to acquire this region for the extension of the slave-holding States
seems to have little basis. Most of them went, just as most of them
or their fathers had gone to Tennessee or to Louisiana a few decades
previously, in search of better and cheaper land, freer opportunities,
and a possible fortune. It was the accident of geographical location
that gave to Texas its importance as slave-holding territory, and that
led indirectly to the war with Mexico.
On technical grounds there was little justification for a declaration
of war in 1846, but from a larger point of view it was one of the
most important and most beneficial acts ever taken by the American
Government, in spite of the feeling of the Abolitionists, because it
formed the final procedure in the spread of American sovereignty to the
Pacific Ocean.
The United States was indeed deprived a few years later, at the time
of the Gadsden Purchase, of the outlet to the Gulf of California which
it should have had. Whether this was due to the climate of that region
which made the surveyors shirk their duty, as one story goes, or to the
drunkenness of the mapmakers which led them to draw the boundary line
crooked, as another story has it, the result is unfortunate and might
yet perhaps be rectified by a further purchase. The Southwest should
have an outlet on the Gulf in the logic of the case.
This does not involve any desire to take over Lower California
which is a peninsula of negligible value for Nordic purposes, and
contains a Mexican population which under no circumstances should be
incorporated in the United States. From a racial point of view it is
indeed fortunate that the desire of James K. Polk's Administration to
include the whole peninsula of Lower California in the transfer of
sovereignty was not accomplished. Still more disastrous would have been
a realization of the wishes of an important element in Congress which
desired to annex a large part of northern Mexico.
Similarly, one can scarcely avoid being grateful nowadays that Cuba
did not get its independence in the first quarter of the nineteenth
century instead of at the end. Henry Clay and others, encouraging
the Cuban patriots, had virtually arranged to have the island taken
over by the United States. In this instance abolitionist sentiment in
the North, which prevented an extension of slave territory, was more
beneficial to the true interests of America than it was a generation
later--for the acquisition of Cuba would have brought into the union an
indigestible mass of Mediterraneans and blacks.
When the suspicions and jealousies of international relations abate
somewhat, it may be possible to make a slight rectification of the
Arizona boundary which will give the Southwest its intended outlet
on the Gulf of California. Such a step would doubtless promote the
prosperity of the adjoining Mexican territory in every way. If Mexico
could be persuaded to accept a gift of some of the United States'
possessions in the West Indies, in return for this favor, the whole
transaction would be most satisfactory.
It is now easy to see that Mexico could not have retained Texas under
any circumstances, but the catastrophe (from the Mexican point of
view) was made quick and certain by the encouragement of American
immigration, in spite of refusals to discuss a sale of the whole
territory to the United States, and by an attempt to fasten an
objectionable State religion on the immigrants they had invited.
In the days of the Lone Star Republic, immigration increased rapidly.
The Mexican War not only gave unlimited advertising to the region but
furnished many Northerners with an opportunity to see something of it
first-hand, and by the close of that conflict there were some 200,000
Americans in Texas. During the decade from 1850 to 1860 the growth of
the State was exceeded by few in the Union.
Unfortunately much of this population was made up of Negroes who have
ever since formed one of the real handicaps of this immense American
Empire. As we have seen, the great bulk of the population of eastern
and southern Texas came from the adjoining slave States, and it was not
until the time of the Civil War that the northern counties had begun to
attract settlers from Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. The war put a
stop to this movement, but it was resumed later.
Meanwhile southern and western Texas had been attracting a German
emigration made up largely of Alpines from the States along the Upper
Rhine. This reached serious proportions as early as 1842, when a group
of noblemen with uncertain motives fostered an Emigration Society Land
Company. The movement continued in force up to the Civil War and indeed
had not ceased altogether until the outbreak of the World War. Though
Texas had but 20,000 German-born in 1860, these were so concentrated
that half of the entire population of the southern part of the State,
in the region surrounding San Antonio, was German. Here, as elsewhere,
the Germans greatly diminished their value to their adopted country by
an unwise insistence on retaining the customs and the language of the
Fatherland.
The history of any country demonstrates that national unity is a
necessary condition of national survival. Those who have come to the
United States of their own will, to profit by what opportunities they
find may well be expected to yield a whole-hearted allegiance to the
country which thus benefits them, or to move elsewhere.
