Order of the Star Spangled Banner
The
Order of the Star Spangled Banner was an oath-bound
secret society in
New York City. It was created in
1849 by
Charles Allen to protest the rise of
Irish Catholic and
German immigration into the
United States. In order to join the Order, a man had to be at least twenty-one years old, a Protestant, and willing to obey the Order's dictates without question. Members invariably responded to questions about the OSSB by claiming that they "knew nothing." This practice caused newspaper editor Horace Greeley to label them "
Know-Nothings." The OSSB would eventually form the nucleus of the nativist
American Party.
