JV 6451 CS UC-NRLF SB 27D E31 IMMIGRATION INTO Till; UNITED STATES. i; y i I:SSK <;ii 1C K i; i; BOSTON . CHABLfS C, LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN ,S4. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 184H, BY JESSE CHICKERING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court in the District of Massacliuaetta Hewes & Waison'a Print., GO Congress St. FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. THE subject of the Immigration of Foreigners into the United States has of late particularly engaged the atten- tion of a large portion of the community. In fact, for a long time, its importance has not been overlooked nor regarded with indifference. This country was settled by European immigrants, in the beginning flf Ibe sevrnUM-mh century; and from time to time additions have been made, for over two centuries. It would he difficult to trace the steps of these adventurers, and to si io\v distinctly and specifically the localities of their abiding influence during most of this period. It is obvious, however, that it is owing to them and their descendants, united with the riches of the soil, that this country has become what it is. It was natural that few restraints should be put upon the coming of those, whose circumstances induced them to seek a dwelling for themselves and their children in a country different from that of their birth. Those who had arrived welcomed others to join them in the wilderness; and local causes in Europe have always at times operated to induce its inhabitants to emigrate; and particularly has this last been the case since the establishment of the Amer- ican government in 1789. From that date, liberal encour- agement has been constantly given, in various ways, to those of other countries, to settle within our widely ex- tended territory. After a few years residence here, they have it in their power to become citizens and owners of real estate, and thus to be entitled to nearly all the priy- 1 M139325 2 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. ileges of those whose fathers achieved our national inde- pendence. It was proper to have shown a liberal policy towards foreigners, to have sympathised with them in their wants and sufferings, and to a certain extent to have encouraged their settlement on our soil. It is proper that those who possess this abundance of soil and of natural resources, should be disposed to share it with others who are less favored by nature. But while such encouragement has been properly given, the question has presented itself to- some, whether we have not given too great encourage- ment? These foreigners have been educated under influ- ences very different from those in our country ; and when mixed with our citizens, and forming an integral part of our population, are likely essentially to modify the social and political character of the mass of our people, and the character of our institutions and laws. In this essay, we propose to inquire into the number of foreigners who have settled in the United States, especially since 1820, and to make some suggestions in relation to the effects of such immigration upon our country. An act passed Congress, March 2, 1819, "regulating passenger ships and vessels," by which the collectors of the several custom-houses were required to make quarterly returns, to the secretary of state, of the number of passen- gers from foreign countries arriving in the collection dis- tricts. Pursuant to that act, the returns have been annu- ally reported to Congress by the secretary of state, and published in the executive documents. These returns are imperfect. There are omissions in the printed reports for whole quarters, during which it is reasonable to suppose some passengers have arrived. For example, for the 4th quarter, ending Dec. 31, 1832, in the printed report of the secretary of state, there is no return of a single passenger arriving in any district of the country; in 1830 there was OFFICIAL RETURNS. 3 no return from New York ; in 1823 none from Philadel- phia; and in 1831 and 1832, none from Charleston; besides these, there are omissions of returns for quarters for the districts of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston and New Orleans. The omissions for Boston and New York have been mostly supplied by information from the custom-houses there. In these returns, the number of passengers arriving in each collection district, the sex, the age, the occupation, and the country where they were born, are required by law to be specified. The only particulars, however, which can be depended upon for much accuracy, are the number, tfac sex and the country : but tin* specification of these par- ticulars is fafofcct \V- propose here to speak of the md mutitnj, merely remarking that the number of the males has been considerably larger than that of the females, apparently in the proportion of about three to two. ( if the whol> number of passengers arriving at the several ports, a portion are specified as "born in the United States;" the rest are presumed to be foreigners, and to come here with a view to live and die here. A small por- tion, it is true, return to foreign countries, having come here for business or for travel, or having been disappointed in their expectations of bettering their condition in this country. The omissions in these returns are confidently believed to amount to many more than the number of those who leave our shores and go to other countries. It appears that the number of foreign passengers arriving at New York, during the nine months, commencing Oct. 1, 1845 and Oct. 1, 1846, as shown by the books of the health officer, and for whom bonds were given,* was greater by nearly 11 per cent, in the last period, than the number registered at the custom-house. *See Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, Vol. XVII., p. 311. FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. HEALTH OFFICE 4th quarter in 1845 12,567....In 184622,663 1st 1846 5,360.... " 1847 9,882 2d " . " 184641,624.... " 184774,310 59,551 106,855 CUSTOM-HOUSE 4th quarter in 1845 12,407....In 184622,005 1st " " 1846 5,027.... " 1847 8,707 2d 184641,407.... 184766,095 Difference, Besides the foreign passengers who arrive in the collec- tion districts, and are reported at the custom-houses, many are landed elsewhere, or pass into the states directly from Canada and Nova Scotia, without being so reported. What the number of these last is, it is impossible to tell. Vari- ous opinions are entertained upon the subject, making it range from 25 to 50 per cent, of the number registered at the custom-houses. In ordinary years, we may suppose that 50 per cent, is to be added to the number returned by the collectors, in order to obtain the probable number of foreign emigrants who have settled in the United States. In extraordinary years, as in 1846 and 1847, when unusu- ally large numbers of emigrants came over from Europe on account of the scarcity of bread-stuifs and for other causes, this proportion to be added to those registered, may not have been so great as 50 per cent. In Table I. are exhibited the number of foreign passen- gers who arrived at the several ports of the United States, and are registered at the custom-houses, for each year, beginning July 1, and ending June 30, for a period of 26 years, from Oct. 1, 1820 to Sept. 30, 1846, distinguishing those arriving in the free states from those arriving in the slave states. The whole number for these 26 years, registered at the custom-houses, and reported in the congressional docu- NUMBER OF FOREIGN PASSENGERS. 5 ments, with a few additions explained in the next para- graph, has been 1,354,305, of whom 1,085,477, or 8015 per cent., arrived in the free states, and only 268,828, or 19-85 per cent., arrived in the slave states; that is, in the proportion of four to one nearly. In this table, the number for the 4th quarter of 1832 and 1834, for Boston, for the 3d and 4th quarters of 1829, for the 1st and 2d of 1830, for the 3d of 1831, and for the 2d, 3d and 4th of 1832, for New York, have been respectively obtained at those custom-houses. The registry of New York does not discriminate the place of birth of the pas- sengers for the above eight quarters ; and in this and the following tables, the whole number is adopted as that of foreigners. The 8,353 for the 3d quarter of 1830, are added, in order to make up 30,224 foreigners who landed in New York during the year ending Sept. 30, 1830,* the record for that quarter, and also for the 4th quarter of 1830, being lost. *SM Bu*t>, Merchant*' Magazine, Vol. VIIL, p. 169. 6 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. TABLE I. Exhibiting the Number of Foreign Passengers that arrived in the United States, and are Registered at the Custom- Houses, for each year, begin- TEARS. MAINE. N. H. MASSACHUSETTS. | 1 lib ! 51 ll M a 1 i j i | 1| A I 7 i 4) 3 s 13 7 5 1 I o b . *! 18 27 14 17 2 7 -^ j>> 1 1820-21 1821-22 1822-23 1823-24 1824-25- 1825-26 1826-27 1827-28 1828-29 1829-30 1830-31 1831-32 1832-33 1833-34 1834-35 1835-36 1836-37 1837-38 1838-39 1839-40 1840-41 1841-42 1842-43 1843-44 1844-45 1845-46 1846 3d q. 54 373 57 5 28 760 728 55 1,512 1,662 1,038 4081 1.653 2^33 2,370 1,770 2,070 1,859 3,795 2,305 3,340 2,763 4,912 2,259 37 21 5 66 209 20 25 42 28 13 31 44 13 109 11 2 28 46 340 1,342 79 39 67 21 676 88 "l21 40 109 2 3 1 5 54 9 7 45 37 . 16 54 1 36 2 18 2 19 14 1 2 1 3 2 37 19 49 209 262 6 27 4 521 703 573 420 530 515 1,086 1,197 1,775 1,143 1,217 1,241 2,269 2,951 2,162 2,815 2,976 2,272 1,769 2,906 5,070 7,447 4,786 4,020 8,298 10,567 3,975 33 - 3 29 4 " 66 229 67 27 41 19 - - - 1 " - 4 18 6 3 5 1 4 1 28 26 3 5 - - m 6 3 4 6 - 3 5 - 26 years, 42,282 129 3,543 6 75 98 54 714 75,204 33,59 10 133 76 449 RECAPITULATION. 1820-25 484 58 324 5 6882 . 57 2,747 33 20 . 76 36 389 1825-30 1,521 71 101 _ 7 . . 35 5,716 . 5 . 10 . 60 1830-35 8,348 . 196 . m 16 54 7 9,840 _ 28 5 6 34 . 1835-40 10,696 . 1,867 . . . . 39 12,738 . 3 . 37 . - 1840-45 14,062 _ 906 1 . _ _ 545 29,621 . 3 5 4 6 . 24 3-4 yrs., 35,111 129 3.394 67598 54 683 60.662 33 59 10 133 76 449 1820-30 2,005 129 425 57582 . 92 8,463 33 25 . 86 36 449 1830-40 19,044 . 2,063 -|16 54 46 22,578 31 5 43 34 . 1820-40 21,049 129 2,488 5 75 98 54 138 31,041 33 56 5 129 70 449 1835-45 24,758 . 2,773 1 . . _ 584 42,359 . 6 5 41 6 . Deduct H q. 2,506 - 1,478 - - - - 2 3,924 - 3 - 28 - - 23 1-2 yrs. 22,252 . 1,295 1 m . . 582 38,435 . 3 5 13 6 . Add 5 qrs. 7,171 149 31 14 542 Oct. 1, 1836-46. 29,423 - 1,444 1 - - - 613 52,977 - 3 5 13 6 - NUMBER OF FOREIGN PASSENGERS. rung July 1, and ending June 30, for 26 years from October 1, 1820 to Sep- tember 30, 1840, distinguishing the Free from the Slave States. MASSACHUSETTS. R. ISLAND. CONNECTICUT. NEW YORK. a 1 i | 1 jj 1 J j d ~v e 1 & S j |i fc JK a s fc fc 2 i I 1 . . , 3 i 7 31 2,304 , . . 6 4 18 5 21 12 134 3,143 ( 13 368 . 1 . . 45 6 11 4 2ti 9 , 3,144 , . . . 5 5 28 . 64 56 . 4,080 . , 29 . 2 1 . 7 8 10 1 34 5 . 5,103 . . 79 . . 17 122 13 6 64 . . 5,688 , . , . 1 . 6 4 11 2 59 8 , 6,563 , . * 17,592 . , 2 7 , 9 1 . 11 2 ' 14,338 ' 19 18,400 t 5 . 111 19" 93 12,412 . 15 . 12 3 5 44 . , 28,189 68 . . 70 . . 19 8 . 62 38,490 , . 15 22 . 36 103 17 *8 82 80 , 44,085 112 , . 42 2 . 23 12 33 1 43 3 . 35,520 . . . 20 . 127 1 13 26 , 49 13 , 46,859 , . 4 37 35 2 94 3 38 15 , 52,169 t , 24 . . . 27 23 5 , 22 1 , 32,387 , , 46 7 5 . . 28 2 , 1 . 32,317 . . . 39 8 . . . 29 35 30 3 . 55,365 , , . 14 . , , 12 8 _ 24 3 54,741 , . 67 14 1 , t 19 26 4 t 68,438 ( , 25 10 1 . . 22 5 23 . 48,371 . 8 19 . 43 3 4 28 , , 52,969 ( , 12 2 . . 119 ; 1 26 , . 67,460 . . 36 27 4 . . 120 2 t t 91,118 ( . 27 37 39,098 345 355 14 228 376 779 192 32 878 370 134 880.343 180 13 397 RECAPITULATION. . 3 1 66 24 67 17 171 : 82 134 17,774 13 397 80 2 7 23 135 24 8 153 10 62,581 . . 57 114 _ 59 257 61 14 264 238 158,696 180 , 113 30 187 71 163 33 , 219,097 . . 112 5'. 2 i 215 16 5 127 7 291,979 , , 282 32810 228 376 622 192 30 878 370 134 750,127 180 13 397 . 7 89 159 91 25 324 92 134 80,355 13 397 170 186 221 287 248 85 427 271 377,793 180 170 5 228 376 407 176 25 751 363 134 458,148 180 13 397 131 7 102 30 402 87 5 290 40 , 511,076 , , 35 159 1 28 29 78 27 66,255 225 96 7 ~~3~29 374 ~~58 5 212 13 444,821 288 27 123 4 11 3 29 157 531 58 fe 71 217 13 ~ 130,216 575,037 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. TABLE I. Continued. YEARS. N. JERS'Y. PENN. FREE STATES. DEL. MARYL'D VIRGINIA. N. a Perth Am- boy. Newark. ,s a, 1 '2 m d % j Norfolk & Portsmth. t3 5 Petersburg. 1 1 | Washing'n 1820-21 1821-22 1822-23 1823-24 1824-25 1825-26 1826-27 1827-28 1828-29 1829-30 1830-31 1831-32 1832-33 1833-34 1834-35 1835-36 1836-37 1837-38 1838-39 1839-40 1840-41 1841-42 1842-43 1843-44 1844-45 1845-46 1846 3d q. 88 105 ' 74 528 53 494 2,832 2,174 1 833 1,060 752 468 957 1,658 2,204 3,457 2,602 1,045 1,500 4,071 3,492 4,773 2,176 1,646 2,309 3,619 1,780 4,721 3,117 3,266 2,421 3,562 5,299 5,942 2,897 4,088 5,761 4,982 5,650 6,805 8^35 18,114 22,246 19,663 21,362 15,623 35,760 46,230 53,370 44,158 54,088 64,691 43,003 37,794 65,313 64,898 83,892 58,272 64,258 84,110 112,795 48,406 *65 439 203 188 471 787 1,404 286 18 24 5 646 499 707 378 852 1,068 1,163 1,772 1,507 1,960 4,531 5,092 6,558 6,959 5,065 4,255 5,254 7,087 4,896 6,627 5,818 4,194 4,662 3,601 6,000 8,662 4,986 44 166 36 108 73 95 96 55 56 680 198 535 100 110 118 146 145 36 15 90 161 29 3 6 14 9 38 3 17 3 1 46 l 5 2 16 4 4 2 9 5 146 147 4 1 1 5 6 187 . 5 3 26 years, 6,348 1 71,627ll,085,477 3,890 105,799 3124 552 4 46 48 11 RECAPITULATION. 1820-25 88 4,070 27,286 3,082 427 59 4 46 7 1825-30 105 10,966 81,620 65 7,470 982 . 26 1830-35 655 16,012 195,141 439 28,205 1061 14 . , 1835-40 5,500 1 14,075 264,889 862 28,119 432 293 . . 6 11 1840-45 . , 17,665 355,340 2,519 25,275 199 187 . 5 t 24 3-4 yrs., 6,348 1 62,788 924,276 3.885 92,151 3101 553 4 46 44 11 1820-30 193 . 15,036 108,906 65 10,552 1409 59 4 46 33 , 1830-40 6,155 1 30,087 460,030 1,301 56,324 1493 307 . 6 11 1820-40 6,348 1 45,123 568,936 1,366 66,876 2902 366 4 46 39 11 1835-45 5,500 1 31,740 620,229 3,381 53,394 631 480 11 11 Deduct 5 q. 494 1 2,924 77,972 6,274 146 116 4 5 23 1-2 yrs. 5,006 28,816 542,257 3,381 47,120 485 334 7 6 Add 5 qrs. 8,839 161,201 5 13,648 23 3 Oct. 1, 1836-46. 5,006 37,655 703,458 3,386 60,768 508 334 . 10 f> NUMBER OK FOREIGN PASSENGERS. TABLE I. Continued. s. c. GA. LOUIS'A. ALA. FLORIDA. TEX. D. C. SLATE STATES. UNITED STATES. 1 4 i I t c a I ^ j .2 ^ ^0 c o> c d J ! | o i o B j gl 1 1 z, % < w 6 h H 685 116 281 _ . _ 132 1,905 5,993 415 63 . 23 . . 34 12 1,5(58 7,329 15 . 13 . . 35 1,767 6,749 78 . 6 . . 62 . 1,438 7,088 301 11 224 . 121 . . 145 _ 1,727 8,532 171 - 555 . . . . 11 . 1,916 10,151 8 . . . . 14 . 2,304 12,418 . . . . . 86 . 3,868 26,114 - . . . . . 24,459 168 . 2,378 . . . . _ 5,791 27,153 . . . . . . 23,074 . - 216 . . 89 . 9,527 45,287 124 . 3,489 . . . 46 . 10,317 56,547 . . . . . 110 . 11,908 65,335 - . . . . 55 . 8,741 52,899 448 . 3,356 . . . 25 . 8,385 62,473 280 . . m 184 m lu _ 13,392 78,083 404 . 8,339 . . 131 m 18 m 16,360 59,363 . 8,691 . . 67 . 15 _ 14,369 52,163 . 11.17.-. . . 1 . 22 . 18,833 84,146 231 . 10,415 . . 15 . 179 _ 18,606 83,504 . 11,353 . . 14 . 98 . 17,305 101,107 38 . 11,864 . 23 . 11 a 16,887 75,159 304 . 6,331 . . 71 . 13 . 10,349 74,607 . 11,681 . . 81 . 13 . 18,305 102,415 311 . 24,870 . . 29 354 5 . 34,256 147,051 110 - 1,568 12 - 15 - 6,700 55,106 6,935 228 144,938 216 628 354 1,880 12 268,828 1,354,305 RECAPITULATION. 1,824 2,153 . 163 . _ 408 12 8,405 35.691 1,030 8 8,414 . . . . 680 . 18,675 100,295 . 17,216 _ . _ 374 . 48,001 243,142 . 39,073 . . 383 . 84 . 71,339 336,228 1,105 . 61,644 . m 204 . 314 . 81,452 436,792 6,511 228 118,500 216 163 587 _ 1,860 12 227.872 1,152,148 2,854 228 10,567 .. 163 . 1,088 12 27^080 135,986 2,552 . 56,289 216 . 383 . '458 . 119,340 579,370 228 66,856 216 163 383 - 1,546 12 146,420 715,356 3,181 _ 90,717 . _ 587 . 398 . 152,791 773,020 - 4,178 - - - - 31 - 11,278 89,250 2,687 . 86.539 . . 587 . 367 . 141,513 683,770 - 26,438 - - 41 354 20 - 40,956 202,157 3,111 . 112,977 . . 628 354 387 . 182,469 885,927 10 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. The whole number of foreigners registered at the cus- tom-houses, and reported to Congress, during these 26 years, is 1,354,305, of whom 880,343, or 65-00 per cent, of the whole arrived at New York ; 144,938, or 1070 per cent., at New Orleans ; 105,799, or 7-81 per cent., at Balti- more; 75,204, or 5-55 per cent., at Boston; 71,627, or 5-28 per cent,, at Philadelphia. Total in these five places, 1,277,911, or 94-35 per cent. The number of passengers from foreign countries, arriv- ing at the different ports of the United States, may be regarded as very fully representing the comparative amount of the commercial intercourse of these places with foreign countries. It is obvious that the number of foreign immigrants reg- istered has very much increased during the 26 years. In the five quiquennial periods, it has successively averaged per annum 7,138, 20,209, 48,628, 67,245 and 87,358. In the first 10 years from Oct. 1, 1820 to Sept. 30, 1830, it was 148,356; and in the last 10 years from Oct. 1. 1836 to Sept. 30, 1846, 885,927, or nearly six times as great. Considering the large number who have arrived in 1846 and 1847, the number will amount to very near 1,000,000 registered during the 10 years, ending June 30, 1847, as will appear by the following : The whole number registered in the 10 years from Oct. 1, 1836 to Sept. 30, 1846, was - - 885,927 From which deduct for the 3 quarters from Oct. 1, 1836 to June 30, 1837, - - - 51,306 And we have for 9 1-4 years, ..... 834,621 To which add the number for the 3 quarters from Oct. 1, 1846 to June 30, 1847, registered at Boston, - - 12,527 " at New York, - 96,807 109,334 Add also the number registered at the other custom-houses, INCREASE OF FOREIGN PASSENGERS. 11 during the 3 quarters, estimated according to their pro- portion for 26 previous years, (as 955,547 : 398,958 : : 109,334 :) - 45,626 154,960 And we have for the 10 years from July I, 1837 to June 30, 1847, 989,581 or 10,419 less than 1,000,000. But if we take the period of 10 years from Oct. 1, 1837 to Sept. 30, 1847, the number will considerably exceed a million, the number having been much increased in the last few years, and especially in 1847. If to the whole number of foreigners registered for 26 years, 1,354,305 we add the estimated number for 3 quarters, ... 154,960 We have i j .-ars, - - 1,509,265 From which deduct for 3 quarters from Oct. 1, 1820 to June 30, 1821, - - 5,993 And we hare for 26 years, prior to July 1, 1847, - 1,503,272 1 net 1621- 7,329 And we have for the 25 years, prior to July 1, 1847, 1,495,943 The number for the 25 years prior to Oct. 1, 1847, would be considerably more than a million and a half. In the next table (II.) it will be seen that there has been a great difference in the number of those that arrived in the several quarters, that in the 2d quarter, ending June 30, being the greatest, and that in the 1st quarter, ending March 31, being the least. It will also be seen, that a little less than half (45*08 per cent.) of the whole number, arrived in the first half of the year. 12 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. TABLE II. Exhibiting the Number of Foreign Passengers arriving in the Uni- ted States, and registered at the Custom-Houses, for each Quarter, for 26 years Jrom Oct. 1, 1820 to Sept. 30, 1846. YEARS. 3d Quarter. 4th Quarter. 1st Quarter. 2d Quarter. TOTAL. 1820-21 1821-22 1822-23 1823-24 1824-25 1825-26 1826-27 1827-28 1828-29 1829-30 1830-31 1831-32 1832-33 1833-34 1834-35 1835-36 1836-37 1837-38 1838-39 1839-40 1840-41 1841-42 1842-43 1843-44 1844-45 1845-46 1846 (1 qr.) 3,236 2,792 2,352 2,929 2,612 1,906 1,630 1,794 1,611 1,717 408 827 738 615 1,664 1,779 1,500 2,204 3,377 5,993 7,329 6,749 7,088 8,532 4,100 4,407 10,772 11,877 9,297 1,852 2,314 4,209 3,876 5,181 795 1,230 2,107 1,620 1,996 3,422 4,467 9,026 7,086 10,679 10,151 12,418 26,114 24,459 27,153 12,368 11,390 25,877 25,411 26,013 2,176 5,579 7,174 9,413 9,163 1,773 5,818 2,935 2,738 2,107 6,757 22,500 20,561 27,773 15,617 23,074 45,287 56,547 65,335 52,899 19,523 26,777 32,021 13,618 26,457 8,227 15 ; 420 10,138 10,475 15,982 3,365 6,447 3 ; 706 4,589 6,317 31,358 29,439 13,498 23,481 35,390 62,473 78,083 59,363 52,163 84,146 31,728 25,449 32,280 25,868 33,516 12,971 17,581 15,649 8,699 17,401 5,809 6,503 4,212 4,921 8,588 32,996 51,574 23,018 35,119 42,910 83,504 101,107 75,159 74,607 102,415 47,237 55,106 28,339 10,770 60,705 147,051 55,106 RE CAPITULATION 1820-25 11,309 9,553 4,305 10,524 35,691 1825-30 40,453 17,432 7,730 34,680 100,295 1830-35 101,059 33,504 15,371 93,208 243,142 1835-40 118,396 60,242 24,424 133,166 336,228 1840-45 148,841 72,301 30,033 185,617 436,792 1845-46 102,343 28,339 10,770 60,705 202,157 1820-30 51,762 26,985 12,035 45,204 135,986 1830-40 219,455 93,746 39,795 226,374 579,370 1840-46 251,184 100,640 40,803 246,322 638,949 1820-46 522,401 221,371 92,633 517,900 1,354,305 Proportion, 38-57 16-35 6-84 38-24 100- PROPORTION OF FOREIGNERS TO THE WHOLE INCREASE. 13 In the next table (HI.) we propose to show the propor- tion which foreigners constitute of the increase of the pop- it la /ion of the United States. The first column shows the years; the second, the number of persons in the United States for 1820, 1830 and 1840, according to the censuses of those years, the number for the intermediate years, on the supposition of a uniform rate of increase during each year of a decade of years, and the number after 1840, on the supposition of the rate continuing as it averaged the It) preceding years; the third, the average amount per annum of the increase of population ; the fourth, the number of foreign passengers registered at the custom- houses, that is, passengers, exclusive of those born in the I'nitrd States; thejifth, half the number of foreign passen- gers, which half are presumed to have arrived " elsewhere;" the sixth, the " total" of those in the fourth and fifth col- umns ; and the seventh and eighth, the proportion of the l( total" foreigners to the whole increase of the population from 1820 to 1846. The years comprehending the number of foreigners in the fourth, fifth and sixth columns, begin July 1 and end June 30, a point of time one month before August 1, when the census of 1820 was taken, and one month later than June 1, when those of 1830 and 1840 were taken. July 1, for the commencement of the year, seemed to be a point of time best adapted to the purposes of the comparison. 