The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-03-04


that such defeat would be the Inauguration of
wholesome general revolution, involving the
overthrow of the secession Niger drivers of the
South and the disunion niger worshippers of
the North.
Our National Prosperity-ImmigratIon Its
Cause. 100
We see by some recent official statistics that
the immigration to this country from European
sources has amounted in fifteen years to over
four millions of souls. All Christendom has sent
its surplus population to increase and multiply
in the broad prairies Of the Western World. From
the banks of the silver Arro to where the North
ern ocean breaks against Icelandic coasts, from
the vine-clad borders of the sunny Rhine and
Galway's landlocked bay, from busy Liverpool
or mighty London, or old Marseilles or thrifty
Glasgow, the flood Of immigration has steadily
poured, with the course Of empire, westward.
The sturdy Irish laborer joins hands with the
canny Scot, the bustling, mercurial Frenchman
shares his seatossed couch with the steady, indus
trious German; for the time their separate ma
tionalities are merged by the mutual ties that
bind them Observation-Disclosures seekers for
new homes, new friends and new career.
The value of this element in our national
policy can hardly be overrated Those who seek
for the causes of the material prosperity of the
United States, the wonderful increase of its
wealth and resources, the surprising celebrity
with which towns and cities spring up on our
waysides, the rapid rise in the prices ofcity lots,
town sites and Western lands, the continual &C
cession of new States and Territories knocking
for admission to the family table, may find them
chiefly in foreign immigration. 1t stimulates
trade, encourages native enterprise, opens new
and fertile lands, and by constant contributions
of fresh blood keeps the whole body polite in
healthy and glowing circulation. .%----->
We will put me prvpvoisic,. prontically:i Jour-
ualists are fond of accrediting our present proud
position to internal causes They tell us that
the acquisition of California was the start
ing point of our rapid progress. Here,
they say, you have, in ten years, five hundred
millions of dollars in solid cash added to your
real wealth With this you have been the best
customer to the nagasins of Paris, the manu-
factories Of Lyons or Manchester, the vineyards
Of Bordeaux. You wear French cloth, drink
French wine, and wear an English watch; your
wife is adorned with the lace of peeress and
the jewels of queen. With the influx of gold
values were altered. What was before bought for
a dollar, now costs five. Land the most sensitive
of all values, was acted upon frst-gold was the
stimulant
Such is the argument: Now, without intend
ing in the least degree to disparage the verify
of its statements we do dissent in part from its
conclusions. We fought the Mexican war
mainly with foreign troops-German and Irish
immigrants. The population Of the new territory
acquired under the treaty of Guadalupe was
made up of people from almost every country
under the sun. Foreigners worked the mines,
sold the goods, chartered the ships, exchanged
the gold. Many immigrants came to San Fran
cisco and failed in their auriferous researches.
They sought new fields; they found, in other Sec
tions Of the Union, that the plough, the loom
and the anvil were as productive as the spade,
the pick and the rocker. There was gold in the
wheat field, in the tobacco plantation or the
vineyard, as well as in the quartz bearing bosom
of the Sierra Nevada. Meantime the tide Of
emigration flowed steadily westward from
New York, filling up Missouri, Minnesota,
Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, following the course
of the Santa Fe near to the Mexican boun-
Diary, exploring the Red River of the North,
or scaling the Rocky Mountains, to settle finally
at the mouth Of the Columbia, where the mill
race and the steamboat paddle have destroyed
one Of Bryant's finest SMILES. These four mil
lions OF laberers, chiefly Of the Northern races,
mainly Germans and Irish, have opened the new
country for US, made the roads, felled the trees,
planted the vine-and we are now gathering the
harvest. Each immigrant brought with him an
average sum Of say twenty-five dollars, which
gives us one hundred millions in cash, absolutely
invested and circulated. AT least one-half of the
California gold went out Of the country; much
was hidden and boarded; more manufactured into
Jeweiry or keepsakes, or kept for specimens
Another view each of these laborers was worth
at moderate calculation, one thousand dollars
as labor goes In this country probably more
and thus we have four thousand millions of dol
lars value Of material wealth added to oul
country, ard positively in our land, not to bt
taken away to help European bankers out O.
their troubles but to be returned to us will
compound interest in the production of tn,
great staples, in improvements In mechanical
works and the fine arts and in all those externa
evidences of propress which yoolo 80, .h, ann, n