Immigration in 1830s and '40S Essay

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Big companies were also eager to hire immigrants to reduce their own expenditures. This led to a wave of anti-Catholic riots that targeted immigrants. The largest of such riots took place in Philadelphia in 1844, involving Protestants, Catholics, and local militia. The riot killed sixteen people, injured several dozens, and destroyed over forty buildings.

The nativists formed influential parties to limit the number of immigrants, extend the period of naturalization of immigrants into citizenship, and pressured the government to ban foreign-born citizens from holding public offices. The anti-immigration sentiment even influenced the decisions over U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-48. They opposed American expansion into Mexico, Cuba, and the rest of Central America since their citizens were Catholic. The Daily Sun of Philadelphia explained it in 1846: "if we look towards Mexico, we are menaced by the accession of eight million foreigners, not only entirely ignorant of our institutions, but ignorant of everything, uncultivated in mind, brutal in manners, steeped in the worst of all superstitions, and slaves to the tyranny of monks.
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This was also the sentiment nativists held against Irish and German immigrants.

On the one hand, there were powerful players, mostly businesses, which supported immigration since it was profitable for them. On the other hand, there was nativist opposition because immigration was seen as threatening the American way of life and taking away low-paying jobs that were traditionally accorded to local laborers. The issue, therefore, became very controversial......

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