* * * * *
New Mexico, when it became a part of the territory of the United
States, had a population made up of native and Mexican Indians, some
of the latter having enough Spanish blood to cause them to consider
themselves white men. The self-styled Spanish-American population
of the present day is, properly speaking, composed of those whose
ancestors were in the territory at the time of the Mexican War. The
Spanish part of the description must be considered largely a courtesy
title, for the amount of real Spanish blood in this hybrid population
was always from a biological point of view nearly negligible, and the
American part must be understood to mean native American Indians. The
persistence of the Spanish language and culture is of course only a
passing phase.
The Federal Census of 1850 credited New Mexico with 61,000 population
not counting Indians, but the territory at that time included all of
Arizona and Southeastern Colorado. By 1860 the population of the same
territory was given at 82,979, plus 55,100 Indians. At this time there
were less than 1200 natives of the United States in the whole territory.
* * * * *
Arizona had a fluctuating white population dependent upon the
prosperity of the mining industry, but when the Federal troops were
withdrawn at the outbreak of the Civil War most of the white men had to
leave also. At that time the only real settlement was Tucson, where a
few hundred Mexicans lived under mediæval conditions.
* * * * *
California had a population of Indians when the Spaniards coming
from Mexico entered it. Most of them were of a very low order of
intelligence and social development. The Spanish invaders were largely
soldiers, and few of the members of these early expeditions brought
their families. Hence, there was undoubtedly some mixing with the
Indians from the very first days. In accordance with the custom
elsewhere, those who had any white blood called themselves white,
and the figures given by early writers for the number of Spanish
in the colony must be understood in that light. The amount of real
Spanish blood was extremely small and much of it was in the veins of
missionaries who left no offspring.
The permanent population was made up of ex-soldiers who had settled
down, married Indian women, and taken up land, together with occasional
traders, vagabond sailors, and adventurers. The population of 1820
other than Indian could hardly have represented more than 500 men.
The Mexican administration made an effort to supply women of Spanish
ancestry to the colony in order to prevent too much matrimonial mixture
with the Indians, which, even at that time, was regarded as somewhat
disgraceful; but the number of brides who could be sent into a colony
of that sort was small.
The population grew mainly by its own natural increase, and the
small size of the Mexican population in California was one of the
main factors that led to the incorporation of the territory in the
United States. It has been computed that the "Spanish" population,
most of which was of Indian blood, never exceeded 3000 persons. Prior
to the American occupation there were not more than 1200 foreigners
in California, three-fourths of whom were American and most of the
remainder British. Thus this immense territory, which became a part
of the United States in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War, was
relatively empty. The amount of Spanish blood in the California
population of today must therefore be quite negligible.
The whole trend of migration was changed by the discovery of gold at
the end of 1848. In February of that year there were not more than 2000
Americans in all California. By the end of December there were 6000.
By July of 1849 this number had grown to 15,000 and six months later
it had climbed to 53,000. The earliest arrivals naturally came from
the nearby regions. Oregon alone contributed more than 5000 from its
scanty population. But every seaport of the Pacific sent a contingent,
and the stream of men that poured into the gold fields was the most
cosmopolitan group that had ever been seen in North America. In _The
New York Tribune_ for December 15, 1849, appears the following item
from San Francisco:
"Foreign flags in the harbor: English, French, Portuguese, Italian,
Hamburg, Bremen, Belgium, New Granadian, Dutch, Swedish, Oldenburgh,
Chilean, Peruvian, Russian, Mexican, Hanoverian, Norwegian, Hawaiian,
and Tahitian."
When the territory became a State, on September 9, 1850, its population
was at least 150,000, and a year later had probably reached a
quarter of a million. Many of the Argonauts stayed but a few months,
and, failing to become rich at a stroke, went elsewhere, so that
the composition of the population changed markedly from week to
week. It was almost exclusively a population of males. Few brought
their families; and while prostitutes went to San Francisco from
all accessible seaports, they contributed little or nothing to the
permanent population.
The first Chinese immigrant found his way into California in 1847, but
by the summer of 1852, 20,000 others had followed him. Probably 5000
Mexicans also had come into the territory which they had so recently
lost.
