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diff --git a/14825-0.txt b/14825-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58a9375 --- /dev/null +++ b/14825-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6721 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14825 *** + + TEXTBOOK EDITION + + THE CHRONICLES + OF AMERICA SERIES + + ALLEN JOHNSON + EDITOR + + GERHARD R. LOMER + CHARLES W. JEFFERYS + ASSISTANT EDITORS + + + + + OUR FOREIGNERS + + A CHRONICLE OF + AMERICANS IN THE MAKING + + BY SAMUEL P. ORTH + + [Illustration] + + + NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS + TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & CO. + LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + +_1920, by Yale University Press_ + + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +CONTENTS + + Page + + I. OPENING THE DOOR 1 + + II. THE AMERICAN STOCK 21 + + III. THE NEGRO 45 + + IV. UTOPIAS IN AMERICA 66 + + V. THE IRISH INVASION 103 + + VI. THE TEUTONIC TIDE 124 + + VII. THE CALL OF THE LAND 147 + + VIII. THE CITY BUILDERS 162 + + IX. THE ORIENTAL 188 + + X. RACIAL INFILTRATION 208 + + XI. THE GUARDED DOOR 221 + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 235 + + INDEX 241 + + + + +OUR FOREIGNERS + +CHAPTER I + +OPENING THE DOOR + + +Long before men awoke to the vision of America, the Old World was the +scene of many stupendous migrations. One after another, the Goths, the +Huns, the Saracens, the Turks, and the Tatars, by the sheer tidal +force of their numbers threatened to engulf the ancient and medieval +civilization of Europe. But neither in the motives prompting them nor +in the effect they produced, nor yet in the magnitude of their +numbers, will such migrations bear comparison with the great exodus of +European peoples which in the course of three centuries has made the +United States of America. That movement of races--first across the sea +and then across the land to yet another sea, which set in with the +English occupation of Virginia in 1607 and which has continued from +that day to this an almost ceaseless stream of millions of human +beings seeking in the New World what was denied them in the Old--has +no parallel in history. + +It was not until the seventeenth century that the door of the +wilderness of North America was opened by Englishmen; but, if we are +interested in the circumstances and ideas which turned Englishmen +thither, we must look back into the wonderful sixteenth century--and +even into the fifteenth, for; it was only five or six years after the +great Christopher's discovery, that the Cabots, John and Sebastian, +raised the Cross of St. George on the North American coast. Two +generations later, when the New World was pouring its treasure into +the lap of Spain and when all England was pulsating with the new and +noble life of the Elizabethan Age, the sea captains of the Great Queen +challenged the Spanish monarch, defeated his Great Armada, and +unfurled the English flag, symbol of a changing era, in every sea. + +The political and economic thought of the sixteenth century was +conducive to imperial expansion. The feudal fragments of kingdoms were +being fused into a true nationalism. It was the day of the +mercantilists, when gold and silver were given a grotesquely +exaggerated place in the national economy and self-sufficiency was +deemed to be the goal of every great nation. Freed from the restraint +of rivals, the nation sought to produce its own raw material, control +its own trade, and carry its own goods in its own ships to its own +markets. This economic doctrine appealed with peculiar force to the +people of England. England was very far from being self-sustaining. +She was obliged to import salt, sugar, dried fruits, wines, silks, +cotton, potash, naval stores, and many other necessary commodities. +Even of the fish which formed a staple food on the English workman's +table, two-thirds of the supply was purchased from the Dutch. +Moreover, wherever English traders sought to take the products of +English industry, mostly woolen goods, they were met by +handicaps--tariffs, Sound dues, monopolies, exclusions, retaliations, +and even persecutions. + +So England was eager to expand under her own flag. With the fresh +courage and buoyancy of youth she fitted out ships and sent forth +expeditions. And while she shared with the rest of the Europeans the +vision of India and the Orient, her "gentlemen adventurers" were not +long in seeing the possibilities that lay concealed beyond the +inviting harbors, the navigable rivers, and the forest-covered valleys +of North America. With a willing heart they believed their quaint +chronicler, Richard Hakluyt, when he declared that America could bring +"_as great a profit to the Realme of England as the Indes to the King +of Spain_," that "_golde, silver, copper, leade and perales in +aboundaunce_" had been found there: also "_precious stones, as +turquoises and emauraldes; spices and drugges; silke worms fairer than +ours in Europe; white and red cotton; infinite multitude of all kind +of fowles; excellent vines in many places for wines; the soyle apte to +beare olyves for oyle; all kinds of fruites; all kindes of odoriferous +trees and date trees, cypresses, and cedars; and in New-founde-lande +aboundaunce of pines and firr trees to make mastes and deale boards, +pitch, tar, rosen; hempe for cables and cordage; and upp within the +Graunde Baye excedinge quantitie of all kinde of precious furres_." +Such a catalogue of resources led him to conclude that "_all the +commodities of our olde decayed and daungerous trades in all Europe, +Africa and Asia haunted by us, may in short space and for little or +nothinge, in a manner be had in that part of America which lieth +between 30 and 60 degrees of northerly latitude_." + +Even after repeated expeditions had discounted the exuberant optimism +of this description, the Englishmen's faith did not wane. While for +many years there lurked in the mind of the Londoner, the hope that +some of the products of the Levant might be raised in the fertile +valleys of Virginia, the practical English temperament none the less +began promptly to appease itself with the products of the vast +forests, the masts, the tar and pitch, the furs; with the fish from +the coast waters, the abundant cod, herring, and mackerel; nor was it +many years before tobacco, indigo, sugar, cotton, maize, and other +commodities brought to the merchants of England a great American +commerce. + +The first attempts to found colonies in the country by Sir Humphrey +Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh were pitiable failures. But the +settlement on the James in 1607 marked the beginning of a nation. What +sort of nation? What race of people? Sir Walter Raleigh, with true +English tenacity, had said after learning of the collapse of his own +colony, "I shall yet live to see it an English nation." The new nation +certainly was English in its foundation, whatever may be said of its +superstructure. Virginia, New England, Maryland, the Carolinas, New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia were begun by Englishmen; and New +England, Virginia, and Maryland remained almost entirely English +throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth. These +colonies reproduced, in so far as their strange and wild surroundings +permitted, the towns, the estates, and the homes of Englishmen of that +day. They were organized and governed by Englishmen under English +customs and laws; and the Englishman's constitutional liberties were +their boast until the colonists wrote these rights and privileges into +a constitution of their own. "Foreigners" began early to straggle into +the colonies. But not until the eighteenth century was well under way +did they come in appreciable numbers, and even then the great bulk of +these non-English newcomers were from the British Isles--of Welsh, +Scotch, Irish, and Scotch-Irish extraction. + +These colonies took root at a time when profound social and religious +changes were occurring in England. Churchmen and dissenters were at +war with each other; autocracy was struggling to survive the +representative system; and agrarianism was contending with a newly +created capitalism for economic supremacy. The old order was changing. +In vain were attempts made to stay progress by labor laws and poor +laws and corn laws. The laws rather served to fill the highways with +vagrants, vagabonds, mendicants, beggars, and worse. There was a +general belief that the country was overpopulated. For the restive, +the discontented, the ambitious, as well as for the undesirable +surplus, the new colonies across the Atlantic provided a welcome +outlet. + +To the southern plantations were lured those to whom land-owning +offered not only a means of livelihood but social distinction. As word +was brought back of the prosperity of the great estates and of the +limitless areas awaiting cultivation, it tempted in substantial +numbers those who were dissatisfied with their lot: the yeoman who saw +no escape from the limitations of his class, either for himself or for +his children; the younger son who disdained trade but was too poor to +keep up family pretensions; professional men, lawyers, and doctors, +even clergymen, who were ambitious to become landed gentlemen; all +these felt the irresistible call of the New World. + +The northern colonies were, on the other hand, settled by townfolk, by +that sturdy middle class which had wedged its way socially between the +aristocracy and the peasantry, which asserted itself politically in +the Cromwellian Commonwealth and later became the industrial master of +trade and manufacture. These hard-headed dissenters founded New +England. They built towns and almost immediately developed a +profitable trade and manufacture. With a goodly sprinkling of +university men among them, they soon had a college of their own. +Indeed, Harvard graduated its first class as early as 1642. + +Supplementing these pioneers, came mechanics and artisans eager to +better their condition. Of the serving class, only a few came +willingly. These were the "free-willers" or "redemptioners," who sold +their services usually for a term of five years to pay for their +passage money. But the great mass of unskilled labor necessary to +clear the forests and do the other hard work so plentiful in a pioneer +land came to America under duress. Kidnaping or "spiriting" achieved +the perfection of a fine art under the second Charles. Boys and girls +of the poorer classes, those wretched waifs who thronged the streets +of London and other towns, were hustled on board ships and virtually +sold into slavery for a term of years. It is said that in 1670 alone +ten thousand persons were thus kidnaped; and one kidnaper testified in +1671 that he had sent five hundred persons a year to the colonies for +twelve years and another that he had sent 840 in one year. + +Transportation of the idle poor was another common source for +providing servants. In 1663 an act was passed by Parliament empowering +Justices of the Peace to send rogues, vagrants, and "sturdy beggars" +to the colonies. These men belonged to the class of the unfortunate +rather than the vicious and were the product of a passing state of +society, though criminals also were deported. Virginia and other +colonies vigorously protested against this practice, but their +protests were ignored by the Crown. When, however, it is recalled that +in those years the list of capital offenses was appalling in length, +that the larceny of a few shillings was punishable by death, that many +of the victims were deported because of religious differences and +political offenses, then the stigma of crime is erased. And one does +not wonder that some of these transported persons rose to places of +distinction and honor in the colonies and that many of them became +respected citizens. Maryland, indeed, recruited her schoolmasters from +among their ranks. + +Indentured service was an institution of that time, as was slavery. +The lot of the indentured servant was not ordinarily a hard one. Here +and there masters were cruel and inhuman. But in a new country where +hands were so few and work so abundant, it was wisdom to be tolerant +and humane. Servants who had worked out their time usually became +tenants or freeholders, often moving to other colonies and later to +the interior beyond the "fall line," where they became pioneers in +their turn. + +The most important and influential influx of non-English stock into +the colonies was the copious stream of Scotch-Irish. Frontier life was +not a new experience to these hardy and remarkable people. Ulster, +when they migrated thither from Scotland in the early part of the +seventeenth century, was a wild moorland, and the Irish were more than +unfriendly neighbors. Yet these transplanted Scotch changed the fens +and mires into fields and gardens; in three generations they had built +flourishing towns and were doing a thriving manufacture in linens and +woolens. Then England, in her mercantilist blindness, began to pass +legislation that aimed to cut off these fabrics from English +competition. Soon thousands of Ulster artisans were out of work. Nor +was their religion immune from English attack, for these Ulstermen +were Presbyterians. These civil, religious, and economic persecutions +thereupon drove to America an ethnic strain that has had an influence +upon the character of the nation far out of proportion to its +relative numbers. In the long list of leaders in American politics and +enterprise and in every branch of learning, Scotch-Irish names are +common. + +There had been some trade between Ulster and the colonies, and a few +Ulstermen had settled on the eastern shore of Maryland and in Virginia +before the close of the seventeenth century. Between 1714 and 1720, +fifty-four ships arrived in Boston with immigrants from Ireland. They +were carefully scrutinized by the Puritan exclusionists. Cotton Mather +wrote in his diary on August 7, 1718: "But what shall be done for the +great number of people that are transporting themselves thither from +ye North of Ireland?" And John Winthrop, speaking of twenty ministers +and their congregations that were expected the same year, said, "I +wish their coming so over do not prove fatall in the End." They were +not welcome, and had, evidently, no intention of burdening the towns. +Most of them promptly moved on beyond the New England settlements. + +The great mass of Scotch-Irish, however, came to Pennsylvania, and in +such large numbers that James Logan, the Secretary of the Province, +wrote to the Proprietors in 1729: "It looks as if Ireland is to send +all its inhabitants hither, for last week not less than six ships +arrived, and every day two or three arrive also."[1] These colonists +did not remain in the towns but, true to their traditions, pushed on +to the frontier. They found their way over the mountain trails into +the western part of the colony; they pushed southward along the +fertile plateaus that terrace the Blue Ridge Mountains and offer a +natural highway to the South; into Virginia, where they possessed +themselves of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley; into Maryland and the +Carolinas; until the whole western frontier, from Georgia to New York +and from Massachusetts to Maine, was the skirmish line of the +Scotch-Irish taking possession of the wilderness. + +The rebellions of the Pretenders in Scotland in 1715 and 1745 and the +subsequent break-up of the clan system produced a considerable +migration to the colonies from both the Highlands and the Lowlands. +These new colonists settled largely in the Carolinas and in Maryland. +The political prisoners, of whom there were many in consequence of +the rebellions, were sold into service, usually for a term of fourteen +years. In Pennsylvania the Welsh founded a number of settlements in +the neighborhood of Philadelphia. There were Irish servants in all the +colonies and in Maryland many Irish Catholics joined their fellow +Catholics from England. + +In 1683 a group of religious refugees from the Rhineland founded +Germantown, near Philadelphia. Soon other German communities were +started in the neighboring counties. Chief among these German +sectarians were the Mennonites, frequently called the German Quakers, +so nearly did their religious peculiarities match those of the +followers of Penn; the Dunkers, a Baptist sect, who seem to have come +from Germany boot and baggage, leaving not one of their number behind; +and the Moravians, whose missionary zeal and gentle demeanor have made +them beloved in many lands. The peculiar religious devotions of the +sectarians still left them time to cultivate their inclination for +literature and music. There were a few distinguished scholars among +them and some of the finest examples of early American books bear the +imprint of their presses. + +This modest beginning of the German invasion was soon followed by more +imposing additions. The repeated strategic devastations of the Rhenish +Palatinate during the French and Spanish wars reduced the peasantry to +beggary, and the medieval social stratification of Germany reduced +them to virtual serfdom, from which America offered emancipation. +Queen Anne invited the harassed peasants of this region to come to +England, whence they could be transferred to America. Over thirty +thousand took advantage of the opportunity in the years 1708 and +1709.[2] Some of them found occupation in England and others in +Ireland, but the majority migrated, some to New York, where they +settled in the Mohawk Valley, others to the Carolinas, but far more to +Pennsylvania, where, with an instinct born of generations of contact +with the soil, they sought out the most promising areas in the +limestone valleys of the eastern part of that colony, cleared the +land, built their solid homes and ample barns, and clung to their +language, customs, and religion so tenaciously that to this day their +descendants are called "Pennsylvania Dutch." + +After 1717 multitudes of German peasants were lured to America by +unscrupulous agents called "new-landers" or "soul-stealers," who, for +a commission paid by the shipmaster, lured the peasant to sell his +belongings, scrape together or borrow what he could, and migrate. The +agents and captains then saw to it that few arrived in Philadelphia +out of debt. As a result the immigrants were sold to "soul-drivers," +who took them to the interior and indentured them to farmers, usually +of their own race. These redemptioners, as they were called, served +from three to five years and generally received fifty acres of land at +the expiration of their service. + +On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 French +Protestants fled in vast numbers to England and to Holland. Thence +many of them found their way to America, but very few came hither +directly from France. South Carolina, Virginia, New York, Rhode +Island, and Massachusetts were favored by those noble refugees, who +included in their numbers not only skilled artisans and successful +merchants but distinguished scholars and professional men in whose +veins flowed some of the best blood of France. They readily identified +themselves with the industries and aspirations of the colonies and at +once became leaders in the professional and business life in their +communities. In Boston, in Charleston, in New York, and in other +commercial centers, the names of streets, squares, and public +buildings attest their prominence in trade and politics. Few names are +more illustrious than those of Paul Revere, Peter Faneuil, and James +Bowdoin of Massachusetts; John Jay, Nicholas Bayard, Stephen DeLancey +of New York; Elias Boudinot of New Jersey; Henry Laurens and Francis +Marion of South Carolina. Like the Scotch-Irish, these French +Protestants and their descendants have distinguished themselves for +their capacity for leadership. + +The Jews came early to New York, and as far back as 1691 they had a +synagogue in Manhattan. The civil disabilities then so common in +Europe were not enforced against them in America, except that they +could not vote for members of the legislature. As that body itself +declared in 1737, the Jews did not possess the parliamentary franchise +in England, and no special act had endowed them with this right in the +colonies. The earliest representatives of this race in America came to +New Amsterdam with the Dutch and were nearly all Spanish and +Portuguese Jews, who had found refuge in Holland after their wholesale +expulsion from the Iberian peninsula in 1492. Rhode Island, too, and +Pennsylvania had a substantial Jewish population. The Jews settled +characteristically in the towns and soon became a factor in commercial +enterprise. It is to be noted that they contributed liberally to the +patriot cause in the Revolution. + +While the ships bearing these many different stocks were sailing +westward, England did not gain possession of the whole Atlantic +seaboard without contest. The Dutch came to Manhattan in 1623 and for +fifty years held sway over the imperial valley of the Hudson. It was a +brief interval, as history goes, but it was long enough to stamp upon +the town of Manhattan the cosmopolitan character it has ever since +maintained. Into its liberal and congenial atmosphere were drawn Jews, +Moravians, and Anabaptists; Scotch Presbyterians and English +Nonconformists; Waldenses from Piedmont and Huguenots from France. The +same spirit that made Holland the lenient host to political and +religious refugees from every land in that restive age characterized +her colony and laid the foundations of the great city of today. +England had to wrest from the Dutch their ascendancy in New +Netherland, where they split in twain the great English colonies of +New England and of the South and controlled the magnificent harbor at +the mouth of the Hudson, which has since become the water gate of the +nation. + +While the English were thus engaged in establishing themselves on the +coast, the French girt them in by a strategic circle of forts and +trading posts reaching from Acadia, up the St. Lawrence, around the +Great Lakes, and down the valley of the Mississippi, with outposts on +the Ohio and other important confluents. When, after the final +struggle between France and Britain for world empire, France retired +from the North American continent, she left to England all her +possessions east of the Mississippi, with the exception of a few +insignificant islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the West Indies; +and to Spain she ceded New Orleans and her vast claims beyond the +great river. + +Thus from the first, the lure of the New World beckoned to many races, +and to every condition of men. By the time that England's dominion +spread over half the northern continent, her colonies were no longer +merely English. They were the most cosmopolitan areas in the world. A +few European cities had at times been cities of refuge, but New York +and Philadelphia were more than mere temporary shelters to every +creed. Nowhere else could so many tongues be heard as in a stroll +down Broadway to the Battery. No European commonwealths embraced in +their citizenry one-half the ethnic diversity of the Carolinas or of +Pennsylvania. And within the wide range of his American domains, the +English King could point to one spot or another and say: "Here the +Spaniards have built a chaste and beautiful mission; here the French +have founded a noble city; here my stubborn Roundheads have planted a +whole nest of commonwealths; here my Dutch neighbors thought they +stole a march on me, but I forestalled them; this valley is filled +with Germans, and that plateau is covered with Scotch-Irish, while the +Swedes have taken possession of all this region." And with a proud +gesture he could add, "But everywhere they read their laws in the +King's English and acknowledge my sovereignty." + +Against the shifting background of history these many races of diverse +origin played their individual parts, each contributing its essential +characteristics to the growing complex of a new order of society in +America. So on this stage, broad as the western world, we see these +men of different strains subduing a wilderness and welding its diverse +parts into a great nation, stretching out the eager hand of +exploration for yet more land, bringing with arduous toil the ample +gifts of sea and forest to the townsfolk, hewing out homesteads in the +savage wilderness, laboring faithfully at forge and shipyard and loom, +bartering in the market place, putting the fear of God into their +children and the fear of their own strong right arm into him whosoever +sought to oppress them, be he Red Man with his tomahawk or English +King with his Stamp Act. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: In 1773 and 1774 over thirty thousand came. In the latter +year Benjamin Franklin estimated the population of Pennsylvania at +350,000, of which number one-third was thought to be Scotch-Irish. +John Fiske states that half a million, all told, arrived in the +colonies before 1776, "making not less than one-sixth part of our +population at the time of the Revolution."] + +[Footnote 2: John Fiske: _The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, +vol. II, p. 351.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE AMERICAN STOCK + + +In the history of a word we may frequently find a fragment, sometimes +a large section, of universal history. This is exemplified in the term +American, a name which, in the phrase of George Washington, "must +always exalt the pride of patriotism" and which today is proudly borne +by a hundred million people. There is no obscurity about the origin of +the name America. It was suggested for the New World in 1507 by Martin +Waldseemüller, a German geographer at the French college of Saint-Dié. +In that year this savant printed a tract, with a map of the world or +_mappemonde_, recognizing the dubious claims of discovery set up by +Amerigo Vespucci and naming the new continent after him. At first +applied only to South America, the name was afterwards extended to +mean the northern continent as well; and in time the whole New World, +from the Frozen Ocean to the Land of Fire, came to be called America. + +Inevitably the people who achieved a preponderating influence in the +new continent came to be called Americans. Today the name American +everywhere signifies belonging to the United States, and a citizen of +that country is called an American. This unquestionably is +geographically anomalous, for the neighbors of the United States, both +north and south, may claim an equal share in the term. Ethnically, the +only real Americans are the Indian descendants of the aboriginal +races. But it is futile to combat universal usage: the World War has +clinched the name upon the inhabitants of the United States. The +American army, the American navy, American physicians and nurses, +American food and clothing--these are phrases with a definite +geographical and ethnic meaning which neither academic ingenuity nor +race rivalry can erase from the memory of mankind. + +This chapter, however, is to discuss the American stock, and it is +necessary to look farther back than mere citizenship; for there are +millions of American citizens of foreign birth or parentage who, +though they are Americans, are clearly not of any American stock. + +At the time of the Revolution there was a definite American +population, knit together by over two centuries of toil in the hard +school of frontier life, inspired by common political purposes, +speaking one language, worshiping one God in divers manners, +acknowledging one sovereignty, and complying with the mandates of one +common law. Through their common experience in subduing the wilderness +and in wresting their independence from an obstinate and stupid +monarch, the English colonies became a nation. Though they did not +fulfill Raleigh's hope and become an English nation, they were much +more English than non-English, and these Revolutionary Americans may +be called today, without abuse of the term, the original American +stock. Though they were a blend of various races, a cosmopolitan +admixture of ethnic strains, they were not more varied than the +original admixture of blood now called English. + +We may, then, properly begin our survey of the racial elements in the +United States by a brief scrutiny of this American stock, the parent +stem of the American people, the great trunk, whose roots have +penetrated deep into the human experience of the past and whose +branches have pushed upward and outward until they spread over a whole +continent. + +The first census of the United States was taken in 1790. More than a +hundred years later, in 1909, the Census Bureau published _A Century +of Population Growth_ in which an attempt was made to ascertain the +nationality of those who comprised the population at the taking of the +first census. In that census no questions of nativity were asked. This +omission is in itself significant of the homogeneity of the population +at that time. The only available data, therefore, upon which such a +calculation could be made were the surnames of the heads of families +preserved in the schedules. A careful analysis of the list disclosed a +surprisingly large number of names ostensibly English or British. +Fashions in names have changed since then, and many that were so +curious, simple, or fantastically compounded as to be later deemed +undignified have undergone change or disappeared.[3] + +Upon this basis the nationality of the white population was +distributed among the States in accordance with Table A printed on +pages 26-27. Three of the original States are not represented in this +table: New Jersey, Delaware, and Georgia. The schedules of the First +Census for those States were not preserved. The two new States of +Kentucky and Tennessee are also missing from the list. Estimates, +however, have been made for these missing States. + +For Delaware, the schedules of the Second Census, 1800, survived. As +there was little growth and very little change in the composition of +the population during this decade, the Census Bureau used the later +figures as a basis for calculating the population in 1790. Of three of +the missing Southern States the report says: "The composition of the +white population of Georgia, Kentucky, and of the district +subsequently erected into the State of Tennessee is also unknown; but +in view of the fact that Georgia was a distinctly English colony, and +that Tennessee and Kentucky were settled largely from Virginia and +North Carolina, the application of the North Carolina proportions to +the white population of these three results in what is doubtless an +approximation of the actual distribution." + +TABLE A[4] + +DISTRIBUTION OF THE WHITE POPULATION, 1790, IN EACH STATE, ACCORDING +TO NATIONALITY AS INDICATED BY NAMES OF HEADS OF FAMILIES + +Note: The first column under each State gives the number of persons; +the second, the percentage. The asterisk indicates less than one-tenth +of one per cent. + +-------------+-------------+--------------+-------------+-------------- +NATIONALITY | MAINE | NEW HAMPSHIRE| VERMONT | MASSACHUSETTS +-------------+-------+-----+--------+-----+-------+-----+--------+----- + All | | | | | | | | +Nationalities| 96,107|100.0| 141,112|100.0| 85,072|100.0| 373,187|100.0 + | | | | | | | | +English | 89,515| 93.1| 132,726| 94.1| 81,149| 95.4| 354,528| 95.0 +Scotch | 4,154| 4.3| 6,648| 4.7| 2,562| 3.0| 13,435| 3.6 +Irish | 1,334| 1.4| 1,346| 1.0| 597| 0.7| 3,732| 1.0 +Dutch | 279| 0.3| 153| 0.1| 428| 0.5| 373| 0.1 +French | 115| 0.1| 142| 0.1| 153| 0.2| 746| 0.2 +German | 436| 0.5| | | 35| *| 75| * +Hebrew | 44| *| | | | | 67| * +All others | 230| 0.2| 97| 0.1| 148| 0.2| 231| * +-------------+-------+-----+--------+-----+-------+-----+--------+----- + +-------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+-------------- +NATIONALITY | RHODE ISLAND| CONNECTICUT | NEW YORK | PENNSYLVANIA +-------------+-------+-----+--------+-----+--------+-----+--------+----- + All | | | | | | | | +Nationalities| 64,670|100.0| 232,236|100.0| 314,366|100.0| 423,373|100.0 + | | | | | | | | +English | 62,079| 96.0| 223,437| 96.2| 245,901| 78.2| 249,656| 59.0 +Scotch | 1,976| 3.1| 6,425| 2.8| 10,034| 3.2| 49,567| 11.7 +Irish | 459| 0.7| 1,589 | 0.7| 2,525| 0.8| 8,614| 2.0 +Dutch | 19| *| 258 | 0.1| 50,600| 16.1| 2,623| 0.6 +French | 88| 0.1| 512| 0.2| 2,424| 0.8| 2,341| 0.6 +German | 33| 0.1| 4| *| 1,103| 0.4| 110,357| 26.1 +Hebrew | 9| *| 5| *| 385| 0.1| 21| * +All others | 7| *| 6| *| 1,394| 0.4| 194| * +-------------+-------+-----+--------+-----+--------+-----+--------+----- + +-------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+-------------- +NATIONALITY | MARYLAND | VIRGINIA |NORTH CAROLINA|SOUTH CAROLINA +-------------+--------+-----+--------+-----+--------+-----+--------+----- + All | | | | | | | | +Nationalities| 208,649|100.0| 442,117|100.0| 289,181|100.0| 140,178|100.0 + | | | | | | | | +English | 175,265| 84.0| 375,799| 85.0| 240,309| 83.1| 115,480| 82.4 +Scotch | 13,562| 6.5| 31,391| 7.1| 32,388| 11.2| 16,447| 11.7 +Irish | 5,008| 2.4| 8,842| 2.0| 6,651| 2.3| 3,576| 2.6 +Dutch | 209| 0.1| 884| 0.2| 578| 0.2| 219| 0.2 +French | 1,460| 0.7| 2,653| 0.6| 868| 0.3| 1,882| 1.8 +German | 12,310| 5.9| 21,664| 4.9| 8,097| 2.8| 2,343| 1.7 +Hebrew | 626| 0.3| | | 1| *| 85| * +All others | 209| 0.1| 884| 0.2| 289| 0.1| 146| 0.1 +-------------+--------+-----+--------+-----+--------+-----+--------+----- + +TABLE B + +COMPUTED DISTRIBUTION OF WHITE POPULATION, 1790, ACCORDING TO +NATIONALITY, IN EACH STATE FOR WHICH SCHEDULES ARE MISSING + +--------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------- +NATIONALITY | NEW JERSEY | DELAWARE | GEORGIA +--------------+---------+-------+---------+-------+---------+------ + All | | | | | | +Nationalities | 169,954 | 100.0 | 46,310 | 100.0 | 52,886 | 100.0 + | | | | | | +English | 98,620 | 58.0 | 39,966 | 86.3 | 43,948 | 83.1 +Scotch | 13,156 | 7.7 | 3,473 | 7.5 | 5,923 | 11.2 +Irish | 12,099 | 7.1 | 1,806 | 3.9 | 1,216 | 2.3 +Dutch | 21,581 | 12.7 | 463 | 1.0 | 106 | 0.2 +French | 3,565 | 2.1 | 232 | 0.5 | 159 | 0.3 +German | 15,678 | 9.2 | 185 | 0.4 | 1,481 | 2.8 +All others[A] | 5,255 | 3.1 | 185 | 0.4 | 53 | 0.1 +--------------+---------+-------+---------+-------+---------+------ + +--------------+-----------------+---------------- +NATIONALITY | KENTUCKY | TENNESSEE +--------------+---------+-------+---------+------ + All | | | | +Nationalities | 61,133 | 100.0 | 31,918 | 100.0 + | | | | +English | 50,802 | 83.1 | 26,519 | 83.1 +Scotch | 6,847 | 11.2 | 3,574 | 11.2 +Irish | 1,406 | 2.3 | 734 | 2.8 +Dutch | 122 | 0.2 | 64 | 0.2 +French | 183 | 0.3 | 96 | 0.3 +German | 1,712 | 2.8 | 894 | 2.8 +All others[A] | 61 | 0.1 | 32 | 0.1 +--------------+---------+-------+---------+------ +[Note A: Including Hebrews.] + +New Jersey presented a more complex problem. Here were Welsh and +Swedes, Finns and Danes, as well as French, Dutch, Scotch, Irish, and +English. A careful analysis was made of lists of freeholders, and +other available sources, in the various counties. The results of these +computations in the States from which no schedules of the First Census +survive are given in Table B printed on page 28. + +The calculations for the entire country in 1790, based upon the census +schedules of the States from which reports are still available and +upon estimates for the others are summed up in the following manner: + +_Number and per cent distribution of the white population, 1790:_ + +_Nationality_ _Number_ _Per Cent_ + +All Nationalities 3,172,444 100.0 + English 2,605,699 82.1 + Scotch 221,562 7.0 + Irish 61,534 1.9 + Dutch 78,959 2.5 + French 17,619 0.6 + German 176,407 5.6 + All others 10,664 0.3 + +To this method of estimating nationality, it will at once be objected +that undue prominence is given to the derivation of the surname, an +objection fully understood by those who made the estimate and one +which deprives their conclusions of strict scientific verity. In a new +country, where the population is in a constant flux and where members +of community composed of one race easily migrate to another part of +the country and fall in with people of another race, it is very easy +to modify the name to suit new circumstances. We know, for instance +that Isaac Isaacks of Pennsylvania was not a Jew, that the Van +Buskirks of New Jersey were German, not Dutch, that D'Aubigné was +early shortened into Dabny and Aulnay into Olney. So also many a Brown +had been Braun, and several Blacks had once been only Schwartz. Even +the universal Smith had absorbed more than one original Schmidt. These +rather exceptional cases, however, probably, do not vitiate the +general conclusion here made as to the British and non-British element +in the population of America, for the Dutch, the German, the French, +and the Swedish cognomens are characteristically different from the +British. But the differentiation between Irish, Welsh, Scotch, +Scotch-Irish, and English names is infinitely more difficult. The +Scotch-Irish particularly have challenged the conclusions reached by +the Census Bureau. They claim a much larger proportion of the +original bulk of our population than the seven per cent included under +the heading Scotch. Henry Jones Ford considers the conclusions as far +as they pertain to the Scotch-Irish as "fallacious and untrustworthy." +"Many Ulster names," he says,[5] "are also common English names.... +Names classed as Scotch or Irish were probably mostly those of +Scotch-Irish families.... The probability is that the English +proportion should be much smaller and that the Scotch-Irish, who are +not included in the Census Bureau's classification, should be much +larger than the combined proportions allotted to the Scotch and the +Irish." + +Whatever may be the actual proportions of these British elements, as +revealed by a study of the patronymics of the population at the time +of American independence, the fact that the ethnic stock was +overwhelmingly British stands out most prominently. We shall never +know the exact ratios between the Scotch and the English, the Welsh +and the Irish blended in this hardy, self-assertive, and fecund +strain. But we do know that the language, the political institutions, +and the common law as practiced and established in London had a +predominating influence on the destinies of the United States. While +the colonists drifted far from the religious establishments of the +mother country and found her commercial policies unendurable and her +political hauteur galling, they nevertheless retained those legal and +institutional forms which remain the foundation of Anglo-Saxon life. + +For nearly half a century the American stock remained almost entirely +free from foreign admixture. It is estimated that between 1790 and +1820 only 250,000 immigrants came to America, and of these the great +majority came after the War of 1812. The white population of the +United States in 1820 was 7,862,166. Ten years later it had risen to +10,537,378. This astounding increase was almost wholly due to the +fecundity of the native stock. The equitable balance between the +sexes, the ease of acquiring a home, the vigorous pioneer environment, +and the informal frontier social conditions all encouraged large +families. Early marriages were encouraged. Bachelors and unmarried +women were rare. Girls were matrons at twenty-five and grand-mothers +at forty. Three generations frequently dwelt in one homestead. +Families of five persons were the rule; families of eight or ten were +common, while families of fourteen or fifteen did not elicit +surprise. It was the father's ambition to leave a farm to every son +and, if the neighborhood was too densely settled easily to permit +this, there was the West--always the West. + +This was a race of nation builders. No sooner had he made the +Declaration of Independence a reality than the eager pathfinder turned +his face towards the setting sun and, prompted by the instincts of +conquest, he plunged into the wilderness. Within a few years western +New York and Pennsylvania were settled; Kentucky achieved statehood in +1792 and Tennessee four years later, soon to be followed by +Mississippi in 1817 and Alabama in 1819. The great Northwest Territory +yielded Ohio in 1802, Indiana in 1816, Illinois in 1818, and Michigan +in 1837. Beyond the Mississippi the empire of Louisiana doubled the +original area of the Republic; Louisiana came into statehood in 1812 +and Missouri in 1821. Texas, Oregon, and the fruits of the Mexican War +extended its confines to the Western Sea. Incredibly swift as was this +march of the Stars, the American pioneer was always in advance. + +The pathfinders were virtually all of American stock. The States +admitted to the Union prior to 1840 were not only founded by them; +they were almost wholly settled by them. When the influx of +foreigners