CHAPTER XIX.

FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS AS AMERICAN CITIZENS.

The Colonies which, in 1776, declared their independence, and permanently established the Republic of the United States of America, had been more than one hundred and fifty years in reaching a total population of about three million. In 1790 the population of the whole country was about 3,200,000 whites and 700,000 blacks. The growth had been slow. The population of New England in 1760 was not far from 400,000, almost all of which was the increase of the twenty thousand Anglo-Saxons who emigrated from England between 1620 and 1650. The larger part of the immigrants who formed the other colonies came from Europe previous to 1700, and had long been undergoing the process of transformation from Anglo-Saxons to Anglo-Americans. The emigrants from continental Europe were an inconsiderable number compared with those from the British Isles and proved themselves true Americans during the war. That contest and its results proved that a new race had commenced its career during colonial times.

Previous to 1820 comparatively few foreigners found their way to the Valley. Probably not more than 150,000 out of the 2,500,000 then inhabiting the Valley were of foreign birth, including the French of the Louisiana Purchase and the Spanish of Florida. Accurate figures are not attainable, but that seems a fair estimate. After 1820 statistics of immigration were officially kept. From that year up to 1825 less than 40,000 foreigners spread over the whole country. Of these not over 25,000 came to the West. From 1825 to 1830, including the former but not the latter year, something more than 90,000 foreigners settled in the whole country. The population of the Valley had increased about a million and a half, not over

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100,000 of which could have been foreigners; the increase of foreigners to the increase of native Americans being as one to fifteen at the utmost, and of foreigners of recent immigration to the whole population of the Valley as one to forty.

In 1840 the population of the Valley was about 6,700,000-an increase in ten years of 2,700,000. In this time immigration to the United States aggregated 540,000, of which perhaps half settled in the Valley, the remainder locating in cities and manufactories, or laboring on public works in the East. Between 1840 and 1850 immigration to the United States from Europe rose to about 1,350,000. The Valley had now over 10,000,000 inhabitants. The increase of 3,300,000 probably included 800,000 foreigners, or nearly one fourth. Between 1850 and 1860 more than two and a half million persons emigrated from Europe to the United States. Of these perhaps 1,500,000 settled in the Valley, which had gained, in that time, more than 6,500,000-the whole population being about 16,600,000. Of the 5,500,000 foreign born inhabitants of the United States, in 1870, probably upwards of three fifths were in the Valley. Of the 10,000,000 in the Valley in 1850 much less than 1,500,000 were of foreign birth, and large numbers of these were of American education. Nearly two thirds of the whole, however, had immigrated within ten years.

The early periods of settlement in the Valley were given to the formation of a truly American character and spirit; the foreign element being too small to do more than expand their views by aiding the native Americans to comprehend how things looked from other points of view than their own. Foreigners have always been too small a minority to exert much general control, even if the resolute spirit of native Americans, their intelligence and aggressiveness, had not marked them as the necessarily dominant race.

There has always been a fear in the minds of thoughtful, but not fully instructed, patriots that the large numbers of foreigners, who so readily reached the position of citizens

under the naturalization laws, might do harm to the future of the republic. It seemed to them unlikely that the AngloAmerican race would always be able to maintain the firm control over their institutions necessary to their excellence, with so large an element from abroad able to turn the scale by their votes at a critical time. In the midst of the great tide of immigration, soon after 1850, this apprehension was embodied in a political party which undertook to exclude foreigners from official position; but it soon dissolved. Every agriculturist who emigrated from Europe was equivalent to a moderate capital invested in the country, speeding its progress by developing its resources. It was impolitic, financially, to receive immigrants coldly and treat them with suspicion. To this was added the perception, partly from European history and partly from the observation and instinctive good sense of Americans, that foreigners who came as permanent settlers identified their interests with the home of their adoption.

The crowded population of European states, the monopoly of wealth, influence and station by hereditary transmission, the difficulty for the lower classes of improving their future, the burden of taxation and of conscription into the vast armies there maintained, made them feel like prisoners unbound and set free in America. Their first, and usually their only thought, for a series of years, was to get them a home, to surround it with comfort, and to provide a future for their families. During these years they became familiarized with American life and institutions, their children grew up as Americans, became imbued with the temper and spirit of natives and were, usually, fully prepared to assume the duties of citizens when the burdens of mature life fell on them.

America was so much an ideal country to their imaginations before they arrived, and the opportunities they found were really so great, that they adjusted themselves to Amer

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ican ideas very readily. Had they been required to assist in founding and shaping the form of institutions their want of experience and development must have had very unhappy results. But Americans, almost unassisted, had done this already; the work had become mature and all the tendencies settled before any large number of foreigners came. They . were then too small in number to disturb the mighty current of American destiny as Anglo-Americans had settled it; they could only be carried along with it and this was to a future so promising that they did not wish to interfere with it. The prospect was almost as bright as anything they could dream. The European peasant, who had nothing but his strong arm and his habits of labor, and who had known no prospect of anything in life but to labor incessantly for a mere pittance, while others were enriched by his toil, found here a chance to labor for himself, to secure a home and farm of his own that should richly reward his patient industry; he was an equal among the free; he could educate his children; if they had gifts of mind and ambition for honors and place they had an equal chance with others. It was impossible that they should not enter as heartily into the spirit spread like an atmosphere about them as the habits of their early lives would permit. Their children caught the strong impulses of a free society and grew up true Americans. Those who came with education, or with property, found in them the means of entering on a new and high career of brilliant possibilities. Besides, the latent spirit of the Angles, the Saxons and Normans, which the despotic and aristocratic governments of Europe had suppressed in their races for ages, now woke into life. The ancient relationship of life and blood told. The steady industry of the parents engaged the approval of the thrifty American farmers and the sympathies of ancient blood relationship awoke in the children. The branches of the old race, long separated, reunited easily.

There was also a liberalizing influence in immigration.

Nations that live apart and often have, or think they have, contrary interests, on which wars are founded and misconceptions arise, learn to think ill of each other. Patriotism requires them, they think, to hate other races in order to be true to their own. To live in close contact with foreigners, with the same evident interests, is to enlarge patriotism, to learn that virtue and worth are of no country or kindred. It is a lesson which, well learned, elevates and ennobles a people, makes them high minded and just in international relations, and secures them respect, honor and much profit.

This liberal appreciation was learned when numerous representatives of many nations mingled freely with Americans in relations such as to bring out all their virtues. The ideas, the habits, the mental tone and different mode of viewing the same subjects, brought out in amicable intercourse or public discussion, opened a wider mental field to the intelligent, appreciative American. The more numerous the various points from which the same thing is regarded the more completely just and accurate is the final judgment concerning it. The mental breadth of America gained by immigration.

The circumstances were favorable for a fusion of the foreign qualities and for casting them in the native mould. Neighborhood, social and political life embraced all the various elements; there being no strong causes to maintain separation, and many to introduce intimate union, they mingled and brought a result differing in various ways from either of the constituents combining. Where two or more races can so unite, on terms not too unequal, it is an advantage to both. The union of races has been one of the most important elements of progress known to civilization. Physical and mental vigor are improved; the blood is made richer; thought is enlarged; a new genius, or mental element, is produced. So the hardy, bold Northman gained by contact with the vivacity and light temper of France. His solid qualities took on a brilliant polish. Conquering Saxon England, both Saxons and Normans were