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.”

---

Discover More

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

Example Sentences

By the late 1850s, because he had been claimed by the Know-Nothings for their own, Brother Jonathan was no longer a viable national symbol.

From Slate • Jul. 4, 2022

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

Below the Mason-Dixon line, most Whigs professed to become Know-Nothings and renamed themselves the American Party, running Millard Fillmore against Democrat James Buchanan.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Southern Whigs either went boldly into the Democratic camp, or followed for a while the delusive prospects of the Know-Nothings.

From A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History by Nicolay, John George