New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-27
IMMIGRATION.

WHAE WE 1--WE ~ HE lNELOA VI 4 OA'
EIGNERS.
WHAT OUR POPULATION WOULD HAVE BEEN
HAD IMMIGRATION STOPPED AT THE CLOSE
OF ANY DECADE SINCE l79O-Ho" OUR MIL
ITARY POWER HAS BEEN INCREASED AND
WEALTH AND PROSPERITY INSURED BY THE
MOVEMENT TOWARD OUR SHORES.
The growth of the United States in population and
resources is one of the grandest facts OF the Nine
teenth Century. Nowhere in history DO we Inu
parallel for this stupendous development. Doubtless
mpcb Of If is duo to our admirable form Of govern
ment but it is not less certain that CONSIDERABLE
orton of the result is to be ascrbed to the influx OF
foreigners seeking here permanent homes Tor them
solves and their children. Comparatively lew Aller
lean citizens can trace their lineage back 10 the IoI
nation of the Union without meeting some lnlhi-
grant ancestor Indeed hardly village can be
found in the land that does not contain among It's IN
habitants one or persons of alien BIRTH while
the population in numerous other localities even IN
whole States includes large proportion Of the same
class.
To obtain an approximate conception OF the fruits
of foreign immigration in the United States let us
suppose that the founders of our political system
melted by the prevailing repugnance to the dogmas
of kngcraft and by the dread Of mOnarchica hatred
for the principles of republican liberty had adopted
tho japanese policy of excluding all aliens from our
shores In that case, our growth in population would
to-day be measured solely by the excess OF births
over deaths. AS, since the formation OF the Union,
such has been almost entirely the rule OF numerical
increase exemplifed by the negrOesiit may be as
sumed with reasonable accuracy, that the rate OF
increment among the free inhabitants would have
been the same as it has been among the slaves Ot
course no claim to mathematical certainty can DO
set up in making such an estimate, but data may be
viii IN a
approxmation to the number of inhabitants that
would have been in the United States without imnl-
grafton so close to the truth that it may be accepted
with reasonable confidence in the absence of trust
worthy statistics giving positive and ndisputaDle
figures If it be objected that the slave trade was
unrestrained by the National Constitution during
the eighteen years between 1890 and 1905 1t may be
answered that the accessions received by the chat
tel class from that source were small compared with
the additions to the free population accrung by the
gradual extinction of human bondage in the
Northern States, by occasional manumission in
the South and by the increasing ratio Of runa-
WAYS 1t may DO objected further that the acquisi-
ton of Louisiana in 1903, brought into the Union
about so 900 slaves and 900 free persons, thus Civ
ing the former the advantage in reckoning the popu'
laton; and that a similar disproportiOn of increase
was created by the cessiOn of Florida by Spain-an
area which, by the census of 1920, about one year
after the transfer. contained 1885 whites S4 free
colored and 155O1 slaves. But these perturbations
in the general calculation fully cOunterbaanced
by the large gains of free inhabitants at much later
periods, when Texas Mexico and California were
added to the Republic for by the of 1850 the
first of these contained 1 034 whites free cOlOred,
and S. 161 slaves; the second, G1547 whites and
slaves and the third 81 1856 whites, 962 free cOlored
and no slaves. AS regards both Texas aud Cali
fornia. it must be admitted that these figures are
largely due to immigration from other parts of the
Union before any census enumeration; yet there
can be no reasonable doubt that at the time of
their respective acquisition, their united preponder
ance of free population slave very consider
able. With all these facts in view, il is not probable
that we could, by adopting any other mode of
reckoning than that proposed, get o closer approx
nation to what would have been the actual number
If free persons in the United States and Territories
in 1880. hsd there been no immigration since 1880.
Taking this proposition as a basis of calculation
and starting with the census enumeration in $780, 1t
will be found that the augmentation of the chattel
class during the seven decennial periods immedi-
ately following proceeded at these respective rates
with annually compounded increase: 1790-1SO0, at
2490S per centum: 1sOO1O at 1922; $1,000 at 25S76
1S2OSO at 27O6955S4 1SSO4O at 2159O25 1s4O-5O, at
256l78; and 1S5O-6O, at 212S947. These figures are
soSxact that on multiplying each census population
of slaves by its appropriate per centum, and then,
after pointing OIL and dlscardng the decimal trac-
ton adding the product to the multplcand fora new
multpcand; and repeating the process successfully
for the remaining years of the decennia period, the
result will be found, in every case, ldentlcaI Win
the official enumeration of slaves for the decennary
next following If the first authoritative summation
of the free inhabitants of the United States is then
taken as another starting point and is multiplied IN
like manner continuously down to 1860, by the Pc
rodlc rates of increase shown to be trustworthy in
the case of the slaves we shall arrive at the number
of persons there would have been in this country on
the LIST day of June, $780, had the policy Of total
exclusion of all foreigners been adopted when the
Union was formed Similar results may be obtained
nv making each successive of tho free inhab-
itants new mutiplcand the basis for like cal
culaton These diversified exhibits are given below
in detail:
Showing trhat The increase Of The free population Of ne
United states 1oid haze been if there had been no
immigration since 1870, 1900 1870 1870, 1880, 1s4O or
$780, 10 1860 The supposed ratiO Of Increase being that Of
The Stare population;
Free POpa
AoH II
Slave POpn. Immigration