Waterloo50
Major
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2015
- Location
- England
Just a personal opinion but I’d rather stand and fight with one Irishman by my side than 10 men from any other nation. So, I voted no.
I am not sure about the Irish Catholic's being anti slavery. Certainly the Pope at the time was not nor the Catholic Church has a whole. Not to say there were no Irish Abolitionists of either Catholic or Protestant faith.The 1848-1850s surge of immigrants were mostly anti-slavery Germans and Irish, yes?
The Irish mostly ended up Democrats because anti-Catholics were mostly Whigs and Know Nothings mostly joined the Republicans. If circumstances are different and we end up with mostly Republican Irish immigrants is it enough to get Lincoln a majority instead of a plurality?
Immigrants caused the Civil War!
The 1848-1850s surge of immigrants were mostly anti-slavery Germans and Irish, yes?
The Irish mostly ended up Democrats because anti-Catholics were mostly Whigs and Know Nothings mostly joined the Republicans. If circumstances are different and we end up with mostly Republican Irish immigrants is it enough to get Lincoln a majority instead of a plurality?
Immigrants caused the Civil War!
I am not sure about the Irish Catholic's being anti slavery. Certainly the Pope at the time was not nor the Catholic Church has a whole. Not to say there were no Irish Abolitionists of either Catholic or Protestant faith.
McPherson argues that Irish and German Catholic's had the lowest volunteer enlistment rate of any white ethnic group. @Pat Young has argued against that.
Definitely the large German immigrant group in Missouri that was mostly Protestant and Jewish were pro Abolitionists.
The portion of your post that I placed in BOLD font is basically true, but a little misleading:
My point is that many Catholic immigrants did not want to enlist in the Union Army and one reason was they did not want to risk their lives to end slavery. Yes there was the Irish Brigade but that is counter balanced by the vicious anti draft riots of July 1863.Sure poor immigrants were opposed to slavery, either out of self-serving reasons (competition) or empathy (many Irish having been reduce to conditions sometimes compared to slavery).
If the majority of Irish immigrants were pro-slavery it does not speak well of them even in the context of the time period.
Know Nothings were mostly ex-Whigs and mostly became Republicans.
That doesn't mean Republicans were mostly Know Nothings. It was not my intent to imply otherwise.
Know Nothings were mostly ex-Whigs and mostly became Republicans.
That doesn't mean Republicans were mostly Know Nothings. It was not my intent to imply otherwise.