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The Know Nothings were a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was ironically known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and simply the "American Party" after that.[a]

The Know Nothings were originally a secret society. It was primarily an anti-Catholic, Anti-Irish, anti-immigration, populist and xenophobic movement. It aligned with American progressivism in its stances on "issues of labor rights and the need for more government spending"[1] as well as for its "support for an expansion of the rights of women, regulation of industry, and support of measures designed to improve the status of working people."[2] It was a forerunner to the temperance movement in the United States. The Know Nothing movement briefly emerged as a major political party in the form of the American Party. Adherents to the movement were to simply reply "I know nothing" when asked about its specifics by outsiders, providing the group with its common name.[3]