Know-Nothings

Cultural  

1. A party opposed to the holding of public office by immigrants or Roman Catholics. The Know-Nothings, also known as “nativists,” insisted that only true, “native” Americans should serve in the government. The party was quite successful in the 1850s but split over the slavery question. Its official name was the American party. It picked up the “Know-Nothing” tag because its members, maintaining secrecy about the party's activities, customarily answered questions with, “I know nothing.”

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Today, the term know-nothing is usually applied to bigots.

Example Sentences

That created multiple political factions within the Democratic and Republican parties, like the Northern Whigs, Southern Whigs and the Know-Nothings, with slavery even creating internal divides within those very factions.

From Slate • Jan. 5, 2023

The resulting backlash took the form of a new political party, officially the American Party, better known by its nickname, the Know-Nothings.

From Washington Post • Jul. 15, 2019

But it’s instructive to look at how the Whigs split into Republicans and Know-Nothings.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 4, 2018

Once in office, moreover, Know-Nothings could rarely satisfy their followers’ demands for radical measures against “subversive” influences and seemed as ineffective as the party hacks they replaced.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Douglas's charges about Know-Nothings and Abolitionists were well calculated to make an impression in southern Illinois; hence Trumbull did not choose to let them go unanswered.

From The Life of Lyman Trumbull by White, Horace