In this cartoon from the Wide-Awake Pictorial, a stormy political sea has put Democrats in distress and has capsized the Know-Nothings, who are offered space by the confident Republican crew if they promise to act civilly and remain quiet. Know-Nothings were members of the American Party, which was organized in the early 1850s in support of stringent immigration restrictions. Many members were also opposed to the expansion of slavery and, therefore, joined the Republican Party in the late 1850s and 1860.