After 9/11 -- When Will We Reach the Tipping Point?

(Sept. 10) -- A tiny Christian sect in Gainesville, Fla., threatens to burn the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11; tensions continue to rise over an Islamic community center near New York City's ground zero; the construction site of a new mosque in suburban Tennessee got torched last month. And Glenn Beck recently warned his listeners that the country is reaching "a point where the people will have exhausted all their options. When that happens, look out."

The question is: How far can this go on before we reach a tipping point for large-scale violence?

If you don't think that's a legitimate question, just ask Louisville, Ky., the now quiet and progressive city on the Ohio River.

Back in 1855, with the Whig Party in ruins, the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party emerged in the disarray with stunning success -- much like today's tea party phenomenon. Know-Nothing mayors took power in Baltimore, Chicago, Boston and even Washington, D.C.

At the time, one of the most famous editors and national commentators of the day was Louisville Journal newspaper editor and former Whig activist George Prentice, who would eventually be hailed by The New York Times as one of the "best known litterateurs" in the country.

Seeking to counter the growing ranks of German and Irish voters in his adopted river town, Prentice unleashed a bitter editorial campaign against "most pestilent influence of the foreign swarms" -- Catholics "loyal" to the pope. Prentice encouraged his readers to resist the "foreign hordes" of Catholics attempting to take over the Midwest. In the summer of 1855, with the Kentucky city on the verge of an election upset, Prentice issued a series of editorials that would ultimately push his city over the tipping point of restraint.

On the eve of the Aug. 6 election, Louisville awoke to Prentice's newspaper rallying call: "Let the foreigners keep their elbows to themselves to-day at the polls. Americans are you all ready? We think we hear you shout 'ready,' 'well fire!' and may heaven have mercy on the foe."

Within hours, as voting centers erupted in disarray and rumors of German retribution filled the air, armed mobs tore through German and Irish wards with pitchforks and torches, set up firing squads with rifles and muskets, and even attempted to commandeer a cannon. Street fights and fires exploded. By the end of the day, even Prentice and the Know-Nothing mayor of Louisville had to face down the unhinged mobs and plead with the crowd to not burn a Catholic church.

Nonetheless, strewn bodies lay amid the city's ashes. More than 22 -- most historians put the death toll closer to 100 -- died in the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic riots. Thousands eventually fled the river town.

Bewildered by his city's atrocities, Prentice backpedaled on the invective of his writing and claimed he didn't intend for his readers to take him literally. He responded to his critics: "There was nothing more inflammatory in the Journal of Monday than what we have published in it on the morning of every election that has been held in the last twenty-five years."

The memory of Louisville's massacre stands today as a dark reminder of our nation's worst anti-immigrant massacre -- and the power of those to trigger it. Prentice, whose statue bedecks Louisville's public library, apologized later in life for the impact of his writing.

Let's hope that Glenn Beck and the would-be Florida Quran-burners, among others, don't end up causing a repeat of this tragic history.

Journalist and cultural historian Jeff Biggers is the American Book Award-winning author of "Reckoning at Eagle Creek." Find out more about Jeff and his books on Red Room.