The Know-Nothing Riot of 1856, some of the worst rioting of the Know-Nothing

Know Nothing

The Know Nothing was a movement by the nativist American political faction of the 1840s and 1850s. It was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by German and Irish Catholic immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to Anglo-Saxon Protestant values and controlled by...

 era in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, occurred in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

 in the fall of 1856. Street tensions had escalated sharply over the preceding half-dozen years as neighborhood gangs, most of them operating out of local firehouses, became increasingly involved in party politics. Know-Nothing candidate Thomas Swann

Thomas Swann

Thomas Swann was an American politician. Initially a Know-Nothing, and later a Democrat, he served as mayor of Baltimore , as the 33rd Governor of Maryland , and as U.S...

 was successfully elected Mayor of Baltimore in 1856 amidst violence and a heavily disputed ballot.

Origins

The American Party, also known as Know Nothings, had gained control of the local government in Baltimore during the October 1854 municipal election, making Samuel Hinks

Samuel Hinks

Samuel Hinks was Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1854 to 1856. He was a member of the Know-Nothing party. He was succeeded in 1856 by fellow Know-Nothing Thomas Swann.-Baltimore mayoral election of 1856:...

 mayor and winning a majority in the Baltimore City Council

Baltimore City Council

The Baltimore City Council is the legislative branch that governs the City of Baltimore and its nearly 700,000 citizens. Baltimore has fourteen single-member City Council districts and representatives are elected for a four-year term. To qualify for a position on the Council, a person must be...

. The party lost ground at the subsequent municipal election the following year. In 1856, both the Americans and their Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 rivals girded for the coming contests.

1856 mayoral election

The campaign season opened with a deadly September confrontation between American Party members and Democrats on Federal Hill. Partisans battled over the following weeks.

In October 1856 the Know Nothing Mayor Samuel Hinks

Samuel Hinks

Samuel Hinks was Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1854 to 1856. He was a member of the Know-Nothing party. He was succeeded in 1856 by fellow Know-Nothing Thomas Swann.-Baltimore mayoral election of 1856:...

 was pressed by Baltimorians to order General George H. Steuart

George H. Steuart

George Hume Steuart was an American military officer who served thirteen years in the United States Army, then resigned his commission at the start of the American Civil War, joined the Confederacy and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia...

's militia in readiness to maintain order during the mayoral elections, as violence was anticipated. Mayor Hinks duly gave Steuart the order, but he soon rescinded it.

As a result, during the October municipal election, serious violence broke out on polling day, with shots exchanged by competing mobs. In the 2nd and 8th wards several citizens were killed, and many wounded. In the 6th ward artillery was used, and a pitched battle fought on Orleans St between Know Nothings and rival Democrats, raging for several hours.

Rip Raps clashed with the Democratic rowdies of the New Market Fire Company at Lexington Market

Lexington Market

Lexington Market is a historic market in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The main market is housed in two large buildings on the north corners of the intersection of Paca and Lexington Streets...

. Plug Uglies

Plug Uglies

The Plug Uglies were a street gang that operated in the westside of Baltimore, Maryland from 1854 to 1860. The Plug Uglies coalesced shortly after the creation of the Mount Vernon Hook-and-Ladder Company, a volunteer fire company whose truck house was on Biddle Street, between Pennsylvania Avenue...

 fought with Democrats in the Eighth Ward, which was popularly known as "Limerick" because of its large Irish population. Five partisans died in the combat, including an American who had come up from Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 The result of the mayoral election, in which voter fraud was widespread, was a victory for the Know Nothings by around 9,000 votes.

At the November presidential election, the fighting was more severe yet. One died near Fell's Point and eleven in the neighborhood of the Bel Air Market in the northeastern section of the city.

Emphasis must be placed on the fact that the partisans involved were overwhelmingly well-known fighting men with deep connections to the street violence of the fire companies. During the fighting at Lexington Market, Rip Raps specifically targeted the house of Petty Naff, the New Market's most notorious rowdy. The violence was not a spontaneous event but a well-organized, well-planned series of assaults committed by experienced combatants.

Legacy and continuing violence

In 1857, fearing similar violence at the upcoming elections, Governor Thomas W. Ligon ordered Steuart to hold the First Light Division, Maryland Volunteers

First Light Division, Maryland Volunteers

The First Light Division of Maryland Volunteers was a militia unit based in Baltimore and formed in around 1841. Its commander was the militia general George H. Steuart. Elements of the division participated in the suppression of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, but its members found...

 in readiness. However, Mayor Thomas Swann

Thomas Swann

Thomas Swann was an American politician. Initially a Know-Nothing, and later a Democrat, he served as mayor of Baltimore , as the 33rd Governor of Maryland , and as U.S...

successfully argued for a compromise measure involving special police forces to prevent disorder, and Steuart's militia were stood down. This time, although there was less violence than in 1856, the results of the vote were again compromised, and Swann was re-elected in a heavily disputed ballot.