assignment opv 19,21 and 24

Social Reform Issues of the Antebellum Era

V i e w p o i n t 2 4A Immigrants Endanger A merica (1845)

Narive American Parry

I N T R O D U C T I O N In the decades preceding the Civil War the United States experienced a large influx of immi­ grants from Europe. Not all A mericans welcomed their arrival. Nativism, a movement devoted to the idea that immigrants threatened the economic and political se­ curity of "native " Americans-white, Protestant, established citizens-became an important political force. Some nativists were motivated by anti-Catholic prejudice (many of the new immigrants from Germany and Ireland were Catholic) and were worried that the Roman Catholic Church might gain unwanted influ­ ence in A merican life. Others expressed concern about what they saw as the depraved and ignorant nature of immigrants and were especial!:y worried that such people had the right to vote. In 1 844 an anti-immigrant or­ ganization, the American Republican Party, managed to elect dozens of officials in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Members of the or­ ganization held their first national convention the fol­ lowing year in Philadelphia, where they changed their party's name to the Native American Party and adopted a platform delineating the threats they believed immi­ grants posed to America. The following viewpoint is excerpted from that platform.

How does the Native American Party compare new immigrants with those of the previous two centuries? What importance does it attach to recent democratic reforms (see viewpoints 23A and 23B) gi,ving more people the vote? What ominous scenarios does it predict for America?

It is an incon trovertible truth that the civil institu­ tions of the United S tates of America have been seriously affected, and that they now stand in imminent peril from the rapid and enormous increase o f the body o f residents o f foreign b irth, i m b ued with fo reign fee l i ngs, and o f an ignorant and immoral character, who receive, under the present lax and unreasonable laws o f naturalization, the elective franchise and the right o f eligibility to poli­ tical office.

The whole body o f foreign citizens, invited to o u r shores under a constitutional provision adapted t o other times and other p o l i tical conditions o f the world, and of our country especially, has been endowed by American hospitality with gratuitous privileges unnecessary to the enjoyment o f those inalienable rights o f man-life, lib-

From Address to the Delegates of the Native American National Convention, Assembled at Phi/ndelphin, July 4, 1845, to the Citizens of the United Stntes.

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Part 3: Antebellum America (1800-1850)

erty, and the pursui t of happi ness-privileges wisely reserved to the Natives o f the soil by the governments o f all other civilized nations. But, familiarized by habit with the exercise of these indulgences, and emboldened by increasing numbers, a vast majority o f those who con­ stitute this foreign body, now claim as an original right that which has been so incautiously granted as a favour­ thus attempting to render inevitable the prospective action o f laws adopted upon a principle of mere expedi­ ency, made variable at the will of Congress by the express terms o f the Constitution, and heretofore repeatedly revised to meet the exigencies of the times.

I n former years, this body was recruited chiefly from the victims of political oppression, or the active and intel­ ligent mercantile adventurers o f other lands; and it then constituted a slender representation of the best classes of the foreign population well fitted to add strength to the state, and capable o f being readily educated i n the pecu­ liarly American science of p o l i tical self-government. Moreover, while welcoming the stranger of every condi­ tion, laws then wisely demanded o f every foreign aspirant fo r political rights a certificate o f p ractical good citizen­ ship. Such a class of aliens were followed by no foreign demagogues-they were courted by no domestic dema­ gogues; they were p urchased by no parti es-they were debauched by no emissaries of kings. A wall of fire sepa­ rated them from such a baneful infl uence, erected by their intelligence, their knowledge, their virtue and love of free­ dom. But for the last twenty years the road to civil prefer­ ment and participation i n the legislative and executive government o f the land has been laid broadly open, alike to the ignorant, the vicious and the criminal; and a large proportion of the foreign body of citizens and vot­ ers now constitutes a representation of the worst and most degraded of the European population-victims of social oppression or personal vices, utterly divested, by igno­ rance o r crime, o f the moral and i n tellectual requisites for political self-government.

