Speech #510212298

Chairman. I hope that the substitute proposed to be offered by the gentleman from Alabama will not be adopted. I am frank to say that I am opposed to it. because it is more restrictive of immigration than the bill now pending before the House. What the country needs is not more law on the subject of immigration. but a proper enforcement of what we now have. The census shows that in the Southern States there is a population of a little more than 22.000.000. and of that number it can be safely estimated that at least seven millions. or perhaps seven and onehalf millions. are negroes. and I think the South needs white immigration. no matter whence it may come. I say this not from any fear of the race question. for I entertain no such fear and believe that question will settle itself if the South can be let alone. without injury to either race. but I do think its adjustment will be hastened by immigration. Before the war between the States foreign immigration did not go to the South. The South did not seek or desire such immigration. In act the slaveholding States cared but little about immigration from any quarter. and immigrants from foreign lands did not care to enter into competition with slavelabor. and for these and other reasonsthe Southern States were ignored by foreign immigrants. who for the most part sought and found homes In the Western and Northwestern Territories and States. But conditions have changed. and the South not only needs. but desires white immigration. and nowhere is there to be found as more inviting field for white immigrants than is found in the Southern States. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the South is well adapted to white labor. and especially is this so in Texas. and nowhere can fertile lands be obtained at so little cost as in Texas and in other States in the South. We need white labor in the South to oultivate our rich and productive lands. to develop our mineral resources. and to make our section as prosperous and wealthy as nature intended itshould be. The time is near at hand when white immigration from Europe will go to the South. and when it does that section of our country will bound forth upon an unexampled career of progress and prosperity. for no one can now approximately estimate the value of its material resources which await development. The Western and Northwestern States of this Union have grown great. rich. and prosperous by foreign immigration. Why should not the South be permitted the same means by which to grow great. rich. and prosperous? I was reading not long since a statemdnt published in the Baltimore Manufacturer. which contains some interesting figures in regard to the population of the different States. and with permission of the House I will publish it with my remarks.