14 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. TABLE TIL Exhibiting the Proportion of Foreign Immigrants to the Increase of the Population of the United States. FOREIGN PASSENGERS. YEARS. Population. Average An* nual Increase. Custom- house Elsewhere. Total. Per ct. Proportion. 1820-21 9,638,191 282,465 5,993 2,9964 8,9894 3-18 1 to 31-43 1821-22 9,920,656 290,743 7,329 3,6644 10,9934 7-78 26-45 1822-23 10,211,399 299,264 6,749 3,3744 10,1234 3-38 29-57 1823-24 10,510,663 308,035 7,088 3,544 10,632 3-45 28-98 1824-25 10,818,698 317,062 8,532 4,266 12,798 4-03 24-78 1825-26 11,135,760 326,354 10,151 5,0754 15,2264 4-66 21-46 1826-27 11.462,114 335,919 12,418 6,209 18,627 5-54 18-04 1827-28 11,798,033 345,763 26,114 13,057 39,171 11-32 8-83 1828-29 12,143,796 355,897 24,459 12,2294 36,6884 10-30 9-71 1829-30 12,499,693 366,327 27,153 13,5764 40,7294 11-11 900 1830-31 12,866,020 368,914 23,074 11,537 34,611 938 10-66 1831-32 13,234,934 379,491 45,287 22,6434 67,8304 17-90 5-59 1832-33 13,614,425 390,373 56,547 28,2734 84,8204 21-72 4-61 1833-34 14,004,798 401,565 65,335 32,6674 98,0024 24-40 4-10 1834-35 14,406,363 413,082 52,899 26,4894 79,3884 19-21 521 1835-36 14,819,445 424,925 62,473 31,2364 93,7094 22-05 4-54 1836-37 15,244,370 437,109 78,083 39.0414 117,1244 26-79 3-74 1837-38 15,681,479 449,642 59,363 29,6814 89,0444 19-80 5-05 1838-39 16,131,121 462,535 52,163 26,0814 78,2444 16-91 5-92 1839-40 16,593,656 475,798 84,146 42,073 126,219 26-52 3-77 1840-41 17,069,454 489,441 83.504 41,752 125,256 25-59 3-91 1841-42 17,558,895 503,474 10l',107 50,5534 151,6604 30-12 3-32 1842-43 18,062,369 517,911 75,159 37,5794 112,738* 21-76 4-60 1843-44 18,580,280 532,761 74,607 37,3034 111,9104 21-05 4-77 1844-15 1845-46 19,113,041 19,661,078 548,037 563,752 102,415 147,051 51,2074 73,5254 153,6224 220,5764 28-03 39-12 3-57 2-56 1846 3d qr. - - 55,106 27,553 82,659 - - Total 26 ys. - - 1,354,305 677,15242,031,4574 - - - RC APITUL ATION 1820-25 51,099,607 1,497,569 35,691 17,8454 53,5364 3-57 1 to 27 -98 1825-30 59,039,396 1,730,260 100,295 50,1474 150,4424 8-69 11-51 1830-35 68,126,540 1,953,425 243,142 121,571 364,753 18-67 5-36 1835-40 78,470,071 2,250,009 336,228 168,114 504,342 22-41 4-47 1840-45 90,384,039 2,591,624 436,792 218,396 655,188 25-28 3-96 1845-46 19,661,078 563,752 147,051 73,5254 220,5764 39-12 2-56 1820-30 110,139,003 3,227,829 135,986 67,993 203,979 6-31 1 to 15-83 1830-40 146,596,611 4,203,434 579,370 289,685 869,055 20-67 4-84 1840-46 110,045,117 3,155,376 583,843 29L92U 875,7644 27-75 3-63 PROPORTION OF FOREIGNERS TO THE WHOLE INCREASE. 15 It will be seen by inspecting this table, that the number of foreign immigrants annually registered at the custom- houses, has been very unequal, but in general it has been steadily increasing from year to year since 1820. Their proportion per annum to the whole increase of the popula- tion of the country, has, according to the table, increased over twelve fold during the 26 years of the series, or from 3*18 to 30-1'J /icr r/>nt. The first year, however, embraced only throe (Barters, and the proportion since 1840 is based on the supposition that the average rate of the increase of the population has continued the same as it was during the 10 years before. ^ < apprehend that the registry of the custom-houses during the lo years from 1820 to 1830, was very imper- .uid of eoiirs.- little to he depended upon, for, besides tin 1 liability of very imperfect registration in the first few I, in a matter of this kind, there is much reason to believe. as \vill hereafter be shown, that the number of jners, as collected by individuals interested in the sub- ject,* amounted to over 30,000 in 1817 and in 1818, while that number was not officially registered till 1832. Neither can we depend upon the proportion of immi- grants to the whole increase since 1840, for we have no means of determining the average amount of increase per annum from 1840 to 1846, there having been no census of the population of the United States taken since 1840. We kno\v, however, that the number of immigrants has very much increased during the last few years. There is much reason for believing that the number will amount to 300,000 for the year from Oct. 1, 1846 to Sept. 30, 1847, which is not embraced in the table. The conclusion we come to is, that the second decade of years from 1830 to 1840, pre- sents the safest ground for a just comparison. We have, *See Appendix. 16 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. however, carried out the proportion to 1846, in order to exhibit the influence which immigration has been exerting of late years in swelling the numbers of our population. As the official registry is undoubtedly very imperfect, and as it is well known that large numbers come into the states by Canada, Nova Scotia and elsewhere, without being reported and registered at the custom-houses, we have added 50 per cent, to the number registered, on account of omissions in the registry, in order to obtain the whole number. If the reader thinks this addition too large, it will be easy for him to assume a less addition, or to follow the official account itself. The whole increase of the population of the United States in the first decade, embracing 9 years and 10 months only, from Aug. 1, 1820 to June 1, 1830, was 3,227,829, of whom the estimated number of foreigners immigrating during the period was 203,979, including 135,986 registered at the custom-houses, and 50 per cent, or 67,993 more coming into the states elsewhere. These being deducted from the whole increase, we have 3,023,850 as the increase by birth. to be distributed among the people in the country in 1820, and the foreigners immigrating during the period, both parties being presumed to be equally prolific. These two classes of population are very nearly equivalent to (110,139,003 + 203,979) 110,342,982 for one year. We make this proportion : as the whole population, 110,342,982, is to the whole increase by birth, 3,023,850, so is the aggre- gate of foreign immigrants, 203,979, to their increase by birth, 5,590, which, deducted from 3,023,850, leave 3,018,260 as the increase by birth in 10 years from 1820, of those who were in the country in 1820. These 5,590, added to 203,979, make 209,569 as the amount of increase in consequence of the immigration of foreigners in these 10 years, which is 6*49 per cent, of the ivhole increase, or 1 to 15-64 of it. COMPARATIVE INCREASE OF FOREIGNERS. 17 The whole increase in 10 years, from 1820, was 3,227,829, or 33-48 per cent., but the natural increase in 10 years of tin- 9,638,191 in the country in 1820, was, according to the above view, 3,018,260, or 31-31 per cent, of 9,638,191, and the increase in consequence of foreign immigration 209,569, or 2-17 per rent, of that number. These two sums amount to 33*48 per cent. By comparing this result with what we shall find in relation to the increase in the next 10 years, we are led to the belief that the official registration of for- ti _;// if/i nil L: rd/t/.- < nj murk too small for the period ftni l^-jo in I^:;u. and are confirmed in the opinion that //// r< L'ixtnii'ntn from- 1830 to 1840 is much more to be l>< nil rii u/ton. In the 10 years from lS)o to IS 10. the number of foreign iininiirrants was more than four times, and the pro/toriion of their wholi- increase more than three times what it was in I'Mv.lmir 10 years. The number in the table was N.'.H >">. after deducting which from 4,203,434, the whole increase, there remain 3,3: 1 1.37'. as the increase by birth, to }>< distributed among the people in the country in 1830. and the foreign immigrants. We make an approximation to this distribution by means of the following proportion: as (lir> : :,%,611+86\) ? or>r,==) 147,465,666: 3,334,379:: 869,055 : 19,650, the estimated natural increase of the for- eign immigrants after their arrival and before 1840. This number being deducted from 3,334,379, there remain 3,31 1,729 as the increase by birth, or the natural increase during this decade of those in the country in 1830. If we add 19,650 to 869,055, we have 888,705 as this decennial increase arising from foreign immigration, which is more than a fifth part of the whole increase, and more than a quarter of that of those in the country in 1830. The in- crease of 3,314,729 in 10 years, among a population of 12,866,020, is 25-763431, &c. per cent. The whole increase from 1830 to 1840, was 4,203,434, 3 18 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. or 32 -67 per cent. ; but the natural increase in the 10 years, of the 12,866,020 in the country in 1830, was 3,314,729, or 25-76 per cent., to which if we add the increase of 888,705, in consequence of foreign immigration, or 6*90 per cent., we have 32 W per cent. Here is a difference of (31-31 25-75=) 5-56 per cent, in the natural increase of the population of the country, in two successive periods of 10 years each, which seems very extraordinary, and for which there does not appear any adequate cause without ascribing it to a foreign source. If we deduct from the increase of 6*90 per cent., arising from foreign immigration in the second decade, 2-17 per cent., the amount in the first decade, we have 4-73 per cent, of 9,638,191, or 456/178, which being added to 209,569, amount to 665,747 for the first decade, and this last sum bears the same proportion to 9,638,191, the whole population in 1820, that 888,705, the increase from foreign immigration in the second decade, does to 12,866,020, the whole population in 1830. But properly the comparison should be made with the white population of the United States only, as the immi- grants of whom we are speaking are of this class, there having been, it is presumed, very few if any colored per- sons introduced into the country during the last 10 years. The increase of the whites from 1830 to 1840, was from 10,537,378 to 14,195,866, or 3,658,428, from which deduct 888,705, and we have 2,769,723 for the amount in the 10 years, or 26-284745, &c. per cent. At the rate of increase of 25-76, &c. per cent, in 10 years, the population would be doubled in a little more than 30 years, and at the rate of 26-28, &c. per cent., in a little less time, while for the 50 years from 1790 to 1840, the average time of the actual duplication of the whole population of the United States, has been a little more than 23 years and 7 months, or more exactly, 23-5938, &c. years, which is about 7 years less time than it would have been without the aid of foreign immigration. FOREIGNERS COMPARED WITH THE WHITE POPULATION. 19 The actual increase of the white population of the United States, from 1830 to 1840, was, as just stated, 3,658,428, or 3471 per cent. ; of the free states 2,686,546, or 39-06 per cent., and of the slave states 971,882, or 26-54 cnt., being greater than the natural increase, averaging through the United States, by S'43, 12-78 and -26 per cent. respectively, and showing a great difference between the two sections of the country. This difference has arisen partly from the greater foreign immigration into the free will appear on reference to Table I., the amount tin re being as 4 to 1, and the proportion as 2 to 1 nearly in favor of the free states. The whole number of foreign immigrants registered at the custom- houses of the United States, in 10 years from July 1, 1830 to June 30, 1840, was - - 579,370 Add 50 per cent, on account of omissions, - - - 289,685 I increase of foreign immigrants, - - 19,650 Total, - 888,705 Of whom the number of immigrants that entered the FREE STATES SLAVE STATES was .... 460,030 119,340 Add 50 per cent. - 230,015 59,670 Proportion of their natural increase, 15,602 4,048 Total, - 705,647 183,058 After deducting 705,647 from 2,686,546, the whole in- crease of the whites in the free states, we have remaining 1,980,899, which is 28-806303, Differences, iviirii Population in U. 8. - 1800. 1 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 967,567 237,996 363,001 426.83S 458,415 494,392 5:39,031 678,906 624,342 665,647 6SO,714 731,073 788,449 840,611 888,705 267,567 700.997 -^0,111 67,190 1,379.645 51,261 2,407,928 +8,443 3,929,552 +7,400 307,678 763,187 1,430,906 2.: $99, 4 "5 3,922,152 There is a remarkable agreement between these results and the censuses of the United States. The rate of 26-28, r rent, is a very little too large for the result in 1830 and 1840. At the preceding dates, the numbers from for- I'iiru immiirration are less than the estimated numbers from this source, as appears in the line of differences; from which it seems that the proportional increase of the whole white population of the United States was greater in the first two decennial periods than in the last two. It should, however, be observed, that some have supposed that the census of 1790 was more defective than the subsequent 22 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. ones, on account of the reluctance with which the people furnished the facts to the agents of the government. But when we consider the rate of increase, according to the censuses, from 1790 to 1800, was less than from 1800 to 1810, we may dismiss this idea of there having been com- paratively great defects as to the number of persons in the first census. The whole increase of the white population of the Uni- ted States from 1830 to 1840, was 3,658,428, of whom 888,705, as above estimated, consisted of immigrant for- eigners during the decade and their children, or 24-29 per cent, of the whole number. From what has been said, we are inclined to the following as a nearer approximation to the numbers and proportions since 1790, than has just been given : Increase of the whites. Total rht. popul. Foreign immigration from 1790 to 1800, includ- ing the immigrants and their children, from their arrival to the next census, - - - 307,678 27-18 7-14 Their natural increase at the rate of 26-28, &c. per cent, in 10 years, 80,872 Foreign immigration as above, from 1800 to 1810, 379,637 24-36 Foreign population in 1810, .... 768,187 - . 13-10 Their natural increase at the above rate, in 10 years, - 201,916 Foreign immigration as above, from 1810 to 1820, 460,803 23-04 Foreign population in 1820, - . - 1,430,906 - - 18-20 Their natural increase at the above rate, in 10 years, --.-___. 376,110 Foreign immigration as above, from 1820 to 1 83 > - 592,469 22-04 Foreign population in 1830, - - - 2,399,485 - - 22-77 Their natural increase at the above rate, in 10 years, 630,699 Foreign immigration as above, from 1830 to 184 ; -------- 891,968 24-32 Foreign population in 1840, - - - 3,922,152 - - 27-62 Proportion per cent, of the Foreigners to the FOREIGN IMMIGRATION SINCE 1790. 23 This result for the foreign immigration from 1830 to , including the immigrants and their children after their arrival to June 1, 1840, considerably exceeds the ag- gregate of those registered at the custom-houses^ and the addition of 50 per cent. We feel sure from this result, that the number of persons arriving here and becoming resi- dents in this country, during these 10 years, cannot much fall short of being 50 per cent, greater than that registered at the custom-houses ; neither can it be much less than the above a J.'>3779, << states and 183,730 to the slave states. After deducting 708,238 from 2,686,546, the whole increase of the whites in the free states, we have 1,978,308, or 28-768611, . 10 years. The difference between /li< s< ttro rates of increase is 7*238863, &c. per cent. The operation of these rates in the two divisions will be seen in the next table: TABLE IV. Exhibiting the, White Population of the United States, according to the Six Censuses, rcith their Decennial Increase, at the rate of 28-76, fyc. per cent, in the Free States, and of 21-52, fa.per cent, in the Slave States, together tcith the estimated Number arising from Foreign Immigration. 1. FREE STATES. 1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. Census Population with Increase, 1,901,016 1,901,046 2,601,125 2,447,951 3,653,219 3,152,193 5,030,499 4,059,035 6,876,620 5,226,763 9,563,166 6,730,430 Foroicm Population, 15.-J.174 501,026 971,464 1.649,857 2,a32,736 2. SLAVS STATES. Census, . Population with Increase, 1,271,488 1,271,4** 1,702,930 1,545,236 2,208,785 1,877,922 2,831,495 2,282,234 3,660,758 2,773,593 4,632,640 3,370,741 - 157,774 330,863 34 311 549,261 41 698 887,165 50 676 1,261,899 61 591 Florida, .... 157,744 396,552 507,563 836,489 18,385 1,200,308 22,343 Foreign Population in the States, Do. in the Free States, . ; ; 157,744 153,174 296,552 501,026 507,563 971,464 818,104 1,649.857 1.177,965 2,832,736 Do. in the United States, Differences, . - 310,918 12,757 797,578 26,910 1,479,027 43,416 2,467,961 60,550 4.010,701 76,028 Amount, at the Rate of 26-25, &c. per cent. . . 298,661 770.668 1,435.611 2,407,411 3.934,673 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. It will be seen by this table that the foreign immigration into the slave states, which at the other dates was much less, was greater than that into the free states, during the first 10 years. This has arisen probably from large num- bers having gone from the free states to the slave states. However that may be, the white population of Georgia, Tennesse and Kentucky was increased nearly 150 per cent. during this term. It will be perceived that, according to this table, there are differences between the aggregate of the estimated for- eign population in the two divisions, and the estimated amount in the whole country, arising from the different rates of increase for the two portions of the population. In consequence of the different mode in which the process is conducted, contrary to what was done with the differen- ces on page 20, where they were added, they are here to be deducted from the two divisions, according to the respec- tive numbers in those divisions at the several dates, as fol- lows : Free States, ... Proportion of the Differences, deduct Total in the Free States, . Slave States, Proportion of the Differences, deduct Total in the Slave States, - Total in the Free States, - Total in the United States, 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 153,174 6,038 501,026 16,904 971,464 23,517 1,649,857 40,478 2,832,736 53,698 147,136 157,744 6,219 484,123 296,552 10,006 942,947 507,563 14,899 1,609,379 818,104 20,072 2,779,038 1,177,965 22,330 151,525 147,136 286,546 484,122 492,664 942,947 798,032 1,609,379 1,155,635 2,779,038 298,661 770,668 1,435,611 2,407,411 3,934,673 According to this last table, the free states received from foreign immigration during the 50 years, an accession of 2,777,038 persons, or 146-18, &c. per cent, of 1,901,046 out of 403-04 per cent.; the slave states 1,155,635, or 90-88, &c. per cent, of 1,271,488 out of 264-34 per cent. ; and the United States 3,934,673, or 124-02, &c. per cent, of 3,172,- 534 out of 347-45 per cent., the whole white increase, there NATURAL INCREASE OF THE WHITE POPULATION. 29 remaining for the native white increase in them respective- Iv. -r.r.-Sfi, 173-46 and 223-43 percent, during the period. This 26-25, &c. per cent, for the average rate of natural increase of the white population of the United States in 10 years, being about 7 per cent, less than the actual rate, as appears in the censuses, may appear to some to be too small ; but its justness is rather confirmed by considering the actual increase of the population of England, com- posed as it is very much of the same stock as a large ma- jority <>f our countrymen. The increase of the population of Kii'jlaml for the four decennial periods beginning in 1^1. \\-assuccessively 14 , 17J, 16 and Ity per cent., and tin iv is reason for believing the number to have been diminished by emigration* at least 1J per cent, in the last decennial period, so that we may consider 16 per cent, in In \vars as a lair rate for the natural increase of the popu- lation in England. This is 10 per cent, less than it is in the s. There are causes which make an import- ant difference between the two countries, as the very limited extent of territory, the great poverty of very large num- the calls for the army and navy, and to unhealthy climates, which must materially check the increase of pop- ulation in England. If the people of the United States and of England were placed in the same circumstances, or in circumstances equally favorable to increase, we may presume that the increase would be substantially the same. If 26-25. &c. per cent, be the average rate of the natural increase in 10 years of the white population, we do not perceive how the conclusion is to be avoided that the nat- ural increase, in consequence of foreign immigration, from 1? ( .H) to 1840, was nearly four millions, and to the present time (1S1?) nearly five millions. There is doubtless a very small variation in the rate of increase in the several *See Enumeration Abstract, Part I., p. 11, London, 1843. 30 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. decennial periods ; but it is probably too small to be of any important value, arid may be neglected. The greater den- sity of the population in the later periods is likely rather to diminish the rate, but social causes we may presume have counteracted that tendency, and may perhaps be sufficient even to increase the rate, so that we may without material error consider the rate uniform through the five periods. The greater density of the population in such countries as England or France, compared with the United States, would have an important influence on the increase of pop- ulation. The whole number from foreign immigration from 1790 to 1840, according to our estimate, has been 3,934,673, or 124-02, &c. per cent, of 3,172,534, the whole number of the whites in 1790. It amounts to 27*71 per cent, of the whites in 1840. If to this foreign population we add the increase of the colored population in the 50 years, 2,116,285, consisting of 326,827 free colored, and 1,789,458 slaves, we have an aggregate of 6,050,958 of increase in the half century, two thirds of whom are an increase of white per- sons from a foreign source, and who may be considered as most determinately opposed to slavery, and the remaining third are either born slaves or born to a degraded condition through life among the whites, and whenever they come to a knowledge of their degradation, will set their whole force against it, and be sure of the hearty cooperation of the first two thirds. Assuming the above rates for the average decennial increase of the white population of the United States, and of the two divisions of the states, we may easily make an approximation to the number of persons there would be by natural increase in any portion of the states, for one or more of the periods since 1790, and estimate the probable num- ber of immigrants into, or emigrants from the states. We here propose to do this in respct to the six New England INCREASE IN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK. 31 s, and to Massachusetts and New York separately. The result will appear in the next table : TABLE V. Exhibiting the Increase of the Write Population, according to the Censuses, and by Natural Increase, at tht rate of 28-76, $-c. per cent, in 10 years, in New England^ in Massachusetts and in New York. 1790 Increase in 10 yean, . 