Abraham Lincoln, Nativism, and Citizenship

Abstract

Nativist movements in the United States in the 1840s and 1850s aimed to restrict the rights of recent immigrants because of their religion or ethnicity. During Abraham Lincoln’s pre-presidential political career, he twice confronted such movements in his home state of Illinois. He opposed nativism, believing that adherence to the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence would unify native-born and naturalized Ame ricans.

Keywords

• Abraham Lincoln
• immigration
• nativism
• xenophobia
• citizenship