Talk:Know Nothing

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Contents

[edit] Election box metadata

This article contains some sub-pages that hold metadata about this subject. This metadata is used by the Election box templates to display the color of the party and its name in Election candidate and results tables.

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[edit] Origin of the term "know-nothing"

I have seen an old political cartoon in support of the American Party that, among many other things, depicted a boy holding a Bible and declaring that "we are determined to know nothing but this book to guide us in spiritual things." It was in print in a textbook, so I cannot produce the cartoon here, but are we certain that the origin of "know-nothing" is rooted in the secrecy of the movement exclusively? This cartoon seems to suggest otherwise. Rogue 9 09:21, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

The cartoon may have been drawn after the name was already in use. Without a source for the date it'd be hard to determine. -Willmcw 09:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
The name originated from the oath that members of the Order were supposed to utter if asked about the secret society: "I know nothing."General Bradley 00:24, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-immigrant

The Know-Nothing movement was chiefly based on strident opposition to specific immigrants in particular, not just to immigration in general. On that basis I think that the epithet "anti-immigrant" would be correctly applied to them. Any thoughts? -Willmcw 02:28, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

No, I don't think so. The Know-Nothings were concerned primarily about Catholic immigrants because they were Catholic, not because they were immigrants. If there had been mass conversions to Protestantism, I think most Know-Nothings would have supported immigration as a way to strengthen the nation.
Mjk2357 12:09, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] masons

we need mention of anti-freemasonry

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the debate was don't move. —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 09:37, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming

Use this section to discuss renaming the article to American Party (United States).

I don't think we should do so. "Know Nothing" is the most commonly-used name for this group. -Will Beback 00:06, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Doesn't matter. The naming convention for articles on political parties is, or should be, to use the official party name and not the nickname. Republican Party (United States) doesn't redirect to GOP. This article is the sole exception and needs to be fixed. 68.239.87.176 00:14, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
No, the criteria is the same as for any other article (or at least for which there are not specialized naming conventions) and that is the name by which it is most commonly known. Your comparison with the GOP fails because the party is commonly known as the Republican Party. This should not be renamed. older ≠ wiser 01:36, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Keep the title "Now Nothing Movement" which covers more than just the party. Rjensen 01:45, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose, but it probably should be moved to Know Nothing for easier linking. Septentrionalis 05:52, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Commenting further: I think there is value in consistency in an encyclopedia. If there is a list or category of political parties then it looks odd to have a name like this. However the example of the GOP/Republican Party is not similar, as everyone knows what the Republican Party is, while even those people who know something about the Know Nothings are likely to know nothing about the American Party. A possible solution would be to create an article for the American Party that deals only with the formal party aspects, and retain the main article here. Lastly, American Party (United States) would be a very bad name, as the other articles that might be confused are also in the U.S. If we go this route I propose that the material on this group be at American Party, and the rest at American Party (disambiguation). -Will Beback 07:04, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose, but I agree with Septentrionalis and Will. Jonathunder 17:05, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose, KN covers more than the AP period, is more commonly known and has been used by adherents as well as opponents. ~ trialsanderrors 17:02, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

I agree that it looks odd in lists of parties and such, and therefore a split may be advisable. —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 09:37, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

A split may be desirable. Septentrionalis 21:42, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Looking at the discussion, there does seem to be support for a simpler name. I have moved to Know Nothing, partly because it was an unedited redirect, partly because I think it marginally better than Know Nothings (simpler linking) and Know-Nothing (simplicity, and Know-Nothing should really be an adjective, not a noun). I have left some redirects unedited, so that if someone prefers another variant, it can just be moved again. If anyone disagrees, feel free to move again; this is a proposal, but not worth putting through WP:RM when we've just discussed it, much less move warring. Septentrionalis

It seems to me that we should have an article Know Nothing or Know Nothing movement about the movement, and a separate American Party article about the political party, which was not identical with it. Also, isn't this article particularly badly written? Why is American political history on wikipedia so badly done? john k (talk) 00:24, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] repeat?

Sorry, but i think there was another page on wikipedia for the Know-Nothing Party.

I was researching just a week ago and pulled up a different page than this one. Has it been moved or collaborate with another page? I remember there being A LOT MORE infomation than what is on it now. NosmoKing

How long ago do you remember it from? There was a longer page that was a copyright violation, but it was deleted in August 2003, at which point this new article was written. In the 4 years since then it's only grown (gradually) as far as I can tell. A week ago this article was more or less identical to what it's like now---there've been no major changes at all in the past several months. --Delirium 19:34, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

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