By the census of 1860 it appears that most of the riff-raff had
drifted out of the State again, and the basis of the permanent
population had been laid. The total population was 380,000 of which
nearly 40 per cent was foreign-born; the percentage reaching this
high mark partly because of the number of Chinese. California had a
population more nearly representative of the entire Union than did
any other State--about equal numbers were contributed by New England,
by the Middle States, by the Northwest, and by the lower Mississippi
Valley. This population, it will be remembered, was almost entirely in
the northern half of the State. The more homogeneous settlement of the
southern half did not get under way until about the middle of the next
period.
California differs profoundly from the other frontier regions of the
United States in that it was settled from all sections of the country
and not mostly from the adjoining States. The vast mineral wealth of
the new State supplied it from the very beginning with abundant capital
for local enterprises so that it was free from the debtor complex, so
characteristic of the other frontier communities.
California faces westward on the Pacific and has developed into a
unique and more or less self-sufficient section with a definite
self-reliant character of its own.
* * * * *
While the West was thus filling up and the United States was reaching
the Pacific Ocean, the States on the Atlantic continued to grow in
power and population, largely through their own natural increase, but
partly through the immigration of the period. French Canadians began to
drift down into New England, as they have continued to do to this day.
The single State of New York had by the end of the period a million
foreign-born in its population, of whom half were Irish and one-fourth
German. New Jersey had become one-fifth foreign-born, Connecticut
one-sixth, Pennsylvania one-seventh. The racial character of this
immigration was not particularly harmful, as it was mostly Nordic, but
the large Roman Catholic element excited widespread alarm.
The arrival of large numbers of ignorant and destitute South Irish
Catholics, who occupied the lowest social status here, led directly
to the formation of a native American secret political party,
nicknamed the "Know Nothings," because of their refusal to discuss
or divulge their aims or actions. For the purpose of membership they
defined the name Native American to mean a person all four of whose
grandparents were born in this country. This party's policy, in
the early stage of its career, was to act secretly, supporting the
candidate who most nearly represented their views, regardless of his
party affiliations. The party at once developed great strength, and
in 1854 and 1855 carried State elections in Massachusetts, New York,
Kentucky, California, and several other States. It played a large part
in national politics in 1856, but its organization was disrupted by the
increasing virulence of the slavery issue.
[Illustration: CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES
Showing distribution of the 4447 Congregational Churches in the
United States. Figures indicate number of churches in shaded areas
in which there are too many to be shown by dots and circles. As the
Congregational Church is largely identified with New England, the map
shows in a general way the westward movement of people of New England
origin.]
The principle of the Know Nothing party was opposition to the political
power of the large masses of newly arrived aliens. This was especially
directed against the Catholic Church, because it was felt that their
establishment of parochial schools was inimical to the public-school
system, which the Americans of that time regarded as the palladium
of their liberties. This hostility to Catholics was aggravated by
the attempted use of public funds derived from general taxation for
parochial schools and even more by the exemption claimed and often
obtained from taxation of large ecclesiastical institutions as well as
churches.
Further opposition to aliens arose from their organization into compact
political units which quickly demoralized our municipal governments, a
scandal which has existed down to this day.
All this led to the widespread belief that these immigrants, now
arriving in large numbers, refused to accept wholeheartedly the
customs, principles, and institutions of the country in which they
had sought refuge. This belief still persists and has given rise in
each generation since the days of the Know Nothing party, to similar
powerful and secret anti-foreign organizations. Our alien elements are
to this day extremely sensitive to the public discussion of any of
these matters. In this respect, Americans probably have less freedom
of speech and freedom of press than exist in any of the countries of
Europe.
* * * * *
During the colonial period the natural increase of the Anglo-Saxon
stock in New England had made it a continual source of population
for the rapidly opening West. No one State, however, contributed such
a large element of the population of the subsequent United States as
did Virginia, the largest and most populous of the thirteen Colonies.
One cannot read the history of the movement westward of the American
frontier without being impressed by the importance of the Old Dominion
in supplying settlers for the West, first to Kentucky, thence to the
States of the upper and lower Mississippi Valley, later to the Great
Plains, and finally to the Southwest and the Pacific Coast.
But if Virginia has been the most fertile source of settlers, New
England has more nearly put its stamp on American civilization; and
this was made possible largely because there was an available emigrant
stock in Massachusetts and her sister States, to carry this impress in
person. Before the Civil War, however, the birth rate of the old white
stock in New England had declined to the point where it was probably
not replacing its own numbers.