began in the thirties, they found all the trails already +blazed, the trading posts established, and the first terrors of the +wilderness dispelled. They found territories already metamorphosed +into States, counties organized, cities established. Schools, +churches, and colleges preceded the immigrants who were settlers and +not strictly pioneers. The entire territory ceded by the Treaty of +1783 was appropriated in large measure by the American before the +advent of the European immigrant. + +Washington, with a ring of pride, said in 1796 that the native +population of America was "filling the western part of the State of +New York and the country on the Ohio with their own surplusage." And +James Madison in 1821 wrote that New England, "which has sent out such +a continued swarm to other parts of the Union for a number of years, +has continued at the same time, as the census shows, to increase in +population although it is well known that it has received but +comparatively few emigrants from any quarter." Beyond the Mississippi, +Louisiana, with its Creole population, was feeling the effect of +American migration. + +A strange restlessness, of the race rather than of the individual, +possessed the American frontiers-man. He moved from one locality to +another, but always westward, like some new migratory species that +had willingly discarded the instinct for returning. He never took the +back trail. A traveler, writing in 1791 from the Ohio Valley, rather +superficially observed that "the Americans are lazy and bored, often +moving from place to place for the sake of change; in the thirty years +that the [western] Pennsylvania neighborhood has been settled, it has +changed owners two or three times. The sight of money will tempt any +American to sell and off he goes to a new country." Foreign observers +of that time constantly allude to this universal and inexplicable +restiveness. It was obviously not laziness, for pioneering was a man's +task; nor boredom, for the frontier was lonely and neighbors were far +apart It was an ever-present dissatisfaction that drove this perpetual +conqueror onward--a mysterious impulse, the urge of vague and +unfulfilled desires. He went forward with a conquering ambition in his +heart; he believed he was the forerunner of a great National Destiny. +Crude rhymes of the day voice this feeling: + + So shall the nation's pioneer go joyful on his way, + To wed Penobscot water to San Francisco Bay. + The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea, + And mountain unto mountain call, praise God, for we are free! + +Again a popular chorus of the pathfinder rang: + + Then o'er the hills in legions, boys; + Fair freedom's star + Points to the sunset regions, boys, + Ha, Ha, Ha-ha! + +Many a New Englander cleared a farm in western New York, Ohio, or +Indiana, before settling finally in Wisconsin, Iowa, or Minnesota, +whence he sent his sons on to Dakota, Montana, Oregon, and California. +From Tennessee and Kentucky large numbers moved into southern Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois, and across the river into Missouri, Arkansas, +Louisiana, and Texas. Abraham Lincoln's father was one of these +pioneers and tried his luck in various localities in Kentucky, +Indiana, and Illinois. + +Nor had the movement ceased after a century of continental +exploitation. Hamlin Garland in his notable autobiography, _A Son of +the Middle Border_, brings down to our own day the evidence of this +native American restiveness. His parents came of New England +extraction, but settled in Wisconsin. His father, after his return +from the Civil War, moved to Iowa, where he was scarcely ensconced +before an opportunity came to sell his place. The family then pushed +out farther upon the Iowa prairie, where they "broke" a farm from the +primeval turf. Again, in his ripe age, the father found the urge +revive and under this impulse he moved again, this time to Dakota, +where he remained long enough to transform a section of prairie into +wheat land before he took the final stage of his western journeyings +to southern California. Here he was surrounded by neighbors whose +migration had been not unlike his own, and to the same sunny region +another relative found his way "by way of a long trail through Iowa, +Dakota, Montana, Oregon, and North California." + +When the last frontier had vanished, it was seen that men of this +American stock had penetrated into every valley, traversed every +plain, and explored every mountain pass from Atlantic to Pacific. They +organized every territory and prepared each for statehood. It was the +enterprise of these sons and grandsons and great-grandsons of the +Revolutionary Americans, obeying the restless impulse of a pioneer +race, who spread a network of settlements and outposts over the entire +land and prepared it for the immigrant invasion from Europe. Owing to +this influx of foreigners, the American stock has become mingled with +other strains, especially those from Great Britain. + +The Census Bureau estimated that in 1900 there were living in the +United States approximately thirty-five million white people who were +descended from persons enumerated in 1790. If these thirty-five +million were distributed by nationality according to the proportions +estimated for 1790, the result would appear as follows: + + English 28,735,000 + Scotch 2,450,000 + Irish 665,000 + Dutch 875,000 + French 210,000 + German 1,960,000 + All others 105,000 + +In 1900 there were also thirty-two million descendants of white +persons who had come to the United States after the First Census, yet +of these over twenty million were either foreign born or the children +of persons born abroad. If this ratio of increase remained the same, +the American stock would apparently maintain its own, even in the +midst of twentieth century immigration. But the birth rate of the +foreign stock, especially among the recent comers, is much higher than +of the native American stock. Conditions have so changed that, +according to the Census, the American people "have concluded that they +are only about one-half as well able to rear children--at any rate, +without personal sacrifice--under the conditions prevailing in 1900 as +their predecessors proved themselves to be under the conditions which +prevailed in 1790." + +The difficulty of ascertaining ethnic influences increases +immeasurably when we pass from the physical to the mental realm. There +are subtle interplays of delicate forces and reactions from +environment which no one can measure. Leadership nevertheless is the +gift of but few races; and in the United States eminence in business, +in statecraft, in letters and learning can with singular directness be +traced in a preponderating proportion to this American stock. + +In 1891 Henry Cabot Lodge published an essay on _The Distribution of +Ability in the United States_,[6] based upon the 15,514 names in +Appleton's _Cyclopedia of American Biography_ (1887). He "treated as +immigrants all persons who came to the United States after the +adoption of the Constitution," and on this division he found 14,243 +"Americans" and 1271 "immigrants" distributed racially as follows: + +AMERICANS IMMIGRANTS + +English 10,376 English 345 +Scotch-Irish 1439 German 245 +German 659 Irish 200 +Huguenot 589 Scotch 151 +Scotch 436 Scotch-Irish 88 +Dutch 336 French 63 +Welsh 159 Canadian and +Irish 109 British Colonial 60 +French 85 Scandinavian 18 +Scandinavian 31 Welsh 16 +Spanish 7 Belgian 15 +Italian 7 Swiss 15 +Swiss 5 Dutch 14 +Greek 3 Polish 13 +Russian 1 Hungarian 11 +Polish 1 Italian 10 + Greek 3 + Russian 2 + Spanish 1 + Portuguese 1 + +Of the total number of individuals selected, a large number were +chosen by the editors as being of enough importance to entitle them to +a small portrait in the text, and fifty-eight persons who had achieved +some unusual distinction were accorded a full-page portrait. These, +however, represented achievement rather than ability, for they +included the Presidents of the United States and other political +personages. Of the total number selected for the distinction of a +small portrait, 1200 were "Americans" and 71 "immigrants." Of the 1200 +"Americans," 856 were of English extraction, 129 Scotch-Irish, 57 +Huguenot, 45 Scotch, 39 Dutch, 37 German, 15 Welsh, 13 Irish, 6 +French, and one each of Scandinavian, Spanish, and Swiss. Of the +"immigrants" 15 were English, 14 German, 11 Irish, 8 Scotch-Irish, 7 +Scotch, 6 Swiss, 4 French, 3 from Spanish Provinces, and 1 each from +Scandinavia, Belgium, and Poland. All the 58 whose full-page portraits +are presumed to be an index to unusual prominence were found to be +"Americans" and by race extraction they were distributed as follows: +English 41, Scotch-Irish 8, Scotch 4, Welsh 2, Dutch, Spanish, and +Irish 1 each. + +Whatever may be said in objection to this index of ability (and +Senator Lodge effectively answered his critics in a note appended to +this study in his volume of _Historical and Political Essays_), it is +apparent that a large preponderance of leadership in American +politics, business, art, literature, and learning has been derived +from the American stock. This is a perfectly natural result. The +founders of the Republic themselves were in large degree the children +of the pick of Europe. The Puritan, Cavalier, Quaker, Scotch-Irish, +Huguenot, and Dutch pioneers were not ordinary folk in any sense of +the term. They were, in a measure, a race of heroes. Their sons and +grandsons inherited their vigor and their striving. It is not at all +singular that every President of the United States and every Chief +Justice of the Federal Supreme Court has come from this stock, nor +that the vast majority of Cabinet members, of distinguished Senators, +of Speakers of the House, and of men of note in the House of +Representatives trace back to it their lineage in whole or in part. +After the middle of the nineteenth century the immigrant vote began to +make itself felt, and politicians contended for the "Irish vote" and +the "German vote" and later for the "Italian vote" the "Jewish vote," +and the "Norwegian vote." Members of the immigrant races began to +appear in Washington, and the new infusion of blood made itself felt +in the political life of the country. + +But, if material were available for a comprehensive analysis of +American leadership in life and thought today, a larger number of +names of non-native origin would no doubt appear than was disclosed +in 1891 by Senator Lodge's analysis. All the learned professions, for +instance, and many lines of business are finding their numbers swelled +by persons of foreign parentage. This change is to be expected. The +influence of environment, especially of free education and unfettered +opportunity, is calling forth the talents of the children of the +immigrants. The number of descendants from the American stock yearly +becomes relatively less; intermarriage with the children of the +foreign born is increasingly frequent. Profound changes have taken +place since the American pioneers pushed their way across the +Alleghanies; changes infinitely more profound have taken place even +since the dawn of the twentieth century and have put to the test of +Destiny the institutions which are called "American." + +Nevertheless in a large sense every great tradition of the original +American stock lives today: the tradition of free movement, of +initiative and enterprise; the tradition of individual responsibility; +the primary traditions of democracy and liberty. These give a virile +present meaning to the name American. A noted French journalist +received this impression of a group of soldiers who in 1918 were +bivouacked in his country: "I saw yesterday an American unit in which +men of very varied origin abounded--French, Polish, Czech, German, +English, Canadian--such their names and other facts revealed them. +Nevertheless, all were of the same or similar type, a fact due +apparently to the combined influences of sun, air, primary education, +and environment. And one was not long in discovering that the +intelligence of each and all had manifestly a wider outlook than that +of the man of single racial lineage and of one country." And these men +were Americans. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Among the names which have quite vanished were those +pertaining to household matters, such as Hash, Butter, Waffle, Booze, +Frill, Shirt, Lace; or describing human characteristics, as Booby, +Dunce, Sallow, Daft, Lazy, Measley, Rude; or parts of the body and its +ailments, as Hips, Bones, Chin, Glands, Gout, Corns, Physic; or +representing property, as Shingle, Gutters, Pump, Milkhouse, Desk, +Mug, Auction, Hose, Tallow. Nature also was drawn upon for a large +number of names. The colors Black, Brown, and Gray survive, but +Lavender, Tan, and Scarlet have gone out of vogue. Bogs, Hazelgrove, +Woodyfield, Oysterbanks, Chestnut, Pinks, Ragbush, Winterberry, Peach, +Walnut, Freeze, Coldair, Bear, Tails, Chick, Bantam, Stork, Worm, +Snake, and Maggot indicate the simple origin of many names. There were +many strange combinations of Christian names and surnames: Peter +Wentup, Christy Forgot, Unity Bachelor, Booze Still, Cutlip Hoof, and +Wanton Bump left little to the imagination.] + +[Footnote 4: These tables and those on the pages immediately following +are taken from _A Century of Population Growth_, issued by the United +States Census Bureau in 1908.] + +[Footnote 5: _The Scotch-Irish in America_ pp. 219-20.] + +[Footnote 6: See _The Century Magazine_, September, 1891, and Lodge's +_Historical and Political Essays_, 1892.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEGRO + + +Not many years ago a traveler was lured into a London music hall by +the sign: _Spirited American Singing and Dancing_. He saw on the stage +a sextette of black-faced comedians, singing darky ragtime to the +accompaniment of banjo and bones, dancing the clog and the cakewalk, +and reciting negro stories with the familiar accent and smile, all to +the evident delight of the audience. The man in the seat next to him +remarked, "These Americans are really lively." Not only in England, +but on the continent, the negro's melodies, his dialect, and his +banjo, have always been identified with America. Even Americans do not +at once think of the negro as a foreigner, so accustomed have they +become to his presence, to his quaint mythology, his soft accent, and +his genial and accommodating nature. He was to be found in every +colony before the Revolution; he was an integral part of American +economic life long before the great Irish and German immigrations, +and, while in the mass he is confined to the South, he is found today +in every State in the Union. + +The negro, however, is racially the most distinctly foreign element in +America. He belongs to a period of biological and racial evolution far +removed from that of the white man. His habitat is the continent of +the elephant and the lion, the mango and the palm, while that of the +race into whose state he has been thrust is the continent of the horse +and the cow, of wheat and the oak. + +There is a touch of the dramatic in every phase of the negro's contact +with America: his unwilling coming, his forcible detention, his final +submission, his emancipation, his struggle to adapt himself to +freedom, his futile competition with a superior economic order. Every +step from the kidnaping, through "the voiceless woe of servitude" and +the attempted redemption of his race, has been accompanied by tragedy. +How else could it be when peoples of two such diverse epochs in racial +evolution meet? + +His coming was almost contemporaneous with that of the white man. +"American slavery," says Channing,[7] "began with Columbus, possibly +because he was the first European who had a chance to introduce it: +and negroes were brought to the New World at the suggestion of the +saintly Las Casas to alleviate the lot of the unhappy and fast +disappearing red man" They were first employed as body servants and +were used extensively in the West Indies before their common use in +the colonies on the continent. In the first plantations of Virginia a +few of them were found as laborers. In 1619 what was probably the +first slave ship on that coast--it was euphemistically called a "Dutch +man-of-war"--landed its human cargo in Virginia. From this time onward +the numbers of African slaves steadily increased. Bancroft estimated +their number at 59,000 in 1714, 78,000 in 1727, and 263,000 in 1754. +The census of 1790 recorded 697,624 slaves in the United States. This +almost incredible increase was not due alone to the fecundity of the +negro. It was due, in large measure, to the unceasing slave trade. + +It is difficult to imagine more severe ordeals than the negroes +endured in the day of the slave trade. Their captors in the jungles of +Africa--usually neighboring tribesmen in whom the instinct for +capture, enslavement, and destruction was untamed--soon learned that +the aged, the inferior, the defective, were not wanted by the trader. +These were usually slaughtered. Then followed for the less fortunate +the long and agonizing march to the seaboard. Every one not robust +enough to endure the arduous journey was allowed to perish by the way. +On the coast, the agent of the trader or the middle-man awaited the +captive. He was an expert at detecting those evidences of weakness and +disease which had eluded the eye of the captor or the rigor of the +march. "An African factor of fair repute," said a slave captain,[8] +"is ever careful to select his human cargo with consummate prudence, +so as not only to supply his employers with athletic laborers, but to +avoid any taint of disease." But the severest test of all was the +hideous "middle passage" which remained to every imported slave a +nightmare to the day of his death. The unhappy captives were crowded +into dark, unventilated holds and were fed scantily on food which was +strange to their lips; they were unable to understand the tongue of +their masters and often unable to understand the dialects of their +companions in misfortune; they were depressed with their helplessness +on the limitless sea, and their childish superstitions were fed by a +thousand new terrors and emotions. It was small wonder that, when +disease began its ravages in the shipload of these kidnaped beings, +"the mortality of thirty per cent was not rare." That this was +primarily a physical selection which made no allowance for mental +aptitudes did not greatly diminish in the eyes of the master the +slave's utility. The new continent needed muscle power; and so tens of +thousands of able-bodied Africans were landed on American soil, alien +to everything they found there. + +These slaves were kidnaped from many tribes. "In our negro +population," says Tillinghast, "as it came from the Western Coast of +Africa, there were Wolofs and Fulans, tall, well-built, and very +black, hailing from Senegambia and its vicinity; there were hundreds +of thousands from the Slave Coast--Tshis, Ewes, and Yorubans, +including Dahomians; and mingled with all these Soudanese negroes +proper were occasional contributions of mixed stock, from the north +and northeast, having an infusion of Moorish blood. There were other +thousands from Lower Guinea, belonging to Bantu stock, not so black in +color as the Soudanese, and thought by some to be slightly superior to +them."[9] No historian has recorded these tribal differences. The new +environment, so strange, so ruthless, swallowed them; and, in the +welter of their toil, the black men became so intermingled that all +tribal distinctions soon vanished. Here and there, however, a careful +observer may still find among them a man of superior mien or a woman +of haughty demeanor denoting perhaps an ancestral prince or princess +who once exercised authority over some African jungle village. + +Slavery was soon a recognized institution in every American colony. By +1665 every colony had its slave code. In Virginia the laws became +increasingly strict until the dominion of the master over his slaves +was virtually absolute. In South Carolina an insurrection of slaves in +1739, which cost the lives of twenty-one whites and forty-four blacks, +led to very drastic laws. Of the Northern colonies, New York seems to +have been most in fear of a black peril. In 1700 there were about six +thousand slaves in this colony, chiefly in the city, where there were +also many free negroes, and on the large estates along the Hudson. +Twice the white people of the city for reasons that have not been +preserved, believing that slave insurrections were imminent, resorted +to extreme and brutal measures. In 1712 they burned to death two +negroes, hanged in chains a third, and condemned a fourth to be +broken on the wheel. In 1741 they went so far as to burn fourteen +negroes, hang eighteen, and transport seventy-one. + +In New England where their numbers were relatively small and the laws +were less severe, the negroes were employed chiefly in domestic +service. In Quaker Pennsylvania there were many slaves, the proprietor +himself being a slave owner. Ten years after the founding of +Philadelphia, the authorities ordered the constables to arrest all +negroes found "gadding about" on Sunday without proper permission. +They were to remain in jail until Monday, receiving in lieu of meat or +drink thirty-nine lashes on the bare back. + +Protests against slavery were not uncommon during the colonial period; +and before the Revolution was accomplished several of the States had +emancipated their slaves. Vermont led the way in 1777; the Ordinance +of 1787 forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory; and by 1804 all +the Northern States had provided that their blacks should be set free. +The opinion prevailed that slavery was on the road to gradual +extinction. In the Federal Convention of 1787 this belief was +crystallized into the clause making possible the prohibition of the +slave trade after the year 1808. Mutual benefit organizations among +the negroes, both slave and free, appeared in many States, North and +South. Negro congregations were organized. The number of free negroes +increased rapidly, and in the Northern States they acquired such civil +rights as industry, thrift, and integrity commanded. Here and there +colored persons of unusual gifts distinguished themselves in various +callings and were even occasionally entertained in white households. + +The industrial revolution in England, with its spinning jenny and +power loom, indirectly influenced the position of the negro in +America. The new machinery had an insatiable maw for cotton. It could +turn such enormous quantities of raw fiber into cloth that the old +rate of producing cotton was entirely inadequate. New areas had to be +placed under cultivation. The South, where soil and climate combined +to make an ideal cotton land, came into its own. And when Eli +Whitney's gin was perfected, cotton was crowned king. Statistics tell +the story: the South produced about 8000 bales of cotton in 1790; +650,000 bales in 1820; 2,469,093 bales in 1850; 5,387,052 bales in +1860.[10] This vast increase in production called for human muscle +which apparently only the negro could supply. + +Once it was shown that slavery paid, its status became fixed as +adamant. The South forthwith ceased weakly to apologize for it, as it +had formerly done, and began to defend it, at first with some +hesitation, then with boldness, and finally with vehement +aggressiveness. It was economically necessary; it was morally right; +it was the peculiar Southern domestic institution; and, above all, it +paid. On every basis of its defense, the cotton kingdom would brook no +interference from any other section of the country. So there was +formed a race feudality in the Republic, rooted in profits, protected +by the political power of the slave lords, and enveloped in a spirit +of defiance and bitterness which reacted without mercy upon its +victims. Tighter and tighter were drawn the coils of restrictions +around the enslaved race. The mind and the soul as well as the body +were placed under domination. They might marry to breed but not to +make homes. Such charity and kindness as they experienced, they +received entirely from individual humane masters; society treated them +merely as chattels. + +Attempted insurrections, such as that in South Carolina in 1822 and +that in Virginia in 1831 in which many whites and blacks were killed, +only produced harsher laws and more cruel punishments, until finally +the slave became convinced that his only salvation lay in running +away. The North Star was his beacon light of freedom. A few thousand +made their way southward through the chain of swamps that skirt the +Atlantic coast and mingled with the Indians in Florida. Tens of +thousands made their way northward along well recognized routes to the +free States and to Canada: the Appalachian ranges with their +far-spreading spurs furnished the friendliest of these highways; the +Mississippi Valley with its marshlands, forests, and swamps provided +less secure hiding places; and the Cumberland Mountains, well supplied +with limestone caves, offered a third pathway. At the northern end of +these routes the "Underground Railway"[11] received the fugitives. +From the Cumberlands, leading through the heart of Tennessee and +Kentucky, this benevolent transfer stretched through Ohio and Indiana +to Canada; from southern Illinois it led northward through Wisconsin; +and from the Appalachian route mysterious byways led through New York +and New England. + +How many thus escaped cannot be reckoned, but it is known that the +number of free negroes in the North increased so rapidly that laws +discriminating against them were passed in many States. Nowhere did +the negro enjoy all the rights that the white man had. In some States +the free negroes were so restricted in settling as to be virtually +prohibited; in others they were disfranchised; in others they were +denied the right of jury duty or of testifying in court. But in spite +of this discrimination on the part of the law, a great sympathy for +the runaway slave spread among the people, and the fugitive carried +into the heart of the North the venom of the institution of which he +was the unhappy victim. + +Meanwhile the slave trade responded promptly to the lure of gain which +the increased demand for cotton held out. The law of 1807 prohibiting +the importation of slaves had, from the date of its enactment, been +virtually a dead letter. Messages of Presidents, complaints of +government attorneys, of collectors and agents called attention to the +continuous violation of the law; and its nullity was a matter of +common knowledge. When the market price of a slave rose to $325 in +1840 and to $500 after 1850, the increase in profits made slave piracy +a rather respectable business carried on by American citizens in +American built ships flying the American flag and paying high returns +on New York and New England capital. Owing to this steady importation +there was a constant intermingling of raw stock from the jungles with +the negroes who had been slaves in America for several generations. + +In 1860 there were 4,441,830 negroes in the United States, of whom +only 488,070 were free. About thirteen per cent of the total number +were mulattoes. Among the four million slaves were men and women of +every gradation of experience with civilization, from those who had +just disembarked from slave ships to those whose ancestry could be +traced to the earliest days of the colonies. It was not, therefore, a +strictly homogeneous people upon whom were suddenly and dramatically +laid the burdens and responsibilities of the freedman. Among the +emancipated blacks were not a few in whom there still throbbed +vigorously the savage life they had but recently left behind and who +could not yet speak intelligible English. Though there were many who +were skilled in household arts and in the useful customary +handicrafts, large numbers were acquainted only with the simplest toil +of the open fields. There were a few free blacks who possessed +property, in some instances to the value of many thousands of +dollars, but the great bulk were wholly inexperienced in the +responsibilities of ownership. There were some who had mastered the +rudiments of learning and here and there was to be found a gifted +mind, but ninety per cent of the negroes were unacquainted with +letters and were strangers to even the most rudimentary learning. +Their religion was a picturesque blend of Christian precepts and +Voodoo customs. + +The Freedmen's Bureau, authorized by Congress early in 1865, had as +its functions to aid the negro to develop self-control and +self-reliance, to help the freedman with his new wage contracts, to +befriend him when he appeared in court, and to provide for him schools +and hospitals. It was a simple, slender reed for the race to lean upon +until it learned to walk. But it interfered with the orthodox opinion +of that day regarding individual independence and was limited to the +period of war and one year thereafter. It was eyed with suspicion and +was regarded with criticism by both the keepers of the _laissez faire_ +faith and the former slave owners. It established a number of schools +and made a modest beginning in peasant proprietorship and free +labor.[12] + +When this temporary guide was withdrawn, private organizations to some +extent took its place. The American Missionary Association continued +the educational work, and volunteers shouldered other benevolences. +But no power and no organization could take the place of the national +authority. If the Freedmen's Bureau could have been stripped of those +evil-intentioned persons who used it for private gain, been so +organized as to enlist the support of the Southern white population, +and been continued until a new generation of blacks were prepared for +civil life, the colossal blunders and criminal misfits of that bitter +period of transition might have been avoided. But political +opportunism spurned comprehensive plans, and the negro suddenly found +himself forced into social, political, and economic competition with +the white man. + +The social and political struggle that followed was short-lived. There +were a few desperate years under the domination of the carpetbagger +and the Ku Klux Klan, a period of physical coercion and intimidation. +Within a decade the negro vote was uncast or uncounted, and the +grandfather clauses soon completed the political mastery of the former +slave owner. A strict interpretation of the Civil Rights Act denied +the application of the equality clause of the Constitution to social +equality, and the social as well as the political separation of the +two stocks was also accomplished. "Jim Crow," cars, separate +accommodations in depots and theaters, separate schools, separate +churches, attempted segregations in cities--these are all symbolic of +two separate races forcibly united by constitutional amendments. + +But the economic struggle continued, for the black man, even if +politically emasculated and socially isolated, had somehow to earn a +living. In their first reaction of anger and chagrin, some of the +whites here and there made attempts to reduce freedmen to their former +servitude, but their efforts were effectually checked by the Fifteenth +Amendment. An ingenious peonage, however, was created by means of the +criminal law. Strict statutes were passed by States on guardianship, +vagrancy, and petty crimes. It was not difficult to bring charges +under these statutes, and the heavy penalties attached, together with +the wide discretion permitted to judge and jury, made it easy to +subject the culprit to virtual serfdom for a term of years. He would +be leased to some contractor, who would pay for his keep and would +profit by his toil. Whatever justification there may have been for +these statutes, the convict lease system soon fell into disrepute, and +it has been generally abandoned. + +It was upon the land that the freedman naturally sought his economic +salvation. He was experienced in cotton growing. But he had neither +acres nor capital. These he had to find and turn to his own uses ere +he could really be economically free. So he began as a farm laborer, +passed through various stages of tenantry, and finally graduated into +land ownership. One finds today examples of every stage of this +evolution.[13] There is first the farm laborer, receiving at the end +of the year a fixed wage. He is often supplied with house and garden +and usually with food and clothing. There are many variations of this +labor contract. The "cropper" is barely a step advanced above the +laborer, for he, too, furnishes nothing but labor, while the landlord +supplies house, tools, live stock, and seed. His wage, however, is +paid not in cash but in a stipulated share of the crop. From this +share he must pay for the supplies received and interest thereon. This +method, however, has proved to be a mutually unsatisfactory +arrangement and is usually limited to hard pressed owners of poor +land. + +The larger number of the negro farmers are tenants on shares or +metayers. They work the land on their own responsibility, and this +degree of independence appeals to them. They pay a stipulated portion +of the crop as rent. If they possess some capital and the rental is +fair, this arrangement proves satisfactory. But as very few negro +metayers possess the needed capital, they resort to a system of +crop-lienage under which a local retail merchant advances the +necessary supplies and obtains a mortgage on the prospective crop. +Many negro farmers, however, have achieved the independence of cash +renters, assuming complete control of their crops and the disposition +of their time. And finally, 241,000 negro farmers are landowners.[14] +By 1910 nearly 900,000 negroes had achieved some degree of rural +economic stability. + +The negro has not been so fortunate in his attempts to make a place +for himself in the industrial world. The drift to the cities began +soon after emancipation. During the first decade, the dissatisfaction +with the landlordism which then prevailed, seconded by the demand for +unskilled labor in the rapidly growing cities, drew the negroes from +the land in such considerable numbers that the landowners were induced +to make more liberal terms to keep the laborers on their farms. While +there has been a large increase in the number of negroes engaged in +agriculture, there has at the same time been a very marked current +from the smaller communities to the new industrial cities of the South +and to some of the manufacturing centers of the North. In recent years +there have been wholesale importations of negro laborers into many +Northern cities and towns, sometimes as strike breakers but more +frequently to supply the urgent demand for unskilled labor. Many of +the smaller manufacturing towns of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, +Illinois, and Indiana are accumulating a negro population. + +Very few of these industrial negroes, however, are skilled workers. +They toil rather as ordinary day laborers, porters, stevedores, +teamsters, and domestics. There has been a great deal written of the +decline of the negro artisan. Walter F. Willcox, the eminent +statistician, after a careful study of the facts concludes that +economically "the negro as a race is losing ground, is being confined +more and more to the inferior and less remunerative occupations, and +is not sharing proportionately to his numbers in the prosperity of the +country as a whole or of the section in which he mainly lives." + +It appears, therefore, that the pathway of emancipation has not led +the negro out of the ranks of humble toil and into racial equality. In +order to equip him more effectively for a place in the world, +industrial schools have been established, among which the most noted +is the Tuskegee Institute. Its founder, Booker T. Washington, advised +his fellow negroes to yield quietly to the political and social +distinctions raised against them and to perfect themselves in +handicrafts and the mechanic arts, in the faith that civil rights +would ultimately follow economic power and recognized industrial +capacity. His teaching received the almost unanimous approval of both +North and South. But opinion among his own people was divided, and in +1905 the "Niagara Movement" was launched, followed five years later by +the organizing of the National Association for the Advancement of +Colored People. This organization advised a more aggressive attitude +towards race distinctions, outspokenly advocated race equality, +demanded the negro's rights, and maintained a restless propaganda. +These champions of the race possibilities of the negro point to the +material advance made since slavery; to the 500,000 houses and the +221,000 farms owned by them; their 22,000 small retail businesses and +their 40 banks; to the 40,000 churches with nearly 4,000,000 members; +to the 200 colleges and secondary schools maintained for negroes and +largely supported by them; to their 100 old people's homes, 30 +hospitals, 300 periodicals; to the 6000 physicians, dentists, and +nurses; the 30,000 teachers, the 18,000 clergymen. They point to the +beacon lights of their genius: Frederick Douglass, statesman; J.C. +Price, orator; Booker T. Washington, educator; W.E.B. DuBois, scholar; +Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet; Charles W. Chestnutt, novelist. And they +compare this record of 50 years' achievement with the preceding 245 +years of slavery. + +This, however, is only one side of the shield. There is another side, +nowhere better illustrated, perhaps, than in the neglected negro +gardens of the South. Near every negro hut is a garden patch large +enough to supply the family with vegetables for the entire year, but +it usually is neglected. "If they have any garden at all," says a +negro critic from Tuskegee, "it is apt to be choked with weeds and +other noxious growths. With every advantage of soil and climate and +with a steady market if they live near any city or large town, few of +the colored farmers get any benefit from this, one of the most +profitable of all industries." In marked contrast to these wild and +unkempt patches are the gardens of the Italians who have recently +invaded portions of the South and whose garden patches are almost +miraculously productive. And this invasion brings a real threat to the +future of the negro. His happy-go-lucky ways, his easy philosophy of +life, the remarkable ease with which he severs home ties and shifts +from place to place, his indifference to property obligations--these +negative defects in his character may easily lead to his economic doom +if the vigorous peasantry of Italy and other lands are brought into +competition with him. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: _History of the United States_, vol. I, p. 116.] + +[Footnote 8: _Captain Canot: or Twenty Years in a Slaver_, by Brantz +Mayer. p. 94 ff.] + +[Footnote 9: _The Negro in Africa and America_, p. 113.] + +[Footnote 10: Coman, _Industrial History of the United States_, p. +238. Bogart gives the figures as 1,976,000 bales in 1840, and +4,675,000 bales in 1860. _Economic History of the United States_, p. +256.] + +[Footnote 11: See _The Anti-Slavery Crusade_, by Jesse Macy (in _The +Chronicles of America_), Chapter VIII.] + +[Footnote 12: See _The Sequel of Appomattox_, by Walter L. Fleming (in +_The Chronicles of America_), Chapter IV.] + +[Footnote 13: See _The New South_ by Holland Thompson (in _The +Chronicles of America_), Chapters IV and VII.] + +[Footnote 14: _Negroes in the United States_, Census Bulletin No. 129, +p. 37.