Nativism’s core aim shifted from voting restriction to immigration restriction

Evidence

The springs of modern American nativism lay in the social and economic problems of an urban-industrial society. Few nativists could regard a limitation of the foreign vote as much of a remedy for those problems. ‘The loss of the ballot would not prevent anarchists from fomenting a revolution, or stay the rift between classes, or counteract depressions, or stop the new immigrants from polluting Anglo-Saxon blood, or keep Italian criminals and Jewish bankers from subversive activity. To cope with these dangers, the nativist was certain that the United States would have to reduce and refine the stream of immigration. Restriction became his overriding aim. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 583

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Electoral courtship of immigrant voters dissolved the Republicans’ restrictionist role — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 733; Victorious nativists immediately moved to extend restrictions to new targets — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1953; Nativists pursued naturalization restriction chiefly to curtail foreign-born political power. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 581 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Nativism abandoned ideological conversion for permanent racial exclusion once radical threat dissolved #expands (0.85) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1580
• Restricting immigration redirected eugenicists and energized assimilationist cultural work #exemplifies (0.75) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 835