Europeans, which has modified the character of the population, yet the great mass of the immigrants are found to cherish true patriotism for the land of their adoption. OCCUPATION OF PASSENGERS ARRIVING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES DURING THE FORTY-ONE YEARS Complaints have been made against the morals and character of many of the immigrants; and a fear has arisen that they will convert North America into a sort of Botany Bay. It is true that many criminals, idlers, malcontents, and the like, seek here a place of refuge; but their number is proportionably very small, and bitter experience or punishment forces them to begin a new life in the new world. The United States proffer to immigrants the noblest moral and political education; and he who rejects it, who proudly considers himself above it, who trusts more to luck than to prudence and sagacity, who thinks to become rich without exertion, or perhaps to renovate and revolutionize mature America with superficial theories — will soon and rightly find himself deceived in his foolish anticipations. 1 Von Raumer, America and the American People [1845], pp. 146–147, 148, 149. On the whole the German settlers are highly commended as industrious, moral, persevering, and averse to novelty and change. Hence they are useful as a restraining, tranquillizing counterpoise to the unquietness of other inhabitants. But unhappily there are exceptions to this rule also. One German traveller relates how he was deserted and cheated by some of his countrymen to whom he had shown kindness; and another mentions that a German clergyman in America said to him: "The German teachers here, like many of their countrymen, have acted like complete rogues. One ran away with a foster-daughter of mine; and another, a music teacher whom I had recommended, made off, after cheating a number of people and leaving many debts behind him; so that one is almost ashamed to speak German or to bear a German name." While for my own part I heard no complaints against the Germans and nothing but praises of them, the reproaches cast upon the Irish were loud and frequent. The blending of this foreign stock with the Germanic, in America as in England, is certainly very difficult; still even those who dislike them cannot deny that on the whole they are industrious and contented, and in the second generation are scarcely to be distinguished from those of a different origin. Where, too, one considers what an immense leap it is from Irish bondage to American citizenship, one ought to hold them excusable, if in excess of joy at their newly acquired freedom they fall into a few errors and extravagances. It is complained that they suffer themselves to be led and dictated to by their priests; but it may be questioned whether this influence is more hurtful than that of many other demagogues. In recent times a party has been formed, chiefly in some of the sea-port towns, which takes to itself the name of Native Americans. Their object is to throw difficulties in the way of immigration, and they wish to prevent naturalization until after a residence of twentyfive years; because, as they, say, no immigrant can acquire the necessary knowledge in a shorter time, and a too early qualification of foreigners abridges and undermines the rights of native citizens. Even granting the truth of the loudly proclaimed and probably too well founded censure, that these views and doctrines proceed mostly from business jealousy, and religious intolerance (towards the Irish catholics), they still require a satisfactory investigation, and the movement might more properly be termed a European than a truly American one. When even in the dangerous times of the French revolution, the Alien Law was rejected as imprudent, unjust, and un-American, how can it now be sought, in quieter times and on weaker grounds, not merely to revive it, but to render it more severe? In comparison with the immense number of native votes, those of the foreigners annually admitted to the rank of citizens are wholly insignificant and indecisive; besides which most of them are divided amongst the different political parties. ... If all the immigrants entertained quite other views on important topics (e.g. nobility, ecclesiastical matters, freedom of the press, and the like), if they rudely opposed themselves as a body to the Americans, there would then be some reason for complaints and counter measures; but since they every where join the Americans, and vote in the same manner as millions of native citizens, how can these latter lay claim to a sort of hereditary wisdom, and denounce foreigners of the same opinions with themselves as fools and knaves? An enthusiastic desire is felt for the acquisition of the Oregon territory, and complaints are made that such vast tracts of land should still lie uncultivated; and yet this Native American party is recommending measures that secure to the bears and wolves a longer possession of them. Now what inducements would there be to immigration, what advantages would it present, if political rights were refused, the feelings of honor wounded, and every new-comer told that he must content himself for a quarter of a century with the worship of mammon? . . . 1 It must be admitted that the Irish have to encounter considerable prejudices, no matter from what causes arising, in almost every section of the Union, though in different degrees. In some places they are openly and even violently expressed; in others, the feeling is slightly visible on the surface of common intercourse : but there is no observing Irishman, perhaps, who has not had, on some occasion or other, cause to notice the annoying fact. It must be remarked, that some of the different portions of the Union are 1 Grattan, Civilized America [1859], II, 28-29. much more congenial than others to the habits and feelings of Irishmen; and all seem to agree, that New England, taken on the whole, is the hardest soil for an Irishman to take root and flourish in. The settled habits of the people, the untainted English descent of the great majority, discrepancies of religious faith and forms, and a jealousy of foreign intermixture of any kind, all operate against those who would seek to engraft themselves on the Yankee stem, in the hope of a joint stock of interest or happiness. The bulk of Irish emigration to the Western States is comprised chiefly of agricultural labourers. Rigidly excluded in former times from improving by education his acknowledged quickness of intellect, the emigrant of this class has been hitherto fitted only for the performance of offices requiring mere muscular exertion. Without any of those incentives to improvement possessed by the educated man, the beings we now speak of were doomed to a hopeless state of social inferiority. Their incapacity to perform any work requiring the application of intellectual power marked them out as hewers of wood, and drawers of water. The high wages and good living, in comparison to what they had been accustomed to in Europe, ought to have given them more comforts, and raised them in the moral scale. But the pernicious addiction to whiskey-drinking, common to those poor people, and the highly reprehensible habit of allowing it to them in large quantities, by the contractors for some of the public works, have, until lately, kept them in a state of mere brute enjoyment, so to call their degraded condition. IV. THE RISE OF CORPORATIONS 1 Production on a large scale is greatly promoted by the practice of forming a large capital by the combination of many small contributions; or, in other words, by the formation of joint stock companies. The advantages of the joint stock principle are numerous and important. In the first place, many undertakings require an amount of capital beyond the means of the richest individual or private partnership. No individual could have made a railway from London to 1 Mill, Principles of Political Economy, I, 182-183. |