A NEW CLASS OF I M M IGRANTS

Thus tempted by the s uicidal policy of these U n i ted States, and favoured by the facilities resulting from the modern improvements o f navigation, numerous societies and corporate bodies i n foreign countries have found it economical to transport to our shores, at public and pri­ vate expense, the feeble, the imbecile, the idle, and i ntrac­ table, thus relieving themselves of the burdens resulting from the vices o f the European social systems by availing themselves of the generous errors o f our own.

The almshouses o f Europe are e m p tied upon o u r coast, a n d this b y o u r own invitation-not casually, o r to a trivial extent, but systematically, a n d u p o n a con­ stantly increasing scale. The Bedlams [insane asylums) o f the old world have contributed thei r share to the

torrent of i m m igratio n , and the lives of o u r cmzens have been attempted in the streets o f our capital cities by mad-men, j ust l i berated from European hospitals upon the express condition that they should be trans­ po rted to America. By the orders o f European govern­ ments, the p u nishment of crimes has been comm uted fo r banishment to the land o f the free; and criminals i n i r o n have crossed the ocean t o be cast loose u p o n society on their arrival upon our shores. The United S tates are rapidly beco m i ng the lazar house [hospital for the poor with contagious diseases) and penal colony o f Europe; nor can we reasonably censure such proceedings. They are legitimate consequences of our own unlimited benev­ olence; and it is of such material that we profess to man­ ufacture free and enlightened citizens, by a process occupying five short years at most, but practically often­ times embraced in a much shorter period of time.

The mass of foreign voters, formerly lost among the Natives of the soil, has i ncreased from the ratio of 1 in 40 to that o f 1 i n 7! A like advance in fifteen years will leave the Native citizens a minority in their own land! Thirty years ago these strangers came by units and tens-now they swarm by thousands. Formerly, most of them sought only for an honest livelihood and a provision for their families, and rarely meddled with the i nstitutions, o f w h i c h i t w a s i m p ossible they could comprehend the nature; now each newcomer seeks poli tical preferment, and struggles to fasten on the public purse with an avid­ ity, in strict proportion to his ignorance and unworthiness of p u blic trust-having been sent for the p u rpose o f obtaining political ascendancy i n the government o f the nation; having been sent to exalt their allies to power; having been sent to work a revolution fro m republican freedom to the divine rights o f monarchs.

From these unhappy circumstances has arisen an !mpertum in Imperio [a state within a state)-a body uninformed and vicio us-foreign in feeling, prejudice, and manner, yet armed with a vast and often a controlling influence over the policy of a nation, whose benevolence i t abuses, and whose kindness i t habitually insults; a body as dangerous to the rights o f the intelligent foreigner as to the prospect of its own immediate progeny, as it is threat­ e n i ng to the l i b erties o f the coun try, and the hopes of rational freedom throughout the world; a body ever ready to complicate our foreign relations by embroiling us with the hereditary hates and feuds o f other lands, and to disturb our domestic peace by its crude ideas, mis­ taki ng license for l iberty, and the overthrow o f individual rights for republican political equality; a body ever the ready tool o f foreign and domestic demagogues, and steadily endeavouring by misrule to establish popular tyr­ anny under a cloak of false democracy. Americans, false to their country, and led on to moral crime, by the desire of dishonest gain; have scattered their agents over Europe,

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inducing the malcontent and the unthrifty to exchange a l i fe of compulsory labour in foreign lands for relative comfort, to be maintained by the tax-paying industry of our overburdened and deeply indebted community . . . .

FUTURE OF FOREIGN CONTROL

The body of adopted citizens, with foreign interests and prejudices, is annually advancing with rapid strides, i n ge­ ometrical p rogressi o n . Already it has acquired a control over our elections which can not be entirely corrected, even by the wisest legislation, until the present generation shall be numbered with the past. Already i t has notori­ ously swayed the course o f national legislation, and i nvaded the p u r i ty o f local j ustice. I n a few years its unchecked progress would cause i t to o u tn u m b er the native defenders o f our rights, and would then inevitably dispossess our o ffspring, and its own, of the inheritance for which our fathers bled, or plunge this land of happi­ ness and peace into the horrors o f civil war.

