large emigration. But it must be remembered that England has had in return a considerable immigration from Ireland, Scotland, and even from the continent of Europe, invited by the enormous rise of her manufactures and commerce. England is not only a very healthy country, but also inhabited by a healthy people. Besides, it is a known fact that the population of manufacturing districts increases more than that where agriculture is the principal branch of occupation.

But there is another point of great importance, and in favor of my problem. The people of the United States, left without immigration, would not have increased 1.38 per cent. every year. Proof hereof is found in Massachusetts. This State had, in 1850, 830,066 native and 164,448 foreign born inhabitants, or one foreigner to five natives. The marriages were, during the years 1849 to 1851, Americans 18,286, or 220 in 10,000 of their own race; foreigners 7,440, or 450 in 10,000. This is 104.5 per cent. of foreign over native ratio. The births were in Massachusetts in the three years 1849, '50, and '51, of American parents 47,982, or 578 in 10,000 of their own race; foreign 24,523, or 1,491 in 10,000 of their own race. In Boston there were, American 7,278, or 966 in 10,000; foreign 13,032, or 2,053 in 10,000 of their own race, Of the 32,000 born in Massachusetts in 1854, 16,470 were of American parentage, while some 14,000 were of parents one or both foreigners; and the increase from foreign parents was more than twice. what it was from native parents. At the same rate shortly we shall have more children born in Massachusetts from foreigners than from natives; for in five years the American births have not increased 1,000, while the foreign have increased more than 5,000. In Suffolk county already the births in foreign families are more than twice as numerous as in American, being 3,735 in the former, and 1,737 in the latter. Of the parents of Boston children, in 1854, the largest number was from Ireland, 2,824 fathers and 2,957 mothers, while there were but 410 fathers and 524 mothers natives of the city, and 533 fathers and 475 mothers natives of Massachusetts, out of Boston, or of other States. Cambridge had born of foreign parents 422 children to 208 Americans ; Fall River, 223 to 88; Lawrence, 322 to 146; Lowell, 596 tọ 427; Roxbury, 383 to 168; Salem, 344 to 120; Taunton, 221 to 142; and Worcester, 421 foreign to 320 American. The foreigners in Massachusetts are chiefly of Celtic origin. In twenty years from the present time, one-half of the young men and women in the State will be of direct Celtic descendency, and there is no doubt that they also will brag and boast of their Pilgrim fathers, their revolutionary ancestry, and especially of their Anglo-Saxon blood in their Celtic veins. And why should not they? They will have the same right to do so as is possessed by at least two-thirds of our know-nothings. As the traces of a negro descendency disappear already in the third or fourth generation, I should think that in Massachusetts the Pilgrim and revolutionary blood, if it is not already so, must, in very short time, become at least very thin.

The cause of the large increase of foreign births is simply that, whilst of the native population in 1850 there were only 49.07 per cent. over the 15th year of age, the average amount of foreigners, of the same age, who arrived in 1854 and 1855, was 77.63 per cent.

Suppose that there are now five millions of foreigners in this country, they will, from this cause, produce just as much, and increase in the same degree, as 6,610,169 ñatives. Before the mortality tables of the United States were published, statisticians and political writers usually believed that the foreign born died in a greater proportion than the natives. But I always doubted it from the reason that over one-half of the deaths occurs under the age of twenty. Of the foreigners living in this country, however, only one-fourth is below that age, and especially the children are wanting, amongst which the mortality is always proportionally the greatest. The census has shown that I was not in error. According to a statement therein contained, the per-centage of native deaths, excluding slaves, was 1.494, whilst that of the foreign was only 1.469. I take only the aggregate ratio of the total number of deaths in the United States, without going into details, as I do not believe in its correctness, being convinced that the ratio is too high in favor of the natives and against the foreigners. According to this mortality report, there died in New York, one out of 32 foreigners ; in Massachusetts, one of every 60; in New Jersey, one of every 110; and in Maryland, one of every 116. These discrepancies are too great to bear any similarity to truth. But it matters nothing for my purpose, as it yet shows that, contrary to former supposition, the foreigners have at most the same and not a greater ratio of deaths than the native population.