1800 lucream in 10 yean, . 1*10 Increase in 10 years, . 1820, . . Increase in 10 yean, . 1830 NBW ENGLAND. MASSACHUSETTS. NBW YORK. Census. Nal. Incr. Census. Nat. Incr. Census. Nat. Incr. mjm 821,407 373,324 43,069 373,324 107,400 314,142 241,897 314,142 90,374 1,214,25* 237,727 416,393 480,724 48,910 666,030 809,600 404,516 116,374 1,451,9% L,4Mae 473,613 465,303 51,244 619,022 178,084 918,699 414,045 520,890 149,853 1,688,643 a.no.-w toym 516.547 86,812 797,106 229,316 1,332.744 540,919 670,743 1'.I2.%:J i '.:n :n- *,7W ;rtii 785,314 603,359 1,026,422 1,873,663 505,227 863,706 248,477 Increase in 10 yean, . . Amu according to Cen. more or lew thrm the Censuses, . IV urcfnt.. mjm 2,212,166 3,515,074 729,031 1,321,709 729,031 2,378,890 1,112,183 1,112,183 +1,309.90* 131-22 +592.678 15*75 -1,266.707 403-22 It will be seen that the increase in Massachusetts and in England, according to the censuses, has been very much less than it would have been had the population remained without emigrating to other places, while in New York the case has been far different during the 50 years. The natural increase of the whites at the rate of 28-76, &<-. />cr rent, in 10 years, has amounted to 254-038420, &c. - ///. in 50 years, and would give to New England, in 1840, 3,515,074, instead of which the census shows only 2,212,166, and the remainder, 1,302,908, amounting to 131-22, &c. per cent., consists of those who have emi- grated, and their descendants. In Massachusetts, the nat- ural increase would have given to it a white population of I.:ttl.7n9 in 1840, instead of only 729,031, according to the us : and the difference, amounting to 592,678, or 158-75, &c. per cent., consist of emigrants during the time from the 32 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. state, and of their descendants. These results show the remarkably migratory character of the New Englanders. On the other hand, New York had, according to the cen- sus, a white population of 2,378,890 instead of 1,112,183 only, which the natural increase would have given it in 1840. The following table will show the number of white per- sons there would have been in each of the New England states and in New York in 1840, by natural increase alone from 1790, from which it appears that the actual increase of the white population of these seven states ac- cording to the censuses, was less by 36,201, or 2'76 per cent, than the amount by natural increase at the rate of 28-76, &c. per cent. : TABLE VI. STATES. Census, 1790. Increase in 50 years. Census, 1840. Natural Increase. Amount. Per cent. 96,002 141,111 373,324 64,689 232,581 85,144 404,436 142,925 355,707 40,898 69,275 206,074 421-27 101-28 95-28 63-22 29-78 242-02 500,438 284,036 729,031 105,587 301,856 291,218 339,884 499,587 1,321,709 229,024 823,427 301,443 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, . New England, New York, 992,8511,219,315 314,1422,064,748 122'80 657-26 2,212,166 2,378,890 3,515,074 1,112,183 4,627,257 1,306,993,3,284,063 251-76 4,591,056 In what we have said of the number of white persons in the New England states and in New York, according to the censuses and by natural increase, we have left out of the account the foreigners who have come into these seven states, and their children, whose aggregate must have been, according to the preceding calculations, at least two millions of the nearly four millions. Many of these for- eigners merely passed through these states, and those that remained only increase the number of immigrants, and take the place of the native population or of those with their nat- EMIGRATION FROM NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK. 33 ural increase who were in these states in 1790; and thus we must increase the number of these last who have emigra- ted to other states, especially from New England. For iplc, if we suppose the number of persons arising from foreign immigration into Massachusetts from 1790 to 1840, to bear the same proportion to the whole number arising from the same cause in the United States, that it had to the whole number in the 26 years from October 1, 1820 to September 30, IS 16, it would amount to 224,528, which is nearly 5-71 (Tahle VIII.) of 3,934,673. If we add this amount from immi'jration to the ."><)2,678, (Table V.) we have 817,206 instead of - for the number of the white population who have emigrated from Massachusetts fiom nd helped to increase the population here, most of whom have probably gone to New York and farther west. It is well known that large numbers of neis have during these 50 years come into Massachu- and the other New Midland states, and have perma- nently remained m them with their children. It is well known that large numbers of persons have, from year to year, during the />n years, emigrated from the New I In -land states to New York and the states beyond. .Many emigrated from Massachusetts to Vermont and to .Maine, which in 1.790 were comparatively a wilderness. Maine is the only state in New England whose population increased more than at the rate of 28-76, &c. per cent, in ID years. In Connecticut, with a small territory, the increase, according to the censuses, has been the least of any of the six New England states, and of course there must have been, as is well known, a large emigration from it. and we must add from Rhode Island also. In Massachu- setts, some of the towns whose boundary lines remained unchanged, lost population, or gained very few during the half century. In this state, some 80 or 90 towns lost population from 1S20 to 1840, and even from 1830 to 5 34 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. 1840.* In New Hampshire, from 1830 to 1840, a few manufacturing towns gained more inhabitants than the aggregate increase in all the towns; of course, many towns must have lost population. In Vermont, the population, with the aid of Massachusetts emigrants, and from other sources, increased the most of any of the New England states, except Maine, and nearly retained the numbers aris- ing from the above rate of increase, though many emigra- ted from it westward. In fact emigrants have gone from the New England states not merely to New York, but to every state in the Union. They have from time to time joined with many from New York, to people the new countries far to the west and to the south, so that numbers of them are to be found in very many of the large towns and cities of the states that have been settled and organized since 1790. When Ohio was settled, and for a series of years afterwards, emigrants in great numbers left New England and found a home there, and now, with their descendants, compose a large portion of that flourishing commonwealth, modifying its civil in- stitutions and forming the character of its inhabitants. As the emigrants have from year to year gone from the older states, and especially from New England arid New York, they have carried with them the hardy enterprise, the industrious habits, the intelligence and the institutions to be found in those parts of the country they have left, and transplanted them in the new states which they have adopted for their future homes. Their numbers have been such as to secure a controlling influence wherever they have gone. This current of emigration, flowing from almost every town and city, has continued without inter- ruption for more than half a century, and conveyed to the west whatever improvements may have been discovered or *See "A Statistical Vieic of the Population of Massachusetts from 1765 to 1840," pp. 50, 51. FOREIGNERS BY BIRTH IN NKW ENGLAND AND NKW YORK. 35 adopted in tlie older parts of the country. The emigrants have left behind them relatives and friends, who remember them for years with a kind interest : and thus they i-, r then the bonds of union between distant parts of a common country. Their places are occupied to some ex- tent by emigrants from foreign countries. By the enter- prise they inspire, by the character they form, by the insti- tutions they establish, in the new states, besides strengthen- in L r the bonds of the national union, they still represent the states they have left, and tin- An do- American race, in the <:ontrolliii intlnence they exert in the atl'airs of the nation. As to the niinil 'ills who now remain in New England and New Vo/7'. we have no means of determining with accuracy. Hut it is stated in the census of Huston in 1M.V that :!7,289, or of a pop- ulation of II 1. :;r,r> m that year, consisted of foreigners by birth and their children, and of the remainder, about one third only were horn in Boston, and the. other third emi- grated from the other parts of the United States. It ap- pears also that nearly the same proportion of foreigners, including their children, belonged to Roxbury in the same year. Large numbers are known to reside in Charlestown, Cambridge, Lowell, and other large towns. The number in Boston at the present time, considering the amount of immi'jiation since 1845, is probably very near r>n.i)ni); and we may fairly conclude that this foreign population in the commonwealth. 11'.' 136 65 4 251 34 J7 278,517 6 195 5,827 58 61 1 181 37 3 90 29 - 343,012 - - 5,014 82 58 10 - 180 24 3 58 9 - 367,901 - - 4,520 40 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. TABLE VII. Continued. PENN. FREE STATES. DEL. MARYL'D VIRGINIA. YEARS. 75 - bfl | *$ 1 1 tJ 1 I 1 1 If 1(2 1 1 1 1820-21 415 1,727 _ 374 26 . . . 1821-22 540 2,815 - 311 41 20 1 29 1822-23 429 2,654 . 343 11 2 1 1823-24 252 2,615 . 157 53 12 . . 1824-25 561 4,142 - 609 61 - - - 1825-26 1,409 6,151 . 954 68 - - - 1826-27 1,626 6,633 . 951 2 - . . 1827-28 2,961 16,248 . 828 11 - - . 1828-29 1,809 15,018 . 805 38 - - - 1829-30 467 12,087 - 1,250 480 - - - 1830-31 1,321 10,510 . 1,768 30 10 - . 1831-32 2,752 21,686 - 855 160 55 - - 1832-33 2,317 26,192 . 482 80 _ - - 1833-34 4,379 26,286 439 712 81 - - - 1834-35 1,747 27.783 . 152 43 - - - 1835-36 1,441 40,209 . 238 113 . - - 1836-37 2,116 41,018 . 358 106 - - - 1837-38 3,014 24,821 203 121 21 . . - 1838-39 1,289 26,012 188 301 9 - . - 1839-40 3,908 38,229 471 460 89 - - - 1840-41 2,322 42,200 787 333 . - - - 1841-42 2.694 66,735 1,404 597 . . - - 1842-43 1,707 40,424 286 253 1 - - - 1843-44 3,103 42,099 5 973 4 . - - 1844-45 4,543 57,605 1 266 . . - - 1845-46 4,856 69,615 . 200 13 _ . - 1846 3d q 2,425 23,787 - 342 6 - - - Total 26 ys. 56,403 695,301 3,784 14,993 1,547 99 2 29 RECAPITULATION. 1820-25 1825-30 1830-35 1835-40 1840-45 1845-46 25 3-4 yrs., 3 3-4 yrs., 22 years, 1824-46 1820-30 1830-40 1820-40 1835-45 Oct. 1. 1836-46 97 13,953 _ 1,794 192 34 2 29 72 56,137 . 4,788 599 - - - 16 112,457 439 3,969 394 65 . - 68 170,289 862 1,478 338 - - - 69 249,063 2,483 2,422 5 - - - 81 93,402 . 542 19 . - - 03 695,301 3,784 14,993 1,547 99 2 29 99 10,760 - 1,347 144 34 2 29 04 684,541 3,784 13,646 1,403 65 - - 69 70,090 _ 6,582 791 34 2 29 84 282,746 1,301 5,447 732 65 - - '53 352,836 1,301 12,029 1,523 99 2 29 37 419,352 3,345 3,900 343 - - - J09 457,866 3,345 4,061 249 - - - IMMIGRANTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM. 41 TABLE VII Continued. N. CARO. S. C. GA. LOUI'A ALA FLOR. D. C. SLAVE STATES. UNITED STATES. 1 I j J | 4 1 J J < 4 1 I 1 1 IB I 1 1 1 1 1 1 _ 428 88 M . 66 _ 1,967 2,794 . . 211 56 . 29 12 759 3,574 . . 183 11 182 . 15 748 3,402 2 . 13 . 39 . 4M 3,021 . . 230 20 . 21 . 94? 5,089 . . . 82 . 10 . 1,216 1 . 121 8 154 . 8 . 1,248 7,881 2 m . 117 . 86 . 1,199 17,447 1 . IS] . 117 , 29 . 1,111 . . Dl . 536 . 2,526 14,613 . . 103 . . 65 _ 2,204 . . . . 10 66 . 1,515 23,201 . . . 130 33 . 761 26,953 . . 1 12 . , 66 . 1,837 . B . 192 . _ Mi 28,227 . . 253 . 11 851 41,060 . . 100 . 703 21 10 . 1,298 42,316 . . _ 750 . 22 3 f . . . 652 . 6 6 . 1,378 27,390 . . B 1,099 , . 6 . 2,^)1 40,530 . . 1,549 14 143 . 2,897 45,097 . . 68 , 2,985 . . 75 . 5,129 72,864 . . 3 . 2.731 1 9 . 3,284 43,708 . , 37 . 1,402 - 58 8 . 2,437 44,586 . . 11 t 1,596 20 1 . 1,925 59,530 . . 3,377 . 16 1 . 3,663 73,278 - - - 110 - 15 - 473 24,260 7 2 3,051 175 19,666 ! 10 158 1,382 12 44,917 740,218 RECAPITULATION 3 1,080 167 444 B 170 12 3,927 17,880 4 . 563 8 669 . . 669 7,300 63,437 . 283 1,346 10 . 255 . 6,761 119,218 _ 849 . 3,457 m 49 36 , 7,071 177,360 _ _ 10,263 . 93 236 . 15,722 264,785 m _ _ 3,487 . 16 16 . 4,136 97,538 7 L 1 3,051 175 uu-,r,h 10 158 1,382 12 44,917 740,218 3 858 161 430 - 153 12 3,173 13,933 4 2 2,193 14 19,236 10 158 1,229 - 41,744 726,285 7 m 1,643 175 1,113 m _ 839 12 11,227 81,317 . 2 1,132 4,803 10 49 291 . 13,832 296,578 7 2 2,775 175 5,916 10 49 1,130 12 25,059 377,895 - 2 1,069 - 13,720 - 142 272 - 22,793 442,145 - - 874 - 16,951 - 158 271 - 25,909 483,775 42 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. According to this table, 740,218 persons, born in the United Kingdom, were registered at the custom-houses of the United States in the 26 years from Oct. 1, 1820 to Sept. 30, 1846, constituting 54-65 per cent, of all the for- eign passengers. The number of British passengers would have been increased by including in it those who were born in the British possessions. The foreign immigration, it is obvious, is derived mainly from the British empire; and this is not surprising, for this country was mostly populated by persons of the same stock in the early periods of its history. A community of lan- guage and a general similarity of manners, diminish in a great degree the inconveniences and sufferings to which the people of other countries would be exposed by emi- grating to the United States. Besides the British subjects who have emigrated to the United States, a large portion of the foreign immigrants, apparently about one quarter of the whole number, dur- ing the 26 years, have come from Germany, and have very much continued the use of their native language, and adhered to their former customs, without mingling much with the people of this country. It was observed (p. 5) that, of the whole number of for- eign passengers registered at the custom-houses, more than four fifths arrived in the free states, and less than one fifth in the slave states. It will be seen by inspecting Tables VII. and VIII., that the proportion of the immigrants from the United Kingdom is four times greater ; in other words, of the whole number 740,218, 695,301 or 93-93 per cent. arrived in the free states, and only 44,917 or 6-07 per cent. in the slave states ; that is, the proportion is over fifteen in the free ito one in the slave states. We may suppose as a general rule, that the immigrants in the main do finally locate themselves in those divisions of the states in which they first land, and there spend their days. PROPORTION OF FOREIGN PASSENGERS IN THE STATES. TABLE Vm.Exkti&ing the Wtole Number of Foreign Passengers, and the i>>er from the United Kingdom, arriving in the United States, and registered at the Custom-Homes in each State, for 26 years from Oct. 1, 18120 to Sept. 30, 1846, together irith the Proportion in each State of the estimated nhole Foreign Population, 3,934,673, from 1790 to 1840, according to the registered Arri- vals, distinguishing the Free from the Slave States. 1. FREE STATES. STATES. fetal ftmUfo P.I.S. seagerd. Diffbren- Mfc Passengers from the United Kingdom. Proportion. Amount. Per ct. Amount. Per ct. - New Hampshire, Massachusetts, - Kindle Nlaiul, - Coinu-cticut, New England Stales, - ua, - Free States, 46,187 77,282 3-41 05 5-71 10 17,870 121 27,603 957 28,317 49,679 425 :: 82 08 0-71 nl 134,188 2,074 4,015 367,719 2,559,382 18,446 208,098 880,933 71,627 9 i 327,174 553,759 5,828 LO-71 390,176 695,301 93-93(3,153,645 2. SLAVE STATES. - 3,890 106 3,784 51 11,302 .Maryland, 105,799 7-81 90,806 2-03 307,379 nil, - 3,726 2,049 23 10,825 North Carolina, 59 00 50 171 South Carolina, 6,935 51 3,884 3,051 411] 20,148 i. - 02 53 175 LoiiiMuna, 14 !.'.> 10-70 421,090 :ia. - 02 206 10 . 628 Florida, - 633 158 02 2,298 . ' - 03 354 . . 1,028 District of Columbia, - 1,892 1 1 498 1,394 19 5,497 Slave States, 268, 223,911 44,917 6-07 781,028 Free States, 1,085,477 80-15 390,176 695,301 93-93 3,153,645 United States, - 1,354,305 100-00 614,087 740,218 100-00 3,934,673 This table is designed to exhibit a summary view of the amount of population added to the United States in conse- quence of foreign immigration, from 1700 to 1840, so far as the custom-house records show it, and the proportion there 44 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. would have been of this population in each of the states. It is reasonable to suppose that the proportion approximates very nearly to the truth in respect to the number that enter and pass through such states as New York, Massachusetts and Maine. It will be seen that this addition of foreign population in 50 years exceeds by 762,149 the whole white population of the United States, and by 4,776 the whole population, in- cluding 697,897 slaves, seven years after the peace of 1783. Of this foreign population added to the United States in 50 years from 1790, 2,586,404, or 65-70 per cent., are estimated to be immigrants, and 1,348,269 the descendants of those who had come into the country in 50 years, and were enu- merated in the last five censuses. If to the 740,218 British immigrants from the United Kingdom, we add 50 per cent., or 370,109, on account of those who come elsewhere than through the custom-houses, (and there is strong reason for making this addition, con- sidering that most of those who come into the states by other ways than by being registered at the custom-houses are likely to be British subjects,) we have 1,110,327 as coming from the United Kingdom, and this number is cer- tainly not too large if we include those from the British colonies and dependencies. This number is nearly one half of 2,586,404, the estimated whole number of foreign im- migrants. But this number includes the British immigrants from 1820 to 1846. The number registered at the custom- houses from 1820 to 1840 was 377,895, to which if we add 50 per cent., we have 566,842 for 20 years, or two fifths of the 50 years. At the same rate for the whole period the number would be 1,417,106, or more than half of 2,586,404. The whole number of foreign immigrants registered at the custom-houses, during the 21 years from July 1, 1825 to June 30, 1846, as deduced from Table I. is 1,263,508, of whom 698,098 are specified in Table VII. as born in the IMMIGRATION FROM CANADA. 45 United Kingdom. This last number exceeds by 69.927 only the 628,171 registered in the United Kingdom from 1825 to l v r> inclusive, and whose destination on leaving the king- dom was declared to be for the United States. This very near agreement of the two registries made for different purposes, and 3000 miles apart, confirms the general cor- rectness of both. According to the British registry,* the whole number of emigrants who left the kingdom in these 21 years was 1,359,476, of whom 583,189 were destined for tin; North American colonies, 628,171 for the United Stat- .'."> for the Australian colonies and New Zea- land, and l>.]:jl for all other places. It should 1 that returns from collectors have litvn reei-ivrd in>m the Atlantic cities only, with ely an exception ; none have been nrcived from Ver- mont nor from the northern and western parts of New York, and farther west, a portion of the country bordering on the Canada line more than a thousand miles, and over which line the emigrants are continually passing and re- IIL r . The numhcr registered at the custom-houses of the Uni- >iates. during the 10 years from July 1, 1830 to June 30, 1^1. as horn in the United Kingdom, was 296,578, and the number registered in (ireat Britain on leaving the kingdom from ls:U to IS 10 inclusive, whose destination for the I'nited States, was 308,247, or 11,669 more. This near agreement, as before, is remarkable, and con- firms the general correctness of both registers. According to the census of Upper Canada, its population in is 12 was .".( if,, i i.V). f of whom 40,684 were born in En- gland. 7-vJ.V) in Ireland, 39,781 in Scotland, making a total of 158,720 born in the United Kingdom, 247,665 in *See McCuIloch's Descriptive and Statistical Account of the British Empire, Vol. II., p. 536. London, 1847. tSee Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, Vol. IX., p. 186. 46 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. Canada of British origin, 13,969 in Canada of French ori- gin, 6,681 on the continent of Europe, and 32,838 in the United States. The whole number whose birth-place is specified is 459,873, besides 46,182 not specified. There are also mentioned 7,596 foreigners not naturalized. The population in 1831 was 296,544, and the increase in 11 years 209,509, or 70*65 per cent., which averages per an- num nearly twice the average increase in the United States, and shows a considerable amount of immigration into that country. According to the census, the population of Lower Cana- da in 1844 was 693,649 ; of whom there were natives of French origin 518,565, of British origin 85,075, of En- gland 11,886, of Ireland 44,002, of Scotland 13,341, of continental Europe 2,353, and of the United States 11,943, making 687,165, and leaving 6,484 whose nativity is not specified.* The population in 1831 was 501,438, and the increase in 13 years 192,211, or 3S-33per cent. The annual average was less than half of that in the upper province. The population of Upper Canada are most of British origin, while those of Lower Canada are mostly of French origin. This is probably the principal reason why most of the British emigrants go to the upper province. Most of the people of Upper Canada are Protestants, there being in 1842 only 65,202 Catholics, or an eighth part, while in Lower Canada the number of Catholics was 571,714, or more than four fifths of the whole population. " When in 1763 the country was ceded to Great Britain, the whole of it, then constituting the province of Quebec, contained only a population of about 70,000, all of whom, with a very few exceptions merely, were the decendants of Frenchmen. "f During our Revolutionary struggle many *See American Almanac for 1846, p. 303. tSee Encyclopaedia Americana, Vol. XIV., p. 148. IMMIGRATION FROM CANADA. 