Speech #550049157

The physically. mentally. and morally disordered were permitted to become residents and citizens and share with us. as though unto the manor born. the privileges bequeathed to us bv our fathers. Our broad. rich. unoccupied domain.and expanding industries invited -numbers. and no heed was taken of their quality. and it is remarkable. and indeed the subject of congratulation. that we suffered so little from the undesirable and positively objectionable while our gates stood unprotected. The encouragement of immigration has taken the form of law but once. that was in 1864. and was in the nature of a war measure. It became necessary to supply the places of the Army which had been drawn from the fields of productiveness and sent into the South. This could be done by promoting immigration. hence. the lawmentioned. Under the stimulus it afforded. immigration was materially increased. At the close of the war the Army reentered the avocations of peace. and the necessity for the act having ceased. it was repealed four years after its enactment. Prior to 1875 there were no restrictive laws except those prohibiting coolytrade. In that year more drastic measures were enacted to suppress this reprehensible traffic. and convicts and women imported for immoral purposes were excluded. Subsequently acts were passed (not including acts reticting Chinese immigration) barring idiots. insane persons. paupers. or persons liable to become a public charge. persons with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease. persons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crome or misdemeanor involving moral etunitude. polygamists. assisted immigrants (unless it is satisacteily shown on special inquiry that they do not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes). and contract laborers. The presence of these restrictive acts upon the statute hooks has been beneficial. though the number who presented themselves at our ports and were excludedis comparatively small Exclusive of the Chinese. there have been debarred and deported during the last six years only 14.156 out of a total of 2.137.659. The unseen benefits arising fromthese first measures of exclusion. however. are perhaps greater than those which are disclosed by the statistical tables. for many have been deterred from coming by knowledge of thelaws and the fear of their enforcement. It has been observed during recent years that those inerdicted under existingilaws are not the only persons whose coming is undesirable. and that there has been a decided increase in the influx of people whose presence is injurious. These new and unwelcome accessions are from countries which contributed but little to the earlier immigration. They differ from the former in race and quality. The very large per cent of the immigration. until qulte recenty. came from the United Kingdom. Germany. Sweden.