According to the above calculation the immigrants and their descendants number in 1850:

At the first glance it will seem almost incredible that the excess from immigration should alone amount in the single decade of 1840 to 1850 to 3,215,899. But it must be remembered that the immigration within these years, as given by the custom-house reports, amounted to not less than 1,677,330, without those of which the custom-houses give no returns, and which Dr. Chickering, in his essay on immigration, puts down at 50 per cent. of the total number. Should their natural increase resemble that of the foreign population in Massachusetts, as stated above, none will find my hypothetical statement out of reach of probability.

These astounding results enable us to discuss intelligibly the effects of immigration upon our national progress in the great elements of strength and greatness, and wealth and prosperity. If immigration had been cut off in 1790, our population in 1850 would have been about what it actually was in 1820. Immigration, then, has put us thirty years forward in this important element of national prosperity. Our increase in all the departments of national progress has been in the exact ratio of our increase in population. Whilst the latter has increased sixfold, our commercial exports have increased, in the same period, eightfold, and our imports threefold.

502, 146 972, 492 1,424, 783 1,280, 166 1, 191, 776 2, 180, 764 180,764 3,535,454 5, 212, 001

$4,399, 473 10,624,997 9,299, 737 16,779,331 24, 280, 888 16,993, 858 43,375, 798 65, 203, 930

None can fail to see in these figures the great benefit this country has derived from the increased immigration. Enormous is the increase of shipping, revenues, and commerce, from 1840 to 1855. Our imports increased 200 per cent., our exports 300 per cent., our commercial fleet 100 per cent., and our revenues more than 300 per cent. Since 1840, immigration has been chiefly directed to this country. Compare, again, 1850 with 1855, and the blindest man will perceive that the sudden rise of wealth and power this country owes chiefly to immigration. But for the influence of immigration, the wonderful works of improvement, which have added so much to our national wealth and prosperity, could not have been accomplished. To this we are indebted, in an eminent degree, for the thousands of miles of railroad and canal communication which now cover our vast domain like a net-work, and furnish ready and profitable facilities for realizing the benefits of the productive energies and enterprise of every industrial pursuit. To this we are indebted for the reduction of the vast wilderness of the west and northwest to the dominion of civilization and industry, swelling the amount of our annual revenues, increasing to an almost limitless extent our commercial wealth, and placing us in the front rank of nations as an agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial people. To immigration we are indebted in no small degree for the rapid addition of State after State to the confederacy, until we have spanned the continent with more than double our original number. But it cannot be necessary to dwell upon results so astounding to foreign nations, and so flattering to our own national pride. To appreciate them, we have but to imagine twelve millions of our population withdrawn, and reflect upon the amazing contrast that would now be presented with a population little more than one-third of its present number! This contrast will be better appreciated, if we imagine the following eighteen of the bright stars which now illustrate the galaxy of States expunged from our national banner: Alabama, Arkansas,

California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Virginia, and New York. These States have a free white population of twelve millions, the amount of increase resulting from immigration. Instead of setting up a just claim to being the most happy, and prosperous, and powerful nation on the earth, able to command respect all over the world, to maintain our rights on sea and land against any foreign combination, and by the moral power of our republican example to shake the hoary thrones of monarchs in the Old World, we should be a fourth rate national power, subject to constant dangers of foreign invasion, and poorly able to defy the aggressions of a foreign enemy. These results prove the wisdom of the fathers of the republic in resisting the attempts of the British king to prevent immigration into the colonies, and illustrate the soundness of the policy which has enacted liberal naturalization laws and given encouragement to foreign immigration.

Men do not come here merely for the purpose of improving their physical condition. This is especially shown by the sudden decrease of immigration since the political ascendancy of the know-nothings. Exactly one hundred per cent. less have arrived in 1855 than in the preceding year 1854.