47 left the states and fled- to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, &c. and never returned, and their descendants now constitute a la mo number of their inhabitants.* In K'.il. the country, upon the recommendation of Mr. Pitt, was divided into the provinces of Upper and Lower ( 'an- ada. In 181)0, their united population was only 270,718.f The two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were uni- ted under one legislature, by an act of the British Parlia- ment in IMn. At the present tin,.' (IM7) the airinv-ale population nf these t\vo provinces cannot be less than thir- or fourteen hundred thousand, indicating an increase of some .~>nn JUT << nt. in 11 y The Britisl. det to retain pos- >!i if ( ',; 10 induce niiii.sh 8u1 then- have granted many privileges to the inhabitants. In the census of i in 1^ 1 1. it tfl bat there 1^1.111 tjuainifd roten at Elections for members of Parliament. This- - >n of the ri'jht of suU'raiie amounts 'i' the population, and is nearly inn- and a. in /'/ jH'uhnlily i.t anir*noj>- <>f /lir United States, It is about the same as it is the white population of the slave states, and about *^.l jtt-r cent. /(<> than it is amoiiL^ the white population of the free states. J Of the whole number of electors, 76,032 of families and proprietors of real estate. -pulation of Upper Canada, in 1831, was - - 2'. natural increase to have been 26 1-4 per cent, in 10 years, ami - l-l percent, in 1 year, which is very near the aver- "f the white population in the United States, its amount \v..uldbein 10 years, - - 77,843 Population in 1841, - - 374,387 Increase of the rate of 2 1-4 per cent, in 1 year, - - 8,424 Population with the natural increase in 1842, - 382,811 *See Ratine's American Loyalists, p. 67, Ac. t See Hunt'* Merchants' Magazine, Vol. X./p. 15. ' t's United Slates Commercial and Statistical Register, Vol. VI., p. 2^,. 48 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. Immigration in 11 years, Census of 1842, - - 506,055 After deducting from 123,244 one tenth, or 12,324, the increase from immigration in 10 years to 1841, would be 110,920. The population of Lower Canada, in 1831, was - - 501,428 Increase at the rate of 26 1-4 per cent, in 10 years, - - 131,625 Population in 1841, - Increase of 633,053 at the rate of 6 3-4 per cent, in 3 years, - 42,831 Population with the natural increase in 1844, Immigration in 13 years, - - - 17,765 Census of 1844, - - 693,649 After deducting from 17,765 three tenths, or 5,330, we have for the increase from immigration in 10 years to 1841, 12,435, to which we add 110,920, and have 123,355 as an approximation to the number in the two Canadas arising from immigration in the 10 years from 1831 to 1840 inclusive. Now, during these 10 years there were regis- tered in Great Britain, and destined for the British colonies in North America, 322,485, of whom only 123,355 seem to have remained in the two Canadas, and most of the re- mainder (199,130) may be presumed to have settled in the United States. These 199,130, added to the 579,370 who were registered at our custom-houses from 1830 to 1840, we have 778,500, a number less than 891,968 (p. 26) by 113,468 only. But if we take the 10 years from 1831 to 1841, we have registered at our custom-houses 639,800, to which by adding 199,130, we have 838,930, which is less than 891,968 by 53,038 only. During the 10 years from 1831 to 1840 inclusive, there arrived at Quebec and Mon- treal 249,776 emigrants,* or 126,421 more than seems to have been the increase of the two provinces from immigra- tion during the time. Moreover, we have supposed the * See Tables of the Revenue, Population, Commerc*, &c. of the United Kingdom and its Dependencies, Part XII. p. 255. 1842. London, 1844. IMMIGRATION FROM CANADA. 49 natural increase 2 per cent, per annum, while Lord Dur- ham* supposes that of Upper Canada to be "at least 3 per and says 5 t " no population has increased by mere births so rapidly as that of the French Canadians lias since the conquest." The difference of one quarter />cr IHT annum in tin* natural increase of the population, would in 10 years add at least 59,84!) to the amount in 1841, The census of Upper Canada, in 1^ \'L sho\vs 1:">S.720 to have been born in the United Kingdom, and that of Lmvor and the total, including !UM 1 horn on the continent of Km- It is lair to suppose that not more than half, or 118, 1'.'2. \vnv immi-jrants during the In yean from 1832 to 1*11 inclusive. On this suppo- sition not so many as ! nts dnriirj these s, out of :\'l->. 1*.") destined IMF the North American provinces, could have remained in the Canadafl in 1841. This view favors our conclusion that certainly not less than 60 OI 7i per ''///. re-emi-rateil from those provii If we suppose only I'.i9,130 immigrants into the United States from and through the ( 'anadas from 1831 to I inclusive, the proportion would he GT7 1 //. of the \\'i't. K"> destiuod tor the |'riti>h colonies in North America; if we add to the number .V.).s 19 on account of ?> prr rent. at. increase JUT (inniini. it would be '. The proportion of 199,130 is 7972 per cent. of '- l : ..77ii. tin 1 numher who are registered as having actu- ally arrived at Quohco and Montreal : and if we add to it the 59,8 l'< <>n account of the different estimate of the natu- ral increase, the proportion would be 103-08 per cent, of Jl'.i.7?<: in other words, the immigration from the Cana- das into the United States would be greater than that from Britain into those provinces during the 10 years. * See his Report on the Affairs of British North America, pp. 76, 77. f 1(1- P- 105. 7 50 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. From these considerations it is certainly safe to conclude with those referred to by Lord Durham in his report, that the proportion of the emigrants to the Canadas who actu- ally settle in the United States is at least (50 per cent, of the whole. The reason why these emigrants on their arrival in the British colonies in North America have not remained there, is the want of sufficient encouragement. The contrast between the provinces and the states leads them to expect better support for themselves and their children by re-emi- grating to the states. Lord Durham says,* "on the Amer- ican side all is bustle and activity." "On the British side of the line, with the exception of a few favored spots, where some approach to American prosperity is apparent, all seems waste and desolate. The ancient city of Montreal, which is naturally the commercial capital of the Canadas, will not bear the least comparison in any respect with Buf- falo, which is a creation of yesterday." The right of emigration, or of a removal from one coun- try to another for the purpose of a permanent residence, may be considered a natural right. As such it has been generally recognized in modern times in Europe as well as in the United States. The exercise of this right was inter- fered with in Prance by Louis XIV., when he endeavored to prevent the Protestants from leaving the kingdom. Im- pediments to the exercise of this right were placed in the way of manufacturers of wool, silk, iron, &c., and also in the way of exporting tools and utensils made use of in pre- paring and working up manufactures of the kingdom, by acts of the British Parliament in 1719, (5 Geo. L, cap. 27,) 1750, (23 Geo. II., cap. 13,) and 1782 (22 Geo. III., cap. 60.) These restraints, however, seem to have been but little regarded, and were removed in 1824, (5 Geo. IV., cap. 97.) *See his Report, p. 75. POLICY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 51 The British government, true to the policy of securing to the British nation the advantages of manufacturing and i>f ''ommerce, imposed these restraints for over a century, and then when, notwithstanding their vigilance, their me- chanics had found their way into other countries, they repealed acts which clashed with the spirit of English lib- erty. Those who emigrated, if they failed to return on being notified to do so. WT<> alienated and deprived of the riirht of holdiirj property by inheritance, and of being adminis- trators of estates. And those who instigated persons to run :ilm:id machinery, were subject to line ;md imprisonment. But notwithstanding all these pre- cautinns. a larLre number of mechanics, some under the assumed name of farmers, had contrived to leave the king- dom and com.- to liie United I -ind tools and utensils were transported; and thus the mechanic arts and manu- ! In re from 1815 to 1824. It is worthy of remark, that the very means which the British government adopted to secure to Great Britain, in preference to their own colonies, the advantages of maim- faetnriiiLr. had a reaction, and have produced the opposite Is to what were intended, and will doubtless in the end prove to be a short-sighted policy. The restraints ; act ion long before our Revolution, and com- pelled us to become ma'.mfacturers for the supply of our immediate wants: since then we have felt the importance of becoming more so. The second act of the Congress of the Tinted States, passed July 4, 1789, was entitled an t for laying a duty on goods, wares and merchandises imported into the United States." The interruptions to jn commerce before and during the second war with Knuland. indicated anew the importance of manufacturing, and the lesson was not unheeded; and after the second peace, the attempt was made in good earnest, and has been 52 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. attended with remarkable success. Had a different policy been pursued by the British Parliament, the manufactures in the United States might not have had one half the vari- ety, extent or value they now have, and the time of their successful competition with those of Great Britain, might have been postponed to a later day. The British government, very wisely and properly, from time to time, passed acts regulating passenger ships, in order to save the passengers from the sufferings and dis- tresses which might arise from inadequate provision for their comfortable support on their passage. It has been the policy of the British government for many years to encourage -emigration to their colonies. Their object has been to relieve the country of a portion of its surplus population, to settle the wild land of their colo- nies, and to build up communities which will afford a mar- ket for British manufactures. In the British colonies in North America,* owing very much to the injudicious system which has been adopted, most of the emigrants instead of being colonists have set- tled in the bordering states; but still a sufficient number have remained there, especially in Upper Canada, sensibly to increase the population above what it would have been by births alone. The British government have authorized the Poor Law Commissioners to aid poor persons in emigrating to the British colonies, and parishes and individuals have fur- nished means for the same object, so that large numbers have emigrated. The number to the respective colonies has varied considerably, according to the distress in the United Kingdom, and according to the state of affairs in the colonies. In 1838 and 1839 the number was very small in the provinces in North America, in consequence * See Lord Durham's Report. IMMIGRATION FROM EUROPE. 53 of the political disturbances of 1838. Since 1841, the number to the Australian colonies and New Zealand has }) 11 very much reduced. The current is now strongly set towards the United States and the British colonies in North America. During the last few years, since the communication has ]>eeii facilitated between the United States and Great Brit- ain. laru r e sums of money have been transmitted by immi- grants in tin- I'niird States and Canada, to enable their friends, particularly in Ireland, to enii-rate to this country and to ( 'anada. Of late the subject of i introduced into tin: British Parliament. A motion was made and agreed to in the House of Lords, on the 1th of June, 1817, for tin- appointment of a select committee on the subject of Irish em: In the remarks winch were made on the motion, a p<>Mtion was manifested favorable to the fur- ther Cement of emigration to the colonies, particu- larly those in North America.* On the continent of Europe there exists, we believe, no leual impediment to emigration. In France and in Ger- many the riiiht is secured by law. From the latter coun- try we have received a large number of immigrants, espe- cially of late years. If we can depend upon the newspa- latements. in some instances whole villages have left, am) in large bodies have made settlements in the United s, delighted with the possession of land which they can call their own. and stimulated in their frugal and in- dustrious habits by the prospect of enjoying in peace and quietness the fruits of their labor. A vast deal of anxiety, suffering, sickness and death has been the lot of these emigrants, before they have planted themselves in this country in a manner to be considered in *See WUiner 1 * European Mail, June 19, I?47. 54 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. any way comfortably situated. Often it has happened that whole families have perished before arriving at the place of their destination ; and generally we may suppose the chief advantage has accrued to their children, who either born in this new country or brought here when young, have not known the keen sensibility of being forever removed from the sight of father-land, and have only come into the en- joyment of what their parents spent their lives in procur- ing for them. But the sufferings attendant on immigration to America are believed to be now much less than they were in the early periods of its history. The facilities and safety of navigating the ocean have been vastly increased since the first settlement of the country. This continent and the European have, by the rapidity, frequency arid regularity of communication, been comparatively made one country. Now-a-days the European emigrants, as soon as they arrive at these shores, have stopping places filled with an abund- ance of the necessaries of life, and when want and sick- ness befall them, as is often the case, the charitable insti- tutions are opened to soothe their sufferings, and often the hand of individual charity is extended to them in a man- ner to touch their hearts with emotions of gratitude. But in the time of our fathers no white man welcomed their coming, no smiling villages cheered their hearts, and, as they advanced to the places of their settlement, they found nothing but a wilderness and wild beasts, and what was often worse than wild beasts the savages. And now the emigrant, if he plants himself down in the wild lands of America, has the conveniences of an easy transportation, and is furnished at every step of his path with an abund- ance flowing from a bountiful soil and laid up by an indus- trious and frugal people. We have not the means at hand of showing distinctly and exactly the comparative dis- tresses, but if the subject were fully inquired into, we IMMIGRATION FROM EUROPE. 55 no doubt but that the sufferings and mortality of im- migrant s to America are now very much less than they were formerly : and we regard this as one of the evidences of improvement in the condition of mankind. The government of the United States has never taken any measures directly to encourage foreigners to immigrate to this country. The principle of equality runs through all onr laws and institutions. The foreigner who comes :is chance of bettering his condition with the natives uf the land. Some have succeeded, notwithstund- \vhicli they have labored. If, ,ainin'_r IH-IV for a time, they signify a wish to make tins their ai..pt-d country, and declare their alle- giance, they are admitted to all the rights and privileges native citixcns. ! hte f tin- incidental results of commerce in inodcrn time.-. .iuiii/atif the last census, would amount to l!)..'iSS.3.'5-l June 1, 1847, exclusive of tin* effects of immigration ; the in- crease having been in the last of these year* \\(\r*Mr>. or one thousand per day. This increase is but ti little more than the aggregate number of foreigners who will prob- ably be i 1 at our custom-houses in 1817, and of tliosi- who entrr t!i-' itliout being registered. We are sale in supposing that the number of foreigners coming h'iv. is this year, and will be next year, NEARLY EQUAL TO THK i NATI UAL INCREASE oi THK WUoLK WHITE POPULA- TION OF THK rMTKI) STATES IN 1840. 1 1. Miles, in seven years and seven months, from June 1, IMo t December ;>1. 1 s 17. the number of immigrants reg- istered will probably be at least IMin.nOO. Supposing the number of white persons in the United States, on the 1st of January, 1848, to be 17,500,000, which is believed to be very near the number, and the number of foreign immigrants to equal the natural increase of this population at 2J percent, per annum; when will the immigrants and their descendants, at the same rate of increase, equal the number of white persons in the country January 1, 1848] We have already seen (p. 44) that in 50 years from 1790, the number from foreign immigration ded the whole number of the whites at the commence- ment of the period by 762,139. This foreign population in 26 years to January 1, 1874, will be 17,855,705, exceeding the number of the whites above supposed (17,500,000,) by 62 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. 355,705; and the white population, exclusive of this for- eign portion, will then be only 31,209,322. but including it, 49,065,027. We suggest this view merely to show the integral part which the foreign immigrants constitute of the whole population of the United States. We have thus arrived at a period in the history of for- eign immigration, when the number of foreigners coming here, one half of whom may be considered adults, nearly equals the whole natural increase of the white population of the United States. Such a mass of population annually diffused among these states, must, as they mingle with the people generally, or as they concentrate in cities, or settle in large numbers in particular localities, have most import- ant effects on the condition and character of the people. We have seen that in Boston and New York city about one third part of the population are foreigners by birth. The character of a nation results from the character of individ- uals, and is chiefly determined by the influences that pro- ceed from the central places. By the facilities of suffrage, the naturalized citizens must soon be sufficient to decide all elections and carry all measures on which side soever they may be induced to vote, parties having been nearly equal, from an early period since the organization of our govern- ment, on important measures of policy. The character of those who are elected to office, and of the measures which they adopt, reacts upon the well-being of the people from whom the power originated. The attention of Congress has been frequently directed to the subject of the naturalization of foreigners ; but the conditions of voting, in which resides their direct political power, are determined by each state for itself. In most or all of the states naturalization is a pre-requisite to voting; but, owing to the carelessness and fraud in obtaining natu- ralization papers, the looseness of the slate laws and the connivance of partizans, it cannot be denied, as it has been CONCLUSION. 63 proved by abundant testimony, that great frauds have been committed, and many individuals have been admitted to the polls, in times of strong party excitement, who were not entitled to the privilege by a fair construction of the existing laws of the United States or of individual states.* Public sentiment in Boston and its vicinity, is the index of that of Massachusetts, and in a great degree that of New Km/land : if you would know the politics of the Empire Suite, h-aru those of New York city and of Albany; we ran it'll what to expect from Pennsylvania after learning the party movements in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. If we name a fe\v more principal places, shall we not compre- hend elements enough for materially affecting the destinies of this -reat repnhlie .' Do not the men who are chosen to office, propose measures and frame laws which regulate all that we hold dear in the states and in the republic .' In HDL' lo the foreign voice, do candidates, when they be- come members. alway.s se,-U to be controlled by the moni- tions of wisdom, irrespective of party .' Is it not obvious that a few only of the foreigners who come here have any attachment to our institutions? and do not most of them, in the fruition, find our liberty a dif- ferent thmir from the picture, in their imaginations before crossing the Atlantic ! In their disappointment, are they faultless . ; and are they as industrious as they should be to improve our institutions? or. in their zeal, is not their first step too often to tear them down I The majority, however, of those who come here, know nothing of a rational or regulated liberty, nor consider the guards necessary to preserve it. The liberty in their minds licentiousness which has no respect for the rights of others. They come here smarting under injustice and op- *See Reports of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate of the United States, Janu' ary 27th and March 3d, lS4->, with Testimony relating to the Violation of the Naturalization Laws. 64 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. pression ; to check by salutary restraints seems to them op- pression ; and to hate oppression and oppressive rulers is the only step they, in their ignorance, have thus far taken towards a rational liberty. By our laws they are admitted to political privileges upon easier terms than we admit our own sons, privileges, which, in almost every state, are denied to a man on account of color, though his father or grandfather was the friend and companion in arms of Washington. Is it that our privileges are too good for us, too good to be preserved ? Is it that in our exstasy we would, like children, part with our birthright, and, after it is gone, weep for the loss that is irreparable ? When they receive employment, and are well fed, are not they the first to insist on higher wages, in the cant language, to strike? There may be some few exceptions. There may be those whose enlightened and liberal minds appreciate our institutions, and feel the value of their blessings, who for- bear taking any undue part in the political affairs of our country, whose deportment and worth prove them to be worthy of the country of their adoption? The moral and physical condition of these immigrants, after undergoing many trials, which are to be expected from settling in a foreign country, is generally very much improved. Many of them must for a time remain in sub- ordinate stations. Some are successful and gain wealth, and their children, we may suppose, as they mingle more and more with the people of this country, will derive a rich legacy from the anxieties and privations of their parents. But is the country truly benefitted by this great foreign im- migration ? Have the people been made wiser or better or happier? It has been said that without these foreigners our rail-roads and canals could not have been constructed. These improvements, it is true, may have been made a year or two earlier, (and in many of the states it would have been better if we had hurried less,) in consequence CONCLUSION. 