
parties broken up into factional groups, and three organized
movements, striving to gain recognition for their respective
issues. Anti-slavery had no organization devoted to it in
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