The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1857-02-28

DOES IMMIGRATION ADD TO THE WEALTH OF
TIE COUNTRY?

Or all the causes or agencies which can affect TIN
industry and production and consequently the civil
lzation and well-bcing of any people the most dis
astrous and destructive is that which arises from
public oppression and unjust legislation. ut drink
up" says an eminent writer on political economy
"thc spirit Of people by inhicting wrong through
means Of an agency which was created for the soil
purpose Of preventing wrong. and which was intend
cd to he the ultimate and faithful refuge of the
friendless"
notable instance Of the effect of unjust measures
on the part of both government and people in para
lying the energies and arrcsting the progress of
whole nation, may be found in the intolcrant and
fanatcal persecution Of the Jews and Moors of Spain
which resulted in their expulsion or voluntary immi-
grafton from that country. These two classes ccm-
posed the bulk of the intelligent industrial popula.
ton of Spain the artiGccrs. the mechanics the mcr-
chants the bankers. and majority of the capitalists
engaged in trade or commerce. The result of such
impolitic measures. was forctod at the time. has
been to cripple the of the country convert
lourlshing districts into uninhabtcd wastes to dry
up the currents of trade, and to diminish capital: to
no other single act of policy is Spain more indebted
for her present impoverished and degraded condi-
tion than to the treatment of her Moorish and jew
sh subjects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
We find another striking instance of the effect of
oppression on the part of the state the people in
diminishing national production and wealth, in the
expulsion of the French IIugu1mots from France
by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes This act.
while it inflicted most severe blow upon the indus
trial resources and power of France, Augmented the
capital and skill of the ncighboring nations which
received the fugitives.
There was time when the people of England were
very inferior to those Of the Low Countries of France
and Of Germany. in various productions of manuac-
turing industry. Whot first gave an impulse to the
WOODEN trade, which for several centuries was the
great staple of England, was the procuring foreign
workmen to teach the English people their craft,
The adoption of any measure by the government
or people of the United States which could in any
degree tend to prevent or divert the great tide of
emigration of labor and capital from Europe to our
shores, would only find parallel in its disastrous
effects with the instances above In the year lSd9
Tie whole number of foreign emigrants arriving at
the different ports of the United States was 2oG OOO
II we estimate the value of labor, the skill and the
cap'a' OF each OF these immigrants at only one hun
urea aolars' we have an augmentation of the nation
al wealth IN q single year of more than twenty-nne
millions. When we reflect however, that tho great
majority Of these emigrants are able-bodied men
ana women accustomed to hard perscverinp labor
many to skilled abOr-that numbers also nossess
IN money or implements varying amounts of CAM.
la the estimated value of each to the country which
We have given, will appear too inconsidorable. Es
imating the value at five hundred dollars we shall
nave the enormous sum of Sl48 900 900 added to the
wealth Of the United States in single wear, from
orcign emigration alone