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +UTOPIAS IN AMERICA + + +America has long been a gigantic Utopia. To every immigrant since the +founding of Jamestown this coast has gleamed upon the horizon as a +Promised Land. America, too, has provided convenient plots of ground, +as laboratories for all sorts of vagaries, where, unhampered by +restrictions and unannoyed by inquisitive neighbors, enthusiastic +dreamers could attempt to reconstruct society. Whenever an eccentric +in Europe conceived a social panacea no matter how absurd, he said, +"Let's go to America and try it out." There were so many of these +enterprises that their exact number is unknown. Many of them perished +in so brief a time that no friendly chronicler has even saved their +names from oblivion. But others lived, some for a year, some for a +decade, and few for more than a generation. They are of interest today +not only because they brought a considerable number of foreigners to +America, but also because in their history may be observed many of the +principles of communism, or socialism, at work under favorable +conditions. While the theory of Marxian socialism differs in certain +details from these communistic experiments, the foreign-made nostrums +so brazenly proclaimed today wherever malcontents are gathered +together is in essence nothing new in America. Communism was tried and +found wanting by the Pilgrim Fathers; since then it has been tried and +found wanting over and over again. Some of the communistic colonies, +it will appear, waxed fat out of the resources of their lands; but, in +the end, even those which were most fortunate and successful withered +away, and their remnants were absorbed by the great competitive life +that surrounded them. + +There were two general types of these communities, the sectarian and +the economic. Frequently they combined a peculiar religious belief +with the economic practice of having everything in common. The +sectarians professed to be neither proselyters nor propagandists but +religious devotees, accepting communism as a physical advantage as +well as a spiritual balm, and seeking in seclusion and quiet merely to +save their own souls. + +The majority of the religious communists came from Germany--the home, +also, of Marxian socialism in later years--where persecution was the +lot of innumerable little sects which budded after the Reformation. +They came usually as whole colonies, bringing both leaders and +membership with them.[15] Probably the earliest to arrive in America +were the Labadists, who denied the doctrine of original sin, discarded +the Sabbath, and held strict views of marriage. In 1684, under the +leadership of Peter Sluyter or Schluter (an assumed name, his original +name being Vorstmann), some of these Labadists settled on the Bohemia +River in Delaware. They were sent out from the mother colony in West +Friesland to select a site for the entire body, but it does not appear +that any others migrated, for within fifteen years the American +colony was reduced to eight men. Sluyter evidently had considerable +business capacity, for he became a wealthy tobacco planter and slave +trader. + +In 1693 Johann Jacob Zimmermann, a distinguished mathematician and +astronomer and the founder of an order of mystics called Pietists, +started for America, to await the coming of the millennium, which his +calculations placed in the autumn of 1694. But the fate of common +mortals overtook the unfortunate leader and he died just as he was +ready to sail from Rotterdam. About forty members of his brotherhood +settled in the forests on the heights near Germantown, Pennsylvania, +and, under the guidance of Johann Kelpius, achieved a unique influence +over the German peasantry in that vicinity. The members of the +brotherhood made themselves useful as teachers and in various +handicrafts. They were especially in demand among the superstitious +for their skill in casting horoscopes, using divining rods, and +carving potent amulets. Their mysterious astronomical tower on the +heights of the Wissahickon was the Mecca of the curious and the +distressed. To the gentle Kelpius was ascribed the power of healing, +but he was himself the victim of consumption. The brotherhood did not +long survive his death in 1708 or 1709. Their astrological +instruments may be seen in the collections of the Pennsylvania +Philosophical Society. + +The first group of Dunkards (a name derived from their method of +baptism, _eintunken_, to immerse) settled in Pennsylvania in 1719. A +few years later they were joined by Conrad Beissel (Beizel or Peysel). +This man had come to America to unite with the Pietist group in +Germantown, but, as Kelpius was dead and his followers dispersed he +joined the Dunkards. His desires for a monastic life drove him into +solitary meditation--tradition says he took shelter in a cave--where +he came to the conviction that the seventh day of the week should be +observed as the day of rest. This conclusion led to friction with the +Dunkards; and as a result, with three men and two women, Beissel +founded in 1728 on the Cocalico River, the cloister of Ephrata. From +this arose the first communistic Eden successfully established in +America and one of the few to survive to the present century. Though +in 1900 the community numbered only seventeen members, in its prime +while Beissel was yet alive it sheltered three hundred, owned a +prosperous paper mill, a grist mill, an oil mill, a fulling mill, a +printing press, a schoolhouse, dwellings for the married members, and +large dormitories for the celibates. The meeting-house was built +entirely without metal, following literally the precedent of Solomon, +who built his temple "so that there was neither hammer nor ax nor any +tool of iron heard in the house while it was building." Wooden pegs +took the place of nails, and the laths were fastened laboriously into +grooves. Averse to riches, Beissel's people refused gifts from William +Penn, King George III, and other prominent personages. The pious +Beissel was a very capable leader, with a passion for music and an +ardor for simplicity. He instituted among the unmarried members of the +community a celibate order embracing both sexes, and he reduced the +communal life of both the religious and secular members to a routine +of piety and labor. The society was known, even in England, for the +excellence of its paper, for the good workmanship of its printing +press, and especially for the quality of its music, which was composed +largely by Beissel. His chorals were among the first composed and sung +in America. His school, too, was of such quality that it drew pupils +from Baltimore and Philadelphia. After his death in 1786, in his +seventy-second year, his successor tried for twenty-eight years to +maintain the discipline and distinction of the order. It was +eventually deemed prudent to incorporate the society under the laws of +the State and to entrust its management to a board of trustees, and +the cloistered life of the community became a memory. + +A community patterned after Ephrata was founded in 1800 by Peter +Lehman at Snow Hill, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. It consisted of +some forty German men and women living in cloisters but relieving the +monotony of their toil and the rigor of their piety with music. As in +Ephrata, there was a twofold membership, the consecrated and the +secular. The entire community, however, vanished after the death of +its founder. + +When Beissel's Ephrata was in its heyday, the Moravians, under the +patronage of Count Zinzendorf of Saxony, established in 1741 a +community on the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania, named Bethlehem in +token of their humility. The colony provided living and working +quarters for both the married and unmarried members. After about +twenty years of experimenting, the communistic regimen was abandoned. +Bethlehem, however, continued to thrive, and its schools and its music +became widely known. + +The story of the Harmonists, one of the most successful of all the +communistic colonies is even more interesting. The founder, Johann +Georg Rapp, had been a weaver and vine gardener in the little village +of Iptingen in Württemberg. He drew upon himself and his followers the +displeasure of the Church by teaching that religion was a personal +matter between the individual and his God; that the Bible, not the +pronouncements of the clergy, should be the guide to the true faith, +and that the ordinances of the Church were not necessarily the +ordinances of God. The petty persecutions which these doctrines +brought upon him and his fellow separatists turned them towards +liberal America. In 1803 Rapp and some of his companions crossed the +sea and selected as a site for their colony five thousand acres of +land in Butler County, Pennsylvania. There they built the new town of +Harmony, to which came about six hundred persons, all told. On +February 15, 1805 they organized the Harmony Society and signed a +solemn agreement to merge all their possessions in one common lot.[16] +Among them were a few persons of education and property, but most of +them were sturdy, thrifty mechanics and peasants, who, under the +skillful direction of Father Rapp, soon transformed the forest into a +thriving community. After a soul stirring revival in 1807, they +adopted celibacy. Those who were married did not separate but lived +together in solemn self-restraint, "treating each other as brother and +sister in Christ."[17] Their belief that the second coming of the Lord +was imminent no doubt strengthened their resolution. At this time, +also, the men all agreed to forego the use of tobacco--no small +sacrifice on the part of hard-working laborers. + +The region, however, was unfavorable to the growth of the grape, which +was the favorite Württemberg crop. In 1814 the society accordingly +sold the communal property for $100,000 and removed to a site on the +Wabash River, in Indiana, where, under the magic of their industry, +the beautiful village of New Harmony arose in one year, and where many +of their sturdy buildings still remain a testimony to their honest +craftsmanship. Unfortunately, however, two pests appeared which they +had not foreseen. Harassed by malaria and meddlesome neighbors, +Father Rapp a third time sought a new Canaan. In 1825 he sold the +entire site to Robert Owen, the British philanthropic socialist, and +the Harmonists moved back to Pennsylvania. They built their third and +last home on the Ohio, about twenty miles from Pittsburgh, and called +it Economy in prophetic token of the wealth which their industry and +shrewdness would soon bring in. + +The chaste and simple beauty of this village was due to the skill and +good taste of Friedrich Reichert Rapp, an architect and stone cutter, +the adopted son of Father Rapp. The fine proportions of the plain +buildings, with their vines festooned between the upper and lower +windows, the quaint and charming gardens, the tantalizing labyrinth +where visitors lost themselves in an attempt to reach the Summer +House--these were all of his creation. Friedrich Rapp was also a poet, +an artist, and a musician. He gathered a worthy collection of +paintings and a museum of Indian relics and objects of natural +history. He composed many of the fine hymns which impress every +visitor to Economy. He was likewise an energetic and skillful business +man and represented the colony in its external affairs until his death +in 1834. He was elected a member of the convention that framed the +first constitution of Indiana, and later he was made a member of the +legislature. Father Rapp, who possessed rare talents as an organizer, +controlled the internal affairs of the colony. Those who left the +community because unwilling to abide its discipline often pronounced +their leader a narrow autocrat. But there can be no doubt that eminent +good sense and gentleness tempered his judgments. He personally led +the community in industry, in prayers, and in faith, until 1847, when +death removed him. A council of nine elders elected by the members was +then charged with the spiritual guidance of the community, and two +trustees were appointed to administer its business affairs. + +Economy was a German community where German was spoken and German +customs were maintained, although every one also spoke English. As +there were but few accessions to the community and from time to time +there were defections and withdrawals, the membership steadily +declined[18]; but while the community was dwindling in membership it +was rapidly increasing in wealth. Oil and coal were found on some of +its lands; the products of its mills and looms, of its wine presses +and distilleries, were widely and favorably known; and its outside +investments, chiefly in manufactories and railroads, yielded even +greater returns. These outside interests, indeed, became in time the +sole support of the community for, as the membership fell away, the +local industries had to be shut down. Then it was that communistic +methods of doing business became inadequate and the colony ran into +difficulties. An expert accountant in 1892 disclosed the debts of the +community to be about one and a half million dollars. But the outside +industrial enterprises in which the community had invested were sound; +and the vast debt was paid. The society remained solvent, with a huge +surplus, though out of prosperity not of its own making. When the +lands at Economy were eventually sold, about eight acres were reserved +to the few survivors of the society, including the Great House of +Father Rapp and its attractive garden, with the use of the church and +dwellings, so that they might spend their last days in the peaceful +surroundings that had brought them prosperity and happiness. + + Lead me, Father, out of harm + To the quiet Zoar farm + If it be Thy will. + +So sang another group of simple German separatists, of whom some three +hundred came to America from Württemberg in 1817, under the leadership +of Joseph Bimeler (Bäumeler) and built the village of Zoar in +Tuscarawas County, Ohio. They acquired five thousand acres of land and +signed articles of association in April, 1819, turning all their +individual property and all their future earnings into a common fund +to be managed by an elected board of directors. The community provided +its members with their daily necessities and two suits of clothes a +year. The members were assigned to various trades which absorbed all +their time and left them very little strength for amusement or +reading. Their one recreation was singing. The society was bound to +celibacy until the marriage of Bimeler to his housekeeper; thereafter +marriage was permitted but not encouraged. + +In 1832 the society was incorporated under the laws of Ohio, and until +its dissolution it was managed as a corporation. A few Germans joined +the society. No American ever requested admission. Joseph Bimeler was +elected Agent General and thereby became the chosen as well as the +natural leader of the community. Like other patriarchs of that epoch +who led their following into the wilderness, he was a man of some +education and many gifts. He was the spiritual mentor; but his piety, +which was sincere and simple, did not rob him of the shrewdness +necessary to material success. His followers were loyally devoted to +him. They built for him the largest house in the community, a fine +colonial manor house, where he dwelt in comparative luxury and reigned +as their "King." When he died in 1853 he had seen the prosperity of +his colony reach its zenith. It remained small. Scarcely more than +three hundred members ever dwelt in the village which, in spite of its +profusion of vines and flowers, lacked the informal quaintness and +originality of Rapp's Economy. The Tuscarawas River furnished power +for their flour mill, whose products were widely sought. There was +also a woolen mill, a planing mill, a foundry, and a machine shop. The +beer made by the community was famous all the country round, and for a +time its pottery and tile works turned out interesting and quaint +products. But one by one these small industries succumbed to the +competition of the greater world. At last even an alien brew +supplanted the good local beer. When the railroad tapped the village, +and it was incorporated (1884) and assumed an official worldliness +with its mayor and councilmen, it lost its isolation, summer visitors +flocked in, and a "calaboose" was needed for the benefit of the +sojourners! + +The third generation was now grown. A number of dissatisfied members +had left. Many of the children never joined the society but found work +elsewhere. A great deal of the work had to be done by hired help. +Under the leadership of the younger element it was decided in 1898 to +abandon communism. Appraisers and surveyors were set to work to parcel +out the property. Each of the 136 members received a cash dividend, a +home in the village, and a plot of land. The average value of each +share, which was in the neighborhood of $1500, was not a large return +for three generations of communistic experimentation. But these had +been, after all, years of moderate competence and quiet contentment, +and if they took their toll in the coin of hope, as their song set +forth, then these simple Württembergers were fully paid. + +The Inspirationists were a sect that made many converts in Germany, +Holland, and Switzerland in the eighteenth century. They believed in +direct revelations from God through chosen "instruments." In 1817, a +new leader appeared among them in the person of Christian Metz, a man +of great personal charm, worldly shrewdness, and spiritual fervor. +Allied with him was Barbara Heynemann, a simple maid without +education, who learned to read the Scriptures after she was +twenty-three years of age. Endowed with the peculiar gift of +"translation," she was cherished by the sect as an instrument of God +for revealing His will. + +To this pair came an inspiration to lead their harassed followers to +America. In 1842 they purchased the Seneca Indian Reservation near +Buffalo, New York. They called their new home Ebenezer, and in 1843 +they organized the Ebenezer Society, under a constitution which +pledged them to communism. Over eight hundred peasants and artisans +joined the colony, and their industry soon had created a cluster of +five villages with mills, workshops, schools, and dwellings. But they +were continually annoyed by the Indians from whom they had purchased +the site and were distracted by the rapidly growing city of Buffalo, +which was only five miles away! + +This threat of worldliness brought a revelation that they must seek +greater seclusion. A large tract on the Iowa River was purchased, and +to this new site the population was gradually transferred. There they +built Amana. Within a radius of six miles, five subsidiary villages +sprang up, each one laid out like a German _dorf_, with its cluster of +shops and mills, and the cottages scattered informally on the main +road. When the railway tapped the neighborhood, the community in +self-defense purchased the town that contained the railway station. So +when the good Christian Metz died in 1867, at the age of seventy-two, +his pious followers, thanks to his sagacity, were possessed of some +twenty-six thousand acres of rich Iowa land and seven thriving +villages, comfortably housing about 1400 of the faithful. Barbara +Heynemann died in 1883, and since her death no "instrument" has been +found to disclose the will of God. But many ponderous tomes of +"revelations" have survived and these are faithfully read and their +naïve personal directions and inhibitions are still generally obeyed. +The Bible, however, remains the main guide of these people, and they +follow its instructions with childish literalism. Until quite recently +they clung to the simple dress and the austere life of their earlier +years. The solidarity of the community has been maintained with rare +skill. The "Great Council of the Brethren" upon whom is laid the +burden of directing all the affairs, has avoided government by mass +meeting, discouraged irresponsible talk and criticism, and, as an +aristocracy of elders, has shrewdly controlled the material and +spiritual life of the community. + +The society has received many new members. There have been accessions +from Zoar and Economy and one or two Americans have joined. The "Great +Council," in its desire to maintain the homogeneity of the group, +rejects the large number of applications for membership received every +year. Over sixty per cent of the young people who have left the +community to try the world have come back to "colony trousers" or +"colony skirts," symbols of the complete submergence of the +individual. + +Celibacy has been encouraged but never enjoined, and the young people +are permitted to marry, if the Spirit gives its sanction, the Elders +their consent, and if the man has reached the age of twenty-four +years. The two sexes are rigidly separated in school, in church, at +work, and in the communal dining rooms. Each family lives in a house, +but there are communal kitchens, where meals are served to groups of +twenty or more. Every member receives an annual cash bonus varying +from $25 to $75 and a pass book to record his credits at the "store." +The work is doled out among the members, who take pride in the quality +rather than in the quantity of their product. All forms of amusement +are forbidden; music, which flourished in other German communities, is +suppressed; and even reading for pleasure or information was until +recently under the ban. + +The only symbols of gayety in the villages are the flowers, and these +are everywhere in lavish abundance, softening the austere lines of the +plain and unpainted houses. No architect has been allowed to show his +skill, no artist his genius, in the shaping of this rigorous life. But +its industries flourish. Amana calico and Amana woolens are known in +many markets. The livestock is of the finest breeds; the products of +the fields and orchards are the choicest. But the modern visitor +wonders how long this prosperity will be able to maintain that +isolation which alone insured the communal solidarity. Already store +clothes are being worn, photographs are seen on the walls, "worldly" +furniture is being used, libraries, those openers of closed minds, are +in every schoolhouse, and newspapers and magazines are "allowed." + +The experiences of Eric Janson and his devotees whom he led out of +Sweden to Bishop Hill Colony, in Illinois, are replete with dramatic +and tragic details. Janson was a rugged Swedish peasant, whose +eloquence and gift of second sight made him the prophet of the +Devotionalists, a sect that attempted to reëstablish the simplicity of +the primitive church among the Lutherans of Scandinavia. Driven from +pillar to post by the relentless hatred of the Established Church, +they sought refuge in America, where Janson planned a theocratic +socialistic community. Its communism was based entirely upon religious +convictions, for neither Janson nor any of his illiterate followers +had heard of the politico-economic systems of French reformers. Over +one thousand young and vigorous peasants followed him to America. The +first contingent of four hundred arrived in 1846 and spent their first +winter in untold miseries and privations, with barely sufficient food, +but with enough spiritual fervor to kindle two religious services a +day and three on Sunday. Attacking the vast prairies with their +primitive implements, harvesting grain with the sickle and grinding it +by hand when their water power gave out, sheltering themselves in +tents and caves, enduring agues and fevers, hunger and cold, the +majority still remained loyal to the leader whose eloquence fired them +with a sustaining hope. Thrift, unremitting toil, the wonderful +fertility of the prairie, the high price of wheat, flax, and broom +corn, were bound to bring prosperity. In 1848 they built a huge brick +dormitory and dining hall, a great frame church, and a number of +smaller dwellings. Improved housing at once told on the general +health, though in the next year a scourge of cholera, introduced by +some newcomer, claimed 143 members. + +In the meantime John Root, an adventurer from Stockholm, who had +served in the American army, arrived at the colony and soon fell in +love with the cousin of Eric Janson. The prophet gave his consent to +the marriage on condition that, if at any time Root wished to leave +the colony, his wife should be permitted to remain if she desired. A +written agreement acknowledged Root's consent to these conditions. He +soon tired of a life for which he had not the remotest liking, and, +failing to entice his wife away with him, he kidnaped her and forcibly +detained her in Chicago, whence she was rescued by a valiant band of +the colonists. In retaliation the irate husband organized a mob of +frontiers folk to drive out the fanatics as they had a short time +before driven out Brigham Young and his Mormons. But the neighbors of +the colonists, having learned their sterling worth, came to the +rescue. Root then began legal proceedings against Janson. In May, +1850, while in court the renegade deliberately shot and killed the +prophet. The community in despair awaited three days the return to +life of the man whom they looked upon as a representative of Christ +sent to earth to rebuild the Tabernacle. + +Janson had been a very poor manager, however, and the colony was in +debt. In order quickly to obtain money, he had sent Jonas Olsen, the +ablest and strongest of his followers, to California to seek gold to +wipe out the debt. Upon hearing of the tragedy, Olsen hastened back to +Bishop Hill and was soon in charge of affairs. In 1853 he obtained for +the colony a charter of incorporation which vested the entire +management of the property in seven trustees. These men, under the +by-laws adopted, became also the spiritual mentors, and the colonists, +unacquainted with democratic usages in government, submitted willingly +to the leadership of this oligarchy. A new era of great material +prosperity now set in. The village was rebuilt. The great house was +enlarged so that all the inhabitants could be accommodated in its +vast communal dining room. Trees were planted along the streets. Shops +and mills were erected, and a hotel became the means of introducing +strangers to the community. + +Meanwhile Olsen was growing more and more arbitrary and, after a +bitter controversy, he imposed celibacy upon the members. This was the +beginning of the end. One of the trustees, Olaf Jansen, a good-natured +peasant who could not keep his accounts but who had a peasant's +sagacity for a bargain, wormed his way into financial control. He +wanted to make the colony rich, but he led it to the verge of +bankruptcy. He became a speculator and promoter. Stories of his +shortcomings were whispered about and in 1860 the peasant colony +revolted and deposed Olaf from office. He then had himself appointed +receiver to wind up the corporation's affairs, and in the following +year the communal property was distributed. Every member, male and +female, thirty-five years of age received a full share which +"consisted of 22 acres of land, one timber lot of nearly 2 acres, one +town lot, and an equal part of all barns, houses, cattle, hogs, sheep +or other domestic animals and all farming implements and household +utensils." Those under thirty-five received according to their age. +Had these shares been unencumbered, this would have represented a fair +return for their labor. But Olaf had made no half-way business of his +financial ambitions, and the former members who now were melting +peacefully and rather contentedly into the general American life found +themselves saddled with his obligations. The "colony case" became +famous among Illinois lawyers and dragged through twelve years of +litigation. Thus the glowing fraternal communism of poor Janson ended +in the drab discord of an American lawsuit. + +In 1862 the followers of Jacob Hutter, a Mennonite martyr who was +burned at the stake in Innsbruck in the sixteenth century, founded the +Old Elmspring Community on the James River in South Dakota. During the +Thirty Years' War these saintly Quaker-like German folk had found +refuge in Moravia, whence they had been driven into Hungary, later +into Rumania, and then into Russia. As their objection to military +service brought them into conflict with the Czar's government, they +finally determined to migrate to America. In 1874 they had all reached +South Dakota, where they now live in five small communities. Scarcely +four hundred all told, they cling to their ancient ambition to keep +themselves "unspotted from the world," and so have evolved a +self-sustaining communal life, characterized by great simplicity of +dress, of speech, and of living. They speak German and refrain +entirely from voting and from other political activity. They are +farmers and practise only those handicrafts which are necessary to +their own communal welfare. + +While most of these German sectarian communities had only a slight +economic effect upon the United States, their influence upon +immigration has been extensive. In the early part of the last century, +it was difficult to obtain authentic news concerning America in the +remote hamlets of Europe. All sorts of vague and grotesque notions +about this country were afloat. Every member of these communities, +when he wrote to those left behind, became a living witness of the +golden opportunities offered in the new land. And, unquestionably, a +considerable share of the great German influx in the middle of the +nineteenth century can be traced to the dissemination of knowledge by +this means. Mikkelsen says of the Jansonists that their "letters home +concerning the new country paved the way for that mighty tide of +Swedish immigration which in a few years began to roll in upon +Illinois and the Northwest." + +The Shakers are the oldest and the largest communistic sect to find a +congenial home in America. The cult originated in Manchester, England, +with Ann Lee, a "Shaking Quaker" who never learned to read or write +but depended upon revelation for doctrine and guidance. "By a direct +revelation," says the Shaker Compendium, she was "instructed to come +to America." Obedient to the vision, she sailed from Liverpool in the +summer of 1774, accompanied by six men and two women, among whom were +her husband, a brother, and a niece. This little flock settled in the +forests near Albany, New York. Abandoned by her husband, the +prophetess went from place to place, proclaiming her peculiar +doctrines. Soon she became known as "Mother Ann" and was reputed to +have supernatural powers. At the time of her death in 1784 she had +numerous followers in western New England and eastern New York. + +In 1787 they founded their first Shaker community at Mount Lebanon. +Within a few years other societies were organized in New York, +Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. On the wave of +the great religious revival at the beginning of the nineteenth +century their doctrines were carried west. The cult achieved its +highest prosperity in the decade following 1830, when it numbered +eighteen societies and about six thousand members. + +In shrewd and capable hands, the sect soon had both an elaborate +system of theology based upon the teachings of Mother Ann and also an +effective organization. The communal life, ordaining celibacy, based +on industry, and constructed in the strictest economy, achieved +material prosperity and evidently brought spiritual consolation to +those who committed themselves to its isolation. Although originating +in England, the sect is confined wholly to America and has from the +first recruited its membership almost wholly from native Americans. + +Another of these social experiments was the Oneida Community and its +several ephemeral branches. Though it was of American origin and the +members were almost wholly American, it deserves passing mention. The +founder, John Humphrey Noyes, a graduate of Dartmouth and a Yale +divinity student, conceived a system of communal life which should +make it possible for the individual to live without sin. This +perfectionism, he believed, necessitated the abolition of private +property through communism, the abolition of sickness through complete +coöperation of the individual with God, and the abolition of the +family through a "scientific" coöperation of the sexes. The Oneida +Community was financially very prosperous. Its "stirpiculture," +Noyes's high-sounding synonym for free love, brought it, however, into +violent conflict with public opinion, and in 1879 "complex marriages" +gave way to monogamous families. In the following year the communistic +holding of property gave way to a joint stock company, under whose +skillful management the prosperity of the community continues today. + +The American Utopias based upon an assumed economic altruism were much +more numerous than those founded primarily upon religion but, as they +were recruited almost wholly from Americans, they need engage our +attention only briefly. There were two groups of economic communistic +experiments, similar in their general characteristics but differing in +their origin. One took its inspiration directly from Robert Owen, the +distinguished philanthropist and successful cotton manufacturer of +Scotland; the other from Fourier, the noted French social +philosopher. + +In 1825 Robert Owen purchased New Harmony, Rapp's village in Indiana +and its thirty thousand appurtenant acres. When Owen came to America +he was already famous. Great throngs flocked to hear this practical +man utter the most visionary sentiments. At Washington, for instance, +he lectured to an auditory that included great senators and famous +representatives, members of the Supreme Court and of the Cabinet, +President Monroe and Adams, the President-elect. He displayed to his +eager hearers the plans and specifications of the new human order, his +glorified apartment house with all the external paraphernalia of +selective human perfection drawn to scale. + +For a brief period New Harmony was the communistic capital of the +world. It was discussed everywhere and became, says its chronicler, +"the rendezvous of the enlightened and progressive people from all +over the United States and northern Europe." It achieved a sort of +motley cosmopolitanism. A "Boat Load of Knowledge" carried from +Pittsburgh the most distinguished group of scientists that had +hitherto been brought together in America. It included William +Maclure, a Scotchman who came to America, at the age of thirty-three, +ambitious to make a geological survey of the country and whose +learning and energy soon earned him the title of "Father of American +Geology"; Thomas Say, "the Father of American Zoölogy"; Charles +Alexander Lesueur, a distinguished naturalist from the _Jardin des +Plantes_ of Paris; Constantine S. Rafinesque, a scientific nomad whose +studies of fishes took him everywhere and whose restless spirit +forbade him remaining long anywhere; Gerard Troost, a Dutch scientist +who later did pioneer work in western geology; Joseph Neef, a +well-known Pestalozzian educator, together with two French experts in +that system; and Owen's four brilliant sons. A few artists and +musicians and all sorts of reformers, including Fanny Wright, an +ardent and very advanced suffragette, joined these scientists in the +new Eden. Owen had issued a universal invitation to the "industrious +and well disposed," but his project offered also the lure of a free +meal ticket for the improvident and the glitter of novelty for the +restless. + +"I am come to this country," Owen said in his opening words at New +Harmony, "to introduce an entire new state of society, to change it +from the ignorant, selfish system to an enlightened social system, +which shall gradually unite all interests into one, and remove all +causes for contests between individuals."[19] But the germs of +dissolution were already present in the extreme individuality of the +members of this new society. Here was no homogeneous horde of docile +German peasants waiting to be commanded. What Father Rapp could do, +Owen could not. The sifting process had begun too late. Seven +different constitutions issued in rapid succession attempted in vain +to discover a common bond of action. In less than two years Owen's +money was gone, and nine hundred or more disillusioned persons +rejoined the more individualistic world. Many of them subsequently +achieved distinction in professional and public callings. Owen's +widely advertised experiment was fecund, however, and produced some +eleven other short-lived communistic attempts, of which the most noted +were at Franklin, Haverstraw, and Coxsackie in New York, Yellow +Springs and Kendal in Ohio, and Forestville and Macluria in Indiana. + +Fourierism found its principal apostle in this country in Arthur +Brisbane, whose _Social Destiny of Man_, published in 1840, brought to +America the French philosopher's naïve, social regimen of reducing +the world of men to simple units called phalanxes, whose barrack-like +routine should insure plenty, equality, and happiness. Horace Greeley, +with characteristic, erratic eagerness, pounced upon the new gospel, +and Brisbane obtained at once a wide circle of sympathetic readers +through the _Tribune_. Thirty-four phalanxes were organized in a short +time, most of them with an incredible lack of foresight. They usually +lasted until the first payment on the mortgage was due, though a few +weathered the buffetings of fortune for several years. Brook Farm in +Massachusetts and the Wisconsin phalanx each endured six years, and +the North American phalanx at Red Bank, New Jersey, lasted thirteen +years. + +Icaria is a romantic sequel to the Owen and Fourier colonies. It +antedated Brisbane's revival of Fourierism, was encouraged by Owenism, +survived both, and formed a living link between the utopianism of the +early nineteenth century and the utilitarian socialism of the +twentieth. Étienne Cabet was one of those interesting Frenchmen whose +fertile minds and instinct for rapid action made France during the +nineteenth century kaleidoscopic with social and political events. +Though educated for the bar, Cabet devoted himself to social and +political reform. As a young man he was a director in that powerful +secret order, the Carbonari, and was elected to the French chamber of +deputies, but his violent attitude toward the Government was such that +in 1834 he was obliged to flee to London to escape imprisonment. Here, +unmolested, he devoted himself for five years to social and historical +research. He returned to France in 1839 and in the following year +published his _Voyage en Icarie_, a book that at once took its place +by the side of Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_. Cabet pictured in his +volume an ideal society where plenty should be a substitute for +poverty and equality a remedy for class egoism. So great was the +cogency of his writing that Icaria became more than a mere vision to +hundreds of thousands in those years of social ferment and democratic +aspirations. From a hundred sources the demand arose to translate the +book into action. Cabet thereupon framed a constitution and sought the +means of founding a real Icaria. After consulting Robert Owen, he +unfortunately fell into the clutches of some Cincinnati land +speculators and chose a site for his colony in the northeastern part +of Texas. When the announcement was made in his paper, _Le Populaire_, +the responses were so numerous that Cabet believed that "more than a +million coöperators" were eager for the experiment. + +In February, 1848, sixty-nine young men, all carefully selected +volunteers, were sent forth from Havre as the vanguard of the +contemplated exodus. But the movement was halted by the turn of great +events. Twenty days after the young men sailed, the French Republic +was proclaimed, and in the fervor and distraction of this immediate +political victory the new and distant Utopia seemed to thousands less +alluring than it had been before. The group of young volunteers, +however, reached America. After heart-rending disillusionment in the +swamps and forests of Louisiana and on the raw prairies of Texas, they +made their way back to New Orleans in time to meet Cabet and four +hundred Icarians, who arrived early in 1849. The Gallic instinct for +factional differences soon began to assert itself in repeated division +and subdivision on the part of the idealists. One-half withdrew at New +Orleans to work out their individual salvation. The remainder followed +Cabet to the deserted Mormon town of Nauvoo, Illinois, where vacant +houses offered immediate shelter and where they enjoyed an interval of +prosperity. The French genius for music, for theatricals, and for +literature relieved them from the tedium that characterized most +co-operative colonies. Soon their numbers increased to five hundred by +accessions which, with few exceptions, were French. + +But Cabet was not a practical leader. His pamphlet published in German +in 1854, entitled _If I had half a million dollars_, reveals the +naïveté of his mind. He wanted to find money, not to make it. The +society soon became involved in a controversy in which Cabet's +immediate following were outnumbered. The minority petulantly stopped +working but continued to eat. "The majority decided that those who +would not work should not eat ... and gave notice that those who +absented themselves from labor would be cut off from rations."