Racial nativism supplanted anti-Catholicism because it fit the new immigrant threat

Evidence

Neither of the major traditions of nativist thought quite fitted the problem. The anti-radical theme, with its fears of imported discontent, applied to Europeans as a whole, and surely the new immigrants presented a more docile appearance than did Irish labor leaders or the German anarchists who hanged for the Haymarket Affair. Anti-Catholic nationalism, aside from failing to account for the new Jewish immigration, reeked of religious fanaticism which literate and cultured people now disavowed. On the eve of the A.P.A.’s rise to national prominence, a typical nativist intellectual rejoiced that the present movement against immigration would be free from attacks on Catholics. There was, however, a third nativist tradition—weaker than the other two but more adaptable to the purpose at hand. The old idea that America belongs peculiarly to the Anglo-Saxon race would define the special danger of the new immigration if one assumed that northern Europeans were at least first cousins to the Anglo-Saxons. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 567

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the reader’s thesis that the ‘enemy’ category passes through transitional forms — religious, then racial — rather than racialization being fixed and primordial. — connects to: Anti-Catholicism became nativist only when Catholics seemed foreign agents.; Anti-Catholic nativism peaked after mass Catholic immigration, not before it — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes…, 287; Nativism abandoned ideological conversion for permanent racial exclusion once radical threat dissolved — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1580 (+9 more)
• ADDENDUM: Connects to ‘Grafting & Growth’ only loosely; more relevantly it parallels the group-solidarity framing behind the reader’s core research question about manufactured enemies.

Broader Connections

• Nativism abandoned ideological conversion for permanent racial exclusion once radical threat dissolved #qualifies (0.80) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1580
• Anti-Catholic nativism peaked after mass Catholic immigration, not before it #qualifies (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 287
• Mass immigration from 1830 to 1930 triggered nativist white backlash #qualifies (0.73)
• Early twentieth-century US nativism racialized Irish Catholics, Eastern European Jews, and Mormons #exemplifies (0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 248
• Religious identity racialized Irish Catholics as a separate inferior race #complicates (0.72)
• Racializing religion serves the political purpose of excluding targeted minorities #complicates (0.72)