Nativism, or a policy favoring native inhabitants as opposed to immigrants, gained prominence in the period 1850-1877. Many immigrants to the United States at this time were poor German and Irish Catholics who settled in urban centers. Besides the ethnic and class distinctions between native-born Protestants and newly arrived Catholics the religious differences were also important. In fact, the debate between nativists and newcomers illustrated the tremendous diversity of the American religious experience and had a practical effect on the course of American Catholicism.
Americans often saw the United States as the opposite of Catholic Europe. In the United States, people were self-governing. They had a certain amount of education and could generally manage their own affairs, and they could elect state and federal officials to direct those projects which benefited the whole community. Americans believed that in Europe people were not self-governing and that church.....
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