“Whiskey vs. Lager Beer— Bejabers”: The Irish, the Bête Noire of Lincoln’s Republican Party

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of Irish immigrants in Bloomington, Illinois, a railroad and agricultural center whose population had reached seven thousand by 1860. 4 It recounts their arrival in the 1850s as common laborers working to construct the Illinois Central Railroad (ICRR) line, which ran north and south through the state