The correction of these evils can never be effected by any combination governed by the tactics of other existing parties. If either o f the old parties, as such, were to attempt an extension o f the term o f naturalization, i t wo uld b e impossible for i t t o carry o u t the measure, because they would i mmediately be abandoned by the foreign voters. This great measure can be carried o u t only b y an organization like our own, made u p of those who have given up their former political preferences.

For these reasons, we recommend the immediate or­ ganization o f the truly patriotic native citizens throughout the United States, for the purpose o f resisting the progress of foreign i n fluence in the conduct of American affairs, and the correction o f such political abuses as have resulted from unguarded or partisan legislation on the subject of naturalization, so far as these abuses ad m i t of remedy without encroachment upon the vested rights o f foreign­ ers who have been already legally adopted into the bosom of the nation.

V i e wp o i n t 2 4 B Immigrants Do Not Endanger America (1 845)

Thomas L. Nichols ( 1 8 1 5- 1 9 0 1 )

I N T R O D U C T I O N Thomas L . Nichols was a doctor, social historian, and journalist. In 1845 he delivered a Lecture (later published) in support of U S. immigration. By then the annual number of immigrants to the United States was approaching three hundred thousand (the total US. population was then about 20 million). Nichols also criticizes the arguments made by the emerging nativist movement against immigrants.

On what basis do people have a "right" to emigrate, according to Nichols? How have immigrants benefited America? How are his descriptions of immigrants

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different from those of the authors of the opposing viewpoint?

The questions con nected with emigrati o n from Europe to America are interesting to both the old world and the new-are o f importance to the present and future generations. They have more consequence than a charter or a state election; they involve the destinies of millions; they are connected with the p rogress of civilization, the rights of man, and providence of God!

I have examined this subject the more carefully, and speak upon i t the more earnestly, because I have been to some extent, in former years, a partaker of the prejudices I have since learned to p i ty. A native of New England and a descendant of the puritans, I early imbibed, and to some extent p ro m u l gated, o p i n io ns of which reflection and experience have made m e ashamed . . . .

The emigration of foreigners . . . has been zn various ways highly beneficial

to this country.

But while I would speak of the motives of men with charity. I claim the right to combat their opinions with earnestness. Believing that the principles and p ractices of Native Americanism are wrong i n themselves, and are doing wrong to those who are the objects of their per­ secution, j ustice and humanity require that their fallacy should be exposed, and their iniquity condemned . . . .

THE RIGHT TO EMIGRATE

The right of man to emigrate from o ne co u n try to another, is one which belongs to him by his own consti­ tution and by every principle o f j ustice. I t is one which no law can alter, and no authority destroy. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit o f happiness" are set down, i n our Declaration of Independence, as among the self-evident, unalienable rights of man. I f I have a right to live, I have also a right to what will support existence-foo d , clothing, and shelter. I f then the country i n which I reside, from a super-abundant population, or any other cause, does not affo rd m e these, my right to go fro m it to s o m e o t h e r i s self-evident a n d unquestionable. T h e right to live, then, supposes the right of emigration . . . .

I profeed, therefore, to show that the emigration of fo reigners to this country is not o nl y defensible o n grounds o f abstract j ustice-what w e have no possible right to p revent, but that it has been i n various ways highly beneficial to this country.

From lecture on Immigration and the Right of Naturnlization by Thomas Nichols (New York, 1 845).

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Part 3: Antebellum America (1800-1850)

Emigration first peopled this hemisphere with civi­ lized men. The first settlers o f this continent had the same right to come here that belongs to the emigrant of yesterday-no better and no other. They came to im­ p rove their condition, to escape from o p p ress ion, to enj oy freedom-for the same, o r sim ilar, reasons as now prevail. And so far as they violated no private rights, so long as they obtained their lands by fair p urchase, or took possession o f those which were unclaimed and uncul tivated, the highly respectable natives whom the first settlers found here had no right to make any objec­ tions. The peopling of this continent with civilized men, the cultivation o f the earth, the various processes of productive labor, for the happiness o f man, all tend to "the greatest good of the greatest number," and carry out the evident design of Nature or Providence in the for­ mation of the earth and its inhabitants.

