Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-05-15


part he felt common interest with ourselves.
II was the boast Of the Old Hun, that grass
never grew after the tread Of his horses hoof;n
it was not SO with the emigrant who came here;
he made TWO blades of grass grow where one
grew before, and helped to gladden. the waste
places of nature with all the arts of cultivation
and civilization. To trace the agency of this
foreign element in the various developments of
American society, i believe, would be startling
enough to those who have not much considered
the subject. Certain it is that our growth
would have been much less rapid without it.
| think, too, that an examination of the history
Of this emigration will show, that if nature be
| left free to pursae her course, there can be no
danger that the foreign will overpower the ma
tive element in their influences upon our state
of society. In looking over well.reasoned
analysis of the statistics of emigration, as given
| by our recent census, which appeared in one
of the foreign periodicals, | met with some re-
suits for which, | confess, was not prepared
Its general geographical distribution was not
| in some important respects, such as had ex-
| pected TO find it; Of the 100000 foreigners
in this country, only about 100000 are in the
slave States. In the northwestern free States,
less than one-third Of these emigrants is to be
found, and of 100000 inhabitants of these
tive Americans. As consequence of all this
it follows, that most of these foreigners are in
the Atlantic non-slaveholding States, amongst
which New York and Massachusetts share
most largely, and nearly six-sevenths of their
number are to found north of 37th parallel of
Latitude.
| 1t appears, then, that the mass of these for
eigners settled in the old States, where the
home influence was strongest, and replacing as
many native born citizens, these last took up
their line of march to the wilderness to add to
the domain of cultivation, TO build up another
addition to the American Empire, to found
new States, and mould and form their institu-
tons Instead, then, of Europeanizing Anne
ricans, Europeans were thus Americanized.
The American influence predominates every
where; and notwithstanding the number of
| these foreigners, they are SO distributed as to
make the process Of their assimilation with
American society more rapid and easy. This
country, then, has been indeed the true "o6iciaa
gentium," and not only the workshop in which
many nations have toiled, but grand national
mandatory, in which men of various races
have received the true American mould 1t is
estimated, In the article of which / speak that
100000 able-bodied laborers, of both sexes, are
now annually coming to this country from
abroad, and if this statement should startle
those who have seen that the Custom house re-
turns give only $4,000 as the total number of
| foreign emigrants, let him remember that both
Chickering and De Bow estimate their returns
as being 80 per cent. under the true count. OF
these, a very large proportion has been ascer-
1 tanned to be over 20 and under 40 years of age.
| When the statistics upon this subject are col
lated and compared, it will be found, think,
that the estimate of 400, 900 is, at least prob.
able approximation to the true number Now,
whilst most of these laborers settle in the free
Atlantic States to drive the looms of New Eng
land and keep the workshops of New York and
/ Pennsylvania busy, larger number of native
born citizens march annually into the wilder
ness to add new belt to the domain of cultiya-
ton and civilization. Who can estimate in
figures the effects of this double process upon
the growth and prosperity of the Confederacy,
and particularly of the free States? If you es-
innate the annual production Of each emigrant
laborer at only $3.50, you have 10000 for this
item alone, to say nothing of the money which
many of them bring to pay their passage and
establish themselves in the country Now,
does any man suppose that the free States, and
Massachusetts especially, where this Know
nothing Order seems to have established its
headquarters, can intend to stop the influx OF
such stream Of wealth as this? Shut off this
food of emigration entirely from our shores,
and such blight would fall upon Massachu-
sets as she has not seen heretofore in the
course Of her history. She not only does not
intend to produce such a result, but she does
not profess even to desire it. On the contrary,
it has been her policy to attract the foreign la
borers to this country by double process.
Through the restrictive system, she sought to
shut out the product Of his labor from the
American market, if he worked abroad, whilst
she proposed to give him the exclusive posses.
sion of il if he would transfer his labor to this
country. To attract cheap labor to her soil,
has been great object of her policy; and now
that she has substituted the native for the for.
eign laborer, she proposes to disfranchse the
latter-to deny him the privileges Of citizen
ship. And thus, whilst she is so anxious to
free the African slave in the South, she is en-.
gagged in scheme to prescribe and degrade
yes, sirs, and TO enslaye-for there are degrees
Of slavery, all that portion of her own white
laborers who are foreign born. To make such
an experiment upon the native-born laborer
would be too dangerous to attempt; but to sub
stitute him with the foreigner, and after filing
her workshops with the latter to disfranchise
and prescribe him, would produce the same
effect in the end. The laborer would be pros.
trated at the foot of the capitalists, whose
reign would be supreme. The interests of la.
Dor are one North and South foreign and ma.
tive born, and he who seeks to set one portion
against another, is destroying the house by
dividing it. Mr.. Jefferson said that there was
f natural alliance between the Northern abo-
rer and the South. Both are concerned for the
interests of labor, and most of the sympathy
which the South has found in the North, has
grown out Of that natural bond. 1t is this
power, then, that has been friendly to us that
| we are invoked to strike. The power which
drives the loom, and makes busy the workshops
T at the North, is friendly to that which raises
the cotton and the corn for their use, and now
we are gravely asked to rob it Of its fair politi-
cal weight, and to transfer it to the capitalist
who so far has been against us.
1t is to be remembered, that every white in
habitant, whether foreign or alien, is counted
in estimating the political power Of the States.
In the actual and probable state of Massachu.
sets society, such policy would throw its
whole power into the hands Of her capitalists,
\ to be welded, it is likely, as it has been here.
tofore used, against ourselves. But, it may be
said, she can disfrancbise the foreigner at home