65 of so many foreigners being in the country, whom we were obliged to employ in some way or other, or support them without labor. The progress of the internal improvements, a year or two in advance of what they would have been without this foreign labor, will be a very poor compensa- tion, if offset by the corruption of manners, the forfeiture of freedom, and the transfer of power to those who know not how to use it wisely. There are other things of value in this world besides merely physical aggrandizement. These foreigners coin.- here to benefit themselves, not from any love of us or of our country. They are admit- ted to In- partakers of the fruits derived from the institutions of our fathers. They find here a diffusion of the comforts of life, and of tin- m-:m> oi education, unknown in the land of their birth. They eannot help being affected, in the <-<>mse of time, by the blessings which surround them. Some of them have obtained }>n>!itahle situations, and not unfrequrntly are they employed in the professions, and as iiers of youth, though it is ditiicult to see in them qual- ifications equal to those of our own citizens. Finally, this removal of people from the place of their birth to a distant country for a permanent residence, year alter year, for over two centuries, leaving their homes in want and in sorrow, with a sea of doubtful trials before them. and. when arriving here, possessed of scarcely the means of subsistence, and often saved from famine and death by the kind sympathies of those who have come here before them, but at length, if not in themselves, in tin ir children, subduing the wilderness and converting it into fruitful fields, establishing the conveniences of civil- i/.ed life, planting churches for the worship of God, diffus- ing over the land the means of education, and founding an empire of equal law from the Atlantic shores to the Pacific ocean, over a population now amounting to twenty mil- lions, and destined to amount to nearly one hundred mil- 9 66 FOREIGN IMMIGRATION. lions upon the opening of another century, this migration of masses, numbering of late years more than one hundred thousand annually, now to nearly three hundred thousand annually, not in the warlike spirit of the Goths and Van- dals who overran the Roman empire, and destroyed the monuments of art, and the evidences of civilization, but in the spirit of peace, anxious to provide for themselves and their children the necessaries of life, and apparently ordained by Providence to relieve the countries of the old world, and to serve great purposes of good to mankind, is one of the most interesting spectacles the world ever saw. This move- ment is to go on till the western continent is filled with in- habitants. The future destiny of these states none can tell ; every accession of new comers introduces new elements of moral and political power into the community, besides the insensible changes which are constantly taking place. If past experience has shown the result of this immigration to America to have been a modification of our institutions and manners from year to year, do not the signs of the times indicate some danger of important changes in the very structure of society, as the current becomes more and more swollen in consequence of the facilitated means of conveyance, and of the multiplied necessities of emigrat- ing? The foreigner, as he leaves the place of his nativity, knows not the fortune nor the sufferings that await him; like him, ought not we as a people to feel a deep solicitude, lest the institutions left us by our fathers fail of being transmitted unimpaired to our children ? If the above statements and views are correct, it becomes the people of the United States to give this subject their most deliberate consideration, not merely on account of their own well- being, but on account of that of the foreign immigrants, for they both with their children must be united together as one people. APPENDIX. IT is the object of this Appendix to present some extracts from several sources, for the purpose of illustrating the his- tory of Foreign Immigration into the United States, and of lining the positions taken in the foregoing essay. A large portion of them are derived from Niles' Weekly Reg- ister, published at Baltimore, the editor of which gave par- ticular attention to the collection of facts, and of observa- tions relating to the subject, for several years prior to 1820, when the aet of Congress was carried into effect, requiring a registration of the passengers from foreigixcoun tries, an- nually arriving in the several collection districts. The British government had it under consideration in 1815, whether it might be advisable to offer the next year some degree of encouragement, to as willing to proceed as settlers to the British provinces in North Amer- ica. Nilei Register, Vol. IX., p. 309. January 6, 1816 "Among those who have lately arrived in the United States, as their future home, are several late British officers, who had an op- portunity of knowing something of our country and people during the war." Id. p. 332. July 13." We understand by a recent arrival from Ireland, that the Amer- ican vessels are put on the same footing as English vessels, as far as respects the conveyance of passengers to the United States, that is, that they are al- lowed to bring one passenger for every two tons. Formerly they were only allowed to bring one passenger for every five tons." ' Numerous emigrations are daily taking place from this country to America. There are about twelve American ships now nearly ready to sail for the Uni- ted States ; and the whole of them are provided with passengers, consisting of mechanics and persons brought up to agriculture. Some of the ships in question have agreed to take as many as eighty, others fifty, on board. For their passage each person is to pay 10 andfind'himself. Some say the Amer- ican government, in the end, are to be the paymasters.' (London paper.") 68 APPENDIX. " It is stated in the London Evening Star, that more than/ae thousand able seamen have emigrated to America since the termination of the war ! ! " Id. p. 346. "Among the many great and useful men that daily arrive, or are expected to arrive in the United States, from maddened Europe, we hear of Chaptal, the famous chemist, and Lacapede, the celebrated naturalist. We bid them welcome." Id. p. 348, July 20. "Hardy laborers, ingenious mechanics, intelligent merchants, learned doctors, profound philosophers and gallant soldiers are seeking in our country the { peace, liberty and safety ' with the right of < pursuing their own happiness' which the land of their fathers denies them. Among others we hear that Mina, the younger, the famous Spanish general, and Dr. Mier y Guerra, a learned native of Mexico, and a warm friend of freedom, have re- cently arrived from London. We have the following article from the Vevay Indiana Register : ' M. Lakanal, a distinguished French gentleman, (mem- ber of the National Institute of France and of the Legion of Honor, remarkable for his republican principles, has lately arrived here with his family. He has purchased an estate on the bank of the Ohio, two miles above Vevay, on the Kentucky side. M. Vairin, a professor of mathematics, has also arrived from France, with a part of his family ; he has purchased a farm on the river, one mile below Vevay. May happiness attend them in our land of liberty their adopted conntry.' " Id. p. 352. July 27. " The British and other newspapers teem with notices of the em- igration of their people to the United States. The persons alluded to are chiefly farmers and mechanics to add to the labor, and of consequence increase the wealth of our country in peace, and hold the nerve to assist in defending it in war. We know that the Irish emigrants much aided to fill the ranks of the army during the war, and they fought gallantly for freedom, feeling that they had a share in the contest as their own. Several vessels with passengers from Ireland have arrived since our last, and nine more from Newry alone are immediately expected they are British ships, one of great burthen, had three hundred and fifty engaged. An English paper of May 20th, says : ' Several farmers who lately occupied about four thousand acres of land in Lincolnshire, have recently emigrated to America, after having sold all their live and dead stock. They were accompanied by the curate of the village.' And a Genoa article of the 12th of the same month tells us, that ' a great many Swiss from all the Protestant cantons are going soon to depart from Basle for America. Commerce and manufactures languish both at Basle and in the parts of Germany next the Rhine. As no Swiss or German man- ufactures are now permitted to enter France, many have almost wholly ceased to work. Last Thursday, many wagons with manufactures, both German and Swiss, having presented themselves at the French custom-house, on the fron- tiers, to pay the duties, were ordered to return back, with the notification that, till further orders, no wagon with goods could enter France.' " APPENDIX. 69 " These are the sorts of men that we want. One Swiss is worth a hundred of the cockney tape-sellers with which our cities have teemed." Id p. 366. August. 10. "The vast emigration from England causes considerable alarm. Many persons of fortune are leaving the land of taxation for France and other parts of Europe, and the United Slates. The street in which the French ambassador lives in London, is crowded by people applying for pass- ports, and thousands have been issued. The state of trade may be judged of by this that ' not fifty foreign vessels are in the Thames/ and the London docks, which used to employ fifteen hundred persons, do not employ five hun- dred." "Germany, in general, is in an unsettled and very depressed state. France, it is intimated, will be unable to meet the next payment to the allies for her deliverance." Id. p. "Letters from Liverpool give us distressing accounts of their state; twenty thousand hands ;ire out of employ in Birmingham alone, and Manchester is doing only hall'-v Bristol. Button, Culne, Gloucester, Worces- ter, London, &c. Ace. There are daily failures of those of small capital, and the moat wealthy are hardly put to it to keep up." Id. p. 3 ( .t7. "A ship has arrived at New York from .-r-rs, among whom . late Consul at and fifty-two artists and manu- factun - r> ami husbandmen; two hun- dred and thirty-two other perM>n.> arrived in New York in one day, from Hull, England, and \Vaterlbrd, Ireland. Vessels are almost every day reaching some of our ports, with passengers from England, Ireland, France, Germany, &c. The M\i>-. h'T'toiure >j 'ken of, embarked in Holland, and sailed on the llth of June. A Liverpool paper complains that the spirit of emigration has reached the metropolis and the heart of the United Kingdom ;' and re- lates that a vessel has been seized in the Thames, for attempting to bring out two hundred and thirty-one persons instead of one hundred and seventy-four, all lh,i entitled to he law allowing one to every two tons. Many vessels are mentioned in England as being engaged to bring passen- gers to the United States/' Id. p. 400. August 17. " We have not exactly added up the amount of the passengers from Europe, who have reached New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, for a week past ; but believe we shall not be far from the truth when we estimate them at from twelve to fifteen hundred persons ; of whom four hundred and ten are Swiss, arrived at Philadelphia, via Holland ; the rest are from Ireland, England and France." " The current of emigration to the United States has been very strong for the last six months ; but judging by what we see in the British and other for- eign papers, we can consider it as hardly begun. The people are prepar- ing, in many places, to leave their country by neighborhoods or parishes, as it were, and in the new world, to possess and enjoy the friends of their youth, by settling together." 70 APPENDIX. " The proceeding has excited much alarm in England. The papers teem with paragraphs to check the hope of the people to benefit by the change ; and government is loudly called upon to interfere to prevent the < ruinous drain of the most useful part of the population of the United Kingdom.' They note, in detail, the arrivals at New York with passengers, and on sum- ming up the amount, which was only two hundred and twenty-nine for the week stated, they say : ' these facts certainly are serious ; coupled with the sentiments which are now prevalent in America with regard to England, and with respect to the avowed probability of another war, at no distant period, with this country, they cannot fail to awaken reflections of the most gloomy kind to all who wish for the peace and harmony of the world.' " * * # * " We have no reason to fear an excess of labor for many years to come. Our cities are crowded and business is dull, but the interior presents a vast and almost exhaustless field for industry. Every man that arrives may be fairly considered as adding at least three hundred dollars a year to the national wealth, while he also creates a home market to the value of what he consumes ; and increases the national safety by adding to the effective population of the republic. Let them come. Good and wholesome laws, with the avenues to wealth and independence, opened to honest industry, will tame even Mr. Peel's ' untameably ferocious ' Irishmen, as well as sup- press English mobs, crying out for employment and bread, without the nse of the bayonet." Id. p. 401. " Bankruptcies in the London Gazette for the last month, two hundred and eighteen ! Failures not in the Gazette, at least two thousand ! Compositions cannot be under ten thousand. Insolvents, who have no assets at all, innumerable." Id. p. 409. " The spirit of emigration makes a great uproar in England. Cobbett says, ' the hive is in commotion the bees seem resolved no longer to support the drones and wasps.' To check it many paragraphs appear like the follow- ing from the Courier :" " ' Every thing is very dull in America. So great is the stagnation of trade, that but very few of the merchant vessels are employed. Our countrymen who have emigrated are in a most deplorable state ; upwards of a thousand of them have applied to the British Consul at New York to be sent home with passports as distressed British subjects.' " " Motto for the new custom-house in Thames street, now nearly finished : 1 Sacred to the Memory of departed Commerce. 7 " Id. p. 411. " It is stated that sixteen hundred men, women and children had engaged passages in different vessels at Newry, Dublin and Belfast, to cross the At- lantic ; and that emigration from Switzerland increased." Id. p. 412. August 24. * * " We have carefully examined all the columns of ship news which have reached us, in regular succession, for the week ending yes- APPENDIX. 71 terday morning. The result of this examination is given belo\r. The amount will surprise our readers ; but it is certainly rather under than above the true number of persons that have arrived in the United States from Europe within the time stated." " The sentiment of Washington is our sentiment. In his reply to a con- gratulatory address from the citizens of Baltimore, he observed : ' that so long as this country continued sensible of the blessings, civil and religious, it had attained, so long would it continue to be the asylum of the oppressed from every land.' We wish to the oppressed the poor man seeking bread, peace and plenty, and health and happiness. 'This be a main queer country,' said a Yorkshireman who, with three well-grown sons and a large family of small children, was ling from New York to Zanesville, to a gentleman who met him not far from Bedford, Pa., ' it is a main queer country,' said he for I have asked the laboring folks all along the road koto maty meats they eat in a day, and they nil said three and sometimes four, if they fronted them. We have but tiro at home, and they are scanty enough, sir,' continued he, in his broad dialect, which I know not how to express with En . < Only think, sir,' added he, ' many of these people [the laborers] asked me to eat and drink with them ; we can't >ay so in Yorkshire, gir, for we have not enough for M What a field for reflection is there in the facts here stated? What American would have thought of inquiring hon many meals the working people eat in a day? But this was thr first thing the poor Englishman thought of, and he had done it ' all alo* the road' to be convinced of the truth of the matter. He was de- lighted with the prospect of a full belly for himself and his children ; the country ' was worth fighting for' where the laborers eat three times a day ; and he voluntarily declared that he and his three boys would support it as long as they could stand ; ' besides, sir,' said he, ' I have some more coming on in th> wanon that will soon be able to help us.' " * * " Recapitulation of passengers who arrived at the ports of the United States for one week, ending yesterday, August 23, 1816. The period is fixed at Baltimore, and the account made up from the regular mails arriving there within the time stated : From Ireland, 1084 ; Scotland, 199 ; England, 59 ; France, 12 ; add for the passenger vessels whose number is not stated, 60 each, 120 Total. 1171.'' " To which we might add from one hundred and fifty to two hundred more, that have arrived in vessels not noticed at all as having passengers, bringing only a few each, besides those which may have escaped our notice, or have not been heard of, coming into other parts." Id. p. 419. "In page 419 the reader will observe an interesting account of the number of persons who have reached the United States from Europe in one week. The real number cannot be under sixteen hundred for the space of seven days !" * * Id. p. 431. August 31. " We have several arrivals during the week with passengers 72 APPENDIX. from Ireland, England, fee. The stream is constant, though the number has not been so great as it was for the two or three preceding weeks." Vol. XL, p. 15. September 2. Eight hundred passengers for the week ending Aug. 30, and one thousand and twenty-seven ending Sept. 6, 1816. Id. p. 32. October 12. "The [English] Courier (to deter from emigration,) says it is the practice of American captains who have claims on the emigrants, to sell them to satisfy such claims." Id. p. 105. October 19. " Emigration continues at the rate of from four to six hundred per week, from England, Ireland, &c. Another large body of Swiss is ex- pected." Id. p. 127. November 9. " Emigration continues as lively as at any period we have noticed. Many persons are arriving from Holland, and the current from the British dominions is steady." Id. p. 175. November 23. " Many emigrants from Holland, England, Ireland, &c., have reached the United States within the last week and the import of spe- cie continues. Men and money appear happily pouring in upon us at the same time." " Many distinguished Frenchmen and others lately arrived in the United States, have associated for the purpose of forming a large settlement some- where on the Ohio or Mississippi. They propose to purchase one hundred thousand acres of land, and will invite emigrants from Europe. They expect to cultivate the vine. Their plan seems well digested and supported, and will probably succeed."* Id. p. 208. January 11, 1817. "A Greenock paper notices the return to that place of thirty persons who had emigrated to the United States, disappointed in their calculations several of them weavers, who could not get employ, 'while British manufactures were selling far below the original cost, adding that other descriptions of mechanics and laborers had done better, and found employ, kc., yet that the master of the vessel reported that if he would have brought them back gratuitously, he might have had a thousand passengers from New York." " To show the height (says this paper,) to which this emigrating mania has arisen, we may notice that as we are told, among the passengers returned by this vessel, is a gamekeeper, belonging to Yorkshire, who could not believe, until he had ocular demonstration of the fact, that the Yankees had no more use for his services, than the people of Buenos Ayres had for the stoves and * March 3, 1817. An act (ch. 61,) passed Congress, entitled an ' Act to set apart and dispose of certain public lands for the encouragement and cultivation of the vine and olive,' by which four contiguous townships, each six miles square, of vacant lands, lying in the Mississippi ter- ritory, were to be sold to the agent or agents of the late emigrants from France, who have asso- ciated for the purpose of forming a settlement in the United States, said lands to be paid for at the end of 14 years, at two dollars an acre. APPENDIX. 