Emigration fro m various countries in Europe to America, producing a mixture o f races, has had, and is still having, the most impo rtant influence upon the desti­ nies o f the human race. It i s a principle, laid down by every physiologist, and p roved by abundant observation, that man, like other animals, i s improved and brought to its highest perfecti o n by an intermingling o f the blood and qualities o f various races. That nations and families deteriorate from an opposite course has been observed i n all ages. The great physiological reason why Americans are superior to other nations in freedom, intel­ ligence, and enterprize, i s because that they are the o ff­ spring o f the greatest i n termingling o f races. The mingled blood o f England has given her predominance over several nations o f Europe in these very qualities, and a newer infusion, with favorable circumstances of cli­ mate, position, and institutions, has rendered Americans still superior. The Yankees of New England would never have shown those qualities fo r which they have been distinguished i n war and peace through o u t the world had there not been mingling with the puritan En­ glish, the calculating Scotch, the warm hearted Irish, the gay and chivalric French, the steady persevering D u tch, and the transcendental Germans, for all these nations contributed to make up the New England character, be­ fore the Revolution, and ever since to i n fl uence that o f the whole American people . . . .

I M MIGRANT WEALTH

This coun try has been continually benefited by the im­ mense amount o f capital brought hither by emigrants. There are very few who arrive upon our shores without some little store of wealth, the hoard o f years of industry. Small as these means may be in each case, they amount to mil l i o ns in the aggregate, and every dollar is so much added to the wealth o f the country, to b e reckoned at compound interest from the time o f its arrival, nor are

these sums like our European loans, which we must pay back, both pri ncipal and i n terest. With i n a few years, especially, and more o r less at all periods, men of great wealth have been among the emigrants driven from Europe, by religions oppression or political revolutions. Vast sums have also fallen to emigrants and their descend­ ants by inheritance, fo r every few days we read in the papers of some poor foreigner, or descendant o f foreign­ ers, as are we all, becoming the heir of a p rincely fortune, which i n most cases, is added to the wealth of his adopted country. Besides this, capital naturally follows labor, and i t flows upon this country in a constant current, by the laws o f trade.

But it is not money alone that adds to the wealth of a country, but every day's productive labor is to be added to its accumulating capital. Every house built, every canal dug, every railroad graded, has added so m uch to the actual wealth of society; and who have built more houses, dug more canals, or graded more railroads, than the hardy Irishmen ? I hardly know how o u r great national works could have been carried on without them-then; while every pair o f s t urdy arms has added to our national wealth, every hungry m o uth has been a home market for our agriculture, and every broad shoulder has been clothed with our manufactures.

EUROPE'S MOST VALUABLE

MEMBERS

From the very nature o f the case, America gets from Eu­ rope the most valuable of her p o p u lati o n . Generally, those who come here are the very ones whom a sensible man would select. Those who are attached to monarchical and aristocratic institutions stay at home where they can enjoy them. Those who lack energy and en terprize can never make up their m i nds to leave their native land. I t i s t h e s t r o n g m i nded, t h e brave hearted, t h e free a n d self-respecting, t h e enterprizing a n d t h e intelligent, who break away from all the ties of coun try and of home, and brave the dangers of the ocean, i n search o f liberty and i ndependence, for themselves and for their children, on a distant continent; and i t is from this, among other causes, that the great mass of the people of this country are distinguished for the very qualities we should look for in emigrants. The same spirit which sent our fathers across the ocean impels us over the Alleghanies, to the val­ ley of the Mississippi, and thence over the Rocky moun­ tains into Orego n .

For what are w e not indebted t o foreign emigration, since we are all Europeans or their descendants? We can­ not travel on one of our steamboats without remembering that Robert Fulton was the son o f an Irishman . . . . Who of the thousands who every summer pass up and down our great thoroughfare, the North River, fails to catch at least a passing glimpse of the column erected to the

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memory of [Polish immigrant and American Revolution­ ary War officer Thaddeus] Kosciusko? I cannot forget that only last night a portion o f our citizens celebrated with joyous festivities the birthday of the son of Irish emi­ grants, I mean the Hero o f New Orleans [Andrew Jackson] ! . . .