[20] As +a result, Cabet, in 1856, was expelled from his own Icaria! With 170 +faithful adherents he went to St. Louis, and there a few days later he +died. The minority buried their leader, but their faith in communal +life survived this setback. At Cheltenham, a suburb of St. Louis, they +acquired a small estate, where proximity to the city enabled the +members to get work. Here they lived together six years before +division disrupted them permanently. + +At Nauvoo in the meantime there had been other secessions, and the +property, in 1857, was in the hands of a receiver. The plucky and +determined remnant, however, removed to Iowa, where on the prairie +near Corning they planted a new Icaria. Here, by hard toil and in +extreme poverty, but in harmony and contentment, the communists lived +until, in 1876, the younger members wished to adopt advanced methods +in farming, in finance, and in management. The older men, with wisdom +acquired through bitter experience, refused to alter their methods. +The younger party won a lawsuit to annul the communal charter. The +property was divided, and again there were two Icarias, the "young +party" retaining the old site and the "old party" moving on and +founding New Icaria, a few miles from the old. But Old Icaria was soon +split: one faction removed to California, where the Icaria-Speranza +community was founded; and the other remained at Old Icaria. Both came +to grief in 1888. Finally in 1895 New Icaria, then reduced to a few +veterans, was dissolved by a unanimous vote of the community. + + * * * * * + +In 1854 Victor Considérant, the French socialist, planted a +Fourieristic phalanx in Texas, under the liberal patronage of J.B.A. +Godin, the godfather of Fourierism in France who founded at Guise the +only really successful phalanx. A French communistic colony was also +attempted at Silkville, Kansas. But both ventures lasted only a few +years. Since the subsidence of these French communistic experiments, +there have been many sporadic attempts at founding idealistic +communities in the United States. Over fifty have been tried since the +Civil War. Nearly all were established under American auspices and did +not lure many foreigners. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 15: As is usual among people who pride themselves on their +peculiarities there were variations of opinion among these sects which +led to schisms. The Mennonites contained at one time no less than +eleven distinct branches, among them the Amish, Old and New, whose +ridiculous singularity of dress, in which they discarded all ornaments +and even buttons, earned them the nickname "Hooks and Eyes." But no +matter how aloof these sects held themselves from the world, or what +asceticism they practiced upon themselves, or what spiritual and +economic fraternity they displayed to each other, they possessed a +remarkable native cunning in bargaining over a bushel of wheat or a +shoat, and for a time most of their communities prospered.] + +[Footnote 16: Under the communal contract, which was later upheld by +the Supreme Court of the United States, members agreed to merge their +properties and to renounce all claims for services; and the community, +on its part, agreed to support the members and to repay without +interest, to any one desiring to withdraw, the amount he had put into +the common fund.] + +[Footnote 17: _Communistic Societies of the United States_, by Charles +Nordhoff, p. 73.] + +[Footnote 18: The largest membership was attained in 1827, when 522 +were enrolled. There were 391 in 1836; 321 in 1846; 170 in 1864; 146 +in 1866; 70 in 1879; 34 in 1888; 37 in 1892; 10 in 1897; 8 in 1902, +only two of whom were men; and in 1903, three women and one man. The +population of Economy, however, was always much larger than the +communal membership.] + +[Footnote 19: _The New Harmony Movement_, by G.B. Lockwood, p. 83.] + +[Footnote 20: _Icaria, A Chapter in the History of Communism_, by +Albert Shaw, p. 58.] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE IRISH INVASION + + +After the Revolution, immigrants began to filter into America from +Great Britain and continental Europe. No record was kept of their +arrival, and their numbers have been estimated at from 4000 to 10,000 +a year, on the average. These people came nearly all from Great +Britain and were driven to migrate by financial and political +conditions. + +In 1819 Congress passed a law requiring Collectors of Customs to keep +a record of passengers arriving in their districts, together with +their age, sex, occupation, and the country whence they came, and to +report this information to the Secretary of State. This was the +Federal Government's first effort to collect facts concerning +immigration. The law was defective, yet it might have yielded valuable +results had it been intelligently enforced.[21] + +From all available collateral sources it appears that the official +figures greatly understated the actual number of arrivals. Great +Britain kept an official record of those who emigrated from her ports +to the United States and the numbers so listed are nearly as large as +the total immigration from all sources reported by the United States +officials during a time when a heavy influx is known to have been +coming from Germany and Switzerland. + +Inaccurate as these figures are, they nevertheless are a barometer +indicating the rising pressure of immigration. The first official +figures show that in 1820 there arrived 8385 aliens of whom 7691 were +Europeans. Of these 3614, or nearly one-half, came from Ireland. Until +1850 this proportion was maintained. Here was evidence of the first +ground swell of immigration to the United States whose subsequent +waves in sixty years swept to America one-half of the entire +population of the Little Green Isle. Since 1820 over four and a +quarter million Irish immigrants have found their way hither. In 1900 +there were nearly five million persons in the United States descended +from Irish parentage. They comprise today ten per cent of our foreign +born population. + +The discontent and grievances of the Irish had a vivid historical +background in their own country. There were four principal causes +which induced the transplanting of the race: rebellion, famine, +restrictive legislation, and absentee landlordism. Every uprising of +this bellicose people from the time of Cromwell onward had been +followed by voluntary and involuntary exile. It is said that +Cromwell's Government transported many thousand Irish to the West +Indies. Many of these exiles subsequently found their way to the +Carolinas, Virginia, and other colonies. After the great Irish +rebellion of 1798 and again after Robert Emmet's melancholy failure in +the rising of 1803 many fled across the sea. The Act of Union in 1801 +brought "no submissive love for England," and constant political +agitations for which the Celtic Irish need but little stimulus have +kept the pathway to America populous. + +The harsh penal laws of two centuries ago prescribing transportation +and long terms of penal servitude were a compelling agency in driving +the Irish to America. Illiberal laws against religious nonconformists, +especially against the Catholics, closed the doors of political +advancement in their faces, submitted them to humiliating +discriminations, and drove many from the island. Finally, the selfish +Navigation Laws forbade both exportation of cattle to England and the +sending of foodstuffs to the colonies, dealing thereby a heavy blow to +Irish agriculture. These restrictions were followed by other +inhibitions until almost every industry or business in which the Irish +engaged was unduly limited and controlled. It should, however, not be +forgotten that these restrictions bore with equal weight upon the +Ulster settlers from Scotland and England, who managed somehow to +endure them successfully. + +Absentee landlordism was oppressive both to the cotter's body and to +his soul, for it not only bound him to perpetual poverty but kindled +within him a deep sense of injustice. The historian, Justin McCarthy, +says that the Irishman "regarded the right to have a bit of land, his +share, exactly as other people regard the right to live." So political +and economic conditions combined to feed the discontent of a people +peculiarly sensitive to wrongs and swift in their resentments. + +But the most potent cause of the great Irish influx into America was +famine in Ireland. The economist may well ascribe Irish failure to the +potato. Here was a crop so easy of culture and of such nourishing +qualities that it led to overpopulation and all its attendant ills. +The failure of this crop was indeed an "overwhelming disaster," for, +according to Justin McCarthy, the Irish peasant with his wife and his +family lived on the potato, and whole generations grew up, lived, +married, and passed away without ever having tasted meat. When the +cold and damp summer of 1845 brought the potato rot, the little, +overpopulated island was facing dire want. But when the next two years +brought a plant disease that destroyed the entire crop, then famine +and fever claimed one quarter of the eight million inhabitants. The +pitiful details of this national disaster touched American hearts. +Fleets of relief ships were sent across from America, and many a +shipload of Irish peasants was brought back. In 1845 over 44,821 came; +1847 saw this number rise to 105,536 and in the next year to 112,934. +Rebellion following the famine swelled the number of immigrants until +Ireland was left a land of old people with a fast shrinking +population. + +There is a prevailing notion that this influx after the great famine +was the commencement of Irish migration. In reality it was only the +climax. Long before this, Irishmen were found in the colonies, chiefly +as indentured servants; they were in the Continental Army as valiant +soldiers; they were in the western flux that filled the Mississippi +Valley as useful pioneers. How many there were we do not know. As +early as 1737, however, there were enough in Boston to celebrate St. +Patrick's Day, and in 1762 they poured libations to their favorite +saint in New York City, for the _Mercury_ in announcing the meeting +said, "Gentlemen that please to attend will meet with the best Usage." +On March 17, 1776, the English troops evacuated Boston and General +Washington issued the following order on that date: + + Parole Boston + + Countersign St. Patrick + + The regiments under marching orders to march tomorrow + morning. By His Excellency's command. + + Brigadier of the Day + + GEN. JOHN SULLIVAN. + +Thus did the Patriot Army gracefully acknowledge the day and the +people. + +In 1784, on the first St. Patrick's Day after the evacuation of New +York City by the British, there was a glorious celebration "spent in +festivity and mirth." As the newspaper reporter put it, "the greatest +unanimity and conviviality pervaded" a "numerous and jovial company." + +Branches of the Society of United Irishmen were formed in American +cities soon after the founding of the order in Ireland. Many veterans +of '98 found their way to America, and between 1800 and 1820 many +thousand followed the course of the setting sun. Their number cannot +be ascertained; but there were not a few. In 1818 Irish immigrant +associations were organized by the Irish in New York, Philadelphia, +and Baltimore to aid the newcomers in finding work. Many filtered into +the United States from Canada, Newfoundland, and the West Indies. +These earlier arrivals were not composed of the abjectly poor who +comprised the majority of the great exodus, and especially among the +political exiles there were to be found men of some means and +education. + +America became extremely popular in Ireland after the Revolution of +1776, partly because the English were defeated, partly because of +Irish democratic aspirations, but particularly because it was a land +of generous economic and political possibilities. The Irish at once +claimed a kinship with the new republic, and the ocean became less of +a barrier than St. George's Channel. + +"The States," as they were called, became a synonym of abundance. The +most lavish reports of plenty were sent back by the newcomers--of meat +daily, of white bread, of comfortable clothing. "There is a great many +ill conveniences here," writes one, "but no empty bellies." In England +and Ireland and Scotland the number of poor who longed for this +abundance exceeded the capacity of the boats. Many who would have +willingly gone to America lacked the passage money. The Irish peasant, +born and reared in extreme poverty, was peculiarly unable to scrape +together enough to pay his way. The assistance which he needed, +however, was forthcoming from various sources. Friends and relatives +in America sent him money; in later years this practice was very +common. Societies were organized to help those who could not help +themselves. Railroad and canal companies, in great need of labor, +imported workmen by the thousands and advanced their passage money. +And finally, the local authorities found shipping their paupers to +another country a convenient way of getting rid of them. England +early resorted to the same method. In 1849 the Irish poor law +guardians were given authority to borrow money for such "assistance," +as it was called. In 1881 the Land Commission and in 1882 the +Commissioner of Public Works were authorized to advance money for this +purpose. In 1884 and 1885 over sixteen thousand persons were thus +assisted from Galway and Mayo counties. + +Long before the great Irish famine of 1846-47 America appeared like a +mirage, and wondering peasants in their dire distress exaggerated its +opulence and opportunities. They braved the perils of the sea and +trusted to luck in the great new world. The journey in itself was no +small adventure. There were some sailings directly from Ireland; but +most of the Irish immigrants were collected at Liverpool by agents not +always scrupulous in their dealings. A hurried inspection at Liverpool +gained them the required medical certificates, and they were packed +into the ships. Of the voyage one passenger who made the journey from +Belfast in 1795 said: "The slaves who are carried from the coast of +Africa have much more room allowed them than the immigrants who pass +from Ireland to America, for the avarice of captains in that trade is +such that they think they can never load their vessels sufficiently, +and they trouble their heads in general no more about the +accommodation and storage of their passengers than of any other lumber +aboard." When the great immigrant invasion of America began, there +were not half enough ships for the passengers, all were cruelly +overcrowded, and many were so filthy that even American port officials +refused a landing before cleansing. Under such conditions sickness was +a matter of course, and of the hordes who started for the promised +land thousands perished on the way.[22] + +Hope sustained the voyagers. But what must have been the +disappointment of thousands when they landed! No ardent welcome +awaited them, nor even jobs for the majority. Alas for the rosy dreams +of opulence! Here was a prosaic place where toil and sweat were the +condition of mere existence. As the poor creatures had no means of +moving on, they huddled in the ports of arrival. Almshouses were +filled, beggars wandered in every street, and these peasants +accustomed to the soil and the open country were congested in the +cities, unhappy misfits in an entirely new economic environment. +Unskilled in the handicrafts, they were forced to accept the lot of +the common laborer. Fortunately, the great influx came at the time of +rapid turnpike, canal, and railroad expansion. Thousands found their +way westward with contractors' gangs. The free lands, however, did not +lure them. They preferred to remain in the cities. New York in 1850 +sheltered 133,000 Irish. Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, +Cincinnati, Albany, Baltimore, and St. Louis, followed, in the order +given, as favorite lodging places, and there was not one rapidly +growing western city, such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and +Chicago, that did not have its "Irish town" or "Shanty town" where the +immigrants clung together. + +Their brogue and dress provoked ridicule; their poverty often threw +them upon the community; the large percentage of illiteracy among them +evoked little sympathy; their inclinations towards intemperance and +improvidence were not neutralized by their great good nature and +open-handedness; their religion reawoke historical bitterness; their +genius for politics aroused jealousy; their proclivity to unite in +clubs, associations, and semi-military companies made them the objects +of official suspicion; and above all, their willingness to assume the +offensive, to resent instantly insult or intimidation, brought them +into frequent and violent contact with their new neighbors. "America +for Americans" became the battle cry of reactionaries, who organized +the American or "Know-Nothing" party and sought safety at the polls. +While all foreign elements were grouped together, indiscriminately, in +the mind of the nativist, the Irishman unfortunately was the special +object of his spleen, because he was concentrated in the cities and +therefore offered a visual and concrete example of the danger of +foreign mass movements, because he was a Roman Catholic and thus +awakened ancient religious prejudices that had long been slumbering, +and because he fought back instantly, valiantly, and vehemently. + +Popular suspicion against the foreigner in America began almost as +soon as immigration assumed large proportions. In 1816 conservative +newspapers called attention to the new problems that the Old World +was thrusting upon the New: the poverty of the foreigner, his low +standard of living, his illiteracy and slovenliness, his ignorance of +American ways and his unwillingness to submit to them, his +clannishness, the danger of his organizing and capturing the political +offices and ultimately the Government. In addition to the alarmist and +the prejudiced, careful and thoughtful citizens were aroused to the +danger. Unfortunately, however, religious antagonisms were aroused +and, as is always the case, these differences awakened the profoundest +prejudices and passions of the human heart. There were many towns in +New England and in the West where Roman Catholicism was unknown except +as a traditional enemy of free institutions. It is difficult to +realize in these days of tolerance the feelings aroused in such +communities when Catholic churches, parochial schools, and convents +began to appear among them; and when the devotees of this faith +displayed a genius for practical politics, instinctive distrust +developed into lively suspicion. + +The specter of ecclesiastical authority reared itself, and the +question of sharing public school moneys with parochial schools and of +reading the Bible in the public schools became a burning issue. Here +and there occurred clashes that were more than barroom brawls. +Organized gangs infested the cities. Both sides were sustained and +encouraged by partisan papers, and on several occasions the antagonism +spent themselves in riots and destruction. In 1834 the Ursuline +convent at Charlestown, near Boston, was sacked and burned. Ten years +later occurred the great anti-Irish riots in Philadelphia, in which +two Catholic churches and a schoolhouse were burned by a mob inflamed +to hysteria by one of the leaders who held up a torn American flag and +shouted, "This is the flag that was trampled on by Irish papists." +Prejudice accompanied fear into every city and "patented citizens" +were often subject to abuse and even persecution. Tammany Hall in New +York City became the political fortress of the Irish. Election riots +of the first magnitude were part of the routine of elections, and the +"Bloody Sixth Ward Boys" were notorious for their hooliganism on +election day. + +The suggestions of the nativists that paupers and criminals be +excluded from immigration were not embodied into law. The movement +soon was lost in the greater questions which slavery was thrusting +into the foreground. When the fight with nativism was over, the Irish +were in possession of the cities. They displayed an amazing aptitude +for political plotting and organization and for that prime essential +to political success popularly known as "mixing." Policemen and +aldermen, ward heelers, bosses, and mayors, were known by their +brogue. The Irish demonstrated their loyalty to the Union in the Civil +War and merged readily into American life after the lurid prejudices +against them faded. + +Unfortunately, a great deal of this prejudice was revived when the +secret workings of an Irish organization in Pennsylvania were +unearthed. Among the anthracite coal miners a society was formed, +probably about 1854, called the Molly Maguires, a name long known in +Ireland. The members were all Irish, professed the Roman Catholic +faith, and were active in the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The Church, +the better class of Irishmen, and the Hibernians, however, were +shocked by the doings of the Molly Maguires and utterly disowned them. +They began their career of blackmail and bullying by sending threats +and death notices embellished with crude drawings of coffins and +pistols to those against whom they fancied they had a grievance, +usually the mine boss or an unpopular foreman. If the recipient did +not heed the threat, he was waylaid and beaten and his family was +abused. By the time of the Civil War these bullies had terrorized the +entire anthracite region. Through their political influence they +elected sheriffs and constables, chiefs of police and county +commissioners. As they became bolder, they substituted arson and +murder for threats and bullying, and they made life intolerable by +their reckless brutality. It was impossible to convict them, for the +hatred against an informer, inbred in every Irishman through +generations of experience in Ireland, united with fear in keeping +competent witnesses from the courts. Finally the president of one of +the large coal companies employed James McParlan, a remarkably clever +Irish detective. He joined the Mollies, somehow eluded their +suspicions, and slowly worked his way into their confidence. An +unusually brutal and cowardly murder in 1875 proved his opportunity. +When the courts finished with the Mollies, nineteen of their members +had been hanged, a large number imprisoned, and the organization was +completely wiped out. + +Meantime the Fenian movement served to keep the Irish in the public +eye. This was no less than an attempt to free Ireland and disrupt the +British Empire, using the United States as a fulcrum, the Irish in +America as the power, and Canada as the lever. James Stephens, who +organized the Irish Republican Brotherhood, came to America in 1858 to +start a similar movement. After the Civil War, which supplied a +training school for whole regiments of Irish soldiers, a convention of +Fenians was held at Philadelphia in 1865 at which an "Irish Republic" +was organized, with a full complement of officers, a Congress, a +President, a Secretary of the Treasury, a Secretary of War, in fact, a +replica of the American Federal Government. It assumed the highly +absurd and dangerous position that it actually possessed sovereignty. +The luxurious mansion of a pill manufacturer in Union Square, New +York, was transformed into its government house, and bonds, +embellished with shamrocks and harps and a fine portrait of Wolfe +Tone, were issued, payable "ninety days after the establishment of the +Irish Republic." Differences soon arose, and Stephens, who had made +his escape from Richmond, near Dublin, where he had been in prison, +hastened to America to compose the quarrel which had now assumed true +Hibernian proportions. An attempt to land an armed gang on the Island +of Campo Bello on the coast of New Brunswick was frustrated; invaders +from Vermont spent a night over the Canadian border before they were +driven back; and for several days Fort Erie on Niagara River was held +by about 1500 Fenians.[23] General Meade was thereupon sent by the +Federal authorities to put an end to these ridiculous breaches of +neutrality. + +Neither Meade nor any other authority, however, could stop the flow of +Fenian adjectives that now issued from a hundred indignation meetings +all over the land when Canada, after due trial, proceeded to sentence +the guilty culprits captured in the "Battle of Limestone Ridge," as +the tussle with Canadian regulars near Fort Erie was called. +Newspapers abounded with tales of the most startling designs upon +Canada and Britain. There then occurred a strong reaction to the +Fenian movement, and the American people were led to wonder how much +of truth there was in a statement made by Thomas D'Arcy McGee.[24] +"This very Fenian organization in the United States," he said, "what +does it really prove but that the Irish are still an alien +population, camped but not settled in America, with foreign hopes and +aspirations, unshared by the people among whom they live?" + +The Irishman today is an integral part of every large American +community. Although the restrictive legislation of two centuries ago +has long been repealed and a new land system has brought great +prosperity to his island home, the Irishman has not abated one whit in +his temperamental attitude towards England and as a consequence some +40,000 or 50,000 of his fellow countrymen come to the United States +every year. Here he has been dispossessed of his monopoly of shovel +and pick by the French Canadian in New England and by the Italian, +Syrian, and Armenian in other parts of the country. He finds work in +factories, for he still shuns the soil, much as he professes to love +the "old sod." A great change has come over the economic condition of +the second and third generation of Irish immigrants. Their remarkable +buoyancy of temperament is everywhere displayed. Bridget's daughter +has left the kitchen and is a school teacher, a stenographer, a +saleswoman, a milliner, or a dressmaker; her son is a clerk, a +bookkeeper, a traveling salesman, or a foreman. Wherever the human +touch is the essential of success, there you find the Irish. That is +why in some cities one-half the teachers are Irish; why salesmanship +lures them; why they are the most successful walking delegates, +solicitors, agents, foremen, and contractors. In the higher walks of +life you find them where dash, brilliance, cleverness, and emotion are +demanded. The law and the priesthood utilize their eloquence, +journalism their keen insight into the human side of news, and +literature their imagination and humor. They possess a positive genius +for organization and management. The labor unions are led by them; and +what would municipal politics be without them? The list of eminent +names which they have contributed to these callings will increase as +their generations multiply in the favorable American environment. But +remote indeed is the day and complex must be the experience that will +erase the memory of the ancient Erse proverb, which their racial +temperament evoked: "Contention is better than loneliness." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 21: The immigration reports were perfunctory and lacking in +accuracy. Passengers were frequently listed as belonging to the +country whence they sailed. An Irishman taking passage from Liverpool +was quite as likely to be reported English as Irish. Large numbers of +immigrants were counted who merely landed in New York and proceeded +immediately to Canada, while many thousands who landed in Canada and +moved at once across the border into northern New York and the West +did not appear in the reports.] + +[Footnote 22: According to the _Edinburgh Review_ of July, 1854, +"Liverpool was crowded with emigrants, and ships could not be found to +do the work. The poor creatures were packed in dense masses, in +ill-ventilated and unseaworthy vessels, under charge of improper +masters, and the natural results followed. Pestilence chased the +fugitive to complete the work of famine. Fifteen thousand out of +ninety thousand emigrants in British bottoms, in 1847, died on the +passage or soon after arrival. The American vessels, owing to a +stringent passenger law, were better managed, but the hospitals of New +York and Boston were nevertheless crowded with patients from Irish +estates."] + +[Footnote 23: Oberholtzer, _History of the United States since the +Civil War_, vol. 1, p. 526 ff.] + +[Footnote 24: Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825-1868), one of the leaders of +the "Young Ireland" party, fled for political reasons to the United +States in 1848, where he established the _New York Nation_ and the +_American Celt_. When he changed his former attitude of opposition to +British rule in Ireland he was attacked by the extreme Irish patriots +in the United States and in consequence moved to Canada, where he +founded the _New Era_ and began to practice law. Subsequently, with +the support of the Irish Canadians, he represented Montreal in the +Parliament of United Canada (1858) and was President of the Council +(1862) in the John Sandfield Macdonald Administration. When the Irish +were left unrepresented in the reorganized Cabinet in the following +year, McGee became an adherent of Sir John A. Macdonald, and in 1864 +he was made Minister of Agriculture in the Taché-Macdonald +Administration. An ardent supporter of the progressive policies of his +adopted country, he was one of the Fathers of Confederation and was a +member of the first Dominion Parliament in 1867. His denunciations, +both in Ireland (1865) and in Canada, of the policies and activities +of the Fenians led to his assassination at Ottawa on April 7, 1868.] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE TEUTONIC TIDE + + +As the Irish wave of immigration receded the Teutonic wave rose and +brought the second great influx of foreigners to American shores. A +greater ethnic contrast could scarcely be imagined than that which was +now afforded by these two races, the phlegmatic, plodding German and +the vibrant Irish, a contrast in American life as a whole which was +soon represented in miniature on the vaudeville stage by popular +burlesque representations of both types. The one was the opposite of +the other in temperament, in habits, in personal ambitions. The German +sought the land, was content to be let alone, had no desire to command +others or to mix with them, but was determined to be reliable, +philosophically took things as they came, met opposition with +patience, clung doggedly to a few cherished convictions, and sought +passionately to possess a home and a family, to master some minute +mechanical or technical detail, and to take his leisure and his +amusements in his own customary way. + +The reports of the Immigration Commissioner disclose the fact that +well over five and a third millions of Germans migrated to America +between 1823 and 1910. If to this enormous number were added those of +German blood who came from Austria and the German cantons of +Switzerland, from Luxemburg and the German settlements of Russia, it +would reach a grand total of well over seven million Germans who have +sought an ampler life in America. The Census of 1910 reports "that +there were 8,282,618 white persons in the United States having Germany +as their country of origin, comprising 2,501,181 who were born in +Germany, 3,911,847 born in the United States both of whose parents +were born in Germany, and 1,869,590 born in the United States and +having one parent born in the United States and the other in +Germany."[25] + +The coming of the Germans may be divided into three quite distinct +migrations: the early, the middle, and the recent. The first period +includes all who came before the radical ferment which began to +agitate Europe after the Napoleonic wars. The Federal census of 1790 +discloses 176,407 Germans living in America. But German writers +usually maintain that there were from 225,000 to 250,000 Germans in +the colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence. They had +been driven from the fatherland by religious persecution and economic +want. Every German state contributed to their number, but the bulk of +this migration came from the Palatinate, Württemberg, Baden, and +Alsace, and the German cantons of Switzerland. The majority were of +the peasant and artisan class who usually came over as redemptioners. +Yet there were not wanting among them many persons of means and of +learning. + +Pennsylvania was the favorite distributing point for these German +hosts. Thence they pushed southward through the beautiful Shenandoah +Valley into Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and northward into +New Jersey. Large numbers entered at Charleston and thence went to the +frontiers of South Carolina. The Mohawk Valley in New York and the +Berkshires of Massachusetts harbored many. But not all of them moved +inland. They were to be found scattered on the coast from Maine to +Georgia. Boston, New York City, Baltimore, New Bern, Wilmington, +Charleston, and Savannah, all counted Germans in their populations. +However strictly these German neighborhoods may have maintained the +customs of their native land, the people thoroughly identified +themselves with the patriot cause and supplied soldiers, leaders, +money, and enthusiasm to the cause of the Revolutionary War. + +Benjamin Rush, the distinguished Philadelphia physician and publicist, +one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in 1789 a +description of the Germans of Pennsylvania which would apply generally +to all German settlements at that time and to many of subsequent date. +The Pennsylvania German farmer, he says, was distinguished above +everything else for his self-denying thrift, housing his horses and +cattle in commodious, warm barns, while he and his family lived in a +log hut until he was well able to afford a more comfortable house; +selling his "most profitable grain, which is wheat" and "eating that +which is less profitable but more nourishing, that is, rye or Indian +corn"; breeding the best of livestock so that "a German horse is known +in every part of the State" for his "extraordinary size or fat"; +clearing his land thoroughly, not "as his English or Irish neighbors"; +cultivating the most bountiful gardens and orchards; living frugally, +working constantly, fearing God and debt, and rearing large families. +"A German farm may be distinguished," concludes this writer, "from the +farms of other citizens by the superior size of their barns, the plain +but compact form of their houses, the height of their enclosures, the +extent of their orchards, the fertility of their fields, the +luxuriance of their meadows, and a general appearance of plenty and +neatness in everything that belongs to them."[26] Rush's praise of the +German mechanics is not less stinted. They were found in that day +mainly as "weavers, taylors, tanners, shoe-makers, comb-makers, smiths +of all kinds, butchers, paper makers, watchmakers, and sugar bakers." +Their first desire was "to become freeholders," and they almost +invariably succeeded. German merchants and bankers also prospered in +Philadelphia, Germantown, Lancaster, and other Pennsylvania towns. +One-third of the population of Pennsylvania, Rush says, was of German +origin, and for their convenience a German edition of the laws of the +State was printed. + +After the Revolution, a number of the Hessian hirelings who had been +brought over by the British settled in America. They usually became +farmers, although some of the officers taught school. They joined the +German settlements, avoiding the English-speaking communities in the +United States because of the resentment shown towards them. Their +number is unknown. Frederick Kapp, a German writer, estimates that, of +the 29,875 sent over, 12,562 never returned--but he fails to tell us +how many of these remained because of Yankee bullets or bayonets. + +The second period of German migration began about 1820 and lasted +through the Civil War. Before 1830 the number of immigrants fluctuated +between 200 and 2000 a year; in 1832 it exceeded 10,000; in 1834 it +was over 17,000; three years later it reached nearly 24,000; between +1845 and 1860 there arrived 1,250,000, and 200,000 came during the +Civil War. + +There were several causes, working in close conjunction, that impelled +these thousands to leave Germany. Economic disturbances doubtless +turned the thoughts of the hungry and harassed to the land of plenty +across the sea. But a potent cause of the great migration of the +thirties and forties was the universal social and political discontent +which followed in the wake of the Napoleonic wars. The German people +were still divided into numberless small feudalities whose petty dukes +and princes clung tenaciously to their medieval prerogatives and +tyrannies. The contest against Napoleon had been waged by German +patriots not only to overcome a foreign foe but to break the tyrant at +home. The hope for constitutional government, for a representative +system and a liberal legislation in the German States rose mightily +after Waterloo. But the promises of princes made in days of stress +were soon forgotten, and the Congress of Vienna had established the +semblance of a German federation upon a unity of reactionary rulers, +not upon a constitutional, representative basis. + +The reaction against this bitter disappointment was led by the eager +German youth, who, inspired by liberal ideals, now thirsted for +freedom of thought, of speech, and of action. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, a +German patriot, organized everywhere _Turnvereine_, or gymnastic +clubs, as a tangible form of expressing this demand. Among the +students of the universities liberal patriotic clubs called +_Burschenschaften_ were organized, idealistic in their aims and +impractical in their propaganda, where "every man with his bonnet on +his head, a pot of beer in his hand, a pipe or seegar in his mouth, +and a song upon his lips, never doubting but that he and his +companions are training themselves to be the regenerators of Europe," +vowed "the liberation of Germany." Alas for the enthusiasms of youth! +In 1817 the _Burschenschaften_ held a mass reunion at the Wartburg. +Their boyish antics were greatly exaggerated in the conservative +papers and the governments increased their vigilance. In 1819 +Kotzebue, a reactionary publicist, was assassinated by a member of the +Jena _Burschenschaft_, and the retaliation of the government was +prompt and thoroughly Prussian--gagging of the press and of speech, +dissolution of all liberal organizations, espionage, the hounding of +all suspects. There seemed to remain only flight to liberal democratic +America. But the suppression of the clubs did not entirely put out +the fires of constitutional desires. These smoldered until the storms +of '48 fanned them into a fitful blaze. For a brief hour the German +Democrat had the feudal lords cowed. Frederick William, the "romantic" +Hohenzollern, promised a constitution to the threatening mob in +Berlin; the King of Saxony and the Grand Duke of Bavaria fled their +capitals; revolts occurred in Silesia, Posen, Hesse-Cassel, and +Nassau. Then struck the first great hour of modern Prussia, as, with +her heartless and disciplined soldiery, she restored one by one the +frightened dukes and princes to their prerogatives and repressed +relentlessly and with Junker rigor every liberal concession that had +crept into laws and institutions. Strangled liberalism could no longer +breathe in Germany, and thousands of her revolutionists fled to +America, bringing with them almost the last vestige of German +democratic leadership. + +In the meantime, economic conditions in Germany remained +unsatisfactory and combined with political discontent to uproot a +population and transplant it to a new land. The desire to immigrate, +stimulated by the transportation companies, spread like a fever. Whole +villages sold out and, with their pastor or their physician at their +head, shipped for America. A British observer who visited the Rhine +country in 1846 commented on "the long files of carts that meet you +every mile, carrying the whole property of these poor wretches who are +about to cross the Atlantic on the faith of a lying prospectus." But +these people were neither "poor wretches" nor dupes. They had coin in +their pockets, and in their heads a more or less accurate knowledge of +the land of their desires. At this time the German bookshops were +teeming with little volumes giving, in the methodical Teutonic +fashion, conservative advice to prospective immigrants and rather +accurate descriptions of America, with statistical information and +abstracts of American laws. Many of the immigrants had further +detailed information from relatives and friends already prospering on +western farms or in rapidly growing towns. This was, therefore, far +from a pauper invasion. It included every class, even broken-down +members of the nobility. The majority were, naturally, peasants and +artisans, but there were multitudes of small merchants and farmers. +And the political refugees included many men of substantial property +and of notable intellectual attainments.