73 hearth-mats which some of our sage speculators sent out a few years ago. in the infancy of our commerce in that quarter." Id. p. 330. May 31." From the 10th of March to the 27th May, there arrived at New York two hundred and fifty vessels, in which came sixteen hundred passen- gers. Many have arrived at other ports a vessel with one hundred and thirty has just reached Philadelphia from Guernsey.' 1 ^/. XII., p. 224. June 21. "Two thousand Quaker Hollanders were about to sail from Antwerp for Philadelphia. One ship with three hundred and fifty of them had actually left that port destined as stated. These emigrants are probably wealthy. " umdred persons were also embarking at Amsterdam for the Uni- ted States." Id. p. L' "Among the foreign articles is some notice of a great emigration about to be made to the United States from Holland. Many persons also arrive from England and Ireland "Id. p. M July 5. It is stated that from March 10th to May 30th, 1817, one thousand six hundred and hfty-ei^ht British subjects had arrived at New York, and received from James Buchanan, the British consul, passports to entitle them to grants of land in British North America, chiefly in Upper Canada. Id. p. 304. July I'.'. " Very many passengers are arriving in vessels from Europe; in one of them four hundred and nine persons, none over thirty years of age, have reached Philadelphia from Amsterdam." "A number of French emigrants are about to form a settlement near the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee. Commissioners to select the spot have arrived at Mobile." Id. p. 336. August 2. "Account of emigrants from foreign countries arriving in the United States, collected from the shipping lists received at the office of the Weekly Register, for two weeks, ending yesterday morning, Aug. 1. Reca- pitulation ; England, 649 ; Wales, 51 ; Ireland, 581 ; Scotland, 134 ; Germa- ny and Switzerland via Amsterdam, &c, 826 ; France. 31. Total, 2272.'' " By looking over the ship news to make out the preceding, we have reason to suppose that the number will be considerably greater for the next two weeks, many from Holland being immediately expected." Id. p. 359. " The government of Basle has just announced that it will deliver no more passports for the United States, but to such emigrants as shall exhibit at the chancery a bill of exchange of at least two hundred florins upon Holland, payable at Amsterdam. This measure has the advantage of preventing inconsiderate resolutions and their disastrous results." Id. p. 365. August 16. " Within the last two weeks, ending yesterday morning, we have received accounts of the arrival of twenty-six vessels, at the several ports of the United States, with two thousand five hundred and twelve pas- sengers, viz. .-From Amsterdam, Germans and Swiss, 1896; England, Ire- 10 74 APPENDIX. land and Scotland, 281 ; the same, via Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, 238 j France, 97. Total, 2512." Id. p. 400. August 30. " The two weeks ending yesterday gave us accounts of the arrival of twenty-one vessels, with emigrants from Europe, viz. : From England, Ireland and Scotland, 557 ; Holland Germans and Swiss, 365 ; France, 25. Total 947." " Of these, one hundred and seventy-one reached the United States via Halifax, though great inducements are held out to settlers there. As for in- stance, a Dutch ship which arrived at Philadelphia, put into that port for pro- visions, when the governor offered to the passengers ten thousand acres of land gratis, in fee simple, and farming utensils, if they would stay there ; but they refused it. Many settlers, as they are called, arrive in Canada, from whence hundreds of them pass up the river, &c., and cross into New York and Ohio. It seems to be discovered that it is more convenient to reach our country through the British colonies than to come on direct. Facilities are afforded for the former which are denied to the latter." Vol. XIII., p. 16. September 6. " The French Emigrants. By a respectable Indian agent, now at the seat of government, we learn, that in coming up the Ohio he met upwards of a hundred Frenchmen, at different times, directing their course towards the new settlement on the Tombigbee." " General Count Clausel and General Lefebre Desnouettes, have sailed from Philadelphia with a ship-load of passengers bound to the Mobile. Mar- shal Grouchy, the two Generals Lallemand, Generals Vandamme, Lakanal, Penniers, Gamier de Saintes, Count Real, &c. are at the head of this enter- prise. All these distinguished men have the means of doing much good. Never was a project set on foot under better auspices, or entered into, as we learn, with more ardor and fuller determination to make a fair experiment, to show what Frenchmen can do. 'I am astonished,' said a capitalist of Phila- delphia to Generals Clausel and Desnouettes, ' that such men as you, who have money at command, should undertake such a Don Quixotte expedition, when by taking your stand in the exchange, you would get twenty per cent, for your money without trouble.' ' We have been accustomed (replied General Clau- sel,) to labor for the glory and happiness of our country, not to prey upon theirs or other people's necessities.' A reply which remarks a noble mind. (Nat. Int.)" id. p. 30. September 13. '< The average number of foreigners emigrating to the Uni- ted States for the last twenty years is not greater, if so great, as ten thousand a year. But, from the result of the facts that have been collected, an opin- ion may be entertained that, for the present year, they may possibly amount to thirty thousand." * * " The proportion of the thirty thousand will be about as follows : two thousand French ; twenty thousand English, Irish and Scotch; eight thousand Germans and Swiss." * *Id.pp. 35, 36. September 20. "A late London paper says : { The numerous emigrations APPENDIX. 75 from Ireland to the United States of America, are much to be regretted ; there are, at this time, three ships at one port in Ireland about to sail. Sure- ly it would have been better, as these persons are determined to quit their native country, to have given them their passage out free of expense to Brit- ish North America .' " " The emigrations are more numerous from England than from Ireland, the latter seems now to be the least distressed country ; not that Ireland is distressed less than she was, but because England is distressed more." Id. p. 59. October 25." The British ship Mary Ann has arrived at Boston in fifty days from London, with two hundred and four passengers. The Mary Ann was bound to St. John, N. B., but the passengers not wishing to go there, rose upon the crew, and brought the vessel into Boston." Id. p. 143. November 8. " Some of the British writers begin to think that the emi- gration of one hundred thousand persons annually would be advantageous, except that it might tend to strengthen some other country. New British settlements are therefore recommended." * * Id. p. 173. January 10, 1818." European emigrants arrived at Philadelphia during eiuht mtm'i -th to Dec. 31st, 1817. From France, 66; Italy, 22 ; Germany, 53 ; Ireland, 441 ; Great Britain, 1292 ; English, Irish and Scotch, via British possessions in America, 547 j Holland, 4867. Total, M.-t if not all of the persons that arrived by the way of Holland were ins. The Dutch ship April has arrived in the Delaware since the 1st in>t . and is not included in the above return, with five hundred and fifty passengers. Total British subjects two thousand two hundred and eighty." Id. p. 314. January 2-1. -A gentleman at New York has favored the editor of the Weekly Register, with the following list of emigrants arriving at that port, from the 1st of January to the 31st December, 1817, both inclusive, and assures us that its correctness may be relied upon : England, Scotland and Wales, 3131; Ireland, 1703; France, 674; Germany and Holland, 252; Spain and Portugal, 64 ; South America, 40 ; West Indies, 464 ; British pos- sessions in North America, 1273, East Indies, 15 Italy, 1429; Russia, Denmark and Sweden, 4. Total, 7634." Id. p. 360. January 31. "It is asserted in the Delaware Gazette, that of about eleven hundred passengers, who embarked on board the ship April, Capt. De Groot, at Amsterdam, which vessel is now lying at Newcastle, about Jive hundred died, many of them before they departed from Europe. Such as were una- ble to advance the money for their passage, who survive, are still detained on board in the most deplorable condition, several of whom are children, who have lost their parents on the voyage." Id. p. 378. February 28." Emigration to the British North American colonies, it is 76 APPENDIX. stated, will not be encouraged hereafter by the government, as the condition of the people has been rendered worse by the change. The secret cause, probably, is that they pass into the United States." Id. Vol. XIV., pp. 12, 13. May 23. " Emigration from Europe has commenced early in the season. In a single New York paper we notice accounts of the arrival at that port of five or six vessels, and notices of the sailing of a number from British ports one from Glencastle with one hundred and seventy-three, and another from Greenock with eighty-four passengers Another paper, for a succeeding day, mentions the arrival of six vessels from London, Liverpool and Newry, with one hundred and fifty-seven English and eighty-eight Irish passengers." Id. p. 223. May 30. "We have received accounts of the arrival of from eight hun- dred to one thousand emigrants from Europe, chiefly from England, during the past week." Id. p. 240. June 6. " The number of emigrants, an account of whose arrival we ob- served in the papers of last week, is from twelve to fifteen hundred." " A New York paper says : ' We learn that a gentleman has lately arrived in this city from England, whose object is to settle in the Illinois territory ; that his family and settlers brought over with him amount to fifty-one per- sons ; that he has furnished himself with agricultural instruments, seeds of various kinds, some cows, sheep and hogs, for breeding, and about one hun- dred thousand pounds sterling in money. This is doing business to a great national as well as individual profit ; and if gentlemen of fortune and enter- prise will emigrate in the same manner, our western states will shortly be the most flourishing part of the world.' " Id. p. 256. June 27. " Three hundred and eighty-two emigrants, mostly laborers, and many of them having much money, have lately left Dumfries, for America. It is only a year since the mania of emigration spread in that province." Id. p. 305. July 11. "A Dutch ship, with five hundred German passengers, from Amsterdam for Philadelphia, which appears to have been badly provided for the voyage, after a series of disasters, has reached Bergen, in Norway, hav- ing lost one hundred of her passengers on the voyage ; the rest were subsist- ing on the charity of the Norwegian government and citizens." Id. p. 344. August 1. " We ventured an opinion some weeks since that the present emigration to the United States was about at the rate of two hundred persons per day. The following table, though necessarily very imperfect, may serve to support that opinion. That ratio of emigration, it is probable, will hold good for four months of the present year. For the rest of the year it is in- considerable, not amounting, perhaps, to twenty persons per day, except such as arrive via Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, without being re- ported." This list contains one thousand eight hundred and seventy persons for two APPENDIX. 7 7 weeks, ending July 31st, from newspapers received at the office of the Reg- ister. Id. p. 380. August 8. "Emigration continues at the probable rate of two hundred persons per day. A New York paper of Monday last announces the arrival at that port of one hundred and twenty-four persons in eight vessels, for the preceding forty-eight hours. The current is steady. On Thursday, a Rus- sian ship arrived at Baltimore, with seventy passengers, from Ireland." Id. p. 408. August 15. " Our record of the arrival of emigrants from Europe, at the ports of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, for the week ending yester- day, amounts to seven hundred and thirty-one persons. The settlers ' that have arrived in Canada the present season is stated at six thousand and twenty-seven, of whom it is probable that at least four thousand have passed or will pass into our territory. It is said that five hundred families from and the northern ami \v ^ of Scotland, arrived at the ports of Greenock and Glasgow on the 1st of May, for the purpose of emigrating to America. They were compelled lo form an encampment upon the banks of the Clyde, where the novelty of the sight attracted many spectators." "An English paper states that twelve hundred persons have emigrated this season from. Guernsey to America, mostly to the United States. Of these one thousand are natives of Guernsey ; a great number, adds the paper, when it is considered that the whole of the population of that island is not reckoned higher than nineteen thousand." Id. p. 424. August 29. " The amount of passengers from Europe, reported to have arrived at New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, for the last week, amounts to more than a thousand, from Ireland, England, Holland and France." Vol. XV., p. 9. September 12. The current of emigration, from the British dominions to the territory of the United States, never was as strong as it is now. For the week ending the 31st of August, two thousand one hundred and fifty passengers, ' nearly the whole of whom were emigrants from Europe,' arrived at the single port of New York ; and for the subsequent week we kept an account of the passengers reported in the newspapers, (which is far short of the number that arrived,) and found them to amount to nearly three thousand, for five or six principal ports, and the aggregate may be fairly estimated at six thousand for the two weeks preceding the tith of September. We designed lo have published the names of the vessels, with the places they arrived at, with their respective number of passengers, as we have done on several occa- sions, but thought the long list might unnecessarily occupy a page of our paper. Of the six thousand that arrived in the two weeks, about four thous- and were from England, one thousand from Ireland, and the rest from Scot- land, Holland and France, about one hundred only from the latter. The emigrants from England that we have seen, (and we have conversed with 78 APPENDIX. several,) appear to be of that class of people which lately were the bone and sinew of that country, respectable farmers ; driven from their homes by taxes and tithes, yet generally before they were too much reduced to make in comfort to a strange land. Some of them, indeed, appeared to have consid- erable sums of money, with which they purposed to buy and improve farms of their own, and a number were making their way to the great settlement that Mr. Burbeck is founding on the Wabash, in Indiana. Many of them are persons of intelligent minds ; and, in general, they were decently appar- elled." " As we are of those who are always ready to say to the well-disposed but oppressed people of any part of the civilized world, 'come and partake with us of the blessings of free government,' very pleasurable feelings have been excited by such a pressure upon our shores, with such an accession to the wealth and strength of our country. When we hear that the 'Harmony So- ciety,' as it is called, raised six thousand bushels of wheat, in the present year, on a field which, three years ago, was covered with its native forests, we cannot refrain from calculating the auxiliary force of such a body of such emigrants in causing the wilderness to smile, and making our woods to resound with the busy hum of men. The emigration of the present year will give us not less than twenty -five thousand days labor ; this labor, pass- ing through all its stages of production, cannot be estimated at less than twenty-five thousand dollars per day, exclusive of the value of the articles consumed by the laborers, and those dependent upon them, a gross value added to the general wealth of nearly eight millions per annum, with fifty or sixty thousand persons to the population in one year. What a source of rev- enue, if the country's need requires it ; how great a force, in arms, to repel a foe! We do exult, we cannot help exulting, at the great strides the republic is making towards a power to command the respect which its love of peace and justice entitles it to." Id. p. 33. September 19. " The number of emigrants at present arriving are believed to be nearly four hundred per day." Id. p. 63. October 17. " Many emigrants from Europe are still arriving in the Uni- ted States, some direct, others by way of Nova Scotia, Canada, &c." Id. p. 125. December 12. "New York, Nov. 24 : The French brig Minerva was to sail from Havre about the 12th Oct. for Mobile, with about fifty passengers, most of them mechanics, who design to settle in that promising place." Id. p. 269. May 29, 1819. "A vessel has arrived at New York from Havre in France, bringing one hundred and fifty-eight passengers, principally English mechan- ics, who are not permitted to emigrate directly from England to the United States ; five hundred more were expected at Havre for the same destination." " The arrival of passengers from Europe gives us about the amount of APPENDIX. 79 fifteen or eighteen hundred a week. No less than six hundred Irish were at St. Andrews, and are coming in small parties to different parts of the United States. A great number is looked for." Vol. XVI., p. 239. June 4. * * " It was explicitly stated to you," says J. Q. Adams, in a letter to Mr. Furstenwaerther, a German, who had intimated a disposition to become an American citizen, " and your report has taken just notice of the statement, that the government of the United Slates has never adopted any measure to encourage or invite emigrants from any part of Europe. It has never held out any incitements to induce the subjects of any other sovereign to abandon their own country to become inhabitants of this. From motives of humanity, it has occasionally furnished facilities to emigrants who, hav- ing arrived here with views of forming selllements, have specially needed such assistance to carry them into effect. Neither the general government of the Union, nor those of individual states, are ignorant or unobservant of the additional strength and wealth which accrue to the nation by the acces- sion of a mass of healthy, in<.lii>tnous and frugal laborers, nor are they in any manner in>ensible to the great benefits which this country has derived, and continues to derive, from the influx of such adoptive children from Germa- ny. But there is one principle which pervades all the institutions of this coun- try, and which must always operate as an obstacle to the granting of favors to new comers. This is a land, not of privileges, but of equal rights. Privileges are granted by European sovereigns to particular classes of individuals, for -es of general policy ; but the general impression here is that privileges granted to one denomination of people, can seldom be discriminated from the rights of others. Emigrants from Germany, therefore, or from elsewhere, coming here, are not to expect favors from the government. They are to expect, if they choose to become citizens, equal rights with those of the natives of the country. They are to expect, if affluent, to possess the means to make their property productive, with moderation and with safety ; if indigent, but industrious, and honest, and frugal, the means of obtaining an easy and comfortable subsistence for themselves and families. They come to a life of independence and to a life of labor ; and if they cannot accommodate themselves to the character, moral, political and physical, of this country, with all its compensating balances of good and evil, the Atlantic is always open to them to return to the land of their nativity and their fathers. To one thing they must make up their minds, or they will be disappointed in every expectation as Americans. They must cast off the European skin, never to resume it. They must look forward to their posterity rather than backward to their ancestors ; they must be sure that whatever their own feel- ings may be, those of their children will cling to the prejudices of this coun- try." * * " We understand perfectly, that of the multitude of foreigners who yearly flock to our shores to take up here their abode, none come from affection or 80 APPENDIX. regard to a land to which they are total strangers, and with the very language of which those of them who are Germans, are generally unacquainted. "We know that they come with views, not to our benefit, but to their own, not to promote our welfare, but to better their own condition. We expect, therefore, very few, if any, transplanted countrymen, from classes of people who enjoy happiness, ease, or even comfort, in their native climes. The happy and contented remain at home ; and it requires an impulse at least as keen as that of urgent want, to drive a man from the seat of his nativity and the land of his fathers' sepulchres. Of the very few emigrants of more fortunate classes, who ever make the attempt of settling in this country, a principal proportion sicken at the strangeness of our manners, and after a residence more or less protracted, return to the countries whence they came. There are, doubtless, exceptions, and among the most opulent and the most distinguished of our citizens, we are happy to number individuals who might have enjoyed or acquired wealth and consideration without resorting to a new country and another hemisphere. We should take great satisfaction in find- ing you included in this number, if it shouid suit your own inclinations, and the prospects of your future life, upon your calculations of your own inter- ests. I regret that it is not in my power to add the inducement which you might perceive in the situation of an officer under government. All the places in the department to which I belong, allowed by the laws, are filled, nor is there a prospect of an early vacancy in any of them. Whenever such vacancies occur, the application of natives of the country to fill them, are far more numerous than the offices, and the recommendations in behalf of the candidates so strong and so earnest, that it would seldom be possible, if it would ever be just, to give a preference over them to foreginers. Although, therefore, it would give me sincere pleasure to consider you as one of our future and permanent fellow citizens, I should not do either an act of kind- ness or of justice to you, in dissuading you from the offers of employment and of honorable services, to which you are called in your native coun- try." * *_/d. Vol. XVIII.,pp. 157, 158, April 29, 1820. June 5. "The manufacturing districts are dreadfully distressed. At Lei- cester, within ten days, it is said that five thousand persons were thrown out of employ, though the price of cotton was expected to decline further ! There have been some heavy failures." " The London newspapers advertise no less than fifteen ships to take out passengers to America, whose tonnage amount to eight thousand two hun- dred tons ; and the Belfast papers nearly as many more. By the returns of the latter port, it appears that about eleven thousand persons emigrated to America from thence last season, amongst whom were upwards of seven hundred families." " London, April 10 : Numerous emigrations are now taking place from Yorkshire, chiefly for the United States, but a considerable number have also APPENDIX. 