Speech #1020149016

If the Members were to walk out of this Chamber. out into the Hall. and look out the west end of the Capitol Building. out to The Mall. they would see the Washington Monument. which this Congress. over 100 years ago. authorized the construction of that beautiful monument to honor the Father of His Country. George Washington. Early in the 1850s Congress authorized the construction of that monument. Mr. Speaker. When the monument was about a third of the way in construction. a new political party in this country emerged. It was a splitoff party from the Republican Federalist Party. and they called themselves the American Party. The American Party. as many of my colleagues know. later became known as the KnowNothing Party. They were kind of an offshoot. reactionary group. They hated U.S. immigration policy. They did not want Germans coming here. They did not want the Irish in America.