[27] + +Bremen was the favorite port of departure for these German emigrants +to America. Havre, Hamburg, and Antwerp were popular, and even London. +During the great rush every ship was overcrowded and none was over +sanitary. Steerage passengers were promiscuously crowded together and +furnished their own food; and the ship's crew, the captain, the agents +who negotiated the voyage, and the sharks who awaited their arrival in +America, all had a share in preying upon the inexperience of the +immigrants. Arrived in America, these Germans were not content to +settle, like dregs, in the cities on the seacoast. They were land +lovers, and westward they started at once, usually in companies, +sometimes as whole communities, by way of the Erie Canal and the Great +Lakes, and later by the new railway lines, into Ohio, Indiana, +Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Iowa, where their +instinct for the soil taught them to select the most fertile spots. +Soon their log cabins and their ample barns and flourishing stock +bespoke their success. + +The growing Western cities called to the skilled artisan, the small +tradesman, and the intellectuals. Cincinnati early became a German +center. In 1830 the Germans numbered five per cent of its population; +in 1840, twenty-three per cent; and in 1869, thirty-four per cent. +Milwaukee, "the German Athens," as it was once called, became the +distributing point of German immigration and influence in the +Northwest. Its _Gesangvereine_ and _Turnvereine_ became as famous as +its lager beer, and German was heard more frequently than English upon +its streets. St. Louis was the center of a German influence that +extended throughout the Missouri Valley. Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, +Buffalo, and many of the minor towns in the Middle West received +substantial additions from this migration. + +Unlike the Irish, the Germans brought with them a strange language, +and this proved a strong bond in that German solidarity which +maintained itself in spite of the influence of their new environment. +In the glow of their first enthusiasm many of the intellectuals +believed they could establish a German state in America. "The +foundations of a new and free Germany in the great North American +Republic shall be laid by us," wrote Follenius, the dreamer, who +desired to land enough Germans in "one of the American territories to +establish an essentially German state." In 1833 the Giessener +Gesellschaft, a company organized in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, grew +out of this suggestion and chose Arkansas as the site for its colony. +But unfavorable reports turned the immigrants to Missouri, where +settlements were made. These, however, never grew into a German state +but merged quite contentedly into the prosperous American population. + +A second attempt, also from Hesse, had a tragic dénouement. A number +of German nobles formed a company called the Mainzer Adelsverein and +in 1842 sent two of their colleagues to Texas to seek out a site. The +place chosen was ill-suited for a colony, however, and the whole +enterprise from beginning to end was characterized by princely +incompetence. Thousands of immigrants, lured by the company's liberal +offers and glowing prospectus, soon found themselves in dire want; +many perished of disease and hunger; and the company ended in +ignominious disaster. The surviving colonists in Texas, however, when +they realized that they must depend upon their own efforts, succeeded +in finding work and eventually in establishing several flourishing +communities. + +Finally, Wisconsin and Illinois were considered as possible sites for +a Germany in America. But this ambition never assumed a concrete form. +Everywhere the Americans, with their energy and organizing capacity, +had preceded the incoming Germans and retained the political +sovereignty of the American state. + +But while they did not establish a German state, these immigrants did +cling to their customs wherever they settled in considerable numbers. +Especially did they retain their original social life, their +_Turnvereine_, their musical clubs, their sociable beer gardens, their +picnics and excursions, their churches and parochial schools. They +still celebrated their Christmas and other church festivals with +German cookery and _Kuchen_, and their weddings and christenings were +enlivened but rarely debauched with generous libations of lager beer +and wine. In the Middle West were whole regions where German was the +familiar language for two generations. + +There were three strata to this second German migration. The earlier +courses were largely peasants and skilled artisans, those of the +decade of the Civil War were mostly of the working classes, and +between these came the "Forty-eighters." Upon them all, however, +peasant, artisan, merchant, and intellectual, their experiences in +their native land had made a deep impression. They all had a +background of political philosophy the nucleus of which was individual +liberty; they all had a violent distaste for the petty tyrannies and +espionages which contact with their own form of government had +produced; and in coming to America they all sought, besides farms and +jobs, political freedom. They therefore came in humility, bore in +patience the disappointments of the first rough contacts with pioneer +America and its nativism, and few, if any, cherished the hope of going +back to Germany. Though some of the intellectual idealists at first +had indefinite enthusiasms about a _Deutschtum_ in America, these +visions soon vanished. They expressed no love for the governments they +had left, however strong the cords of sentiment bound them to the +domestic and institutional customs of their childhood. + +This was to a considerable degree an idealistic migration and as such +it had a lasting influence upon American life. The industry of these +people and their thrift, even to paring economy, have often been +extolled; but other nationalities have worked as hard and as +successfully and have spent as sparingly. The special contribution to +America which these Germans made lay in other qualities. Their artists +and musicians and actors planted the first seeds of æsthetic +appreciation in the raw West where the repertoire had previously been +limited to _Money Musk_, _The Arkansas Traveler_, and _Old Dog Tray_. +The liberal tendencies of German thought mellowed the austere +Puritanism of the prevalent theology. The respect which these people +had for intellectual attainments potently influenced the educational +system of America from the kindergarten to the newly founded state +universities. Their political convictions led them to espouse with +ardor the cause of the Union in the war upon slavery; and their sturdy +independence in partisan politics was no small factor in bringing +about civil service reform. They established German newspapers by the +hundreds and maintained many German schools and German colleges. They +freely indulged their love for German customs. But while their +sentimentalism was German, their realism was American. They considered +it an honor to become American citizens. Their leaders became American +leaders. Carl Schurz was not an isolated example. He was associated +with a host of able, careful, constructive Germans. + +The greatest quarrels of these German immigrants with American ways +were over the so-called "Continental Sabbath" and the right to drink +beer when and where they pleased. "Only when his beer is in danger," +wrote one of the leading Forty-eighters, "does the German-American +rouse himself and become a berserker." The great numbers of these men +in many cities and in some of the Western States enabled them to have +German taught in the public schools, though it is only fair to say +that the underlying motive was liberalism rather than Prussian +provincialism. Frederick Kapp, a distinguished interpreter of the +spirit of these Forty-eighters, expressed their conviction when he +said that those who cared to remain German should remain in Germany +and that those who came to America were under solemn obligations to +become Americans. + +The descendants of these immigrants, the second and the third and +fourth generations, are now thoroughly absorbed into every phase of +American life. Their national idiosyncrasies have been modified and +subdued by the gentle but relentless persistence of the English +language and the robust vigor of American law and American political +institutions. + +After 1870 a great change came over the German immigration. More and +more industrial workers, but fewer and fewer peasants, and very rarely +an intellectual or a man of substance, now appeared at Ellis Island +for admission to the United States.[28] The facilities for migrating +were vastly increased by the great transatlantic steamship companies. +The new Germans came in hordes even outnumbering the migrations of the +fifties. From 1870 to 1910 over three and a quarter millions arrived. +The highest point of the wave, however, was reached in 1882, when +250,630 German immigrants entered the United States. Thereafter the +number rapidly subsided; the lowest ebb, in 1898, brought only 17,111, +but from that time until the Great War the number of annual arrivals +fluctuated between 25,000 and 40,000. + +The majority of those who came in the earlier part of this period made +their way to the Western lands. The Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, +and the Far West, still offered alluring opportunities. But as these +lands were gradually taken, the later influx turned towards the +cities. Here the immigrants not only found employment in those trades +and occupations which the Germans for years had virtually monopolized, +but they also became factory workers in great numbers, and many of +them went into the mining regions. + +It soon became apparent that the spirit of this latest migration was +very different from that of the earlier ones. "I do not believe," +writes a well-informed and patriotic Lutheran pastor in 1917, "that +there is one among a thousand that has emigrated on account of +dissatisfaction with the German Government during the last forty-five +years." Humility on the part of these newcomers now gradually gave way +to arrogance. Instead of appearing eager to embrace their new +opportunities, they criticized everything they found in their new +home. The contemptuous hauteur and provincial egotism of the modern +Prussian, loathsome enough in the educated, were ridiculous in the +poor immigrants. Gradually this Prussian spirit increased. In 1883 it +could still be said of the three hundred German-American periodicals, +daily, weekly, and monthly, that in their tone they were thoroughly +American. But ten or fifteen years later changes were apparent. In +1895 there were some five hundred German periodicals published in +America, and many of the newer ones were rabidly Germanophile. The +editors and owners of the older publications were dying out, and new +hands were guiding the editorial pens. Often when there was no +American-born German available, an editor was imported fresh from +Germany. He came as a German from a new Germany--that Prussianized +Germany which unmasked itself in August, 1914, and which included in +its dream of power the unswerving and undivided loyalty of all Germans +who had migrated. The traditional American indifference and good +nature became a shield for the Machiavellian editors who now began to +write not for the benefit of America but for the benefit of Germany. +Political scandals, odious comparisons of American and German methods, +and adroit criticisms of American ways were the daily pabulum fed to +the German reader, who was left with the impression that everything in +the United States was wrong, while everything in Germany was right. +Before the United States entered the Great War, there was a most +remarkable unanimity of expression among these German publications; +afterwards, Congress found it necessary to enact rigorous laws against +them. As a result, many of them were suppressed, and many others +suspended publication. + +German pastors, also, were not infrequently imported and brought with +them the virus of the new Prussianism. This they injected into their +congregations and especially into the children who attended their +catechetical instruction. German "exchange professors," in addition to +their university duties, usually made a pilgrimage of the cities where +the German influence was strong. The fostering of the German language +became no longer merely a means of culture or an appurtenance to +business but was insisted upon as a necessity to keep alive the German +spirit, _der Deutsche Geist_. German parents were warned, over and +over again, that once their children lost their language they would +soon lose every active interest in _Kultur_. The teaching of German in +the colleges and universities assumed, undisguised and unashamed, the +character of Prussian propaganda. The new immigrants from Germany were +carefully protected from the deteriorating effect of American +contacts, and, unlike the preceding generations of German immigrants, +they took very little part in politics. Those who arrived after 1900 +refused, usually, to become naturalized. + +The diabolical ingenuity of the German propaganda was subsequently +laid bare, and it is known today that nearly every German club, +church, school, and newspaper from about 1895 onward was being +secretly marshaled into a powerful Teutonic homogeneity of sentiment +and public opinion. The Kaiser boasted of his political influence +through the German vote. The German-American League, incorporated by +Congress, had its branches in many States. Millions of dollars were +spent by the Imperial German Government to corrupt the millions of +German birth in America. These disclosures, when they were ultimately +made, produced in the United States a sharp and profound reaction +against everything Teutonic. The former indifference completely +vanished and hyphen-hunting became a popular pastime. The charter of +the German-American League was revoked by Congress. City after city +took German from its school curriculum. Teutonic names of towns and +streets were erased--half a dozen Berlins vanished overnight--and in +their places appeared the names of French, British, and American +heroes. + +But though the names might be erased, the German element remained. It +had become incorporated into the national bone and sinew, contributing +its thoroughness, stolidity, and solidity to the American stock. The +power of liberal political institutions in America has been revealed, +and thousands upon thousands of the sons and grandsons of German +immigrants crossed the seas in 1917 and 1918 to bear aloft the starry +standard upon the fields of Flanders against the arrogance and +brutality of the neo-Prussians. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 25: According to the Census of 1910 the nationality of the +total number of white persons of foreign stock in the United States is +distributed chiefly as follows: + +Germany 8,282,618 or 25.7 per cent +Ireland 4,504,360 or 14.0 " " +Canada 2,754,615 or 8.6 " " +Russia 2,541,649 or 7.9 " " +England 2,322,442 or 7.2 " " +Italy 2,098,360 or 6.5 " " +Austria 2,001,559 or 6.2 " " + +Furthermore, the significance of the foreign born element in the +population of the United States can be gathered from the fact that, in +1910, of the 91,972,266 inhabitants of the United States, no less than +13,515,836 or 14.6 per cent were born in some other country.] + +[Footnote 26: _An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of +Pennsylvania._] + +[Footnote 27: J.G. Häcker, a well-informed and prosperous German who +took the journey by steerage in a sailing vessel in 1849, wrote an +instructive description of his experiences. Of his fellow passengers +he said: "Our company was very mixed. There were many young people: +clerks, artists, musicians, architects, miners, mechanics, men of +various professions, peasants, one man seventy-eight years old, +another very aged Bavarian farmer, several families of Jews, etc., and +a fair collection of children."] + +[Footnote 28: There were three potent reasons for this migration: +financial stringency, overpopulation, and the growing rigor of the +military service. Over ten thousand processes a year were issued by +the German Government in 1872 and 1873 for evasion of military duty. +Germans who had become naturalized American citizens were arrested +when they returned to the Fatherland for a visit on the charge of +having evaded military service. A treaty between the two countries +finally adjusted this difficulty.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CALL OF THE LAND + + +For over a century after the Revolution the great fact in American +life was the unoccupied land, that vast stretch of expectant acreage +lying fallow in the West. It kept the American buoyant, for it was an +insurance policy against want. When his crops failed or his business +grew dull, there was the West. When panic and disaster overtook him, +there remained the West. When the family grew too large for the old +homestead, the sons went west. And land, unlimited and virtually free, +was the magnet that drew the foreign home seeker to the American +shores. + +The first public domain after the formation of the Union extended from +the Alleghanies to the Mississippi. This area was enlarged and pushed +to the Rockies by the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and was again enlarged +and extended to the Pacific by the acquisition of Oregon (1846) and +the Mexican cession (1848). The total area of the United States from +coast to coast then comprised 3,025,000[29] square miles, of which +over two-thirds were at one time or another public domain. Before the +close of the Civil War the Government had disposed of nearly four +hundred million acres but still retained in its possession an area +three times as great as the whole of the territory which had been won +from Great Britain in the Revolution. + +The public domain was at first looked upon as a source of revenue, and +a minimum price was fixed by law at $2 an acre, though this rate was +subsequently (1820) lowered to $1.25 an acre. The West always wanted +liberal land laws, but the South before the Civil War, fearing that +the growth of the West would give the North superior strength, opposed +any such generosity. When the North dominated Congress, the Homestead +Law of 1862 provided that any person, twenty-one years of age, who was +a citizen of the United States or who had declared his intention of +becoming one, could obtain title to 160 acres of land by living upon +it five years, making certain improvements, and paying the entry fee +of ten dollars. + +The Government laid out its vast estate in townships six miles square, +which it subdivided into sections of 640 acres and quarter sections of +160 acres. The quarter section was regarded as the public land unit +and was the largest amount permitted for individual preëmption and +later for a homestead. Thus was the whole world invited to go west. +Under the new law, 1,160,000 acres were taken up in 1865.[30] The +settler no longer had to suffer the wearisome, heart-breaking tasks +that confronted the pioneer of earlier years, for the railway and +steamboat had for some time taken the place of the Conestoga wagon and +the fitful sailboat. + +But the movement by railway and by steamboat was merely a continuation +on a greater scale of what had been going on ever since the +Revolution. The westward movement was begun, as we have seen, not by +foreigners but by American farmers and settlers from seaboard and back +country, thousands of whom, before the dawn of the nineteenth century, +packed their household goods and families into covered wagons and +followed the sunset trail. + +The vanguard of this westward march was American, but foreign +immigrants soon began to mingle with the caravans. At first these +newcomers who heard the far call of the West were nearly all from the +British Isles. Indeed so great was the exodus of these farmers that in +1816 the British journals in alarm asked Parliament to check the +"ruinous drain of the most useful part of the population of the United +Kingdom." Public meetings were held in Great Britain to discuss the +average man's prospect in the new country. Agents of land companies +found eager crowds gathered to learn particulars. Whole neighborhoods +departed for America. In order to stop the exodus, the newspapers +dwelt upon the hardship of the voyage and the excesses of the +Americans. But, until Australia, New Zealand, and Canada began to +deflect migration, the stream to the United States from England, +Scotland, and Wales was constant and copious. Between 1820 and 1910 +the number coming from Ireland was 4,212,169, from England 2,212,071, +from Scotland 488,749, and from Wales 59,540. + +What proportion of this host found their way to the farms is not +known.[31] In the earlier years, the majority of the English and +Scotch sought the land. In western New York, in Ohio, Indiana, +Michigan, and contiguous States there were many Scotch and English +neighborhoods established before the Civil War. Since 1870, however, +the incoming British have provided large numbers of skilled mechanics +and miners, and the Welsh, also, have been drawn largely to the coal +mines. + +The French Revolution drove many notables to exile in the United +States, and several attempts were made at colonization. The names +Gallipolis and Gallia County, Ohio, bear witness to their French +origin. Gallipolis was settled in 1790 by adventurers from Havre, +Bordeaux, Nantes, La Rochelle, and other French cities. The colony was +promoted in France by Joel Barlow, an Ananias even among land sharks, +representing the Scioto Land Company, or Companie du Scioto, one of +the numerous speculative concerns that early sought to capitalize +credulity and European ignorance of the West. The Company had, in +fact, no title to the lands, and the wretched colonists found +themselves stranded in a wilderness for whose conquest they were +unsuited. Of the colonists McMaster says: "Some could build coaches, +some could make perukes, some could carve, others could gild with such +exquisite carving that their work had been thought not unworthy of the +King."[32] Congress came to the relief of these unfortunate people in +1795 and granted them twenty-four thousand acres in Ohio. The town +they founded never fully realized their early dreams, but, after a +bitter struggle, it survived the log cabin days and was later honored +by a visit from Louis Philippe and from Lafayette. Very few +descendants of the French colonists share in its present-day +prosperity. + +The majority of the French who came to America after 1820 were factory +workers and professional people who remained in the cities. There are +great numbers of French Canadians in the factory towns of New England. +There are, too, French colonies in America whose inhabitants cannot be +rated as foreigners, for their ancestors were veritable pioneers. +Throughout the Mississippi Valley, such French settlements as +Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, and others have left much more +than a geographical designation and have preserved an old world aroma +of quaintness and contentment. + +Swiss immigrants, to the number of about 250,000 and over 175,000 +Dutch have found homes in America. The majority of the Swiss came from +the German cantons of Switzerland. They have large settlements in +Ohio, Wisconsin, and California, where they are very successful in +dairying and stock raising. The Hollanders have taken root chiefly in +western Michigan, between the Kalamazoo and Grand rivers, on the deep +black bottom lands suitable for celery and market gardening. The town +of Holland there, with its college and churches, is the center of +Dutch influence in the United States. Six of the eleven Dutch +periodicals printed in America are issued from Michigan, and the +majority of newcomers (over 80,000 have arrived since 1900) have made +their way to that State. These sturdy and industrious people from +Holland and Switzerland readily adapt themselves to American life. + +No people have answered the call of the land in recent years as +eagerly as have the Scandinavians. These modern vikings have within +one generation peopled a large part of the great American Northwest. +In 1850 there were only eighteen thousand Scandinavians in the United +States. The tide rose rapidly in the sixties and reached its height in +the eighties, until over two million Scandinavian immigrants have made +America their home. They and their descendants form a very substantial +part of the rural population. There are nearly half as many Norwegians +in America as in Norway, which has emptied a larger proportion of its +population into the American lap than any other country save Ireland. +About one-fourth of the world's Swedes and over one-tenth of the +world's Danes dwell in America. + +The term Scandinavian is here used in the loose sense to embrace the +peoples of the two peninsulas where dwell the Danes, the Norwegians, +and the Swedes. These three branches of the same family have much in +common, though for many years they objected to being thus rudely +shaken together into one ethnic measure. The Swede is the aristocrat, +the Norwegian the democrat, the Dane the conservative. The Swede, +polite, vivacious, fond of music and literature, is "the Frenchman of +the North," the Norwegian is a serious viking in modern dress: the +Dane remains a landsman, devoted to his fields, and he is more +amenable than his northern kinsmen to the cultural influence of the +South. + +The Norwegian, true to viking traditions, led the modern exodus. In +1825 the sloop _Restoration_, the _Mayflower_ of the Norse, landed a +band of fifty-three Norwegian Quakers on Manhattan. These peasants +settled at first in western New York. But within a few years most of +them removed to Fox River, Illinois, whither were drawn most of the +Norwegians who migrated before 1850. After the Civil War, the stream +rapidly rose, until nearly seven hundred thousand persons of Norwegian +birth have settled in America. + +The Swedish migration started in 1841, when Gustavus Unonius, a former +student of the University of Upsala, founded the colony of Pine Lake, +near Milwaukee. His followers have been described as a strange +assortment of "noblemen, ex-army officers, merchants, and +adventurers," whose experiences and talents were not of the sort that +make pioneering successful. Frederika Bremer, the noted Swedish +traveler, has left a description of the little cluster of log huts and +the handful of people who "had taken with them the Swedish inclination +for hospitality and a merry life, without sufficiently considering how +long it could last." Their experiences form a romantic prelude to the +great Swedish migration, which reached its height in the eighties. +Today the Swedes form the largest element in the Scandinavian influx, +for well over one million have migrated to the United States. + +Nearly three hundred thousand persons of Danish blood have come into +the country since the Civil War. A large number migrated from +Schleswig-Holstein, after the forcible annexation of that province by +Prussia in 1866, preferring the freedom of America to the tyranny of +Berlin. + +Whatever distinctions in language and customs may have characterized +these Northern peoples, they had one ambition in common--the desire to +own tillable land. So they made of the Northwest a new Scandinavia, +larger and far more prosperous than that which Gustavus Adolphus had +planned in colonial days for his colony in Delaware. One can travel +today three hundred miles at a stretch across the prairies of the +Dakotas or the fields of Minnesota without leaving land that is owned +by Scandinavians. They abound also in Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, +Eastern Nebraska, and Kansas, and Northern Michigan. Latterly the +lands of Oregon and Washington are luring them by the thousands, while +throughout the remaining West there are scattered many prosperous +farms cultivated by representatives of this hardy race. Latterly this +stream of Scandinavians has thinned to about one-half its former size. +In 1910, 48,000 came; in 1911, 42,000; in 1912, 27,000; in 1913, +33,000. The later immigrant is absorbed by the cities, or sails upon +the Great Lakes or in the coastwise trade, or works in lumber camps or +mines. Wherever you find a Scandinavian, however, he is working close +to nature, even though he is responding to the call of the new +industry. + +It is the consensus of opinion among competent observers that these +northern peoples have been the most useful of the recent great +additions to the American race. They were particularly fitted by +nature for the conquest of the great area which they have brought +under subjugation, not merely because of their indomitable industry, +perseverance, honesty, and aptitude for agriculture, but because they +share with the Englishman and the Scotchman the instinct for +self-government. Above all, the Scandinavian has never looked upon +himself as an exile. From the first he has considered himself an +American. In Minnesota and Dakota, the Norse pioneer often preceded +local government. "Whenever a township became populous enough to have +a name as well as a number on the surveyor's map, that question was +likely to be determined by the people on the ground, and such names +as Christiana, Swede Plain, Numedal, Throndhjem, and Vasa leave no +doubt that Scandinavians officiated at the christening." These people +proceeded with the organizing of the local government and, "except for +the peculiar names, no one would suspect that the town-makers were +born elsewhere than in Massachusetts or New York."[33] This, too, in +spite of the fact that they continued the use of their mother tongue, +for not infrequently election notices and even civic ordinances and +orders were issued in Norwegian or Swedish. In 1893 there were 146 +Scandinavian newspapers, and their number has since greatly increased. + +In politics the Norseman learned his lesson quickly. Governors, +senators, and representatives in Congress give evidence to a racial +clannishness that has more than once proven stronger than party +allegiance. Yet with all their influence in the Northwest, they have +not insisted on unreasonable race recognition, as have the Germans in +Wisconsin and other localities. Minnesota and Dakota have established +classes in "the Scandinavian language" in their state universities, +evidently leaving it to be decided as an academic question which is +_the_ Scandinavian language. Without brilliance, producing few +leaders, the Norseman represents the rugged commonplace of American +life, avoiding the catastrophes of a soaring ambition on the one hand +and the pitfalls of a jaded temperamentalism on the other. Bent on +self-improvement, he scrupulously patronizes farmers' institutes, high +schools, and extension courses, and listens with intelligent patience +to lectures that would put an American audience to sleep. This son of +the North has greatly buttressed every worthy American institution +with the stern traditional virtues of the tiller of the soil. Strength +he gives, if not grace, and that at a time when all social +institutions are being shaken to their foundations. + +Among the early homesteaders in the upper Mississippi Valley there +were a substantial number of Bohemians. In Nebraska they comprise nine +per cent of the foreign born population, in Oklahoma seven per cent, +and in Texas over six per cent. They began migrating in the turbulent +forties. They were nearly all of the peasant class, neat, industrious +and intelligent, and they usually settled in colonies where they +retained their native tongue and customs. They were opposed to +slavery and many enlisted in the Union cause. + +Among the Polish immigrants who came to America before 1870, many +settled on farms in Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, and other States. They +proved much more clannish than the Bohemians and more reluctant to +conform to American customs. + +Many farms in the Northwest are occupied by Finns, of whom there were +in 1910 over two hundred thousand in the United States. They are a +Tatar race, with a copious sprinkling of Swedish blood. Illiteracy is +rare among them. They are eager patrons of night schools and libraries +and have a flourishing college near Duluth. They are eager for +citizenship and are independent in politics. The glittering +generalities of Marxian socialism seem peculiarly alluring to them; +and not a few have joined the I.W.W. Drink has been their curse, but a +strong temperance movement has recently made rapid headway among them. +They are natural woodmen and wield the axe with the skill of our own +frontiersmen. Their peculiar houses, made of neatly squared logs, are +features of every Finnish settlement. All of the North European races +and a few from Southern and Eastern Europe have contributed to the +American rural population; yet the Census of 1910 disclosed the fact +that of the 6,361,502 white farm operators in the United States, 75 +per cent were native American and only 10.5 per cent were foreign +born. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 29: Oberholtzer, _History of the United States since the +Civil War_, vol I, p. 275.] + +[Footnote 30: Oberholtzer, _supra cit._, p. 278.] + +[Footnote 31: The census of 1910 discloses the fact that of the +6,361,502 farms in the United States 75 per cent were operated by +native white Americans and only 10.5 per cent by foreign born whites. +The foreign born were distributed as follows: Austria, 33,336; +Hungary, 3827; England, 39,728; Ireland, 33,480; Scotland, 10,220; +Wales, 4110; France, 5832; Germany, 221,800; Holland, 13,790; Italy, +10,614; Russia, 25,788; Poland, 7228; Denmark, 28,375; Norway, 59,742; +Sweden, 67,453; Switzerland, 14333; Canada, 61,878.] + +[Footnote 32: _History of the People of the United States_, vol. VII, +p. 203.] + +[Footnote 33: K.C. Babcock, _The Scandinavian Element in the United +States_, p. 143.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE CITY BUILDERS + + +"What will happen to immigration when the public domain has vanished?" +was a question frequently asked by thoughtful American citizens. The +question has been answered: the immigrant has become a job seeker in +the city instead of a home seeker in the open country. The last three +decades have witnessed "the portentous growth of the cities"--and they +are cities of a new type, cities of gigantic factories, towering +skyscrapers, electric trolleys, telephones, automobiles, and motor +trucks, and of fetid tenements swarming with immigrants. The +immigrants, too, are of a new type. When Henry James revisited Boston +after a long absence, he was shocked at the "gross little foreigners" +who infested its streets, and he said it seemed as if the fine old +city had been wiped with "a sponge saturated with the foreign mixture +and passed over almost everything I remembered and might have still +recovered."[34] + +Until 1882 the bulk of immigration, as we have seen, came from the +north of Europe, and these immigrants were kinsmen to the American and +for the most part sought the country. The new immigration, however, +which chiefly sought the cities, hailed from southern and eastern +Europe. It has shown itself alien in language, custom, in ethnic +affinities and political concepts, in personal standards and +assimilative ambitions. These immigrants arrived usually in masculine +hordes, leaving women and children behind, clinging to their own kind +with an apprehensive mistrust of all things American, and filled with +the desire to extract from this fabulous mine as much gold as possible +and then to return to their native villages. Yet a very large number +of those who have gone home to Europe have returned to America with +bride or family. As a result the larger cities of the United States +are congeries of foreign quarters, whose alarming fecundity fills the +streets with progeny and whose polyglot chatter on pay night turns +even many a demure New England town into a veritable babel. + +There are in the United States today roughly eight or ten millions of +these new immigrants. A line drawn southward from Minneapolis to St. +Louis and thence eastward to Washington would embrace over four-fifths +of them, for most of the great American cities lie in this +northeastern corner of the land. Whence come these millions? From the +vast and mysterious lands of the Slavs, from Italy, from Greece, and +from the Levant. + +The term Slav covers a welter of nationalities whose common ethnic +heritage has long been concealed under religious, geographical, and +political diversities and feuds. They may be divided into North Slavs, +including Bohemians, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovaks, and "Russians," and +South Slavs, including Bulgarians, Serbians and Montenegrins, +Croatians, Slovenians, and Dalmatians. As one writer on these races +says, "It is often impossible in America to distinguish these national +groups.... Yet the differences are there.... In American communities +they have their different churches societies, newspapers, and a +separate social life.... The Pole wastes no love on the Russian, nor +the Ruthenian on the Pole, and a person who acts in ignorance of these +facts, a missionary for instance, or a political boss, or a trade +union organizer, may find himself in the position of a host who +should innocently invite a Fenian from Cork County to hobnob with an +Ulster Orangeman on the ground that both were Irish."[35] + +The Bohemians (including the Moravians) are the most venturesome and +the most enlightened of the great Slav family. Many of them came to +America in the seventeenth century as religious pilgrims; more came as +political refugees after 1848; and since 1870, they have come in +larger numbers, seeking better economic conditions. All told, they +numbered over 220,000, from which it may be estimated that there are +probably today half a million persons of Bohemian parentage in the +United States. Chicago alone shelters over 100,000 of these people, +and Cleveland 45,000. These immigrants as a rule own the neat, +box-like houses in which they live, where flower-pots and tiny gardens +bespeak a love of growing things, and lace curtains, carpets, and +center tables testify to the influence of an American environment. The +Bohemians are much given to clubs, lodges, and societies, which +usually have rooms over Bohemian saloons. The second generation is +prone to free thinking and has a weakness for radical socialism. + +The Bohemians are assiduous readers, and illiteracy is almost unknown +among them. They support many periodicals and several thriving +publishing houses. They cling to their language with a religious +fervor. Their literature and the history which it preserves is their +pride. Yet this love of their own traditions is no barrier, +apparently, to forming strong attachments to American institutions. +The Bohemians are active in politics, and in the cities where they +congregate they see that they have their share of the public offices. +There are more highly skilled workmen among them than are to be found +in any other Slavic group; and the second generation of Bohemians in +America has produced many brilliant professional men and successful +business men. As one writer puts it: "The miracle which America works +upon the Bohemians is more remarkable than any other of our national +achievements. The downcast look so characteristic of them in Prague is +nearly gone, the surliness and unfriendliness disappear, and the young +Bohemian of the second or third generation is as frank and open as his +neighbor with his Anglo-Saxon heritage."[36] + +The bitter, political and racial suppression that made the Bohemian +surly and defiant seem, on the other hand, to have left the Polish +peasant stolid, patient, and very illiterate. Polish settlements were +made in Texas and Wisconsin in the fifties and before 1880 a large +number of Poles were scattered through New York, Pennsylvania, and +Illinois. Since then great numbers have come over in the new +migrations until today, it is estimated, at least three million +persons of Polish parentage live in the United States.