Speech #540077647

Alike in the fearful ordeal of war and in the nursuitsof peace. in our legislative halls. and in the various learned professions. the adopted sons of America have attained eminence. Among the many who rendered timely aid to our country during the late war. it may seem invidious to mention a single name. except for the purpose of illustration. In the year 1839 there arrived at the port of New York. in the steamship Briish Queen. which sailed from the port of London. a Swedish immigrant. better known as Capt. John Ericsson. What was his value to the country. as estimated on the 9th day of March. 1862? Was it eight hundred. eight hundred thousand. or eight million of dollars? The average of these estimates is about $720. But conceding that even this is too high. surely $500 would be a very low estimate of the money brought and the economic value of each immigrant over 14 and under 40 years of age. About 70 per cent are within this age limit. and 70 per cent of our immigration amounts to 12.615.949. At $500 per head the total money or economic value of our immigration equals $6.307.974.500. which is $3.000.000.000 in excess of the value of the entire product of our gold and silver mines from April. 1792. till the end of the year 1894. as estimated by the Director of the Mlint. And in this connection let it be noted that these immigrants have been among the chief labor factors in the production of this vast volume of mineral wealth. The rapid settlement and development of our country and its marvelous increase in wealth and in population is in a large measure due to our extraordinary immigration. The immigrants have settled mainly in the Northern States. In 1860. the year before the great rebellion. oe foreignborn population amounted to 4.138.697. and out of this number 8.845.443 were settled in the States that were not in rebellion. Allowing the same proportion of natives of foreign parentage to the foreign born as is given by the census of 1890. there must have been in 1860. in the Northern States. 3.361.297 natives with both parents of foreign birth. and 1.417.508 natives with one- parent of foreign birth. or a total of 8.624.308 of foreign birth and of direct foreign parentage. And this total was 41 per cent of the entire population of the loyal States. The entire immigration to this country from 1793 till July 1. 1861. was 5.383.508. and nearly all of it had settled in the loyal States. These immigrants and their children had. during this period. by their labor and industry produced and created a large portion of the wealth in these States. While no statistics can be found on this point. yet I have no doubt that on the eve of the great rebellion the proportion of the substantial wealth of the North produced by the immigrants and their descendants was equal to the proportion of their number then living. And it was this volume of wealth and numbers resulting from our foreign immigration that gave the North its great preponderance and made it more than a match for the South in men and in resources. and enabled it to preserve and perpetuate the integrity of the Union. Had there been no more immigration to the North than there was to the South since 1793 the two sections would have been nearer on a parity with each other and the struggle would have been more prolonged and more doubtful. And had the wealth and numbers of the immigrants and their children been a part of the South instead of the North the days of a united country might have been numbered. It was not so much the immigrants who fought in our ranks on land and seathey bore their share and did their duty as became themnor so much the gift of the immigrant John Ericssonhis little Mbnitorthat gave us the ascendency as the force. the monentum. the irresistible impact of half a century of immigration. It was this gathered force. gathered in the bosom. and infused with the spirit. the inspiration. and the love of a great nation that hung like a threatening cloudlike a pallover the scheme for the disruption of the Union. Not only did the immigrants and their children form an important factor in the suppression of the great rebellion. but even in the days of the Revolution. when the great Republic was first brought into being and was in its infancy. they were a most important element of our success. A large portion of the Continental Army was of foreign birth. indeed the very backbone of the men in the ranks were of that class. The historian Lecky says: No troops had shown themselves more courageous. more patient. and more devoted than the Pennsylvania line. Its privates and noncommissioned officers consisted chiefly of immigrants from the north of Ireland. From an ethnologic and social standpoint. immigration has. beyond a fair question. infused much vital force of a better.kind into the being of the nation. The immigrant has not been a mere inert labor machine. but he has also been a physical. a moral. and a mental factor. that has been responsive. and has brought accessions to the intellectual and moral makeup and instincts of the nation. We are an Englishspeaking people. of English texture and origin. but of a more cosmopolitan character. of more pronounced elements of strength and energy. and with a greater concentration of force and vigor than was possessed by the English of. the England that gave us birth. or even by the English of today. In the eyes of tie universal observant world. the Yankee is never confounded with the Englishman. nor is he ever placed in the rear rank.