ALL DOWNHILL ONCE WE LET THE SCOTS IN...:

Earlier waves of immigrants, especially Roman Catholics, were suspected of being pawns in a vast conspiracy to replace Protestants. The December 1836 issue of the Quarterly Christian Spectator, for example, warned that Europe had an overabundance of Catholics who might be headed across the Atlantic to subvert Protestant Christian principles.

Europe "possesses a population to send to our shores, sufficient to outnumber and overwhelm us, in time, unless they can be prevented from coming," the nativist publication warned. The only solution was conversion to "real" -- Protestant -- Christianity. "Efforts must be made to impart the benefits of the true faith," the article continued, "to all the unenlightened and vicious who come among us from abroad, and to produce their conversion unto God."

The article, entitled "The Danger of Our Country," painted a dystopian picture of an America overrun by Catholics: "our liberty turned into despotism or licentiousness, -- our intelligence into ignorance -- our religion turned into infidelity or papacy." Such a society may survive, the article continued, "but we shall not be the present happy United States."

These conspiracy theories were not unusual. A passel of nativist organizations emerged in the antebellum period, including the Native American Democratic Association, the American Protestant Association, the Order of United Americans and the United Sons of America. All of them warned that the country was in danger of being overrun -- being replaced -- by Catholic immigrants, who were often caricatured as docile and prepared unquestioningly to do the bidding of the pope.

Nativist attacks on Catholic immigrants continued throughout the 19th century. The American Protective Association, founded in Clinton, Iowa, in 1887, spread antiCatholic sentiment, especially in the Midwest. Half a million members pledged not to vote for a Catholic, hire a Catholic or go on strike with a Catholic. Members took an oath, which read in part, "I furthermore promise and swear that I will not aid in building or maintaining, by my resources, any Roman Catholic church or institution of their sect or creed whatsoever, but will do all in my power to retard and break down the power of the Pope, in this country or any other." In addition, members pledged, "nor will I enter into any agreement with a Roman Catholic to strike or create a disturbance whereby the Catholic employees may undermine and substitute their Protestant co-workers."

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