[37] The men in +the earlier migrations frequently settled on the land; the recent +comers hasten to the mines and the metal working centers, where their +strong though untrained hands are in constant demand. + +The majority of the Poles have come to America to stay. They remain, +however, very clannish and according to the Federal Industrial +Commission, without the "desire to fuse socially." The recent Polish +immigrant is very circumscribed in his mental horizon, clings +tenaciously to his language, which he hears exclusively in his home +and his church, his lodge, and his saloon, and is unresponsive to his +American environment. Not until the second and third generation is +reached does the spirit of American democracy make headway against his +lethal stolidity. Now that Poland has been made free as a result of +the Great War, it may be that the Pole's inherited indifference will +give way to national aspirations and that, in the resurrection of his +historic hope of freedom, he will find an animating stimulant. + +The Pole, however, is more independent and progressive than the +Slovak, his brother from the northeastern corner of Hungary. For many +generations this segment of the Slav race has been pitifully crushed. +Turks, Magyars, and Huns have taken delight in oppressing him. An +early, sporadic migration of Slovaks to America received a sudden +impulse in 1882. About 200,000 have come since then, and perhaps twice +that number of persons of Slovak blood now dwell in the mining and +industrial centers of the United States. Many of them, however, return +to their native villages. They keep aloof from things American and +only too often prefer to live in squalor and ignorance. Their social +life is centered in the church, the saloon, and the lodge. It is +asserted that their numerous organizations have a membership of over +100,000, and that there were almost as many Slovak newspapers in +America as in Hungary.[38] + +Little Russia, the seat of turmoil, is the home of the Ruthenians, or +Ukranians. They are also found in southeastern Galicia, northern +Hungary, and in the province of Bukowina. They have migrated from all +these provinces and about 350,000, it is estimated, now reside in the +United States. They, too, are birds of passage, working in the mines +and steel mills for the coveted wages that shall free them from debt +at home and insure their independence. Such respite as they take from +their labors is spent in the saloon, in the club rooms over the +saloon, or in church, where they hear no English speech and learn +nothing of American ways. + +It is impossible to estimate the total number of Russian Slavs in the +United States, as the census figures until recently included as +"Russian" all nationalities that came from Russia. They form the +smallest of the Slavic groups that have migrated to America. From 1898 +to 1909 only 66,282 arrived, about half of whom settled in +Pennsylvania and New York. It is surprising to note, however, that +every State in the Union except Utah and every island possession +except the Philippines has received a few of these immigrants. The +Director of Emigration at St. Petersburg in 1907 characterized these +people as "hardy and industrious," and "though illiterate they are +intelligent and unbigoted."[39] + +So much in brief for the North Slavs. Of the South Slavs, the +Bulgarians possess racial characteristics which point to an +intermixture in the remote past with some Asiatic strain, perhaps a +Magyar blend. Very few Bulgarian immigrants, who come largely from +Macedonia, arrived before the revolution of 1904, when many villages +in Monastir were destroyed. For some years they made Granite City, +near St. Louis, the center of their activities but, like the Serbians, +they are now well scattered throughout the country. In Seattle, Butte, +Chicago, and Indianapolis they form considerable colonies. Many of +them return yearly to their native hills, and it is too early to +determine how fully they desire to adapt themselves to American ways. + +Montenegro, Serbia, and Bulgaria, countries that have been thrust +forcibly into the world's vision by the Great War, have sent several +hundred thousand of their hardy peasantry to the United States. The +Montenegrins and Serbians, who comprise three-fourths of this +migration, are virtually one in speech and descent. They are to be +found in New England towns and in nearly every State from New York to +Alaska, where they work in the mills and mines and in construction +gangs. The response which these people make to educational +opportunities shows their high cultural possibilities. + +The Croatians and Dalmatians, who constitute the larger part of the +southern Slav immigration, are a sturdy, vigorous people, and splendid +specimens of physical manhood. The Dalmatians are a seafaring folk +from the Adriatic coast, whose sailors may be found in every port of +the world. The Dalmatians have possessed themselves of the oyster +fisheries near New Orleans and are to be found in Mississippi making +staves and in California making wine. In many cities they manage +restaurants. The exceptional shrewdness of the Dalmatians is in bold +contrast to their illiteracy. They get on amazingly in spite of their +lack of education. Once they have determined to remain in this +country, they take to American ways more readily than do the other +southern Slavs. + +Croatia, too, has its men of the sea, but in America most of the +immigrants of this race are to be found in the mines and coke furnaces +of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In New York City there are some +15,000 Croatian mechanics and longshoremen. The silver and copper +mines of Montana also employ a large number of these people. It is +estimated that fully one-half of the Croatians return to their native +hills and that they contribute yearly many millions to the home-folks. + +From the little province of Carniola come the Slovenians, usually +known as "Griners" (from the German _Krainer_, the people of the +Krain), a fragment of the Slavic race that has become much more +assimilated with the Germans who govern them than any other of their +kind. Their national costume has all but vanished and with it the +virile traditions of their forefathers. They began coming to America +in the sixties, and in the seventies they founded an important colony +at Joliet, Illinois. Since 1892 their numbers have increased rapidly, +until today about 100,000 live in the United States. Over one-half of +these immigrants are to be found in the steel and mining towns of +Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, where the large majority of them are +unskilled workmen. Among the second generation, however, are to be +found a number of successful merchants. + +All these numerous peoples have inherited in common the impassive, +patient temperament and the unhappy political fate of the Slav. Their +countries are mere eddies left by the mighty currents of European +conquest and reconquest, backward lands untouched by machine industry +and avoided by capital, whose only living links with the moving world +are the birds of passage, the immigrants who flit between the mines +and cities of America and these isolated European villages. Held +together by national costume, song, dance, festival, traditions, and +language, these people live in the pale glory of a heroic past. Most +of those who come to America are peasants who have been crushed by +land feudalism, kept in ignorance by political intolerance, and bound +in superstition by a reactionary ecclesiasticism. The brutality with +which they treat their women, their disregard for sanitary measures, +and their love for strong drink are evidences of the survival of +medievalism in the midst of modern life, as are their notions of +class prerogative and their concept of the State. Buffeted by the +world, their language suppressed, their nationalism reviled, poor, +ignorant, unskilled, these children of the open country come to the +ugliest spots of America, the slums of the cities, and the choking +atmosphere of the mines. Here, crowded in their colonies, jealously +shepherded by their church, neglected by the community, they remain +for an entire generation immune to American influences. According to +estimates given by Emily G. Balch,[40] between four and six million +persons of Slavic descent are now dwelling among us, and their +fecundity is amazing. Equally amazing is the indifference of the +Government and of Americans generally to the menace involved in the +increasing numbers of these inveterate aliens to institutions that are +fundamentally American. + +The Lithuanians and Magyars are often classed with the Slavs. They +hotly resent this inclusion, however, for they are distinct racial +strains of ancient lineage. An adverse fate has left the Lithuanian +little of his old civilization except his language. Political and +economic suppression has made sad havoc of what was once a proud and +prosperous people. Most of them are now crowded into the Baltic +province that bears their name, and they are reduced to the mental and +economic level of the Russian moujik. In 1868 a famine drove the first +of these immigrants to America, where they were soon absorbed by the +anthracite mines of Pennsylvania. They were joined in the seventies by +numbers of army deserters. The hard times of the nineties caused a +rush of young men to the western El Dorado. Since then the influx has +steadily continued until now over 200,000 are in America. They +persistently avoid agriculture and seek the coal mine and the factory. +The one craft in which they excel is tailoring, and they proudly boast +of being the best dressed among all the Eastern-European immigrants. +The one mercantile ambition which they have nourished is to keep a +saloon. Drinking is their national vice; and they measure the social +success of every wedding, christening, picnic, and jollification by +its salvage of empty beer kegs. + +Over 338,000 Magyars immigrated to the United States during the decade +ending 1910. These brilliant and masterful folk are a Mongoloid blend +that swept from the steppes of Asia across eastern Europe a thousand +years ago. As the wave receded, the Magyars remained dominant in +beautiful and fertile Hungary, where their aggressive nationalism +still brings them into constant rivalry on the one hand with the +Germans of Austria and on the other with the Slavs of Hungary. The +immigrants to America are largely recruited from the peasantry. They +almost invariably seek the cities, where the Magyar neighborhoods can +be easily distinguished by their scrupulously neat housekeeping, the +flower beds, the little patches of well-swept grass, the clean +children, and the robust and tidy women. Among them is less illiteracy +than in any other group from eastern and southern Europe, excepting +the Finns, who are their ethnic brothers. As a rule they own their own +homes. They learn the English language quickly but unfortunately +acquire with it many American vices. Drinking and carousing are +responsible for their many crimes of personal violence. They are +otherwise a sociable, happy people, and the cafes kept by Hungarians +are islands of social jollity in the desert of urban strife. + +In bold contrast to these ardent devotees of nationalism, the Jew, the +man of no country and of all countries, is an American immigrant still +to be considered. By force of circumstance he became a city dweller; +he came from the European city; he remained in the American city; and +all attempts to colonize Jews on the land have failed. The doors of +this country have always been open to him. At the time of the +Revolution several thousand Jews dwelt in American towns. By 1850 the +number had increased to 50,000 and by the time of the Civil War to +150,000. The persecutions of Czar Alexander III in the eighties +swelled the number to over 400,000, and the political reactions of the +nineties added over one million. Today at least one fifth of the ten +million Jews in the world live in American cities. + +The first to seek a new Zion in this land were the Spanish-Portuguese +Jews, who came as early as 1655. They remain a select aristocracy +among their race, clinging to certain ritualistic characteristics and +retaining much of the pride which their long contact with the Spaniard +has engendered. They are found almost exclusively in the eastern +cities, as successful bankers, merchants, and professional men. There +next came on the wave of the great German immigration the German Jews. +They are to be found in every city, large and small, engaged in +mercantile pursuits, especially in the drygoods and the clothing +business. Nearly all of the prominent Jews in America have come from +this stock--the great bankers, financiers, lawyers, merchants, rabbis, +scholars, and public men. It was, indeed, from their broad-minded +scholars that there originated the widespread liberal Judaism which +has become a potent ethical force in our great cities. + +The Austrian and Hungarian Jews followed. The Jews had always received +liberal treatment in Hungary, and their mingling with the social +Magyars had produced the type of the coffeehouse Jew, who loved to +reproduce in American cities the conviviality of Vienna and Budapest +but who did not take as readily to American ways as the German Jew. +Most of the Jews from Hungary remained in New York, although Chicago +and St. Louis received a few of them. In commercial life they are +traders, pawnbrokers, and peddlers, and control the artificial-flower +and passementerie trade. + +By far the largest group are the latest comers, the Russian Jews. +"Ultra orthodox," says Edward A. Steiner, "yet ultra radical; chained +to the past, and yet utterly severed from it; with religion permeating +every act of life, or going to the other extreme and having 'none of +it'; traders by instinct, and yet among the hardest manual laborers +of our great cities. A complex mass in which great things are yearning +to express themselves, a brooding mass which does not know itself and +does not lightly disclose itself to the outside."[41] Nearly a million +of these people are crowded into the New York ghettos. Large numbers +of them engage in the garment industries and the manufacture of +tobacco. They graduate also into junk-dealers, pawnbrokers, and +peddlers, and are soon on their way "up town." Among them socialism +thrives, and the second generation displays an unseemly haste to break +with the faith of its fathers. + +The Jews are the intellectuals of the new immigration. They invest +their political ideas with vague generalizations of human +amelioration. They cannot forget that Karl Marx was a Jew: and one +wonders how many Trotzkys and Lenines are being bred in the stagnant +air of their reeking ghettos. It remains to be seen whether they will +be willing to devote their undoubted mental capacities to other than +revolutionary vagaries or to gainful pursuits, for they have a +tendency to commercialize everything they touch. They have shown no +reluctance to enter politics; they learn English with amazing +rapidity, throng the public schools and colleges, and push with +characteristic zeal and persistence into every open door of this +liberal land. + +From Italy there have come to America well over three million +immigrants. For two decades before 1870 they filtered in at the +average rate of about one thousand a year; then the current increased +to several thousand a year; and after 1880 it rose to a flood.[42] +Over two-thirds of these Italians live in the larger cities; +one-fourth of them are crowded into New York tenements.[43] Following +in order, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Cleveland, St. +Louis, Baltimore, Detroit, Portland, and Omaha have their Italian +quarters, all characterized by overcrowded boarding houses and +tenements, vast hordes of children, here and there an Italian bakery +and grocery, on every corner a saloon, and usually a private bank with +a steamship agency and the office of the local _padrone_. Scores of +the lesser cities also have their Italian contingent, usually in the +poorest and most neglected part of the town, where gaudily painted +door jambs and window frames and wonderfully prosperous gardens +proclaim the immigrant from sunny Italy. Not infrequently an old +warehouse, store, or church is transformed into an ungainly and +evil-odored barracks, housing scores of men who do their own washing +and cooking. Those who do not dwell in the cities are at work in +construction camps--for the Italian has succeeded the Irishman as the +knight of the pick and shovel. The great bulk of these swarthy, +singing, hopeful young fellows are peasants, unskilled of hand but +willing of heart. Nearly every other one is unable to read or write. +They have not come for political or religious reasons but purely as +seekers for wages, driven from the peasant villages by overpopulation +and the hazards of a precarious agriculture. + +They have come in two distinct streams: one from northern Italy, +embracing about one-fifth of the whole; the other from southern Italy. +The two streams are quite distinct in quality. Northern Italy is the +home of the old masters in art and literature and of a new +industrialism that is bringing renewed prosperity to Milan and Turin. +Here the virile native stock has been strengthened with the blood of +its northern neighbors. They are a capable, creative, conservative, +reliable race. On the other hand, the hot temper of the South has been +fed by an infusion of Greek and Saracen blood. In Sicily this strain +shows at its worst. There the vendetta flourishes; and the Camorra and +its sinister analogue, the Black Hand, but too realistically remind us +that thousands of these swarthy criminals have found refuge in the +dark alleys of our cities. Even in America the Sicilian carries a +dirk, and the "death sign" in a court room has silenced many a +witness. The north Italians readily identify themselves with American +life. Among them are found bakers, barbers, and marble cutters, as +well as wholesale fruit and olive oil merchants, artists, and +musicians. But the south Italian is a restless, roving creature, who +dislikes the confinement and restraint of the mill and factory. He is +found out of doors, making roads and excavations, railways, +skyscrapers, and houses. If he has a liking for trade he trundles a +pushcart filled with fruit or chocolates; or he may turn a jolly +hurdy-gurdy or grind scissors. In spite of his native sociability, +the south Italian is very slow to take to American ways. As a rule, he +comes here intending to go back when he has made enough money. He has +the air of a sojourner. He is picturesque, volatile, and incapable of +effective team work. + +About 300,000 Greeks have come to America between 1908 and 1917, +nearly all of them young men, escaping from a country where they had +meat three times a year to a land where they may have it three times a +day. "The whole Greek world," says Henry P. Fairchild, writing in +1911, "may be said to be in a fever of emigration.... The strong young +men with one accord are severing home ties, leaving behind wives and +sweethearts, and thronging to the shores of America in search of +opportunity and fortune." Every year they send back handsome sums to +the expectant family. Business is an instinct with the Greek, and he +has almost monopolized the ice cream, confectionery, and retail fruit +business, the small florist shops and bootblack stands in scores of +towns, and in every large city he is running successful restaurants. +As a factory operative he is found in the cotton mills of New England, +but he prefers merchandizing to any other calling. + +Years ago when New Bedford was still a whaling port a group of +Portuguese sailors from the Azores settled there. This formed the +nucleus of the Portuguese immigration which, in the last decade, +included over 80,000 persons. Two-thirds of these live in New England +factory towns, the remaining third, strange to say, have found their +way to the other side of the continent, where they work in the gardens +and fruit orchards of California. New Bedford is still the center of +their activity. They are a hard-working people whose standard of +living, according to official investigations "is much lower than that +of any other race," of whom scarcely one in twenty become citizens, +and who evince no interest in learning or in manual skill. + +Finally, American cities are extending the radius of their magnetism +and are drawing ambitious tradesmen and workers from the Levant. Over +100,000 have come from Arabia, Syria, Armenia, and Turkey. The +Armenians and Syrians, forming the bulk of this influx, came as +refugees from the brutalities of the Mohammedan régime. The Levantine +is first and always a bargainer. His little bazaars and oriental rug +shops are bits of Cairo and Constantinople, where you are privileged +to haggle over every purchase in true oriental style. Even the +peddlers of lace and drawn-work find it hard to accustom themselves to +the occidental idea of a market price. With all their cunning as +traders, they respect learning, prize manual skill, possess a fine +artistic sense, and are law-abiding. The Armenians especially are +eager to become American citizens. Since the settlement of the +Northwestern lands, many thousands of Scandinavians and Finns have +flocked to the cities, where they are usually employed as skilled +craftsmen.[44] + +Thus the United States, in a quarter of a century, has assumed a +cosmopolitanism in which the early German and Irish immigrants appear +as veteran Americans. This is not a stationary cosmopolitanism, like +that of Constantinople, the only great city in Europe that compares +with New York, Chicago, or Boston in ethnic complexity. It is a +shifting mass. No two generations occupy the same quarters. Even the +old rich move "up town" leaving their fine houses, derelicts of a +former splendor, to be divided into tenements where six or eight +Italian or Polish families find ample room for themselves and a crowd +of boarders. + +Thousands of these migratory beings throng the steerage of +transatlantic ships every winter to return to their European homes. +The steamship companies, whose enterprise is largely responsible for +this flow of populations, reap their harvest; and many a decaying +village buried in the southern hills of Europe, or swept by the winds +of the great Slav plains, owes its regeneration ultimately to American +dollars. + +They pay the price of their success, these flitting beings, links +between distant lands and our own. The great maw of mine and factory +devours thousands. Their lyric tribal songs are soon drowned by the +raucous voices of the city; their ancient folk-dances, meant for a +village green, not for a reeking dance-hall, lose here their native +grace; and the quaint and picturesque costumes of the European +peasant give place to American store clothes, the ugly badge of +equality. + +The outward bound throng holds its head high, talks back at the +steward, and swaggers. It has become "American." The restless fever of +the great democracy is in its veins. Most of those who return home +will find their way back with others of their kind to the teeming +hives and the coveted fleshpots they are leaving. And again they will +tax the ingenuity of labor unions, political and social organizations, +schools, libraries, and churches, in the endeavor to transform +medieval peasants into democratic peers. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 34: This lament of Henry James's is cited by E.A. Ross in +_The Old World in the New_, p. 101.] + +[Footnote 35: Emily Greene Balch, _Our Slavic Fellow Citizens_, p. +8-9.] + +[Footnote 36: Edward A. Steiner, _On the Trail of the Immigrant_, p. +228.] + +[Footnote 37: This is an estimate made by the Reverend W.X. Kruszka of +Ripon, Wisconsin, as reported by E.G. Balch in _Our Slavic Fellow +Citizens_, p. 262. Of this large number, Chicago claims 350,000; New +York City, 250,000; Buffalo, 80,000; Milwaukee, 75,000; Detroit, +75,000; while at least a dozen other cities have substantial Polish +settlements. These numbers include the suburbs of each city.] + +[Footnote 38: This is accounted for by the fact that the Hungarian +Government rigorously censored Slovak publications.] + +[Footnote 39: Since the Russo-Japanese War, Siberia has absorbed great +numbers of Russian immigrants. This accounts for the small number that +have come to America.] + +[Footnote 40: _Our Slavic Fellow Citizens_, p. 280.] + +[Footnote 41: _On the Trail of the Immigrant_, p. 27.] + +[Footnote 42: The census figures show that approximately half the +Italian immigrants return to their native land. American officers in +the Great War were surprised to find so many Italian soldiers who +spoke English. In 1910 there remained in the United States only +1,343,000 Italians who were born in Italy, and the total number of +persons of Italian stock in the United States was 2,098,000.] + +[Footnote 43: According to the Census of 1910 there were 544,000 +Italians in New York City] + +[Footnote 44: The Census of 1910 gives the following distribution of +the American white population by percentages: + +------------------------+--------+-----------------+--------- + | | Native born | + | Native | of Foreign or | Foreign + Location | stock | mixed parentage | born +------------------------+--------+-----------------+--------- +Rural districts | 64.1 | 13.3 | 7.5 + | | | +Cities 2,500- 10,000 | 57.5 | 20.6 | 13.9 + " 10,000- 25,000 | 50.4 | 24.6 | 17.4 + " 25,000-100,000 | 45.9 | 26.5 | 20.2 + " 100,000-500,000 | 38.9 | 31.3 | 22.1 + " 200,000 and over | 25.6 | 37.2 | 33.6 +------------------------+--------+-----------------+--------- + +The native white element predominates in the country but is only a +fraction of the population in the larger cities.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE ORIENTAL + + +America, midway between Europe and Asia, was destined to be the +meeting-ground of Occident and Orient. It was in the exciting days of +'49 that gold became the lodestone to draw to California men from the +oriental lands across the Pacific. The Chinese for the moment overcame +their religious aversion to leaving their native haunts and, lured by +the promise of fabulous wages, made their way to the "gold hills." Of +the three hundred thousand who came to America during the three +decades of free entry, the large majority were peasants from the rural +districts in the vicinity of Canton. They were thrifty, independent, +sturdy, honest young men who sought the great adventure unaccompanied +by wife or family. Chinese tradition forbade the respectable woman to +leave her home, even with her husband; and China was so isolated from +the world, so encrusted in her own traditions that out of her +uncounted millions even the paltry thousands of peasants and workmen +who filtered through the port of Canton into the great world were +bound by ancient precedent as firmly as if they had remained at home. +They invariably planned to return to the Celestial Empire and it was +their supreme wish that, if they died abroad, their bodies be buried +in the land of their ancestors. + +The Chinaman thus came to America as a workman adventurer, not as a +prospective citizen. He preserved his queue, his pajamas, his +chopsticks, and his joss in the crude and often brutal surroundings of +the mining camp. He maintained that gentle, yielding, unassertive +character which succumbs quietly to pressure at one point, only to +reappear silently and unobtrusively in another place. In the wild +rough and tumble of the camp, where the outlaw and the bully found +congenial refuge, the celestial did not belie his name. He was indeed +of another world, and his capacity for patience, his native dignity +without suspicion of hauteur, baffled the loud self-assertion of the +Irish and the Anglo-Saxon. + +During the first years of the gold rush, the Chinaman was welcome in +California because he was necessary. He could do so many things that +the miner disdained or found no time to do. He could cook and wash, +and he could serve. He was a rare gardener and a patient day laborer. +He could learn a new trade quickly. In the city he became a useful +domestic servant at a time when there were very few women. In all his +tasks he was neat and had a genius for noiselessly minding his own +business. + +As the number of miners increased, race prejudice asserted itself. +"California for Americans" came to be a slogan that reflected their +feelings against Mexicans, Spanish-Americans, and Chinese in the +mines. Race riots, often instigated by men who had themselves but +recently immigrated to America, were not infrequent. In these +disorders the Chinese were no match for the aggressors and in +consequence were forced out of many good mining claims. + +The labor of the cheap and faithful Chinese appealed to the business +instincts of the railroad contractors who were constructing the +Pacific railways and they imported large numbers. In 1866 a line of +steamships was established to run regularly between Hong Kong and San +Francisco. In 1869 the first transcontinental railway was completed +and American laborers from the East began to flock to California, +where they immediately found themselves in competition with the +Mongolian standard of living. Race rivalry soon flared up and the +anti-Chinese sentiment increased as the railroads neared completion +and threw more and more of the oriental laborers into the general +labor market. Chinese were hustled out of towns. Here and there +violence was done. For example, in the Los Angeles riots of October +24, 1871, fifteen Chinamen were hanged and six were shot by the mob. + +This prejudice, based primarily upon the Chinaman's willingness to +work long hours for little pay and to live in quarters and upon fare +which an Anglo-Saxon would find impossible, was greatly increased by +his strange garb, language, and customs. The Chinaman remained in +every essential a foreigner. In his various societies he maintained to +some degree the patriarchal government of his native village. He +shunned American courts, avoided the Christian religion, rarely +learned much of the English language, and displayed no desire to +become naturalized. Instead of sympathy in the country of his sojourn +he met discrimination, jealousy, and suspicion. For many years his +testimony was not permitted in the courts. His contact with only the +rough frontier life failed to reveal to him the gentle amenities of +the white man's faith, and everywhere the upper hand seemed turned +against him. So he kept to himself, and this isolation fed the rumors +that were constantly poisoning public opinion. Chinatown in the public +mind became a synonym for a nightmare of filth, gambling, +opium-smoking, and prostitution. + +Alarm was spreading among Americans concerning the organizations of +the Chinese in the United States. Of these, the Six Companies were the +most famous. Mary Roberts Coolidge, after long and careful research, +characterized these societies as "the substitute for village and +patriarchal association, and although purely voluntary and benevolent +in their purpose, they became, because of American ignorance and +prejudice, the supposed instruments of tyranny over their +countrymen."[45] They each had a club house, where members were +registered and where lodgings and other accommodations were provided. +The largest in 1877 had a membership of seventy-five thousand; the +smallest, forty-three thousand. The Chinese also maintained trade +guilds similar in purpose to the American trade union. Private or +secret societies also flourished among them, some for good purposes, +others for illicit purposes. Of the latter the Highbinders or Hatchet +Men became the most notorious, for they facilitated the importation of +Chinese prostitutes. Many of these secret societies thrived on +blackmail, and the popular antagonism to the Six Companies was due to +the outrages committed by these criminal associations. + +When the American labor unions accumulated partisan power, the Chinese +became a political issue. This was the greatest evil that could befall +them, for now racial persecution received official sanction and passed +out of the hands of mere ruffians into the custody of powerful +political agitators. Under the lurid leadership of Dennis Kearney, the +Workingman's party was organized for the purpose of influencing +legislation and "ridding the country of Chinese cheap labor." Their +goal was "Four dollars a day and roast beef"; and their battle cry, +"The Chinese must go." Under the excitement of sand-lot meetings, the +Chinese were driven under cover. In the riots of July, 1877, in San +Francisco, twenty-five Chinese laundries were burned. "For months +afterward," says Mary Roberts Coolidge, "no Chinaman was safe from +personal outrage even on the main thoroughfares, and the perpetrators +of the abuses were almost never interfered with so long as they did +not molest white men's property."[46] + +This anti-Chinese epidemic soon spread to other Western States. +Legislatures and city councils vied with each other in passing laws +and ordinances to satisfy the demands of the labor vote. All manner of +ingenious devices were incorporated into tax laws in an endeavor to +drive the Chinese out of certain occupations and to exclude them from +the State. License and occupation taxes multiplied. The Chinaman was +denied the privilege of citizenship, was excluded from the public +schools, and was not allowed to give testimony in proceedings relating +to white persons. Manifold ordinances were passed intended to harass +and humiliate him: for instance, a San Francisco ordinance required +the hair of all prisoners to be cut within three inches of the scalp. +Most extreme and unreasonable discriminations against hand laundries +were framed. The new California constitution of 1879 endowed the +legislature and the cities with large powers in regulating the +conditions under which Chinese would be tolerated. In 1880 a state law +declared that all corporations operating under a state charter should +be prohibited from employing Chinese under penalty of forfeiting +their charter. Chinese were also excluded from employment in all +public works. Nearly all these laws and ordinances, however, were +ultimately declared to be unconstitutional on account of their +discriminatory character or because they were illegal regulations of +commerce. + +The States having failed to exclude the Chinese, the only hope left +was in the action of the Federal Government. The earliest treaties and +trade conventions with China (1844 and 1858) had been silent upon the +rights and privileges of Chinese residing or trading in the United +States. In 1868, Anson Burlingame, who had served for six years as +American Minister to China, but who had now entered the employ of the +Chinese Imperial Government, arrived at the head of a Chinese mission +sent for the purpose of negotiating a new treaty which should insure +reciprocal rights to the Chinese. The journey from San Francisco to +Washington was a sort of triumphal progress and everywhere the Chinese +mission was received with acclaim. The treaty drawn by Secretary +Seward was ratified on July 28, 1868, and was hailed even on the +Pacific coast as the beginning of more fortunate relations between the +two countries. The treaty acknowledged the "inherent and inalienable +right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual +advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and +subjects respectively, from the one country to the other, for purposes +of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents." It stated +positively that "citizens of the United States visiting or residing in +China shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities, and exemptions in +respect to travel and residence as may be enjoyed by the citizens of +the most favored nation. And, reciprocally, Chinese subjects visiting +or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, +immunities, and exemptions in respect to travel or residence." The +right to naturalization was by express statement not conferred by the +treaty upon the subjects of either nation dwelling in the territory of +the other. But it was not in any way prohibited. + +The applause which greeted this international agreement had hardly +subsided before the anti-Chinese agitators discovered that the treaty +was in their way and they thereupon demanded its modification or +abrogation. They now raised the cry that the Chinese were a threat to +the morals and health of the country, that the majority of Chinese +immigrants were either coolies under contract, criminals, diseased +persons, or prostitutes. As a result, in 1879 a representative from +Nevada, one of the States particularly interested, introduced in +Congress a bill limiting to fifteen the Chinese passengers that any +ship might bring to the United States on a single voyage, and +requiring the captains of such vessels to register at the port of +entry a list of their Chinese passengers. The Senate added an +amendment requesting the President to notify the Chinese Government +that the section of the Burlingame treaty insuring reciprocal +interchange of citizens was abrogated. After a very brief debate the +measure that so flagrantly defied an international treaty passed both +houses. It was promptly vetoed, however, by President Hayes on the +ground that it violated a treaty which a friendly nation had carefully +observed. If the Pacific cities had cause of complaint, the President +preferred to remedy the situation by the "proper course of diplomatic +negotiations."[47] + +The President accordingly appointed a commission, under the +chairmanship of James B. Angell, president of the University of +Michigan, to negotiate a new treaty. The commission proceeded to China +and completed its task in November, 1880. The new treaty provided +that, "whenever, in the opinion of the Government of the United +States, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States, or their +residence therein, affects or threatens to affect the interests of +that country, or to endanger the good order of the said country or of +any locality within the territory thereof, the Government of China +agrees that the Government of the United States may regulate, limit, +or suspend such coming or residence, but may not absolutely prohibit +it." Other Chinese subjects who had come to the United States, "as +travelers, merchants, or for curiosity," and laborers already in the +United States, were to "be allowed to go and come of their own free +will," with all of the "rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions +which are accorded to the citizens of the most favored nation." The +United States furthermore undertook to protect the Chinese in the +United States against "ill treatment" and to "devise means for their +protection." + +Two years after the ratification of this treaty, a bill was introduced +to prohibit the immigration of Chinese labor for twenty years. Both +the great political parties had included the subject in their +platforms in 1880. The Democrats had espoused exclusion and were +committed to "No more Chinese immigration"; the Republicans had +preferred restriction by "just, humane, and reasonable laws." The bill +passed, but President Arthur vetoed it on the ground that prohibiting +immigration for so long a period transcended the provisions of the +treaty. A bill which was then passed shortening the period of the +restriction to ten years received the President's signature, and on +August 5, 1882, America shut the door in the face of Chinese labor. + +The law, however, was very loosely drawn and administrative confusion +arose at once. Chinese laborers leaving the United States were +required to obtain a certificate from the collector of customs at the +port of departure entitling them to reëntry. Other Chinese--merchants, +travelers, or visitors--who desired to come to the United States were +required to have a certificate from their Government declaring that +they were entitled to enter under the provisions of the treaty. As +time went on, identification became a joke, trading in certificates a +regular pursuit, and smuggling Chinese across the Canadian border a +profitable business. Moreover, in the light of the law, who was a +"merchant" and who a "visitor"? In 1884 Congress attempted to remedy +these defects of phraseology and administration by carefully framed +definitions and stringent measures.