Fascinating cartoon, the fear that Americans had was that the Chinese from one side and the Irish from the other would “take over” the US.
Although the Chinese had little or no impact on US society beyond China towns in each city there is no doubt that the feared impact of the Irish (and later, Italian, Jewish and now Hispanic) immigration did in some respects come to pass.
The mass immigration of the late 19th Century, whilst looked at now benignly did massively transform US society and politics.
The big city political machines that exist today and which favour the Democrats and are steeped in corruption were a product of the post-Famine Irish immigration. Get jobs for the boys, suck as much as possible from the government teat and keep the native-born blacks in their “proper” place; at the bottom of the heap.
Yes America, you’ve got those charming Irish immigrants to thank for your political situation today, makes you feel all sentimental for the Oul’ Sod, doesn’t it?
Reminds me of the scene from Blazing Saddles, “we’ll take the N*****s, we’ll take the C*****s, but we won’t take the Irish!”
The Americans feared any non-WASP population; the Irish were simply the first. The legal discrimination against them forced them into the machines, and the leaders of those took the country to dark places.
The fears of the Protestants who founded this country were well founded indeed.