81 recently gone to South America, and many others are preparing to follow them. The mischief of these expatriations is increased by the emigrations alluded to being noUcomposed merely of poor distressed artisans, who are in quest of food and employment, but chiefly of persons possessed of property, sufficient to render them comfortable in their own country." Id. Vol. XVI., p. 255. June 12. " The emigration from England is spoken of as being greater this season than at any former period." " The following are the number of families and individuals who have emi- grated from the port of Belfast to America, during the last three years. Those who landed in the British settlements are included : 2143 individuals 239 families to Jan. 5, 1817. 2811 " 314 " 1818. 5601 727 " 1819." Id. p. 269. June 19. "About five hundred Englishmen are said to be at Havre de Grace, to embark for the United States. The rage for emigration is extrava- gant, and those subject to its imluence are very generally manufacturers and uiics, or of other productive classes. At present, however, we are quite as willing that they should remain where they are. American labor is not appreciated at home." Id. p. 286. July 3. "About two thousand emigrants, chiefly Irish, had arrived at St. John's, N. B., in ten days previous to the 17th ult. The destination of the most of them is the United States, into which they are daily arriving by schooner loads." Id. p. 319. July 10. " From considerable observation of the arrival of vessels from foreign ports, we are of opinion, that the present rate of emigration to the United States, is not less than four hundred persons per day. The greater part are English, reaching us via French ports, &c. ; the rest are chiefly Irish and German." Id. p. 336. July 17. " We kept a list of the vessels that arrived in the United States, with European passengers, an account of whose arrival reached us through the newspapers received for the week ending yesterday morning; the aggre- gate is one thousand four hundred and seventy-five, of whom about four hundred reached our country via Halifax and St. John's." Id. p. 346. July 24. "It is announced in a New York paper, that Mr. Buchanan, the British consul there, is making arrangements for the location, in Canada, of numerous British subjects who had emigrated to the United States. This paragraph may be well < understood ' by the fact, that on the 20th inst. one hundred and forty-five emigrants arrived at Philadelphia alone, by way of the British possessions in America ; one hundred also arrived at Alexandria, and eighty-five at New York, on the 19th, from Moose Island and Halifax." Id. p. 368. August 7." We have not this week listed the vessels which arrived in 11 82 APPENDIX. the United States with foreign passengers, but suppose the amount of emi- grants to have been nearly fifteen hundred, a considerable number of whom were Germans." Id. p. 400. September 18. " The tide of emigration still sets to the United States. Never before, perhaps, except in the last year, did so many persons from Europe reach our shores to take up their abode with us, at this advanced state of the season, as are now arriving. We regret that it is so. Hundreds, perhaps, we might say thousands of them, will be incumbrances on us dur- ing the ensuing winter ; for many tens of thousands of our own people, accustomed to sustain themselves by their own labor, will be out of employ- ment, unless some extraordinary event shall take place." " We have always until just now greeted the stranger on his arrival here with pleasure. There was room enough for all that would come, and indus- try was a sure road to a comfortable living, if not to independence and wealth. We were glad of the addition which they made to our population, and of the impulse which they gave to the capacity of production, thus advancing our country to its weight of power and extent of resources which the patriot delights to anticipate, but which also every one wishes to see real- ized. Now, however, our population in most of the maratime districts, and in some parts of the interior also, seems to think there are too many mouths to consume what the hands can find business to do ; and that hitherto sure refuge of the industrious foreign immigrant, the western country, is over- stocked by the domestic emigration. Certainly, the present system cannot last long, and the time must come when home industry will be encouraged and protected, in all its branches. If this were the case, all would be busy, money would circulate freely, and happiness abound." " It appears that a good many persons who recently arrived from England, being disappointed in their prospects of employment, are on their return home. We have thought that some such were occasionally re-shipped, under sanction and perhaps at the cost of the British government, that they might check emigration. But this cannot be suspected now. The poor people are truly alarmed at the prostration of things presented to them, and will rather depend upon the resources they have been accustomed to, than suffer poverty in a land of strangers. Still those who have a little money may certainly do better with it here than at home." " It is reported, that to relieve themselves of the support of their paupers, many such will be sent to the United States by the church-wardens, &c. of England ! It will therefore become the state authorities to be careful to take the proper securities of those who bring passengers, that they will not become chargeable on the public." " The number of emigrants from Europe, (as reported in the newspapers,) who reached the United States for two weeks, ending on Friday, the 3d of September, 1819, was three thousand three hundred and seventy-eight." APPENDIX. 83 " When we consider that the passengers arriving at many small ports are not reported at all, and the moral certainty that we have overlooked some who were reported even in the newspapers received at our office, it may be fairly presumed that the real number of those who arrived cannot be less than four thousand for these two weeks j and from what we have learnt, it is also probable that one thousand more may have passed into our country from Canada, in the course of the last month. We observe that the Canadian pa- pers are very zealous to prevent it, and hear of many proceeding to the west- ern states." "The returns for the last two weeks would probably have shown an amount of about fifteen hundred per week ; five hundred and sixty-eight arrived at Philadelphia in one day on Sunday last many of whom were in one vessel from Antwerp." " The New York Gazette says : ' We know a gentleman who has made a calculation, grounded upon the emigration of the present year, showing that in the course of five years the number of emigrants to this country will amount to half a million. New York is calculated to receive one sixth of the number, as it has done for the last year. The numerous emigrations, via the Canadas and Nova Scotia, are not taken into this calculation.' " " This is a serious subject, and will naturally excite the attention of gov- ernment. 1 ' "This calculation, we apprehend, is much exaggerated. It must be recol- lected, that very few emigrants arrive before the month of May, and less after that of September. Admit that in the whole of these five months the rate should continue at two thousand per week, the amount would be only forty thousand per annum. And this, we feel satisfied, is a greater number than ever arrived in the United States in any one year, even in or for the present, though the emigration has been so very heavy. But how it should 'naturally excite the attention of government' we cannot tell, unless the British government is meant." Id. Vol. XVII., p. 36. September 25." The number of emigrants still arriving is enormous. In the last week, according to the newspapers received at this office, not less than twenty-five hundred, perhaps three thousand, arrived, chiefly at New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Nearly four hundred arrived at the latter on Saturday last. Id. p. 63. October 16. " Quebec, Sept. 27. Of the twelve thousand British emi- grants who have arrived at the port of Quebec this season, we are persuaded that more than one half have found their way into the United States. The St. Lawrence has already become the channel of communication for those emigrants who are destined for the western states, as it will at a future day become one of the main channels of their trade. We regret that greater facilities are not given to British emigrants to settle in this province. In Upper Canada, we believe, that great improvements in this respect have been made by Sir Perigrine Maitland." 84 APPENDIX. " There a foundation of British inhabitants has been laid. If they thrive, they will soon attract more. In this province little or nothing has been done." Id. p. 111. " The following seductive advertisement is recorded as a specimen of the manner in which many poor persons are induced to leave their home in En- gland and Ireland :" 1 For St. Andrews, in the river St. John's, that divides the United States of America from the British possessions. The new, fast sailing cutter (but twelve months built,) Commercial Packet, William Andejson, master, now lying at the quay of Galway, and will sail positively the 22d of June, wind and weather permitting.' ' Persons wishing to go to the United States, or any part of the western country thereof, have a cheap and easy opportunity by inland water convey- ance on arrival. Emigrants will find immediate employment on landing ; laborers from five to eight shillings per day, and tradesmen from twelve to twenty shillings per day, and provisions remarkably cheap. As this may be the only opportunity that may offer from hence this season, those inclined to proceed should make immediate application to E. Evans, Back street, or to the master on board, at the dock.' ' Terms five guineas, the ship to find nothing but water and fuel ; children half price. Tradesmen will not be prevented from going in this vessel. Galway, June 14, 1819.' Id. p. 112. July 29, 1820. " Passengers. It appears by the official returns from the mayor's office that, from December, 1818, to December, 1819, thirty-five thousand five hundred and sixty passengers arrived at this port [New York.] This will give an idea of the great intercourse which is had with this city j yet it also appears that, out of this number, sixteen thousand six hundred and twenty-eight were Americans, leaving eighteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-two foreigners, which, of itself, is an important amount. There is something also to consider in the national character of these emigrants ; seven thousand six hundred and twenty-nine were English, and six thousand and sixty-seven were Irish. The proportion of Irish to English emigrants, has been heretofore in favor of the Irish ; but this year the English take the lead. It is certain that the Irish have a more sincere attachment to this country than the English ; their associations and feelings, and the success of many of their countrymen, have given a great spur to emigration ; added to this, their wants and enterprise are greater than those of the English; yet we have in this excess of English emigration, a very strong proof of the misery of the times, and the extremes to which they are reduced, extremes which the Irish have scarcely arrived at. If it is said that many of these were bound to Canada, to settle on the crown lands, the reply will be, that the expense of transportation from New York to Canada would exceed the value of their possessions, and emigrants bound to Canada generally take APPENDIX. 85 passage for Quebec. If, on the other hand, it is contended that many have returned to Europe, we are satisfied that the number is very trifling, and were not willing to work. Of Scotch there were one thousand nine hundred and forty-two. This is a class of emigrants who are not idle in any part of the world. * * [Nat. Advocate,]" Id. Vol. XVIIL, pp. 388, 389. November 11. "The following is an estimate of emigration in the first eight months of the present year, from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales: To Canada, about 10,000; North America, U. S., 6000; South America, 4000 ; South Africa, 6000 ; New Holland and Van Diemun's Land, 2500; East Indies, all ports and all sorts, 3500; Sailors to foreign employ, 2000; fixed residents to Flanders, France and Italy, 1500; Russia, 350. Total, 35,850." Id. Vol. XIX., p. 173. April 20, 1822. " The Democratic Press says : From official returns ordered to be printed by the House of Commons, we learn that the whole number of passengers who embarked from Ireland for the United States, from the year 1812 to 1821, both years inclusive, was 30,653 ; from England, 33,608 ; Scotland, 4727. Total, 68,988." "Also there embarked for the British dominions in North America, from In-hind, 47,223; England, 23,783; Scotland. l'.'."71. ii.akinga total of 90,977." Total, 159,960. " It may be added, that a major part of those who embarked for the 'Brit- ish possessions in North America,' proceeded almost direct to the United States." Id. Vol. XXII. t pp. 115, llt>. August 3. " It would appear that many more persons have arrived in the United States during the present season, than in the last. A good number reach New York and other ports direct, but far the greater part arrive via New Brunswick and Canada. Those who take passages for the former come over to Eastport, &c., where they obtain vessels, and re-ship themselves to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Ace. Many that arrive in Canada pass up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, and into the state of New York, or proceed further westward. A party of about thirty lately arrived at Buffalo, to join the colony of Mr. Burbeck, in Illinois. They appeared to be substan- tial people, for among their property were cattle, hogs, geese, Ace. of the most approved kinds, which they had brought with them from England." Id. p. 354. Soon after the insurrection in Canada in 1837, the Earl of Durham was appointed Governor-General of the British Provinces in North America, in pursuance of which appointment he made an elaborate " Report on the Affairs of British North America," which was ordered to be printed by the House of Commons, February llth, 1839. The following extracts, taken from that report, will show some of the reasons why many of the emigrants from the United Kingdom, instead of settling in Ihose provinces, have come to the United States. 86 APPENDIX. * * " The emigrants who have settled in the country [Upper Canada] within the last ten years, are supposed to comprise half the population. They complain that while the Canadians are desirous of having British capi- tal and labor brought into the colony, by means of which their fields may be cultivated, and the value of their unsettled possessions increased, they refuse to make the colony really attractive to British skill and British capitalists. They say that an Englishman emigrating to Upper Canada, is practically as much an alien in that British colony as he would be if he were to emigrate to the United States. He may equally purchase and hold lands or invest his capital in trade in one country as in the other, and he may in either exercise any mechanical avocation, and perform any species of manual labor. This, however, is the extent of his privileges ; his English qualifications avail him little or nothing.. He cannot, if a surgeon, licensed to act in England, prac- tise without the license of a Board of Examiners in the province. If an attorney, he has to submit to an apprenticeship of five years before he is allowed to practise. If a barrister, he is excluded from the profitable part of his profession, and though allowed to practise at the bar, the permission thus accorded to him is practically of no use in a country where, as nine attornies out of ten are barristers also, there can be no business for a mere barrister. Thus, a person who has been admitted to the English bar, is compelled to serve an apprenticeship of three years to a provincial lawyer." " By an act passed last session, difficulties are thrown in the way of the employment of capital in banking, which have a tendency to preserve the monopoly possessed by the chartered banks of the colony, in which the Cana- dian party are supreme, and the influence of which is said to be employed directly as an instrument for upholding the political supremacy of the party. Under the system, also, of selling land pursued by the government, an indi- vidual does not procure a patent for his land until he has paid the whole of the purchase-money, a period of from four to ten years, according as his pur- chase is a crown or clergy lot ; and until the patent issues, he has no right to vote. In some of the new states of America, on the contrary, especially in Illinois, an individual may practise as a surgeon or lawyer almost immedi- ately on his arrival in the country, and he has every right of citizenship after a residence of six months in the state. An Englishman is, therefore, in effect less an alien in a foreign country than in one which forms a part of the British empire. Such are the superior advantages of the United States at present, that nothing but the feeling, that in the one country he is among a more kindred people, under the same laws, and in a society whose habits and sentiments are similar to those to which he has been accustomed, can induce an Englishman to settle in Canada, in preference to the states ; and if, in the former, he is deprived of rights which he obtains in the latter, though a for- eigner, it is not to be wondered at that he should, in many cases, give the preference to the land in which he is treated most as a citizen. It is very APPENDIX. 87 possible that there are but few cases in which the departure of an English- man from Upper Canada to the states can be traced directly to any of these circumstances in particular ; yet the state of society and of feeling which they have engendered, has been among the main causes of the great extent of re-emigration to the new states of the Union. It operates, too, still more to deter emigration from England to the provinces, and thus both to retard the advance of the colony, and to deprive the mother country of one of the principal advantages on account of which the existence of colonies is desira- ble the field which they afford for the employment of her surplus popula- tion and wealth. The native Canadians, however, to whatever political party they may belong, appear to be unanimous in the wish to preserve these ex- privileges." * *p. 61. " But as in Upper Canada, under a law passed immediately after the last war with the states, American citizens are forbidden to hold land, it is of the more consequence that the country should be made as attractive as possible to the emigrating middle classes of Great Britain, the only class from which an accession of capital, to be invested in the purchase or improvement of lands, can be hoped for." * * p. 62. " Under such circumstances there is little stimulus to industry or enter- prise, ami ih.