[48] The Supreme Court upheld the +constitutionality of exclusion as incident to American sovereignty. + +Meanwhile in the West the popular feeling against the Chinese refused +to subside. At Rock Springs, Wyoming, twenty-eight Chinese were killed +and fifteen were injured by a mob which also destroyed Chinese +property amounting to $148,000. At Tacoma and Seattle, also, violence +descended upon the Mongolian. In San Francisco a special grand jury +which investigated the operation of the exclusion laws and a committee +of the Board of Supervisors which investigated the condition of +Chinatown both made reports that were violently anti-Chinese. A state +anti-Chinese convention soon thereafter declared that the situation +"had become well-nigh intolerable." So widespread and venomous was the +agitation against Chinese that President Cleveland was impelled to +send to Congress two special messages on the question, detailing the +facts and requesting Congress to pay the Chinese claims for indemnity +which Wyoming refused to honor. The remonstrances of the Chinese +Government led to the drafting of a new treaty in 1888. But while +China was deliberating over this treaty, Congress summarily shut off +any hope for immediate agreement by passing the Scott Act prohibiting +the return of any Chinese laborer after the passage of the act, +stopping the issue of any more certificates of identification, and +declaring void all certificates previously issued. It is difficult to +avoid the conclusion that this brutal political measure was passed +with an eye to the Pacific electoral vote in the pending election. In +the next presidential year the climax of harshness was reached in the +Geary law, which required, within an unreasonably short time, the +registration of all Chinese in the United States. The Chinese, under +legal advice, refused to register until the Federal Supreme Court had +declared the law constitutional. Subsequently the time for +registration was extended. + +The anti-Chinese fanaticism had now reached its highest point. While +the Government maintained its policy of exclusion, it modified the +drastic details of the law. In 1894 a new treaty provided for the +exclusion of laborers for ten years, excepting registered laborers who +had either parent, wife, or child in the United States, or who +possessed property or debts to the amount of one thousand dollars. It +required all resident Chinese laborers to register, and the Chinese +Government was similarly entitled to require the registration of all +American laborers resident in China. The treaty made optional the +clause requiring merchants, travelers, and other classes privileged to +come to the United States, to secure a certificate from their +Government vised by the American representative at the port of +departure. + +In 1898 General Otis extended the exclusion acts to the Philippines by +military order, owing to the fact that the country was in a state of +war, and Congress extended them to the Hawaiian Islands. In 1904 China +refused to continue the treaty of 1894, and Congress substantially +reenacted the existing laws "in so far as not inconsistent with treaty +obligations." Thus the legal _status quo_ has been maintained, and the +Chinese population in America is gradually decreasing. No new +laborers are permitted to come and those now here go home as old age +overtakes them. But the public has come to recognize that diplomatic +circumlocution cannot conceal the crude and harsh treatment which the +Chinaman has received; that the earlier laws were based upon reports +that greatly exaggerated the evils and were silent upon the virtues of +the Oriental; and that a policy which had its conception in frontier +fears and in race prejudice was sustained by politicians and +perpetuated by demagogues. + +Rather suddenly the whole drama of discrimination was re-opened by the +arrival of a considerable number of Japanese laborers in America. In +1900, there were some twenty-four thousand in the United States and a +decade later this number had increased threefold. About one-half of +them lived in California, and the rest were to be found throughout the +West, especially in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon. They were nearly +all unmarried young men of the peasant class. Unlike the Chinese, they +manifested a readiness to conform to American customs and an eagerness +to learn the language and to adopt American dress. The racial gulf, +however, is not bridged by a similarity in externals. The Japanese +possess all the deep and subtle contrasts of mentality and ideality +which differentiate the Orient from the Occident. A few are not averse +to adopting Christianity; many more are free-thinkers; but the bulk +remain loyal to Buddhism. They have reproduced here the compact trade +guilds of Japan. The persistent aggressiveness of the Japanese, their +cunning, their aptitude in taking advantage of critical circumstances +in making bargains, have by contrast partially restored to popular +favor the patient, reliable Chinaman. + +At first the Japanese were welcomed as unskilled laborers. They found +employment on the railroads, in lumber mills and salmon canneries, in +mines and on farms, and in domestic service. But they soon showed a +keen propensity for owning or leasing land. The Immigration Commission +found that in 1909 they owned over sixteen thousand acres in +California and leased over one hundred and thirty-seven thousand. +Nearly all of this land they had acquired in the preceding five years. +In Colorado they controlled over twenty thousand acres, and in Idaho +and Washington over seven thousand acres each. This acreage represents +small holdings devoted to intensive agriculture, especially to the +raising of sugar beets, vegetables, and small fruits. + +The hostility which began to manifest itself against the Japanese +especially in California brought that State into sharp contact with +the Federal Government. In 1906 the San Francisco authorities excluded +the Japanese from the public schools. This act was immediately and +vigorously protested by the Japanese Government. After due +investigation, the matter was finally adjusted at a conference held in +Washington between President Roosevelt and a delegation from +California. This incident served to re-awaken the ghost of Mongolian +domination on the Pacific coast, for it occurred during the notorious +regime of Mayor Schmitz. Labor politics were rampant. Isolated +instances of violence against Japanese occurred, and hoodlums, without +fear of police interference, attacked a number of Japanese +restaurants. Political candidates were pledged to an anti-Japanese +policy. + +In 1907 the two governments reached an agreement whereby the details +of issuing passports to Japanese laborers who desired to return to the +United States was virtually left in the hands of the Japanese +Government, which was opposed to the emigration of its laboring +population. As a consequence of this agreement, passports are granted +only to laborers who had previously been residents of the United +States or to parents, wives, and children of Japanese laborers +resident in America. Under authority of the immigration law of 1907, +the President issued an order (March 14, 1907) denying admission to +"Japanese and Korean laborers, skilled or unskilled, who have received +passports to go to Mexico, Canada, Hawaii and come therefrom" to the +United States. + +Anti-Japanese feeling was crystallized into the alien land bill of +California in 1913. So serious was the international situation that +President Wilson sent Mr. Bryan, then Secretary of State, across the +continent to confer with the California legislature and to determine +upon some action that would at the same time meet the needs of the +State and "leave untouched the international obligations of the United +States." The law subsequently passed was thought by the Californians +to appease both of these demands.[49] But the Japanese Government made +no less than five vigorous formal protests and filled a lengthy brief +which characterized the law as unfair and intentionally discriminating +and in violation of the treaty of Commerce and Navigation entered into +in 1911. While anti-Japanese demonstrations were taking place in +Washington, there was a corresponding outbreak of anti-American +feeling in the streets of Tokyo. On February 2, 1914, during the +debate on a new immigration bill, an amendment was proposed in the +House of Representatives, at the instigation of members from the +Pacific coast, excluding all Asiatics, except such as had their entry +right established by treaty. But this drastic proposal was defeated by +a decisive vote. + +The oriental question in America is further complicated by the fact +that since 1905 some five thousand East Indians have come to the +United States. Of these the majority are Hindoos, the remainder being +chiefly Afghans. How these people who have lived under British rule +will adapt themselves to American life and institutions remains to be +seen. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 45: _Chinese Immigration_, p. 402.] + +[Footnote 46: _Chinese Immigration_, p. 265.] + +[Footnote 47: So intense was the feeling in the West that at this time +a letter purporting to have been written by James A. Garfield, the +Republican candidate, favoring unrestricted immigration, was published +on the eve of the Presidential election (1880). Though the letter was +shown to be a forgery, yet it was not without influence. In California +Garfield received only one of the six electoral votes; and in Nevada +he received none. In Denver, where only four hundred Chinese lived, +race riots occurred which cost one Chinaman his life and destroyed +Chinese property to the amount of $50,000.] + +[Footnote 48: Wong Wing _vs_. U.S., 163 U.S. 235.] + +[Footnote 49: The Alien Land Act of May 19, 1913, confers upon all +aliens eligible to citizenship the same rights as citizens in the +owning and leasing of real property; but in the case of other aliens +(_i.e._ Asiatics) it limits leases of land for agricultural purposes +to terms not exceeding three years and permits ownership "to the +extent and for the purposes prescribed by any treaty."] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RACIAL INFILTRATION + + +With the free land gone and the cities crowded to overflowing, the +door of immigration, though guarded, nevertheless remains open and the +pressure of the old-world peoples continues. Where can they go? They +are filling in the vacant spots of the older States, the abandoned +farms, stagnant half-empty villages, undrained swamps, uninviting +rocky hillsides. This infiltration of foreigners possessing themselves +of rejected and abandoned land, which has only recently begun, shows +that the peasant's instinct for the soil will reassert itself when the +means are available and the way opens. It is surprising, indeed, how +many are the ways that are opening for this movement. Transportation +companies are responsible for a number of colonies planted bodily in +cut-over timber regions of the South. The journals and the real estate +agents of the different races are always alert to spy out +opportunities. Dealing in second-hand farms has become a considerable +industry. The advertising columns of Chicago papers announce hundreds +of farms for sale in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. In all the older +States there are for sale thousands of acres of tillable land which +have been left by the restless shiftings of the American population. +In New England the abandoned farm has long been an institution. +Throughout the East there are depleted and dying villages, their +solidly built cottages hidden in the matting of trees and shrubs which +neglect has woven about them. One can see paralysis creeping over them +as the vines creep over their deserted thresholds and they surrender +one by one the little industries that gave them life. These are the +opportunities of the immigrant peasant. Wherever the new migration +swarms, there the receding tide leaves a few energetic individuals who +have made for themselves a permanent home. In the wake of construction +gangs and along the lines of railways and canals one discovers these +immigrant families taking root in the soil. In the smaller cities, an +immigrant day laborer will often invest his savings in a tumble-down +house and an acre of land, and almost at once he becomes the nucleus +for a gathering of his kind. The market gardens that surround the +large cities offer work to the children of the factory operatives, and +there they swarm over beet and onion fields like huge insects with an +unerring instinct for weeds. Now and then a family finds a forgotten +acre, builds a shack, and starts a small independent market garden. +Within a few years a whole settlement of shacks grows up around it, +and soon the trucking of the neighborhood is in foreign hands. +Seasonal agricultural work often carries the immigrant into distant +canning centers, hop fields, cranberry marshes, orchards, and +vineyards. Every time a migration of this sort occurs, some settlers +remain on land previously thought unfit for cultivation--perhaps a +swamp which they drain or a sand-hill which they fertilize and nurture +into surprising fertility by constant toil. This racial seepage is +confined almost wholly to the Italian and the Slav. + +There is a vast acreage of unoccupied good land in the South, which +the negro, usually satisfied with a bare living, has neither the +enterprise nor the thrift to cultivate. The prejudice of the former +slave owner against the foreign immigration for many years retarded +the development of this land. About 1880, however, groups of Italians, +attracted by the sunny climate and the opportunities for making a +livelihood, began to seep into Louisiana. By 1900 they numbered over +seventeen thousand. When direct sailings between the Mediterranean and +the Gulf of Mexico were established, their numbers increased rapidly +and New Orleans became one of the leading Italian centers in the +United States. From the city they soon spread into the adjoining +region. Today they grow cotton, sugar-cane, and rice in nearly all the +Southern States. In the deep black loam of the Yazoo Delta they +prosper as cotton growers. They have transformed the neglected slopes +of the Ozarks into apple and peach orchards. New Orleans, Dallas, +Galveston, Houston, San Antonio, and other Southern cities are +supplied with vegetables from the Italian truck farms. At +Independence, Louisiana, a colony raises strawberries. In the black +belt of Arkansas they established Sunnyside in 1895, a colony which +has survived many vicissitudes and has been the parent of other +similar enterprises. In Texas there are a number of such colonies, of +which the largest, at Bryan, numbers nearly two thousand persons. In +California the Italian owns farms, orchards, vineyards, market +gardens, and even ranches. Here he finds the cloudless sky and mild +air of his native land. The sunny slopes invite vine culture. + +In the North and the East the alert Italian has found many +opportunities to buy land. In the environs of nearly every city +northward from Norfolk, Virginia, are to be found his truck patches. +At Vineland and Hammonton, New Jersey, large colonies have flourished +for many years. In New York and Pennsylvania, many a hill farm that +was too rocky for its Yankee owner, and many a back-breaking clay +moraine in Ohio and Indiana has been purchased for a small cash +payment and, under the stimulus of the family's coaxing, now yields +paying crops, while the father himself also earns a daily wage in the +neighboring town. Where one such Italian family is to be found, there +are sure to be found at least two or three others in the neighborhood, +for the Italians hate isolation more than hunger. Often they are +clustered in colonies, as at Genoa and Cumberland in Wisconsin, where +most of them are railroad workmen paying for the land out of their +wages. + +The Slavs, too, wedge into the most surprising spaces. Their colonies +and settlements are to be found in considerable numbers in every part +of the Union except the far South. They are on the cut-over timber +lands of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, usually engaged in +dairying or raising vegetables for canning. On the great prairies in +Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas, the Bohemians and the Poles +have learned to raise wheat and corn, and in Texas, Oklahoma, and +Arkansas, they have shown themselves skillful in cotton raising. +Wherever fruit is grown on the Pacific slope, there are Bohemians, +Slavonians, and Dalmatians. In New England, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, +and Maryland, the Poles have become pioneers in the neglected corners +of the land. For instance in Orange County, New York, a thriving +settlement from old Poland now flourishes where a quarter of a century +ago there was only a mosquito breeding swamp. The drained area +produces the most surprising crops of onions, lettuce, and celery. +Many of these immigrants own their little farms. Others work on shares +in anticipation of ownership, and still others labor merely for the +season, transients who spend the winter either in American factories +or flit back to their native land. + +In Pennsylvania it is the mining towns which furnished recruits for +this landward movement. In some of the counties an exchange of +population has been taking place for a decade or more. The land +dwelling Americans are moving into the towns and cities. The farms +are offered for sale. Enterprising Slavic real estate dealers are not +slow in persuading their fellow countrymen to invest their savings in +land. + +The Slavonic infiltration has been most marked in New England, +especially in the Connecticut Valley. From manufacturing centers like +Chicopee, Worcester, Ware, Westfield, and Fitchburg, areas of Polish +settlements radiate in every direction, alien spokes from American +hubs. Here are little farming villages ready made in attractive +settings whose vacant houses invite the alien peasant. A Polish family +moves into a sedate colonial house; often a second family shares the +place, sometimes a third or a fourth, each with a brood of children +and often a boarder or two. The American families left in the +neighborhood are scandalized by this promiscuity, by the bare feet and +bare heads, by the unspeakable fare, the superstition and credulity, +and illiteracy and disregard for sanitary measures, and by the +ant-like industry from starlight to starlight. Old Hadley has become a +prototype of what may become general if this racial infiltration is +not soon checked. In 1906 the Poles numbered one-fifth of the +population in that town, owned one-twentieth of the land, and +produced two-thirds of the babies. Dignified old streets that +formerly echoed with the tread of patriots now resound to the din of +Polish weddings and christenings, and the town that sheltered William +Goffe, one of the judges before whom Charles I was tried, now houses +Polish transients at twenty-five cents a bed weekly. + +The transient usually returns to Europe, but the landowner remains. +His kind is increasing yearly. It is even probable that in a +generation he will be the chief landowner of the Connecticut Valley. +It will take more than an association of old families, determined on +keeping the ancient homes in their own hands, to check this +transformation. + +The process of racial replacement is most rapid in the smaller +manufacturing towns. In the New England mills the Yankee gave way to +the Irish, the Irish gave way to the French Canadian, and the French +Canadian has been largely superseded by the Slav and the Italian. +Every one of the older industrial towns has been encrusted in layer +upon layer of foreign accretions, until it is difficult to discover +the American core. Everywhere are the physiognomy, the chatter, and +the aroma of the modern steerage. Lawrence, Massachusetts, is typical +of this change. In 1848 it had 5923 inhabitants, of whom 63.3 per cent +were Americans, 36 per cent were Irish, and about forty white persons +belonged to other nationalities. In 1910 the same city had 85,000 +inhabitants, of whom only about 14 per cent were Americans, and the +rest foreigners, two-thirds of the old and one-third of the new +immigration. + +A like transformation has taken place in the manufacturing towns of +New York, New Jersey, and Delaware and in the iron and steel towns of +Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and the Middle West. For forty years +after the establishment of the first iron furnace in Johnstown, +Pennsylvania, in 1842, the mills were manned exclusively by Americans, +English, Welsh, Irish, and Germans. In 1880 Slavic names began to +appear on the pay rolls. Soon thereafter Italians and Syrians were +brought into the town, and today sixty per cent of the population is +of foreign birth, largely from southeastern Europe. The native +Americans and Welsh live in two wards, and clustered around them are +settlements of Italians, Slovaks, and Croatians. + +The new manufacturing towns which are dependent upon some single +industry are almost wholly composed of recent immigrants. Gary, +Indiana, built by the United States Steel Corporation, and Whiting, +Indiana, established by the Standard Oil Company for its refining +industry, are examples of new American towns of exotic populations. At +a glass factory built in 1890 in the village of Charleroi, +Pennsylvania, over ten thousand Belgians, French, Slavs, and Italians +now labor. An example of lightning-like displacement of population is +afforded by the steel and iron center at Granite City and Madison, +Illinois. The two towns are practically one industrial community, +although they have separate municipal organizations. A steel mill was +erected in 1892 upon the open prairies, and in it American, Welsh, +Irish, English, German, and Polish workmen were employed. In 1900 +Slovaks were brought in, and two years later there came large numbers +of Magyars, followed by Croatians. In 1905 Bulgarians began to arrive, +and within two years over eight thousand had assembled. Armenians, +Servians, Greeks, Magyars, every ethnic faction found in the racial +welter of southeastern Europe, is represented among the twenty +thousand inhabitants that dwell in this new industrial town. In +"Hungary Hollow" these race fragments isolate themselves, effectively +insulated against the currents of American influence. + +The mining communities reveal this relative displacement of races in +its most disheartening form. As early as 1820 coal was taken from the +anthracite veins of northeastern Pennsylvania, but until 1880 the +industry was dominated by Americans and north Europeans. In 1870 out +of 108,000 foreign born in this region, 105,000 or over ninety-seven +per cent came from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. In +1880 a change began and continued until in 1910 less than one-third of +the 267,000 foreign born were of northern European extraction. In 1870 +there were only 306 Slavs and Italians in the entire region; in 1890 +there were 43,000; in 1909 there were 89,000; and in 1910 the number +increased to 178,000. + +Today these immigrants from the south of Europe have virtually +displaced the miner from the north. They have rooted out the decencies +and comforts of the earlier operatives and have supplanted them with +the promiscuity, the filth, and the low economic standards of the +medieval peasant. There are no more desolate and distressing places in +America than the miserable mining "patches" clinging like lichens to +the steep hill sides or secluded in the valleys of Pennsylvania In the +bituminous fields conditions are no better. In the town of Windber in +western Pennsylvania, for example, some two thousand experienced +English and American miners were engaged in opening the veins in 1897. +No sooner were the mines in operation than the south European began to +drift in. Today he outnumbers and underbids the American and the north +European. He lives in isolated sections, reeking with everything that +keeps him a "foreigner" in the heart of America. The coal regions of +Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and the ore +regions of northern Michigan and Minnesota are rapidly passing under +the same influence. + +Every mining and manufacturing community is thus an ethnic pool, +whence little streams of foreigners trickle over the land. These +isolated miners and tillers of the soil are more immune to American +ideals than are their city dwelling brethren. They are not jostled and +shaken by other races; no mental contagion of democracy reaches them. + +But within the towns and cities another process of replacement is +going on. Its index is written large in the signs over shops and +stores and clearly in the lists of professional men in the city +directories and in the pay roll of the public school teachers. The +unpronounceable Slavic combinations of consonants and polysyllabic +Jewish patronymics are plentiful, while here and there an Italian name +makes its appearance. The second generation is arriving. The sons and +daughters are leaving the factory and the construction gang for the +counter, the office, and the schoolroom. + +American ideals and institutions have borne and can bear a great deal +of foreign infiltration. But can they withstand saturation? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GUARDED DOOR + + +"Whosoever will may come" was the generous welcome which America +extended to all the world for over a century. Many alarms, indeed, +there were and several well-defined movements to save America from the +foreigner. The first of these attempts resulted in the ill-fated Alien +and Sedition laws of 1798, which extended to fourteen years the period +of probation before a foreigner could be naturalized and which +attempted to safeguard the Government against defamatory attacks. The +Jeffersonians, who came into power in 1801 largely upon the issue +raised by this attempt to curtail free speech, made short shrift of +this unpopular law and restored the term of residence to five years. +The second anti-foreign movement found expression in the Know-Nothing +party, which rose in the decade preceding the Civil War. The third +movement brought about a secret order called the American Protective +Association, popularly known as the A.P.A., which, like the +Know-Nothing hysteria, was aimed primarily at the Catholic Church. Its +platform stated that "the conditions growing out of our immigration +laws are such as to weaken our democratic institutions," and that "the +immigrant vote, under the direction of certain ecclesiastical +institutions," controlled politics. In 1896 the organization claimed +two and a half million adherents, and the air was vibrant with ominous +rumors of impending events. But nothing happened. The A.P.A. +disappeared suddenly and left no trace. + +For over a century it was almost universally believed that the +prosperity of the country depended largely upon a copious influx of +population. This sentiment found expression in President Lincoln's +message to Congress on December 8, 1863, in which he called +immigration a "source of national wealth and strength" and urged +Congress to establish "a system for the encouragement of immigration." +In conformity with this suggestion, Congress passed a law designed to +aid the importation of labor under contract. But the measure was soon +repealed, so that it remains the only instance in American history in +which the Federal Government attempted the direct encouragement of +general immigration.[50] + +It was in 1819 that the first Federal law pertaining to immigration +was passed. It was not prompted by any desire to regulate or restrict +immigration, but aimed rather to correct the terrible abuses to which +immigrants were subject on shipboard. So crowded and unwholesome were +these quarters that a substantial percentage of all the immigrants who +embarked for America perished during the voyage. The law provided that +ships could carry only two passengers for every five tons burden; it +enjoined a sufficient supply of water and food for crew and +passengers; and it required the captains of vessels to prepare lists +of their passengers giving age, sex, occupation, and the country +whence they came. The law, however good its intention, was loosely +drawn and indifferently enforced. Terrible abuses of steerage +passengers crowded into miserable quarters were constantly brought to +the public notice. From time to time the law was amended, and the +advent of steam navigation brought improved conditions without, +however, adequate provision for Federal inspection. + +Indeed such supervision and care as immigrants received was provided +by the various States. Boston, New York, Baltimore, and other ports of +entry, found helpless hordes left at their doors. They were the prey +of loan sharks and land sharks, of fake employment agencies, and every +conceivable form of swindler. Private relief was organized, but it +could reach only a small portion of the needy. About three-fourths of +the immigrants disembarked at the port of New York, and upon the State +of New York was imposed the obligation of looking after the thousands +of strangers who landed weekly at the Battery. To cope with these +conditions the State devised a comprehensive system and entrusted its +enforcement to a Board of Commissioners of Immigration, erected +hospitals on Ward's Island for sick and needy immigrants, and in 1855 +leased for a landing place Castle Garden, which at once became the +popular synonym for the nation's gateway. Here the Commissioners +examined and registered the immigrants, placed at their disposal +physicians, money changers, transportation agents, and advisers, and +extended to them a helping hand. The Federal Government was +represented only by the customs officers who ransacked their baggage. + +In 1875 the Federal Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional +for a State to regulate immigration. "We are of the opinion," said the +Court, "that this whole subject has been confided to Congress by the +Constitution; that Congress can more appropriately and with more +acceptance exercise it than any other body known to our law, state or +national; that, by providing a system of laws in these matters +applicable to all ports and to all vessels, a serious question which +has long been a matter of contest and complaint may be effectively and +satisfactorily settled."[51] Congress dallied seven years with this +important question, and was finally forced to act when New York +threatened to close Castle Garden. In 1882 a Federal immigration law +assessed a head tax of fifty cents on every passenger, not a citizen, +coming to the United States, and provided that the States should share +with the Secretary of the Treasury the obligation of its enforcement. +This law inaugurated the policy of selective immigration, as it +excluded convicts, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become a +public charge. Three years later, contract laborers were also +excluded. + +The unprecedented influx of immigrants now began to arouse public +discussion. Over 788,000 arrived in America during the first year the +new law was in operation. In 1889 both the Senate and the House +appointed standing committees on immigration. The several +investigations which were held culminated in the law of 1891, wherein +the list of ineligibles was extended to include persons suffering from +a loathsome or contagious disease, polygamists, and persons assisted +in coming by others, unless upon special inquiry they were found not +to belong to any of the excluded classes. Thus for the first time the +Federal Government assumed complete control of immigration. Now also +both the great political parties adopted planks in their national +platforms favoring the restriction of immigration. The Republicans +favored "the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations for the +restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration." The +Democrats "heartily" approved "all legislative efforts to prevent the +United States from being used as a dumping ground for the known +criminals and professional paupers of Europe," and they favored the +exclusion of Chinese laborers. They favored, however, the admission of +"industrious and worthy" Europeans. + +Selective immigration thus became a political issue in 1892, partly +under the stimulus of labor unions, which feared an over-supply of +labor, and partly because of the growing popular belief that many +undesirable foreigners were entering the country. No adequate and just +criteria for any process of selection have been discovered. In 1896 +Senator Lodge introduced an immigration bill, which contained the +famous literacy test, excluding all persons between fourteen and sixty +years of age "who cannot both read and write the English language or +some other language." The bill was simultaneously introduced into the +House of Representatives by McCall of Massachusetts. The debate on +this measure marks a new departure in immigration policy. A senatorial +inquiry made among the States in the preceding year had disclosed a +universal preference for immigrants from northern Europe. Moreover, a +number of States through their governors, had declared that further +immigration was not desired immediately; and the opinion prevailed +that the great influx from southeastern Europe should be checked. +Fortified by such solidarity of sentiment, Congress passed the Lodge +bill with certain amendments. President Cleveland, however, returned +it with a strong veto message on March 2, 1897. He could not concur +in so radical a departure from the traditional liberal policy of the +Government; and he believed the literacy test so artificial that it +was more rational "to admit a hundred thousand immigrants who, though +unable to read and write, seek among us only a home and opportunity to +work, than to admit one of those unruly agitators and enemies of +governmental control who can not only read and write, but delights in +arousing by inflammatory speech the illiterate and peacefully inclined +to discontent and tumult." The House passed the bill over the +President's veto, but the Senate took no further action. + +In 1898 the Industrial Commission was empowered "to investigate +questions pertaining to immigration" and presented a report which +prepared the way for the immigration law of 1903, approved on the 3rd +of March. This law, which was based upon a careful preliminary +inquiry, may be called the first comprehensive American immigration +statute. It perfected the administrative machinery, raised the head +tax, and multiplied the vigilance of the Government against evasions +by the excluded classes. Anarchists and prostitutes were added to the +list of excluded persons. The literacy test was inserted by the House +but was rejected by the Senate. + +This law, however, did not allay the demand for a more stringent +restriction of immigration. A few persons believed in stopping +immigration entirely for a period of years. Others would limit the +number of immigrants that should be permitted to enter every year. But +it was felt throughout the country that such arbitrary checks would be +merely quantitative, not qualitative, and that undesirable foreigners +should be denied admission, no matter what country they hailed from. A +notable immigration conference which was called by the National Civic +Federation in December, 1905, and which represented all manner of +public bodies, recommended the "exclusion of persons of enfeebled +vitality" and proposed "a preliminary inspection of intending +immigrants before they embark." President Roosevelt laid the whole +matter before Congress in several vigorous messages in 1906 and 1907. +He pointed to the fact that + + In the year ending June 30, 1905, there came to the United + States 1,026,000 alien immigrants. In other words, in the + single year ... there came ... a greater number of people + than came here during the one hundred and sixty-nine years of + our colonial life. ... It is clearly shown in the report of + the Commissioner General of Immigration that, while much of + this enormous immigration is undoubtedly healthy and natural + ... a considerable proportion of it, probably a very large + proportion, including most of the undesirable class, does not + come here of its own initiative but because of the activity + of the agents of the great transportation companies.... The + prime need is to keep out all immigrants who will not make + good American citizens. + +In consonance with this spirit, the law of 1907 was passed. It +increased the head tax to four dollars and provided rigid scrutiny +over the transportation companies. The excluded classes of immigrants +were minutely defined, and the powers and duties of the Commissioner +General of Immigration were very considerably enlarged. The act also +created the Immigration Commission, consisting of three Senators, +three members of the House, and three persons appointed by the +President, for making "full inquiry, examination, and investigation +... into the subject of immigration." Endowed with plenary power, this +commission made a comprehensive investigation of the whole question. +The President was authorized to "send special commissioners to any +foreign country for the purpose of regulating by international +agreement ... the immigration of aliens to the United States." + +Here at last is congressional recognition of the fact that immigration +is no longer merely a domestic question, but that it has, through +modern economic conditions, become one of serious international +import. No treaties have been perfected under this authority. The +question, however, received serious attention in 1909 when Lieutenant +Joseph Petrosino of the New York police was murdered in Sicily by +banditti, whither he had pursued a Black Hand criminal from the East +Side. + +In the meantime many measures for restricting immigration were +suggested in Congress. Of these, the literacy test met with the most +favor. Three times in recent years Congress enacted it into law, and +each time it was returned with executive disapproval: President Taft +vetoed the provision in 1913, and President Wilson vetoed the acts of +1915 and 1917. In his last veto message on January 29, 1917, President +Wilson said that "the literacy test ... is not a test of character, of +quality, or of personal fitness, but would operate in most cases +merely as a penalty for lack of opportunity in the country from which +the alien seeking admission came." + +Congress, however, promptly passed the bill over the President's +objections, and so twenty years after President Cleveland's veto of +the Lodge Bill, the literacy test became the standard of fitness for +immigrant admission into the United States.[52] The law excludes all +aliens over sixteen years of age who are physically capable of reading +and yet who cannot read. They are required to read "not less than +thirty or more than eighty words in ordinary use" in the English +language or some other language or dialect. Aliens who seek admission +because of religious persecution, and certain relatives of citizens or +of admissible aliens, are exempted. + +The debate upon this law disclosed the transformation that has come +over the nation in its attitude towards the alien. Exclusion was the +dominant word. Senator Reed of Missouri wished to exclude African +immigrants; the Pacific coast Representatives insisted upon exclusion +of Asiatics, in the face of serious admonitions of the Secretary of +State that such a course would cause international friction; the labor +members were scornful in their denunciation of "the pauper and +criminal classes" of Europe. The traditional liberal sympathies of the +American people found but few champions, so completely had the change +been wrought in the thirty years since the Federal Government assumed +control of immigration. + +By these tokens the days of unlimited freedom in migration are +numbered. Nations are beginning to realize that immigration is but the +obverse of emigration. Its dual character constitutes a problem +requiring delicate international readjustments. Moreover, the +countries released to a new life and those quickened to a new +industrialism by the Great War will need to employ all their muscle +and talents at home. + +It is an inspiring drama of colonization that has been enacted on this +continent in a relatively short period. Its like was never witnessed +before and can never be witnessed again. Thirty-three nationalities +were represented in the significant group of American pilgrims that +gathered at Mount Vernon on July 4, 1918, to place garlands of native +flowers upon the tomb of Washington and to pledge their honor and +loyalty to the nation of their adoption. This event is symbolic of the +great fact that the United States is, after all, a nation of +immigrants, among whom the word foreigner is descriptive of an +attitude of mind rather than of a place of birth. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 50: Congress has on several occasions granted aid for +specific colonies or groups of immigrants.] + +[Footnote 51: Henderson et al. _vs_. The Mayor of New York City et al. +92 U.S., 259.] + +[Footnote 52: The new act took effect May 1, 1917.] + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +GENERAL HISTORIES + +EDWARD CHANNING, _History of the United States_, 4 vols. (1905). Vol. +II. Chapter XIV contains a fascinating account of "The Coming of the +Foreigner." + +John Fiske, _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, 2 vols. (1899). +The story of "The Migration of the Sects" is charmingly told. + +John B. McMaster, _History of the People of the United States_, 8 +vols. (1883-1913). Scattered throughout the eight volumes are copious +accounts of the coming of immigrants, from the year of American +independence to the Civil War. The great German and Irish inundations +are dealt with in volumes VI and VII. + +J.H. Latané, _America as a World Power_ (1907). Chapter XVII gives a +concise summary of immigration for the years 1880-1907. + + +WORKS ON IMMIGRATION + +_Reports of the Immigration Commission, appointed under the +Congressional Act of Feb. 20, 1907_. 