In 1854, landed

460,474

230,476

229,998

In order to have an idea of the loss this country has sustained hereby, it will not be amiss to state that the population of Delaware and Florida. together is yet far below the number of persons the know-nothing policy has kept away in 1855. Rhode Island had in 1850 only 147,545, and may have now about 180,000. Only imagine that one year of knownothing reign has cost us already more than the present population of two States like Delaware and Florida! How much will it cost us if this sway should be extended to four years more? This is the real and true standard with which to measure the prudence of the principles of the know-nothings, and the depth of their love to this country. It is more than probable that the immigration of 1856 will be even far behind that of 1855, if one may judge after the comparatively small number who have arrived in the first quarter of this year. After that rate the whole immigration will hardly exceed 50,000. This shows sufficiently that the immigrants come to this country just as much for political freedom as material well-being. It is true, the people of the United States, as a power, can use means to prevent immigration, and prohibit it if they will. But, in doing so, an original and distinguished principle of the government must be abrogated; and, having done this, we descend to a level with the arbitrary and proscriptive thrones o Europe. But the loss of the laborious immigrant will soon be felt. As already stated, the most of the immigrants wended their way to the prairies of the Far West, buying from the government with their own money the public lands, in order to wrest a livelihood from the bosom of mother earth. Their labors have enriched not only the cultivator,

but the country and the native-born citizen. Others again remained in the great Atlantic cities, where their herculean energies have been employed in the erection of public works. Men of genius, artists, scholars, came with this tide of immigration; and, while they have been able to find employment for themselves, they have also vastly contributed to the intellectual stores of this country. A remarkable instance of the public spirit and generosity of foreign-born citizens may be seen in the fact that the three leading scientific or educational institutions in the United States were founded by men born in other lands. I allude to the great Astor Library, of New York, endowed by the German, John Jacob Astor; the Girard College, in Philadelphia, endowed by the Frenchman, Stephen Girard; and the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, endowed by the Englishman, John Smithson.

It is not a high estimate if we put down the immigration in five years, from 1850 to 1855, at about two and a half millions. Suppose this number brought with them in value only 30 dollars per head, which is the very lowest estimate; and they have enriched the country in the very short space of five years, by an amount equal to $75,000,000. It is also a very safe calculation to say that these immigrants have paid $150,000,000 into the treasury of the United States for public lands. The revolutions of 1848 gave emigration a vast impulse, and drove masses of men of excellent quality to our shores. Whether we consider the amount of money, principally specie, brought with them, or the amount paid into the treasury for public lands, or the advantages conferred upon the native population by their industry and their skill, we may well hesitate in alarm and surprise, that any movement looking to the arrest or curtailment of the tide of immigration should for one moment have been encouraged by any portion of the American people. The principles of the know-nothings carried out would degrade the emigrant to the low position of an East Indian pariah, or a Russian serf, excepting only that he could not be sold. They would doom him to a fate far worse than the hardest despotism of the Old World. There, at least, he would have the consciousness of not suffering alone, as the whole population, and not a part of it, would have no more rights than himself. Here he would be marked out as an inferior, useful only to dig canals and build railroads, to fight like the Helens of old, to act as hewer of wood and drawer of water to those who falsely call themselves superior beings. And not this only. While this is sought to be made the lot of the white adopted citizens-while the laboring classes are appealed to deny equal privileges to the foreign-born fellow-being of their own race-behold their efforts making in the free States to elevate the negro to the political rights and privileges of the whites!

"Americans must rule America!"—that is the constant war-cry of the know-nothings. There are at present in the United States twentyseven millions of inhabitants, of which five millions are foreigners. The Senate contains 62 and the House 234 members. Should the five millions be equally represented in their specific qualification as foreigners, of the Senators 14 and of the House 53 should be foreign-born citizens. But there is not a single foreign-born member in Congress. Are the lemocratic members for whom foreign-born citizens have cast