Speech #500000584

The adherents of the old rdgime in Europe regard our prosperity as their reproach. if not an outrage. and would not now very painfully regret evidences of physical or intellectual inferiority and decadence among the American people. Such a decline and fall there is today scarcely an empire or monarchy whose rulers. quivering as they look at their own political and sanitary condition. would not promptly aid by prepaid transportation to our shores of all their idlers and deadweights. whether felons or lunatics. whether paupers or rickety idiots. as their free contribution to the solution of the great problem of mans selfgovernment. Their own colonies. after a prolonged surfeit of such gifts. no longer accept the equality and fraternity of penal and pauper immigrants. and we should not hesitate to profit by their example. By the Tenth Census. of 1880. it appears that our total foreignborn population. including their children. was 14.995.996. or 5.000.000 more than the total population of Great Britain when she waged war against our Declaration of Independence. -The number of immigrants received since the last census has been 4.344.500. which. without including children born since 1880. makes a total foreign population of 19.340.496. ornearly onethird of our present population. This discloses the enormous attractive force our country exerts upon the inhabitants of Europe. many of whom now only waitfor money to paytheir passage to America. Our republican institutions. higher wages. land homesteads. universal education. cheaper food. and more generous habits of living will long exercise a magnetic and potential influence over discontented foreigners. The expellent agencies abroad also are by no means slender. and easily aid in the contribution of an immigrant army of more than a half million for our annual invasion. Population there is increasing. but less rapidly than taxation. which in Great Britain from 1870 to 1880 increased 20 per cent.. in France 36 per cent.. in Norway 50 per cent.. and in Germany 57 per cent. The long years of relentless servitude over all Europe of their young men in standing armies have no reduction or abridgment. and the multiform reasons for foreign expatriation do not appear to be diminishing. We can not afford to be wholly unmindful of the character of this annual invasion if the future character of Americans is worth preservation. Our contention is peaceful. but with more powerful numbers than even those of the northern horde by whom the mighty fabric of the Roman Empire was overthrown. Undoubtedly considerable capital has been brought into our country by foreign immigrants. but there is an annual drain also of large amounts sent back by those who are prosperous. From 1848 to 1885. as far as ascertained. $150.951.780 were remitted by settlers in the United States and British North America to their friends in Great Britain. Let me now ask attention for a moment to the laws requiring amendment. The "act to regulate immigration." approved August 2. 1882. superseding the former headtax upon alien passengers by the State of New York. imposes a duty of 50 cents for each passenger not a citizen of the United States. by sail or steam vessel. from a foreign port to any port of the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury is charged with the execution of the act. and is authorized to enter into contracts with State commissioners or officers designated by the governor of any State to take charge of the local affairs of immigration. under regulations prescribed by the said Secretary. and these commissioners are authorized to go on board of any ship or vessel upon its arrival and make an examination. and if they find any convict. lunatic. idiot. or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge. such persons shall not be permitted to land. and all convicts. except those convicted of political offenses. are to be sent back to the nations from whence they come. and the expense of the return is to be borne by the owners of the vessels in which they come. The New York headtax laws upon alien passengers. though rightly aud vigorously intended. were found to be unconstitutional. and in theematter of determining who among all the immigrants shall be excluded and returned to the country fromwhence they come our present laws appear to be lame. possibly of no account whatever. as the decision of the question is left to the collector of the port upon the facts reported to him by the State commissioners. and our courts appear recently to have declared that his decision can not stand or be received on habeas corpus. This sufficiently indicates that our existing laws. which the courts say are inartificially drawn. must be amended. The United States authority manifestly should control the whole subject. as otherwise the several States will be without remedy against very formidable and unnatural burdens. The law of 1882 applies only to immigrants arriving on sail or steam vessels. and therefore does not apply to or exclude any part of those who may arrive from contiguous foreign countries by land transportation. Yet a considerable part of the Britishaided immigrants landed in the Dominion of Canada. fly away as quick as young partridges hatched in the nest of a disconsolate hen. and wake up the next morning in the United States. In 1881 there were 69.025. and 80.692 in 1882. and 72.274 in 1883. and 62.724 in 1884. or 284.713 foreign immigrants in four years who came through the Canadian Dominion. However difficult any.remedial measures may be practically. yet some safeguards should be provided to prevent those who have been properly excluded from entrance at the front door from meeting with no restraint or impediment in being smuggled through unlimited back doors. A shorter voyage. cheaper fares. and British occasional aid of from two to three pounds sterling per head. is a very great temptation for immigrant passengers to accept of northern routes open for 4.000 miles into our country. and yet against this peculiar contraband there is not a sentinel or guard throughout our whole northern frontier. Some of our railroad companies. eager for traffic or for the sale of lands. have employed agents to distribute glowing circulars to stir up and evoke immigration. setting forth the enravishing attractions of their lines of travel in many languages. perhaps more than simple truth would have warranted. and whenever their roads reach our boundaries. if they are to receive the profits of the immigrant business. they should not escape the same scrutiny to which sail and steam vessels arriving at our ports may be subjected. On my way here I visited Castle Garden. at New York. where a vessel had just landed 600 immigrants from Antwerp. It was an instructive view to look over the crazyquilt panorama presented. and very suggestive of doubt about our transcendent power to transform them all into good and valuable American citizens. For the most part they were undersized. and their countenances and general makeup betokened the work of natures apprentices.