42 vols. (1911). This is by far +the most exhaustive study that has been made of the immigration +question. It embraces a wide range of details, especially upon the +economic and sociological aspects of the problem. + +Census Bureau, _A Century of Population Growth from the First Census +of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790-1900_ (1909). The best +analysis of the population of the United States. It contains a number +of chapters on the population at the time of the First Census in 1790. + +John R. Commons, _Races and Immigrants in America_ (1907). + +Prescott F. Hall, _Immigration and its Effects upon the United States_ +(1906). + +Henry P. Fairchild, _Immigration, a World Movement and its American +Significance_ (1913). A good historical survey of immigration as well +as a suggestive discussion of its sociological and economic bearings. + +Jeremiah W. Jenks and W. Jett Lauck, _The Immigration Problem_ (1913). +A summary of the Report of the Immigration Commission. + +Peter Roberts, _The New Immigration_ (1912). A discussion of the +recent influx from Southeastern Europe. + +E.A. Ross, _The Old World in the New_ (1914) contains some refreshing +racial characteristics. + +Richmond Mayo-Smith, _Emigration and Immigration_ (1890). This is one +of the oldest American works on the subject and remains the best +scientific discussion of the sociological and economic aspects of +immigration. + +Edward A. Steiner, _On the Trail of the Immigrant_ (1906). A popular +and sympathetic account of the new immigration. + + +THE NEGRO + +B.G. Brawley, _A Short History of the American Negro_ (1913). + +W.E.B. Du Bois, _The Negro_ (1915). A small well-written volume, with +a useful bibliography and an illuminating chapter on the negro in the +United States; also, by the same author, _Suppression of the African +Slave Trade_ (1896). + +Carter G. Woodson, _A Century of Negro Migration_ (1918). + +J.R. Spears, _The American Slave Trade_ (1900). + +A.H. Stone, _Studies in the American Race Problem_ (1908). Contains +several of Walter F. Wilcox's valuable statistical studies on this +subject. + +J.A. Tillinghast, _The Negro in Africa and America_ (1902) contains a +suggestive comparison of negro life in Africa and America. + + +SPECIAL GROUPS + +Kendrick C. Babcock, _The Scandinavian Element in the United States_ +(1914). The best treatise on this subject. + +Emily Greene Balch, _Our Slavic Fellow Citizens_ (1910). A +comprehensive study of the Slav in America. + +J.M. Campbell, _A History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick_ (1892). + +Mary Roberts Coolidge, _Chinese Immigration_ (1909). A sympathetic and +detailed account of the Chinaman's experience in America. + +A.B. Faust, _The German Element in the United States_ 2 vols. (1909). +Like some other books written to prove the vast influence of certain +elements of the population, this work is not modest in its claims. + +Henry Jones Ford, _The Scotch-Irish in America_ (1915). + +Lucian J. Fosdick, _The French Blood in America_ (1906). Devoted +principally to the Huguenot exiles and their descendants. + +Charles A. Hanna, _The Scotch-Irish, or the Scot in North Britain, +North Ireland, and North America_. 2 vols. (1902). + +Eliot Lord, John J.D. Trevor, and Samuel J. Barrows, _The Italian in +America_ (1905). + +T. D'Arcy McGee, _History of the Irish Settlers in North America_ +(1852). + +O.N. Nelson, _History of the Scandinavians and Successful +Scandinavians in the United States_, 2 vols. (1900). + +J.G. Rosengarten, _French Colonists and Exiles in the United States_ +(1907). Contains an interesting bibliography of French writings on +early American conditions. + + +UTOPIAS + +J.A. Bole, _The Harmony Society_ (1904). Besides a concise history of +the Rappists, this volume contains many letters and documents +illustrative of their customs and business methods. + +W.A. Hinds, _American Communities and Cooperative Colonies_. (2d +revision 1908.) A useful summary based on personal observations. + +G.B. Lockwood, _The New Harmony Communities_ (1902). It contains a +detailed description of Owen's experiment and interesting details of +the Rappists during their sojourn in Indiana. + +M.A. Mikkelsen, _The Bishop Hill Colony, A Religious Communistic +Settlement in Henry County, Illinois_ (1892). + +Charles Nordhoff, _The Communistic Societies of the United States_ +(1875). A description of communities visited by the author. + +J.H. Noyes, _History of American Socialisms_ (1870). + +W.R. Perkins, _History of the Amana Society or Community of True +Inspiration_ (1891). + +E.O. Randall, _History of the Zoar Society_ (2d ed. 1900). + +Bertha M. Shambaugh, _Amana, the Community of True Inspiration_ (1908) +gives many interesting details. + +Albert Shaw, _Icaria, a Chapter in the History of Communism_ (1884). A +brilliant account. + + + + +INDEX + +A.P.A., _see_ American Protective Association + +Acadia, French in, 18 + +Adams, J.Q., and Owen, 94 + +Afghans in United States, 207 + +Africans, Reed favors exclusion of, 232; + _see also_ Negroes + +Alabama admitted as State (1819), 33 + +Albany, Shakers settle near, 91; + Irish in, 113 + +Alien and Sedition laws (1798), 221 + +Amana, 82-84 + +America, cosmopolitan character, 19-20; + American stock, 21 _et seq._; + origin of name, 21-22; + now applied to United States, 22; + Shakers confined to, 92; + "America for Americans," 114; + _see also_ United States + +_American Celt_, McGee establishes, 120 (note) + +American Missionary Association, work with negroes, 58 + +American party, 114; + _see also_ Know-Nothing party + +American Protective Association, 221-22 + +Amish, 68 (note) + +Anabaptists in Manhattan, 17 + +Ancient Order of Hibernians, 117 + +Angell, J.B., on commission to negotiate treaty with China, 198 + +Antwerp, German emigrants embark at, 134 + +Arkansas, frontiersmen in, 36; + chosen as site by Giessener Gesellschaft, 136; + Italians in, 211; + Slavs in, 213 + +Armenians, 184; + as laborers, 122; + at Granite City (Ill.), 217 + +Arthur, C.A., and Chinese exclusion act, 199 + +Asiatics, Pacific coast favors exclusion of, 232; + _see also_ Orientals + +Australia deflects migration to United States, 150 + + +Babcock, K.C., _The Scandinavian Element in the United States_, quoted, 158 + +Balch, E.G., _Our Slavic Fellow Citizens_, quoted, 164-65; + cited, 167 (note), 174 + +Baltimore, Ephrata draws pupils from, 71; + Irish immigrant association, 109; + Irish in, 113; + Germans in, 127; + Italians in, 180; + condition of immigrants landing in, 224 + +Bancroft, George, estimates number of slaves, 47 + +Barlow, Joel, 151 + +Bäumeler, _see_ Bimeler + +Bayard, Nicholas, 16 + +Beissel, Conrad (or Beizel, or Peysel), 70, 71 + +Belgians in Charleroi (Penn.), 217 + +Berkshires, Germans in, 127 + +Bethlehem, communistic colony, 72 + +Bimeler, Joseph (or Bäumeler), 78-79 + +Bishop Hill Colony, 85-89 + +Black Hand, 182 + +"Boat Load of Knowledge," 94 + +Bogart, E.L., _Economic History of the United States_, cited, 52 (note) + +Bohemians, in United States, 159-60, 165-66; + as North Slavs, 164; + on the prairies, 213; + on Pacific slope, 213 + +Boston, immigrants from Ireland (1714-20), 11; + French in, 16; + Irish in, 108, 113; + Germans in, 127; + Italians in, 180; + condition of immigrants landing in, 224 + +Boudinot, Elias, 16 + +Bowdoin, James, 16 + +Bremen, German emigrants embark at, 134 + +Bremer, Frederika, quoted, 155 + +Brisbane, Arthur, _Social Destiny of Man_, 96 + +Brook Farm, 97 + +Bryan, W.J., Secretary of State, and California Alien Land Act, 206 + +Bryan (Tex.) Italian colony, 211 + +Buffalo, Inspirationists near, 81; + Irish in, 113; + Germans in, 135; + Poles in, 167 (note) + +Bulgarians, as South Slavs, 164; + in United States, 170; + in Granite City (Ill.), 170, 217 + +Burlingame, Anson, 195 + +Burlingame treaty, 195-96, 197 + +_Burschenschaften_, 131 + +Butler County (Penn.), Harmonists in, 73 + +Butte, Bulgarians in, 170 + + +Cabet, Étienne, 97-98, 99, 100; + _Voyage en Icarie_, 98; + _Le Populaire_, 98 + +Cabinet, President's, majority of members from American stock, 42 + +Cabot, John, 2 + +Cabot, Sebastian, 2 + +Cahokia, French settlement, 152 + +California, frontiersmen in, 36, 37; + Icaria-Speranza community, 101; + Swiss in, 153; + Dalmatians in, 171; + Portuguese in, 184; + discovery of gold, 188; + Chinese in, 189-190; + "California for Americans," 190; + constitution (1879), 194; + legislation against Chinese, 194-95; + vote for Garfield (1880), 197 (note); + Japanese in, 203; + Alien Land Act (1913), 206; + Italians in, 211 + +Campo Bello, Island, Fenians attempt to land on, 119 + +Canada, fugitive slaves, 54; + Irish come through, 109; + Fenian raids, 120; + deflects migration to United States, 150 + +Carbonari, Cabet and, 98 + +Carolinas, English settle, 5; + Scotch-Irish in, 12; + Scotch in, 12; + Germans in, 14; + cosmopolitan character of, 18; + Irish in, 105; + _see also_ North Carolina, South Carolina + +Castle Garden, landing place for immigrants in New York, 224, 225 + +Catholics, in Maryland, 13; + Irish, 114; + prejudice against, 115-16; + American Protective Association against, 222 + +Census (1790), 24-25, 29; + _A Century of Population Growth_ (1909), 24; + (1800), 25; + tables, 26-28; + (1900), 38-39; + slaves in United States, 47; + Bulletin No. 129, _Negroes in the United States_, cited, 61 (note); + (1910), Germans in United States, 125; + foreigners in United States, 125-26 (note); + foreign born on farms, 150-51 (note), 161; + Italians in New York City, 180 (note); + distribution of American white population, 187 + +Channing, Edward, _History of the United States_, quoted, 46-47 + +Charleroi (Penn.), foreigners in, 217 + +Charleston (S.C.), French in, 16; + Germans in, 127 + +Charlestown (Mass.), Ursuline convent burned, 116 + +Cheltenham, Icarians in, 100 + +Chestnutt, C.W., negro novelist, 64 + +Chicago, Irish in, 113; + Germans in, 135; + Bohemians in, 165; + Poles in, 167 (note); + Bulgarians in, 170; + Hungarian Jews in, 178; + Italians in, 180; + papers announce land for sale, 209 + +Chicopee, Poles in, 214 + +China, Burlingame treaty, 195-196, 197; + treaty (1880), 198-199; + treaty (1894), 202 + +Chinese, in United States, 188-203; + societies, 192; + mission to United States (1868), 195; + exclusion act, 199, 201; + Scott Act, 201; + Geary law, 201 + +Cincinnati, Irish in, 113; + German center, 135 + +Cities, immigration to, 162 _et seq._; + cosmopolitanism, 185; + racial changes in, 219-20 + +Civil Rights Act, 59 + +Civil War, German immigrants during, 130 + +Cleveland, Grover, messages to Congress on Chinese agitation, 201; + vetoes Lodge bill, 227-28 + +Cleveland, Irish in, 113; + Germans in, 135; + Bohemians in, 165; + Italians in, 180 + +Cocalico River, cloister of Ephrata on, 70 + +Colorado, Japanese in, 204 + +Coman, _Industrial History of the United States_, cited, 52 (note) + +Communistic colonies, 67 _et seq._; + Labadists, 68-69; + Pietists, 69-70; + Ephrata, 70-72; + Snow Hill, 72; + Bethlehem, 72; + Harmonist, 72-77; + Harmony, 73; + New Harmony, 74-75, 94-96; + Economy, 75-77; + Zoar, 78-80; + Inspirationists, 80-84; + Ebenezer, 81; + Amana, 82-84; + Bishop Hill Colony, 85-89; + Old Elmspring Community, 89-90; + Shakers, 91-92; + Oneida Community, 92-93; + Robert Owen and, 94-96; + Brook Farm, 97; + Fourierism, 96-97, 101-02; + Icaria, 97-101; + bibliography, 238-39 + +Congress, noted members from American stock, 42; + authorizes Freedmen's Bureau (1865), 57; + immigration law (1819), 103; + laws against German newspapers, 144; + German-American League incorporated by, 145; + charter of German-American League revoked, 145; + Homestead Law (1862), 148; + grants land to French, 152; + Cleveland's special messages, 201; + Scott Act, 201; + Geary law, 201; + extends Chinese exclusion to Hawaii (1898), 202; + Lincoln's message, Dec. 8. 1863, 222; + and regulation of immigration, 225; + Lodge bill, 227-28; + Roosevelt's messages, 229 + +Connecticut, Shakers in, 91 + +Connecticut Valley, Poles in, 214-15 + +Considérant, Victor, 101 + +Constantinople, cosmopolitanism compared with American cities, 186 + +Constitution, Fifteenth Amendment, 59 + +Coolidge, M.R., _Chinese Immigration_, quoted, 192, 193-94 + +Cotton, effect on slavery, 52 + +Coxsackie (N.Y.), communistic attempt at, 96 + +Croatians, as South Slavs, 164; + in United States, 171, 172; + in Johnstown (Penn.), 216; + in Granite City (Ill.), 217 + +Cumberland (Wis.), Italian colony, 212 + +Cumberland Mountains, fugitive slaves in, 54 + + +Dakotas, frontiersmen in, 36; + Germans in, 141; + Scandinavians in, 156, 157; + "Scandinavian language" in universities, 158-59; + Slavs in, 213; + _see also_ South Dakota + +Dallas (Tex.), Italians in, 211 + +Dalmatians, as South Slavs, 164; + in United States, 171-172; + on Pacific slope, 213 + +Danes, in America, 154, 156; + character, 154; + _see also_ Scandinavians + +DeLancey, Stephen, 16 + +Delaware, not represented in first census, 25; + second census (1800), 25; + Labadists in, 68-69; + Scandinavian colony, 156; + racial changes in manufacturing towns, 216 + +Democratic party on restriction of immigration, 226 + +Denver, anti-Chinese riots, 197-98 (note) + +Detroit, Irish in, 113; + Germans in, 135; + Poles in, 167 (note); + Italians in, 180 + +Devotionalists, 85-89, 90 + +Douglass, Frederick, 64 + +DuBois, W.E.B., negro scholar, 64 + +Duluth, Finnish college near, 160 + +Dunbar, P.L., negro poet, 64 + +Dunkards, 70 + +Dunkers, 13 + +Dutch, in United States, 17-18; + number of immigrants, 153 + + +Ebenezer Society, 81 + +Economy, Harmonists establish, 75; + Rapp as leader, 75-76; + as a communistic community, 76-77; + membership, 76 (note); + Amana gains members from, 83 + +Emmet, Robert, emigration from Ireland after failure of, 105 + +England, reasons for expansion, 2-3; + imports, 3; + social and religious changes, 6-7; + kidnaping, 8; + emigration of poor, 9, 110, 111; + criminals sent to colonies, 9; + and Ulster, 10; + French Protestants flee to, 15; + Jews in, 16; + industrial revolution and the American negro, 52; + emigration from, 150 + +English, in Virginia, 1; + in New World, 2-10; + serving class, 8; + Nonconformists in Manhattan, 17; + and Dutch, 17-18; + and French, 18; + on land, 151; + in Johnstown (Penn.), 216; + in Granite City (Ill.), 217; + in coal mines of Pennsylvania, 218 + +Ephrata, 70-72 + +Erie, Fort, Fenians hold, 120 + +Europe, migrations, 1-2; + immigration from, 103; + _see also_ names of peoples + + +Fairchild, H.P., quoted, 183 + +Faneuil, Peter, 16 + +Fenian movement, 118-21 + +Finns in America, 160, 176, 185 + +Fiske, John, on Scotch-Irish in colonies, 12 (note); + _The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, cited, 14 (note) + +Fitchburg, Poles in, 214 + +Fleming, W.L., _The Sequel of Appomattox_, cited, 57 (note) + +Florida, fugitive slaves in, 54 + +Follenius quoted, 135-36 + +Ford, H.J., _The Scotch-Irish in America_, quoted, 31 + +Forestville (Ind.), communistic attempt, 96 + +Fourierism in United States, 93, 96-97, 101-02 + +Franklin, Benjamin, estimates population of Pennsylvania (1774), 12 (note) + +Franklin (N.Y.), communistic attempt at, 96 + +Freedmen's Bureau, 57, 58 + +French, Protestants leave France, 15; + forts and trading posts of, 18; + in United States, 151-53; + in Charleroi (Penn.), 217; + _see also_ Huguenots + +French Canadians in New England, 122, 152, 215 + +Frontiersmen, 34-36 + + +Gallipolis (O.) settled by French, 151 + +Galveston, Italians in, 211 + +Garfield, J.A., and Chinese immigration, 197 (note) + +Garland, Hamlin, _A Son of the Middle Border_, 36-37 + +Gary (Ind.), character of town, 216-17 + +Genoa (Wis.), Italian colony, 212 + +Georgia, English settle, 5; + not represented in first census, 25 + +German-American League, 145 + +Germans, in Pennsylvania, 13, 14; + lured by "soul-stealers," 15; + religious communists from, 68 _et seq._; + contrasted with Irish, 124; + immigration tide, 124 _et seq._; + first period of migration, 126-29; + second period of migration, 129-40; + causes of emigration, 130; + sailing conditions, 134; + social life, 137, 140; + laborers, 137, 141; + "Forty-eighters," 137-138; + contribution to America, 139; + newspapers, 139, 142-144; + number of immigrants (1870-1910), 141; + third period of migration, 141-46; + Prussian spirit among later immigrants, 142-44; + propaganda, 143-45; + "exchange professors," 144; + in Great War, 146; + in Johnstown (Penn.), 216; + in Granite City (Ill.), 217; + in coal mines of Pennsylvania, 218 + +Germantown (Penn.), founded, 13; + Pietists at, 69 + +Giessener Gesellschaft, 136 + +Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 5 + +Godin, J.B.A., 102 + +Granite City (Ill.), Bulgarians in, 170; + racial changes in, 217 + +Great Britain, immigrants from, 103; + record of emigration, 104; + _see also_ England, English, Irish, Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Welsh + +Great Lakes, French on, 18 + +Great War, German newspapers in, 143-44; + soldiers of German descent in, 146; + Poland and, 168; + effect on immigration, 233 + +Greeks in United States, 183, 217 + +Greeley, Horace, 97 + +Guise, only successful Fourieristic colony, 102 + + +Häcker, J.G., quoted, 133-34 (note) + +Hadley, Poles in, 214-15 + +Hakluyt, Richard, quoted, 4 + +Hamburg, German emigrants embark at, 134 + +Hammonton (N.J.), Italian colony at, 212 + +Harmonists, 72-77 + +Harmony, town established, 73 + +Harmony Society, 73 + +Harvard College, 8 + +Hatchet Men, 193 + +Haverstraw (N.Y.), communistic attempt at, 96 + +Havre, German emigrants embark at, 134 + +Hayes, R.B., vetoes amendment to Burlingame treaty, 197; + appoints commission to negotiate new treaty with China, 198 + +Hessians, settle in America, 129; + Giessener Gesellschaft, 136 + +Heynemann, Barbara, leader of Inspirationists, 81, 82 + +Highbinders, 193 + +Hindoos in United States, 207 + +Holland, French Protestants flee to, 15; + Spanish and Portuguese Jews find refuge in, 16-17; + Inspirationists, 80 + +Holland (Mich.), center of Dutch influence, 153 + +Homestead Law (1862), 148 + +"Hooks and Eyes," nickname for Amish, 68 (note) + +Houston (Tex.), Italians in, 211 + +Hudson Valley, Dutch in, 17 + +Huguenots in Manhattan, 17; + _see also_ French + +Hungarians, _see_ Jews, Magyars + +Hungary, Mennonites in, 89 + +Hutter, Jacob, Mennonite martyr, 89 + + +I.W.W., _see_ Industrial Workers of the World + +Icaria, 97-101 + +Icaria-Speranza community, 101 + +Idaho, Japanese in, 204 + +Illinois, admitted as State (1818), 33; + frontiersmen in, 36; + "Underground Railway" in, 54; + negroes in, 62; + Bishop Hill Colony, 85-89; + Swedish immigration, 91; + Icarians in, 99-100; + Germans in, 134, 137; + Norwegians, 155; + Scandinavians in, 156; + Poles in, 160, 167, 213; + Slovenians in, 173; + racial changes in coal regions of, 219 + +Immigration (1790-1820), 32; + legislation, 201, 207, 222 _et seq._; + present opportunities, 208-10; + Lincoln on, 222; + only attempt of Federal Government to encourage, 222-23; + state regulation, 224-25; + bibliography, 235-236; + _see also_ names of peoples + +Immigration Commission, created, 230; + and Japanese, 204 + +Independence (La.), Italians in, 211 + +Indiana, admitted as State (1816), 33; + western migration through, 36; + "Underground Railway" in, 54; + negroes in, 62; + New Harmony, 74-75, 94-96; + Germans in, 134; + Scotch and English in, 151; + Italian farmers in, 212; + Poles in, 213; + racial changes in coal regions, 219 + +Indianapolis, Bulgarians in, 170 + +Indians real Americans, 22 + +Indians, East, in America, 207 + +Industrial Commission, on Polish immigrants, 167; + report on immigration, 228 + +Industrial Workers of the World, Finns in, 160 + +Inspirationists, 80-84 + +Iowa, frontiersmen in, 36; + Inspirationists in, 82-84; + Icarians in, 101; + Germans in, 134, 141; + Slavs in, 213 + +Irish, in America, 6, 103 _et seq._; + half population of Ireland emigrates to America, 104; + reasons for emigration, 105-107; + in Continental Army, 108; + pauper immigrants from, 110; + travel conditions for immigrants, 111-12; + present immigration, 121; + economic advance in America, 122-23; + contrasted with Germans, 124; + number of immigrants (1820-1910), 150; + in New England mills, 215; + in Lawrence (Mass.), 216; + in Johnstown (Penn.), 216; + in Granite City (Ill.), 217; + in coal mines of Pennsylvania, 218 + +Irish Republican Brotherhood, 119 + +Isaacks, Isaac, 30 + +Italians, in South, 65, 210-11; + as laborers, 122; + in United States, 180-83; + on poor land, 210; + in New England mills, 215; + in Pennsylvania, 216, 217, 218 + + +Jahn, F.L., organizes _Turnvereine_, 131 + +James, Henry, on foreigners in Boston, 162-63 + +Jansen, Olaf, 88, 89 + +Janson, Eric, 85-87, 89 + +Jansonists, 85-89, 90 + +Japan, agreement with (1907), 205-06 + +Japanese, in United States, 203-207; + hostility toward, 205-207; + order of exclusion from United States, 206 + +Jay, John, 16 + +Jews, in America, 16-17, 176-180; + Spanish-Portuguese, 177; + German, 177; + Austrian, 178; + Hungarian, 178; + Russian, 178-79 + +Johnstown (Penn.), racial changes in, 216 + +Joliet (Ill.), Slovenians in, 172 + + +Kansas, Germans in, 141; + Scandinavians in, 156; + Slavs in, 213 + +Kapp, Frederick, 129, 140 + +Kaskaskia, French settle, 152 + +Kearney, Dennis, 193 + +Kelpius, Johann, leader of Pietists, 69 + +Kendal (O.), communistic attempt at, 96 + +Kentucky, not represented in First Census, 25; + admitted as State (1792), 33; + pioneers leave, 36 + +Kidnaping, labor brought to America by, 8 + +"Know-Nothing" party, 114, 221 + +Kotzebue, German publicist, 131 + +Kruszka, Rev. W.X., estimates number of Poles, in United States, 167 (note) + +Ku Klux Klan, 58 + + +Labadists, 68-69 + +Labor, kidnaping of, 8; + indentured service, 9-10; + Scotch political prisoners sold into service, 12-13; + negro, 60-63; + Irish displaced by other nationalities, 121-22; + Italian, 181; + Chinese, 190-91; + attitude toward Chinese, 193, 194; + treaty limiting Chinese,198; + bill to prohibit immigration of Chinese, 199; + Scott Act, 201; + Japanese, 204; + racial changes in, 216-17; + law to aid importation of contract labor, 222; + contract labor excluded, 225 + +Lafayette, Marquis de, visits Gallipolis, 152 + +Land, immigrants on the, 147 _et seq._; + immigrants on abandoned or rejected land, 208-214 + +Laurens, Henry, 16 + +Lawrence (Mass.), racial changes in, 215-16 + +Lee, Ann, founder of Shakers, 91, 92 + +Legislation, negro, 59-60; + Chinese immigration, 199-200, 201-03; + California Alien Land Act, 206-07; + immigration, 222 _et seq._ + +Lehigh River, Moravian community on, 72 + +Lehman, Peter, 72 + +Lesueur, C.A., 95 + +Levant, immigrants from the, 184 + +Limestone Ridge, Battle of, 120 + +Lincoln, Abraham, father a pioneer, 36; + message to Congress Dec. 8, 1863, 222 + +Literacy test for immigrants, in Lodge bill, 227; + rejected in law of 1903, 228-29; + executive disapproval of, 231; + bill passes over veto (1917), 232; + provisions of act, 232 + +Lithuanians in United States, 174-75 + +Liverpool, Irish immigrants at, 111, 112 (note) + +Lockwood, G.B., _The New Harmony Movement_, cited, 96 (note) + +Lodge, H.C., _The Distribution of Ability in the United States_, 39-41, 43; + immigration bill, 227 + +Logan, James, Secretary of Province of Pennsylvania, on Scotch-Irish, 11-12 + +London, German emigrants embark at, 134 + +Los Angeles, anti-Chinese riots, 191 + +Louis Philippe visits Gallipolis, 152 + +Louisiana, admitted as State (1812), 33; + American migration to, 34; + Icarians in, 99; + Italians in, 211 + +Louisiana Purchase (1803), 147 + + +McCall, of Massachusetts, introduces Lodge bill in House, 227 + +McCarthy, Justin, quoted, 106; + cited, 107 + +Macedonia, Bulgarians from, 170 + +McGee, T. D'A., leader of "Young Ireland" party, 120-121 + +Maclure, William, "Father of American Geology," 94-95 + +Macluria (Ind.), communistic attempt, 96 + +McMaster, J.B., _History of the People of the United States_, quoted, 152 + +McParlan, James, 118 + +Macy, Jesse, _The Anti-Slavery Crusade_, cited, 54 (note) + +Madison, James, on population of New England, 34 + +Madison (Ill.), racial changes in, 217 + +Magyars, distinct race, 174; + in United States, 175-76; + in Granite City (Ill.), 217 + +Maine, Shakers in, 91 + +Mainzer Adelsverein, 136 + +Manchester (England), Shakers originate in, 91 + +Manhattan, Jewish synagogue in (1691), 16; + Dutch in, 17; + cosmopolitan character, 17; + Norwegian Quakers land on, 155; + _see also_ New York City + +Marion, Francis, 16 + +Marx, Karl, 179 + +Maryland, English settle, 5-6; + recruits schoolmasters from criminals, 9; + Scotch-Irish in, 11, 12; + Scotch in, 12; + Irish in, 13; + Germans in, 127; + Poles in, 213 + +Massachusetts, French in, 15; + Shakers in, 91; + Brook Farm, 97 + +Mather, Cotton, on Scotch-Irish, 11 + +Mayer, Brantz, _Captain Canot: or Twenty Years in a Slaver_, quoted, 48 + +Meade, General, against Fenians, 120 + +Mennonites, 13, 68 (note) + +_Mercury_, New York, quoted, 108 + +Metz, Christian, leader of Inspirationists, 81, 82 + +Mexican War extends United States territory, 33, 148 + +Mexicans, feeling against, in California, 190 + +Michigan, admitted as State (1837), 33; + Germans in, 134; + Scotch and English in, 151; + Dutch in, 153; + Scandinavians in, 156; + farms for sale in, 209; + Slavs in, 212; + racial changes in ore regions of, 219 + +Mikkelsen, quoted, 90-91 + +Milwaukee, "the German Athens," 135; + Poles in, 167 (note) + +Minnesota, frontiersmen in, 36; + Scandinavians in, 157; + "Scandinavian language" in university, 158-59; + Slavs in, 212; + racial changes in ore regions of, 219 + +Mississippi, admitted as State (1817), 33; + American migration to, 34; + Dalmatians in, 171 + +Mississippi River, French on, 18 + +Mississippi Valley, fugitive slaves in, 54; + Irish in, 108; + German influence, 135; + French in, 152; + Bohemians in, 159 + +Missouri, admitted as State (1821), 33; + frontiersmen in, 36; + Germans in, 134; + Giessener Gesellschaft in, 136 + +Mohawk Valley, Germans in, 127 + +Molly Maguires, society among anthracite coal miners, 117-118 + +Monroe, James, and Owen, 94 + +Montenegrins, as South Slavs, 164; + in United States, 171 + +Moravians, 13, 17, 72, 165 + +More, Sir Thomas, _Utopia_, 98 + +Mormons, 87 + +Mount Lebanon, Shaker community, 91 + +Mount Vernon, nationalities represented on July 4, 1918, at, 233 + + +Names, disappearance of, 24-25 (note); + modifications, 30 + +Nantes, Edict of, revocation of, 15 + +National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 63 + +National Civil Federation calls immigration conference (1905), 229 + +Nauvoo (Ill.), Icarians at, 99-100, 101 + +Navigation Laws, 106 + +Nebraska, Germans in, 141; + Scandinavians in, 156; + Bohemians in, 159; + Slavs in, 213 + +Neef, Joseph, 95 + +Negroes, 45 _et seq._; + identified with America, 45; + most distinctly foreign element, 46; + tribes represented among slaves, 49; + mutual benefit organizations, 51-52, 63; + population (1860), 56; + education, 57; + religion, 57; + as farmers, 59-60; + advance, 64; + characteristics shown by neglected gardens, 64-65; + bibliography, 236-37; + _see also_ Africans, Slavery, Slave trade + +Nevada, vote for Garfield (1880), 197 (note) + +New Amsterdam, Jews come to, 16 + +New Bedford, Portuguese in, 184 + +New Bern, Germans in, 127 + +New England, English settle, 5-6; + dissenters found, 8; + Scotch-Irish leave, 11; + Dutch and, 17; + Madison on population of, 34; + slavery, 51; + "Underground Railway" in, 54; + capital in slave trade, 56; + Montenegrins and Serbians in, 171; + Portuguese in, 184; + abandoned farms, 209; + Poles in, 213; + Slavs in, 214; + racial changes in mills, 215-16 + +_New Era_ founded by McGee, 121 (note) + +New Hampshire, Shakers in, 91 + +New Harmony (Ind.), Rapp's colony, 74-75; + sold to Robert Owen, 75; + Owen's colony, 94-96 + +New Jersey, English settle, 5; + not represented in first census, 25; + census computations for 1790, 28-29; + Germans in, 127; + racial changes in manufacturing towns, 216 + +New Netherland, 17 + +New Orleans, Spain acquires, 18; + Icarians in, 99; + Irish in, 113; + Dalmatians in, 171; + Italians in, 180, 211 + +New York (State), Germans in, 14; + French in, 15; + Jews in, 16; + western part settled, 33; + migration through, 36; + slavery, 50-51; + "Underground Railway" in, 54; + and slave trade, 56; + negroes in, 62; + Shakers in, 91; + Scotch and English in, 151; + Norwegians in, 155; + Poles in, 167; + Russians in, 169; + Italian farmers, 212; + racial changes in manufacturing towns, 216; + State relief for immigrants, 224 + +New York City, French in, 16; + cosmopolitanism, 18-19; + Irish in, 108, 109, 113; + Tammany Hall, 116; + Germans in, 127; + Poles in, 167 (note); + Croatians in, 172; + Hungarian Jews, 178; + Russian Jews, 179; + Italians, 180; + _see also_ Manhattan + +_New York Nation_, McGee establishes, 120 (note) + +New Zealand, deflects migration to United States, 150 + +Newfoundland, Irish come through, 109 + +Newspapers, German, 139, 142-144; + Scandinavian, 158; + Slovak, 169 + +"Niagara Movement," 63 + +Norsemen, _see_ Scandinavians + +North, colonies settled by townfolk, 7-8; + negroes in, 55; + negro laborers, 62 + +North Carolina, Germans in, 127 + +Northwest, Scandinavians in, 156; + _see also_ names of States + +Northwest Territory, slavery forbidden in, 51 + +Norwegians, number in America, 154; + character, 154; + lead Scandinavian migration, 155; + _see also_ Scandinavians + +Noyes, J.H., 92, 93 + + +Oberholtzer, _History of the United States since the Civil War_, +cited, 120 (note), 148 (note), 149 (note) + +Ohio, admitted as State (1802), 33; + western migration through, 36; + "Underground Railway" in, 54; + negroes in, 62; + Zoar colony, 78-80; + Germans in, 134; + Scotch and English in, 151; + French in, 151-52; + Swiss in, 153; + Slovenians in, 173; + Italian farmers, 212; + Poles in, 213; + racial changes in coal regions of, 219 + +Ohio River, French on, 18 + +Oklahoma, Bohemians in, 159; + Slavs in, 213 + +Old Elmspring Community, 89 + +Olsen, Jonas, 87, 88 + +Omaha, Italians in, 180 + +Oneida Community, 92-93 + +Orange County (N.Y.), Polish settlement, 213 + +Ordinance of 1787, 51 + +Oregon, acquisition of (1846), 33, 147; + Scandinavians in, 156; + Japanese in, 203 + +Orientals, 188 _et seq._; + _see also_ Chinese, Indians, East, Japanese + +Otis, General, 202 + +Owen, Robert, 75, 93-96, 98 + +Ozark Mountains, Italians in, 211 + + +Palatinate, peasants come to America from, 14 + +Penn, William, 71 + +Pennsylvania, English settle, 5; + Scotch-Irish in, 11-12; + Welsh in, 13; + Germans in, 13, 14, 126-27; + Dutch in, 14; + Jews in, 17; + cosmopolitan character, 19; + western part settled, 33; + slavery, 51; + negroes in, 62; + Dunkards in, 70; + Poles in, 167; + Russians in, 169; + Croatians in, 172; + Slovenians in, 173; + Lithuanians in, 175; + Italian farmers, 212; + landward movement of Slavs in, 213-14; + racial changes, 216, 218-19 + +Pennsylvania Philosophical Society, +Pietists' astrological instruments in collection of, 70 + +Petrosino, Lieutenant Joseph, murdered, 231 + +Peysel, _see_ Beissel + +Philadelphia, Welsh near, 13; + cosmopolitan character, 18; + negroes arrested, 51; + Ephrata draws pupils from, 71; + Irish immigrant association, 109; + Irish in, 113; + Italians in, 180 + +Philippines, Chinese exclusion, 202 + +Pietists, 69-70 + +Pine Lake (Wis.), Swedish colony, 155 + +Pittsburgh, "Boat Load of Knowledge" from, 94 + +Poles, in America, 160, 167-69, 213, 214-15, 217; + as North Slavs, 164 + +Politics, foreigners in, 42; + Irish in, 116, 117; + Germans in, 139, 144; + Bohemians in, 166; + Chinese as issue, 193; + selective immigration as issue (1892), 226-27 + +Population, increase in, 32; + _see also_ Census + +Portland, Italians in, 180 + +Portuguese in United States, 184 + +Prairie du Rocher, French settlement, 152 + +Presbyterians, Scotch-Irish, 10 + +Presidents of United States from American stock, 42 + +Price, J.C., negro orator, 64 + + +Quakers, Norwegian, 155 + + +Rafinesque, C.S., 95 + +Railroads, Chinese laborers on, 190 + +Raleigh, Sir Walter, 5 + +Rapp, F.R., adopted son of Father Rapp, 75-76 + +Rapp, J.G., founder of Harmonists, 73; + "Father Rapp," 74; + at Harmony, 73-74; + at New Harmony, 74-75; + at Economy, 75-77 + +Reconstruction after Civil War, 57-59 + +Red Bank (N.J.), communistic colony at, 97 + +Reed, of Missouri, wishes to exclude African immigrants, 232 + +Republican party on immigration restriction, 226 + +_Restoration_ (sloop), 155 + +Revere, Paul, 16 + +Revolutionary War, Irish in, 108; + Germans and, 127 + +Rhode Island, French in, 15; + Jews in, 17 + +Rock Springs (Wyo.), anti-Chinese riot, 200 + +Roosevelt, Theodore, conference with delegation from California, 205; + on restriction of immigration, 229-30 + +Root, John, 86-87 + +Ross, E.A., _The Old World in the New_, cited, 163 (note) + +Rumania, Mennonites in, 89 + +Rush, Benjamin, _Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania_, 127-29 + +Russia, Mennonites in, 89 + +Russians, as North Slavs, 164; + in United States, 169-70 + +Ruthenians (Ukranians), as North Slavs, 164; + in United States, 169 + + +St. Lawrence River, French on, 18 + +St. Louis, Cabet in, 100; + Irish in, 113; + Germans in, 135; + Hungarian Jews in, 178; + Italians in, 180 + +St. Patrick's Day, observed in Boston (1737), 108; + in New York City (1762), 108; + (1776), 108; + (1784), 109 + +San Antonio, Italians in, 211 + +San Francisco, anti-Chinese attitude, 193, 194, 200; + Japanese excluded from public schools, 205 + +Savannah, Germans in, 127 + +Say, Thomas, "Father of American Zoölogy," 95 + +Scandinavians in United States, 85, 153-59, 185 + +Schleswig-Holstein, Danes emigrate from, 156 + +Schluter, _see_ Sluyter + +Schmitz, Mayor of San Francisco, 205 + +Schurz, Carl, 139 + +Scioto Land Company (Companie du Scioto), 151-52 + +Scotch, in America, 6, 12-13; + in Manhattan, 17; + immigrants, 110, 150; + on the land, 151; + in coal mines of Pennsylvania, 218 + +Scotch-Irish, in America, 6, 10, 11; + in Pennsylvania, 11-12, 12 (note); + names, 30-31 + +Seattle, Bulgarians in, 170; + anti-Chinese feeling, 200 + +Seneca Indians Reservation, Inspirationists purchase (1841), 81 + +Serbians, as South Slavs, 164; + in United States, 171, 217 + +Seward, W.H., Secretary of State, treaty with China (1868), 195-96 + +_Shaker Compendium_ quoted, 91 + +Shakers, 91-92 + +Shaw, Albert, _Icaria, A Chapter in the History of Communism_, quoted, 100 + +Siberia, Russian immigrants to, 170 (note) + +Sicilians, 182; + _see also_ Italians + +Silkville (Kan.), French communistic colony in, 102 + +Six Companies, Chinese organization, 192, 193 + +Slavery, as recognized institution, 9, 50; + Channing on, 46-47; + protests against, 51; + influence of cotton demand on, 52-53; + fugitive slaves, 54-55; + condition when emancipated, 56-57; + Germans against, 139; + _see also_ Negroes, Slave trade + +Slave trade, beginning of, 47; + capture and transportation of slaves, 47-50; + law prohibiting, 55; + effect of cotton demand on, 55-56 + +Slavonians on Pacific slope, 213 + +Slavs, use of term, 164; + on poor land, 210; + colonies, 212-213; + in New England mills, 214, 215; + in Pennsylvania, 216, 217, 218; + _see also_ Bohemians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Dalmatians, + Montenegrins, Poles, Russians, Ruthenians, Serbians, Slovaks, + Slovenians + +Slovaks, as North Slavs, 164; + in United States, 168-69, 216, 217; + _see also_ Slavs + +Slovenians, as South Slavs, 164; + "Griners," 172; + _see also_ Slavs + +Sluyter, Peter (or Schluter), (Vorstmann), leader of Labadists, 68 + +Snow Hill (Penn.), community, 72 + +Society of United Irishmen, 109 + +South, plantations lure English, 7; + Scotch-Irish in, 12; + cotton production, 52-53; + Reconstruction, 57-59; + opposes liberal land laws, 148; + immigrants in cut-over timber regions, 208; + opportunities for immigrants in, 210 + +South Carolina, French in, 15; + slave laws, 50; + insurrection (1822), 53; + Germans in, 127 + +South Dakota, Old Elmspring Community, 89 + +Spain, England's victory over, 2; + France cedes New Orleans to, 18 + +Spanish-Americans in California, 190 + +Standard Oil Company builds Whiting (Ind.), 217 + +Steiner, E.A., _On the Trail of the Immigrant_, quoted, 166, 178-79 + +Stephens, James, 119 + +Sullivan, General John, order of March 17, 1776, 108 + +Sunnyside (Ark.), Italians establish (1895), 211 + +Supreme Court, Chief Justices from American stock, 42; + upholds communal contract, 73; + upholds exclusion, 200; + on state regulation of immigration, 225 + +Swedes, in America, 85, 154, 155-56; + "Frenchmen of the North," 154; + _see also_ Scandinavians + +Switzerland, Inspirationists from, 80; + immigration from, 104; + number of immigrants, 153 + +Syrians, as laborers, 122; + in United States, 184; + in Johnstown (Penn.), 216 + + +Tacoma, anti-Chinese feeling, 200 + +Taft, W.H. vetoes literacy test provision (1913), 231 + +Tammany Hall, 116 + +Tennessee, not represented in First Census, 25; + admitted as State (1796), 33; + pioneers leave, 36 + +Texas, added to United States, 33; + Icarians in, 99; + Fourieristic community in, 101-02; + Mainzer Adelsverein in, 136; + Bohemians in, 159; + Poles in, 160, 167; + Italian colonies, 211; + Slavs in, 213 + +Thompson, Holland, _The New South_, cited, 60 (note) + +Tillinghast, _The Negro in Africa_, quoted, 49 + +Tokyo, anti-American feeling, 207 + +Tone, Wolfe, portrait on Fenian bonds by, 119 + +Transportation, development of, 149 + +_Tribune_, New York, Brisbane and, 97 + +Troost, Gerard, 95 + +Turks in United States, 184 + +_Turnvereine_, 131, 137 + +Tuskegee Institute, 63 + + +Ukranians, _see_ Ruthenians + +Ulster, Scotch in, 10 + +Ulstermen, _see_ Scotch-Irish + +"Underground Railway," 54 + +United States, now called America, 22; + population at close of Revolution, 23; + American stock, 23; + census (1790), 24; + names changed or disappeared, 24-25 (note); + population (1820), 32; + Irish population, 105; + expansion, 147-48; + nation of immigrants, 233; + _see also_ America + +United States Steel Corporation builds Gary (Ind.), 216-17 + +Unonius, Gustavus, 155 + +Utopias in America, 66 _et seq._; + bibliography, 238-39 + + +Vermont, slaves emancipated, 51 + +Vespucci, Amerigo, claim of discovery recognized, 21 + +Vineland (N.J.), Italian colony at, 212 + +Virginia, English occupation (1607), 1; + English in, 5; + protests receiving criminals, 9; + Scotch-Irish in, 11, 12; + French in, 15; + slavery, 47, 50; + insurrection (1831), 53-54; + Irish in, 105; + Germans in, 127; + racial changes in coal regions of, 219 + +Vorstmann, _see_ Sluyter + + +Waldenses in Manhattan, 17 + +Waldseemüller, Martin, and name America, 21 + +Ward's Island, hospitals for immigrants on, 224 + +Ware, Poles in, 214 + +Washington, Booker T., 63 + +Washington, George, on name America, 21; + on spread of native population, 34; + order of March 17, 1776, 108 + +Washington (State), Scandinavians in, 156; + Japanese in, 203, 204 + +Washington (D.C.) Owen lectures at, 94; + anti-Japanese demonstration at, 207 + +Welsh, in United States, 6, 150, 151, 216, 217, 218 + +West, Far, Germans in, 142; + draws homeseekers, 147; + and land laws, 148; + _see also_ names of States + +West Indies, French in, 18; + negro slavery, 47; + Irish transported to, 105; + Irish come through, 109 + +West, Middle, racial changes in, 216; + _see also_ names of States + +West Virginia, Croatians in, 172; + racial changes in, 216, 219 + +Westfield, Poles in, 214 + +Whiting (Ind.), foreigners in, 217 + +Whitney, Eli, cotton gin, 52 + +Wilcox, W.F., quoted, 62-63 + +Wilmington, Germans in, 127 + +Wilson, Woodrow, and anti-Japanese feeling, 206; + on literacy test, 231 + +Windber (Penn.), racial changes in, 219 + +Winthrop, John, on immigration of Scotch-Irish, 11 + +Wisconsin, frontiersmen in, 36; + "Underground Railway" in, 54; + Fourieristic colony in, 97; + Germans in, 134, 137; + Swiss in, 153; + Scandinavians in, 156; + Poles in, 160, 167; + farms available in, 209; + Slavs in, 212 + +Worcester, Poles in, 214 + +Workingmen's party, 193 + +Wright, Fanny, 95 + +Wyoming, and Chinese indemnity claim, 201 + + +Yazoo Delta, Italians in, 211 + +Yellow Springs (O.), communistic attempt, 96 + +Young, Brigham, 87 + +"Young Ireland" party, 120 + + +Zimmermann, J.J., founder of Pietists, 69 + +Zinzendorf, Count, 72 + +Zoar, colony at, 78-80; + Amana gains members from, 83 + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Foreigners, by Samuel P. Orth + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14825 *** |