-ir effect is aggravated by the striking contrast presented by such of the United States as border upon this province, and where all is activity and progress ." * * p. 66. "It is a singular and melancholy feature in the condition of these prov- inces, [New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island,] that the ices rendered of so little avail to the population of Great Britain, are turned to better account by the enterprising inhabitants of the United States. While the emigration from the provinces is large and constant, the adventur- ous larmers of New England cross the frontier, and occupy the best farming lands. Their fishermen enter our bays and rivers, and in some cases mo- nopolize the occupations of our own unemployed countrymen ; and a great portion of the trade of the St. John's is in their hands. Not only do the citi- zens of a foreign nation do this, but they do it with British capital. Major Head states, ' that an American merchant acknowledged to him, that the capital with which his countrymen carried on their enterprises in the neigh- borhood of St. John's, was chiefly supplied by Great Britain ;' and he adds, as a fact within his own knowledge, ' that wealthy capitalists at Halifax, desirous of an investment for their money, preferred lending it in the United States, to applying it to speculation in New Brunswick, or to lending it to their own countrymen in that province.' " " I regret to say, that Major Head also gives the same account respecting the difference between the aspect of things in these provinces and the border- ing state of Maine. On the other side of the line, good roads, good schools, and thriving farms, afford a mortifying contrast to the condition in which a 88 APPENDIX. British subject finds the neighboring possessions of the British crown." p. 71. "In the United States, ever since the year 1796, the disposal of public land, not already appropriated to particular states, has been strictly regulated by a law of Congress ; not by different laws for the various parts of the coun- try, but by one law for the whole of the public lands, and a law which we may judge to have been conducive to the prosperity of the people, both from its obvious good effects, and from its almost unquestioned continuance for so many years. In the British North American colonies, with one partial ex- ception, there never has been, until quite recently, any law on the subject." * #pp. 73, 74. " The system of the United States appears to combine all the chief requi- sites of the greatest efficiency. It is uniform throughout the vast federation j it is unchangeable save by Congress, and has never been materially altered ; it renders the acquisition of new land easy, and yet, by means of a price, restricts appropriation to the actual wants of the settler ; it is so simple as to be readily understood ; it provides for accurate surveys and against needless delays ; it gives an instant and secure title ; and it admits of no favoritism, but distributes the public property amongst all classes and persons upon pre- cisely equal terms. That system has promoted an amount of immigration and settlement, of which the history of the world affords no other example ; and it has produced to the United States a revenue which has averaged about half a million sterling per annum, and has amounted in one twelvemonth to above four millions sterling, or more than the whole expenditure of the fede- ral government." " In the North American colonies there never has been any system. Many different methods have been practised, and this not only in the different colo- nies, but in every colony at different times, arid within the same colony at the same time. The greatest diversity and most frequent alteration would almost seem to have been the objects in view. In only one respect has there been uniformity. Every where the greatest profusion has taken place, so that in all the colonies, and nearly in every part of each colony, more, and very much more land has been alienated by the government, than the grantees had at the time, or now have the means of reclaiming from a state of wil- derness ; and yet, in all the other colonies until lately, and in some of them still, it is either very difficult or next to impossible for a person of no influ- ence to obtain any of the public land. More or less in all the colonies, and in some of them to an extent which would not be credited, if the fact were not established by unquestionable testimony, the surveys have been inaccu- rate, and the boundaries, or even the situation of estates, are proportionally uncertain. Every where needless delays have harassed and exasperated applicants ; and every where, more or less. I am sorry but compelled to add, gross favoritism has prevailed in the disposal of public lands." * * p. 74. "The results of long misgovernment in this department are such as might APPENDIX. 89 have been anticipated by any person understanding the subject. The admin- istration of the public lands, instead of always yielding a revenue, cost for a long while more than it produced. But this is, I venture to think, a trifling consideration when compared with others. There is one in particular which has occurred to every observant traveller in these regions, which is a constant theme of boast in the states bordering upon our colonies, and a subject of loud complaint within the colonies. I allude to the striking contrast which is presented between the American and British sides of the frontier line in respect to every sign of productive industry, increasing wealth, and progres- sive civilization." " By describing one side, and reversing the picture, the other would be also de- scribed. On the American side, all is activity and bustle. The forest has been widely cleared ; every year numerous settlements are formed, and thousands of farms are created out of the waste ; the country is intersected by common roads ; canals and rail-roads are finished, or in the course of formation ; the ways of communication and transport are crowded with people, and enli- vened by numerous carriages and large steam-boats. The observer is sur- at the number of harbors on the lakes, and the number of vessels they contain ; while bridges, artificial landing-places, and commodious wharves are formed in all directions as soon as required. Good houses, warehouses, mills, inns, villages, towns and even great cities, are almost seen to spring up out of the desert. Every village has its school-house and place of public .ip. Every town has many of both, with its township buildings, its bookstores, and probably one or two banks and newspapers ; and the cities, with their fine churches, their great hotels, tkeir exchanges, court-bouses and ;pal halls, of stone or marble, so new and fresh as to mark the recent xistenoe of the forest wbere they now stand, would be admired in any part of the Old World. On the British side of the line, with the exception of a few favored spots, where some approach to American prosperity is apparent, all seems waste and desolate. There is but one rail-road in all British Amer- ica, and that, running between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, is only fifteen miles long. The ancient city of Montreal, which is naturally the commercial capital of the Canadas, will not bear the least comparison, in any respect, with Buffalo, which is a creation of yesterday. But it is not in the difference between the larger towns on the two sides that we shall find the best evidence of our own inferiority. Tfcat painful but undeniable truth is most manifest in the country districts through which the line of national sep- aration passes for one thousand miles. There, on the side of both the Cana- das, and also of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, a widely scattered popu- lation, poor, and apparently unenterprising, though hardy and industrious, separated from each other by tracts of intervening forest, without towns and markets, almost without roads, living in mean houses, drawing little more than a rude subsistence from iil-cwltivated land, and seemingly incapable of 12 90 APPENDIX. improving their condition, present the most instructive contrast to their enter- prising and thriving neighbors on the American side. I was assured that in the eastern townships of Lower Canada, bordering upon the line, it is a com- mon practice for settlers, when they wish to meet, to enter the state of Ver- mont, and make use of the roads there for the purpose of reaching their des- tination in the British province. Major Head, the assistant commissioner of Crown Lands' Inquiry, whom I sent to New Brunswick, states, that when travelling near the frontier line of that province and the state of Maine, now on one side and then on the other, he could always tell on which side he was by the obvious superiority of the American settlements in every respect. Where the two countries are separated by the St. Lawrence and the lakes, this difference is less perceptible ; but not less in fact, if I may believe the concurrent statements of numerous eye-witnesses, who had no motive for deceiving me. For farther corroboration, I might refer indeed to numerous and uncontradicted publications j. and there is one proof of this sort so re- markable, that I am induced to notice it specially. A highly popular work, which is known to be from the pen of one of your Majesty's chief functiona- ries in Nova Scotia, abounds in assertions and illustrations of the backward and stagnant condition of that province, and the great superiority of neigh- boring American settlements. Although the author, with a natural disincli- nation to question the excellence of government, attributes this mortifying circumstance entirely to the folly of the people, in neglecting their farms to occupy themselves with complaining of grievances and abuses, he leaves no doubt of the fact." " This view is confirmed by another fact equally indisputable. Through- out the frontier, from Amherstburgh to the ocean, the market value of land is much greater on the American than on the British side. In not a few parts of th& frontier this difference amounts to- as much as a thousand per eent. y aad> in some cases even more. The average difference, as between Upper Canada and the states of New York aad Michigan*, is notoriously several Imndred per cent. Mr. Hastings Kerr, of Quebec, whose knowledge of the value of land in Lower Canada is generally supposed to be more ex- tensive and accurate than that of any other person, states tbat the price of wild land in Vermont and New Hampshire, close to the lisie, is five dollars per acre, and in the adjoining British townships only one dallar. On this side the line a very large extent of land is wholly unsalable, even at such low prices ; while on the other side property is continually changing hands. The priee of one or two shillings per acre would purchase immense tracts in Lower Canada and New Brunswick. In the adjoining states it would be dif- ficult to obtain a single lot for less than as many dollars. Im and near Stan- stead, a border-township of Lower Canada, and one of tbe most improved, forty-eight thousand acres of fine land, of which Governor Sir R. S. Milne obtained a grant to himself in 1810, was sold at tke price of two shillings per acre." * *pp. 7476. APPENDIX. 91 " Still less can we attribute to such causes another circumstance, which in some measure accounts for the different values of property, and which has a close relation to the subject of the public lands. I mean the great amount of re emigration from the British colonies to the border states. This is a notorious fact. Nobody denies it ; almost every colonist speaks of it with regret. What the proportion may be of those emigrants from the United Kingdom who, soon after their arrival, remove to the United States, it would be very difficult to ascertain precisely. Mr. Bell Forsyth, of Quebec, who has paid much attention to the subject, and with the best opportunities of observing correctly in both the Canadas, estimates that proportion at sixty per cent, of the whole. Mr. Hawke, the chief agent for emigrants in Upper Canada, calculates that out of two thirds of the immi- grants by the St. Lawrence who reach that province, one fourth re-emi- grate chiefly to settle in the states. It would appear, however, that the amount of emigration from Upper Canada, whether of new comers or others, must be nearer Mr. Forsyth's estimate. The population was reckoned at two hundred thousand in January, 1830. The increase by births since then hoold have been at least three per cent, per annum, or fifty-four thousand. Mr. Hawke states the number of immigrants from Lower Canada, since 1829, to have been one hundred and sixty-five thousand ; allowing that these 1 ould have increased at the rate of three per cent, per annum, the whole increase by immigration and births should have been nearly two hundred thousand. But Mr. Hawke's estimate of immigrants takes no account of the very considerable number who enter the province by way of New York and the Erie canal. Reckoning these at only fifty thousand, which is probably under the truth, and making no allowance for their increase by births, the entire population of Upper Canada should now have been five hundred thous- and, whereas it is, according to the most reliable estimates, not over four hundred thousand. It would therefore appear, making all allowance for errors in this calculation, that the number of people who have emigrated from Upper Canada to the United States, since 1829, must be equal to more than half of the number who have entered the province during the eight years. Mr. Baillie, the present commissioner of Crown Lands in New Brunswick, says : 'A great many emigrants arrive in the province, but they generally proceed to the United States, as there is not sufficient encour- agement for them in this province/ Mr. Morris, the present commissioner of Crown Lands, and surveyor-general of Nova Scotia, speaks in almost similar terms of the emigrants who reach that province by way of Halifax." " I am far from asserting that the very inferior value of land in the British colonies, and the re-emigration of immigrants, are altogether occasioned by mismanagement in the disposal of public lands. Other defects and errors of government must have had a share in producing these lamentable results." * *-pp. 76, 77. 92 APPENDIX. " For it must be recollected that the natural ties of sympathy between the English population of the Canadas and the inhabitants of the frontier states of the Union are peculiarly strong. Not only do they speak the same lan- guage, live under laws having the same origin, and preserve the same cus- toms and habits^ but there is a positive alternation, if I may so express it, of the populations of the two countries, While large tracts of the British terri- tory are peopled by American citizens, who still keep up a constant connex- ion with their kindred and friends, the neighboring states are filled with emi- grants from Great Britain, some of whom have quitted Canada after unavail- ing efforts to find there a profitable return for their capital and labor ; and many of whom have settled in the United States, while other members of the families, and the companions of their youth, have taken up their abode on the other side of the frontier. I had no means of ascertaining the exact de- gree of truth in some statements which I have heard respecting the number of Irish settled in the state of New York ; but il is commonly asserted that there are no less than forty thousand Irish in the militia of that state. The intercourse between these two divisions of what is, in fact, an identical pop- ulation, is constant and universal. The border townships of Lower Canada are separated from the United States by an imaginary line ; a greater part of the frontier of Upper Canada by rivers, which are crossed in ten minutes ; and the rest by lakes, which interpose hardly a six hours' passage between the inhabitants of each side. Every man's daily occupations bring him in contact with his neighbors on the other side of the line ; the daily wants of one country are supplied by the produce of the other ; and the population of each is in some degree dependent on the state of trade and the demands of the other. Such common wants beget an interest in the politics of each country among citizens of the other. The newspapers circulate in some places almost equally on the different sides of the line ; and men discover that their welfare is frequently as much involved in the political condition of their neighbors as of their own countrymen." -p. 96. " But the chances of rebellion or foreign invasion are not those which I regard as either the most probable or the most injurious. The experience of the last two years suggests the occurrence of a much more speedy and disas- trous result. I dread, in fact, the completion of the sad work of depopula- tion and impoverishment which is now rapidly going on. The present evil is not merely, that improvement is stayed, and that the wealth and population of these colonies do not increase according to the lapid scale of American pro- gress. No accession of population takes place by immigration, and no capital is brought into the country. On the contrary, both the people and the capital seem to be quitting the distracted provinces. From the French portion of Lower Canada there has, for a long time, been a large annual emigration of young men to the northern states of the American Union, in which they are highly valued as laborers, and gain good wages, with their savings from APPENDIX. 93 which they generally return to their homes in a few months or years. I do not believe that the usual amount of this emigration has been increased dur- ing the last [1838] year, except by a few persons prominently compromised in the insurrection, who sold their property, and made up their minds to a perpetual exile ; but I think there is some reason to believe that, among the class of habitual emigrants whom I have described, a great many now take up their permanent residence in the United States. But the stationary habits and local attachments of the French Canadians render it little likely that they will quit their country in great numbers. I am not aware that there is any diminution of the British population from such a cause. The employment of British capital in the province is not materially checked in the principal branch of trade ; and the main evils are the withdrawal of enterprising British capitalists from the French portion of the country, the diminished employment of the capital now in the province, and the entire stoppage of all increase of the population by means of immigration. But from Upper Can- ada the withdrawal both of capital and of population has been very consid- erable. I have received accounts from most respectable sources of very numerous emigration from the whole of the Western and London districts. It was said by persons who professed to have witnessed it, that considerable numbers liad, lor a long time, daily passed over from Amherstburgh and Sandwich to Detroit ; and a most respectable informant stated, that he had seen, in one of the districts which I have mentioned, no less than fifteen vacant ther on the road-side. A body of the reforming party have avowed, in the most open manner, their intention of emigrating, from politi- cal motives, and publicly invited all who might be influenced by similar feel- ings to join in their enterprise. For this the Mississippi Emigration Society has been formed with the purpose of facilitating emigration from Upper Can- ada to the new territory of the Union, called Iowa, on the west bank of the Upper Mississippi. The prospectus of the undertaking, and the report of the deputies who were sent to examine the country in question, were given in the public press, and the advantages of the new colony strongly enforced by the reformers, and depreciatingly discussed by the friends of the Government. The number of persons who have thus emigrated is not, however, I have reason to believe, as great as it has often been represented. Many who miirht be disposed to take such a step, cannot sell their farms on fair terms ; and though some, relying on the ease with which land is obtained in the Uni- ted States, have been content to remove merely their stock and their chattels, yet there are others again who cannot at the last make the sacrifices which a forced sale would necessitate, and who continue, even under their present state of alarm, to remain in hopes of better times. In the districts which border on the St. Lawrence, little has in fact come of the determination to emigrate, which was loudly expressed at one time. And some even of those who actually left the country are said to have returned. But the instances 94 APPENDIX. which have come to my knowledge induce me to attach even more import- ance to the class than to the alleged number of the emigrants ; and I can by no means agree with some of the dominant party, that the persons who thus leave the country are disaffected subjects, whose removal is a great advant- age to loyal and peaceable men. In a country like Upper Canada, where the introduction of population and capital is above all things needful for its pros- perity, and almost for its continued existence, it would be more prudent as well as just, more the interest as well as the duty of Government to remove the causes of disaffection, than to drive out the disaffected. But there is no ground for asserting that all the reformers who have thus quitted the country, are disloyal and turbulent men ; nor indeed is it very clear that all of them are reformers, and that the increasing insecurity of persons and property have not, without distinction of politics, driven out some of the most valua- ble settlers of the province. A great impression has been lately made by the removal of one of the largest proprietors of the province, a gentleman who arrived there not many years ago from Trinidad; who has taken no promi- nent, and certainly no violent part in politics ; and who has now transferred himself and his property to the United States, simply because in Upper Can- ada he can find no secure investment for the latter, and no tranquil enjoy- ment of life. I heard of another English gentleman, who, having resided in the country for six or seven years, and invested large sums in bringing over a superior breed of cattle and sheep, was, while I was there, selling off his stock and implements, with a view of settling in Illinois. I was informed of an individual who, thirty years ago, had gone into the forest with his axe on his shoulder, and, with no capital at starting, had, by dint of patient labor, acquired a farm and stock, which he had sold for 2000, with which he went into the United States. This man, I was assured, was only a specimen of a numerous class, to whose unwearied industry the growth and prosperity of the colony are mainly to be ascribed. They are now driven from it, on ac- count of the present insecurity of all who, having in former times been iden- tified in politics with some of those that subsequently appeared as prominent actors in the revolt, are regarded and treated as rebels, though they had held themselves completely aloof from all participation in schemes or acts of rebel- lion. Considerable alarm also exists as to the general disposition to quit the country, which was said to have been produced by some late measures of the authorities among that mild and industrious, but peculiar race of descendants of the Dutch, who inhabit the back part of the Niagara district." pp. 98, 99. Corrections. Paige 10, 16th line, for ' quiquennial,' read 'quinquennial.' Page 23, 14th line, instead of ' in consequence,' read ' the number in consequence ' ; -23d line, after ' immi- grants,' add ' and ' ; 4th line from the bottom, for ' 1800,' read ' 1840.' Page 24, 23d line, for ' 1816,' read ' 1815.' Page 28, 5th line from the bottom, for '2,777,038,' read '2,779038.' Page 44, 7th line, for ' 762,149,' read ' 762,139.' Page 80, 26th line, for ' loreginers,' read ' for- eigners.' * i T^AV TTQP 1 RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO ^ 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS RENEWALS AND RECHARGES MAY BE MADE 4 DAYS PRIOR TO DUE DATE. LOAN PERIODS ARE 1-MONTH. 3-MONTHS. AND 1-YEAR. RENEWALS: CALL (415) 642-3405 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW MAR 1 1990 IK DEC 3 132; LD UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERK FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 1/83 BERKELEY, CA 94720 BERKELEY LIBRAS C020fl30o7s M139325 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY