As American’s prior to the great migration of the 19th century, nativists felt that the freshly arriving newcomers were not welcome. The men and women coming to American seemed even more foreign to the nativists than those who had arrived in recent years. Comprised mainly of Italians and Eastern European Jews who made up nearly 6 million on the incoming population, they were culturally opposite of the nativist population who looked at the newcomers with strong negativity.

The population of new immigrants knew as soon as they stepped off their boat to freedom, that the American welcome mat was not at there feet. In the words of Thomas Paine “We are an asylum f

As the United States was flooded with immigrants, nativists began to form committees and groups campaigning against the newly arriving Americans. The Know-nothing Party of the 1850’s a national political party, proposed strict restrictions on immigration as a way of solving this “eminent problem.” Another group with nativist intent was the Workingmen’s Party. This party which was founded in 1878 and lasted only until the year 1879, led a movement to have a new constitution written which banned Chinese from employment corporations or state government, and segregating them into so called “Chinatowns.” There were not only groups that aimed there hatred toward immigrants, but also to nativists themselves. The Ku Klux Klan, was an anti-Catholic, anti-black and anti-immigration society who used terror and violence to harm their enemies.

Another step taken by the government to compromise on the situation was the administration of literacy tests. In 1897 after Congress passed a bill requiring that literacy tests be given to immigrants in order to see if they are fit to be in America, President Grover Cleveland vetoed the bill. The nativist belief was that the new immigrants were less intelligent than the previous wave of immigrants, and they feared that they would water down the gene pool with basically inferior beings. By vetoing this bill Cleveland claimed that he did not feel it was right to persecute those who merely have not been given the opportunity to get an education, by denying them their right to be an America citizen and become educated.

The Immigration and Naturalization Acts were the biggest and most profound act toward reaching a compromise in America. By the year 1893 committee’s had been formed regulating and monitoring the immigrants which came into the United States. In the years 1917-1924 significant amounts of legislation were made concerning the naturalization of aliens. In 1924 the most important act was made, The Immigration act. This act enacted a policy which stated the number of immigrants which would be allowed to enter the United States each year. The most important aspect of this act was the removal of race as a factor which determined whether or not you could be a legal citizen of the United Sates. (Ellis, T)

Some topics in this essay:
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