S o might I go for hours, citing individual examples of benefits derived by this country from foreign immigration . . . .

I have enumerated s o m e o f the advantages which such emigration has given to America. Let us now very carefully inquire, whether there is danger of any inj ury arising from these causes, at all proportionable to the pal­ pable good.

"Our country is in danger," is the cry o f Nativism. D u r i ng my brief existence I have seen this country on the very verge o f ruin a considerable number o f times. I t is always i n the most imminent peril every four years; but, hitherto, the efforts of one party or the other have proved sufficient to rescue it, j us t in the latest gasp o f its expiring agonies, a n d w e have breathed m o r e freely, when we have been assured that " th e country's safe . " Let u s look steadily i n the face o f this new danger.

Are foreigners coming here to overturn our govern­ ment? Those who came before the Revolution appear to have been generally favorable to Republ ican institutions. Those who have come here s ince have left friends, home, c o u ntry, all that man naturally holds dearest, that they might live under a free government-they and their children. Is there common sense in the supposition that men would voluntarily set about destroying the very liberties they came so far to enjoy?

" B ut they lack intelligence," i t is said. Are the immi­ grants o f today less intelligent than those o f fifty o r a hun­ dred years ago? Has Europe and the human race stood still all this time? . . . The facts o f men preferring this country to any other, of their desire to live under its insti­ tutions, o f their migration hither, indicate to my mind anythi n g b u t a lack o f proper i n telligence and enterprise . . . .

The truth is, a foreigner who emigrates to this coun­ try comes here saying, "Where Liberty dwells, there is my country." H e sees our free institutions i n the strong light o f contrast. The sun seems brighter, because he has come out o f darkness. What we know by hearsay only o f the su­ periority of our institutions, he knows by actual observa­ tion and experience. Hence it is that America has had no truer patriots-freedom no more enthusiastic admirers­ the cause of Liberty no more heroic defenders, than have been found among our adopted citizens . . . .

B u t if naturalized citizens o f foreign birth had the disposition, they have not the power, to endanger our lib­ erties, o n acco u n t o f their compa ratively small and

Social Reform Issues of the Antebellum Era

decreasing numbers. There appears to be a most extraor­ dinary misapprehension upon this subject. To read one of our "Native" papers one might suppose that o u r country was becoming overrun by foreigners, and that there was real danger of their having a majority of votes . . . .

There is a point beyond which immigration cannot be carried. I t must be limited by the capacity of the vessels employed in bringing passengers, while our entire popu­ lation goes o n increasing i n geometrical progression, so that i n one century from now, we shall have a population o f one hundred and sixty millions, but a few hundred thousands o f whom at the utmost can be citizens of for­ eign birth. Thus it may be seen that foreign immigration is o f very little account, beyond a certain period, in the population of a country, and at all times is an insignifi ­ cant item . . . .

I appeal to the observation of every man in this com­ m u n i ty, whether the Germans and the Irish here, and throughout the country, are not as orderly, as industrious, as quiet, and in the habit of performing as well the com­ mon duties o f citizens as the great mass of natives among us.

The worst thing that can be brought against any por­ tion of our foreign population is that i n many cases they are poor, and when they sink under labor and p rivation, they have no resources but the almshouse. Alas! shall the rich, fo r whom they have labored, the owners of the houses they have helped to b u ild, refuse to treat them as kindly as they would their horses when incapable o f further toil? C a n they grudge t h e m s h e l t e r from t h e storm, a n d a place where they may die in peace?

FOR FURTHER READ I N G

Edith Abbott, Historical Aspects of the Immigration Problem: Select Documents. New York: Arno Press, 1 969.

Tyler G . Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1 994.

Ray Allen Billington, The Origins of Nativism in the United States, 1800-1844. New York: Arno Press, 1 9 74.

Maldwyn A . Jones, American Immigration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1 992.

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