# Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York

IMMIGRATION,
AND THE
COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION
OF THE
State of New York
BY
FRIEDRICH KAPP,
ONE OF THE SAID COMMISSIONERS.
NEW YORK: THE NATION PRESS, 27 ROSE STREET.
1870.
TO LEOPOLD BIERWIRTH, ESQ.
In public and private life, you have, for more than forty years in this your adopted country, labored to promote the welfare of this community, and to benefit humanity at large.
It was your good fortune to assist in suggesting and initiating the reforms which are treated of in the following pages. It was your privilege to be instrumental in inaugurating the new era, signalled by the formation of the Board of the Commissioners of Emigration. Of this body you were a highly honored member during the first two years of its existence, setting as such an example worthy of emulation by your successors. Although you withdrew a long time ago from active participation in their official duties, you have continued to work with undiminished zeal and energy in furtherance of the interests of which they are the custodians.
In view of this, and as an expression of my respect and friendship, I dedicate to you this essay.
FRIEDRICH KAPP.
New York, February, 1870.
PREFACE.
Having resided for the past twenty years at the greatest immigrant port in the world, and having been led by my official duties during a portion of this time to pay particular attention to the subject of emigration, I have been induced to enter into a somewhat extended study of this important question. The result of my researches is now laid before the public.
A great deal has been written about emigration, its causes, aims, and results, but, with a very few exceptions, the writers on this subject have dwelt more upon their own theories and conjectures than upon facts and events. In the physical world, it is manifestly impossible to build a house without having laid a foundation; yet, in the intellectual world, people too often reason and philosophize upon political and social questions without having made that careful investigation of facts which is the only sure foundation of accurate reasoning.
The present essay on immigration is chiefly confined to the narration of facts, and it is only here and there that I have given the conclusions which have seemed to me to be their natural result. Parts of it have already been laid before the public in a paper read in this city, on the 27th of October, 1869, before the American Social Science Association.
The emigration of European masses to this country is still in its infancy, and yet it is very difficult, if not impossible, to collect and preserve the materials relating to it. If I have succeeded in ​saving any which without my researches might, perhaps, have perished, I have accomplished my purpose. I trust that they may facilitate for the future historian the study and appreciation of this interesting subject.
Strange as it may seem, the youngest nation that has made its appearance on the historical stage is singularly deficient in that historical spirit which characterizes true civilization. Germany, France, England, and Italy are laboring more earnestly for the preservation of the records of their barbarism than the United States for the illustration of its unbroken record of civilization. How can this lack of interest be explained? Is it that the task of the hour makes Americans blind to all things else? Is it that so much is still to be done that no time is left for the consideration of what has been done? Be it as it may, it is a melancholy fact and seriously detrimental to the most vital interests of the nation. People look with indifference at this colossal immigration of the European masses, whose presence alone will exercise a powerful influence on the destinies of the Western World; National and State legislators care little or nothing for the direction which is given to this foreign element, and forget that their own welfare and the welfare of their children is indissolubly interwoven with the condition of the new-comers. In short, they are not yet aroused to the great importance of emigration, of its laws and its development, but consider it rather with an incredulous curiosity than with an earnest desire to fathom its resources and foresee its results.
My principal sources of information have been the minutes and the annual reports of the Commissioners of Emigration, which, wherever it was possible, I have quoted in their own ​language; the proceedings of the Common Council of New York City, the reports of the Comptrollers of this city, and the papers and official acts of the United States Senate and of the State Legislature at Albany. I have not given my authorities, as I cannot suppose that they are accessible to any of my readers, but the correctness of the statements is susceptible of verification, and may be implicitly relied upon.
I gratefully acknowledge the important services rendered me by Mr. Bernard Casserly, the efficient General Agent of the Commissioners of Emigration, who is familiar with all the minutiae of the service, and the history of the Board for which he has labored ever since its creation with intelligence and zeal. I am also under special obligations to Mr. Andrew Carrigan and Mr. Thurlow Weed for the very interesting information contained in Chapter V. Mr. Weed, although confined to his chamber by illness, assisted me with his valuable advice, and gave me important information concerning the origin of the Commission.
I am likewise indebted to my friends, Mr. Henry Villard, of Boston, the able Secretary of the American Social Science Association, and Mr. Thomas Burke, of this city, for the revision of my manuscript; to Mr. Charles Goepp for the greater part of Chapter IX., and to several officers of the Commissioners of Emigration, among whom I would name Mr. George W. Wheeler, Col. L. Cantador, Mr. A. H. Hicks, and Dr. A. Reimer, for the readiness with which they have supplied me with copies of important tables and other necessary documents.
FRIEDRICH KAPP.
6 Mansfield Place, New York,
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
APPENDIX.