* * * * *
In 1860 the religious unity of the United States had been somewhat
impaired. The unity of language was as yet scarcely menaced. The unity
of institutions, traditions, and culture was breached only temporarily.
The racial unity of the country was little changed from 1790. The
United States was still nine-tenths Nordic.
* * * * *
Earlier in these pages a description is given of the empty continent
which lay open to settlement by the British stock on both sides of the
Canadian border.
Let us see what use was made of this opportunity in the period from the
end of Colonial times to the Civil War.
A continent was occupied and the territory of the Union was swept
westward to the Pacific. The forests were cut down and the wild life
destroyed. The Indians were evicted. The mineral wealth of the western
mountains was ransacked. The coal was exploited, and the once fertile
soil of the Southern States greatly depleted through the reckless
growing of tobacco and cotton. Waste was the order of the day in
America.
All this was perhaps inevitable, but never since Cæsar plundered Gaul
has so large a territory been sacked in so short a time. Probably no
more destructive human being has ever appeared on the world stage than
the American pioneer with his axe and his rifle.
In 1860, at the end of this period, we find the essential elements
of national unity still unchanged, but we were about to engage
in a fratricidal war, which was to destroy the best blood of the
nation. We had admitted large numbers of Irish and German immigrants
who impaired, in the case of the Irish, our religious system and
introduced certain undesirable racial elements. The Germans who came
were largely Protestants and only temporarily disturbed our unity by
clinging to their foreign language. Both of these elements, however,
were pre-dominantly Nordic, and it was not until the next and final
period that the unassimilable Alpines and Mediterraneans came here
from southern and eastern Europe. The tragedy of the Civil War and the
introduction of cheap labor were still to come, so that in 1860 the
United States was at its high-water mark of national unity.
The Indians had been ruthlessly swept aside, as was unavoidable because
a few hunting tribes could not be allowed to possess a continent, but
the Negro question could have been postponed, and the men who died
needlessly on Southern battle-fields could have been used to populate
the States of the Far West.
In the next chapter we shall study the swamping of this American
civilization, which reached its zenith in 1860.
XII
THE ALIEN INVASION
The period 1860-1930, with which we are now dealing, is characterized
by the end of free public land in the West about 1880. It is also
marked by the great development of industries in the North and
East, which created a demand for cheap labor, and attracted a mass
immigration of non-British and non-Nordic workmen from southern and
eastern Europe. This immigration for the most part went to the cities
and industrial districts.
The Southern States, which had not entered upon an industrial expansion
before the Civil War, did not welcome immigrants of the low-grade
factory type, hence the South has remained characteristically American.
One of the strange results of the Civil War has been that while the
victorious North sold its birthright of culture, religion, and racial
purity for a mess of industrial pottage, the South, though defeated and
impoverished, retained its racial inheritance unimpaired.
Some of the earlier immigrants in this period sought the lands in
the West, while they were still to be had. The land hunger having
carried most of the energetic, ambitious, and able Nordic immigrants
westward, the industrial expansion of New England, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
and of some of the adjacent States resulted in an unfilled demand
for low-grade factory labor in the East. This demand was quickly
recognized by the steamship companies, which began scouring Europe for
immigrants to transport to America.
The most fertile recruiting ground for this type of humanity was in
South Europe, Italy, the Balkan countries, and the provinces of the
then Austrian Empire and Russia. Inducements were offered potential
immigrants to come to America. There was no discrimination as to type
or quality. Many criminals were rounded up, especially in southern
Italy and Sicily, with the connivance if not the actual initiative of
their governments.
As to the ratio of criminals to the native American population, some
interesting figures have been compiled through a first-hand survey of
242 State and federal prisons in the United States during 1931-32.
Most of the criminals referred to were committed for serious offenses.
The criminals from northwestern Europe were well under (sometimes only
one-quarter) their ratio to the general population. South Europe and
eastern Europe were very much higher. The Filipinos were over twice
as many as the proper allowance, native-born Negroes were two-and
three-quarters above their allowance and the Mexicans were six and
one-half times as many as their ratio to the general population would
entitle them to be.
It was in this period that the Polish Jews began their tumultuous and
frantic invasion, a flood which only recently has been checked, and
that with the greatest difficulty. The great mass of immigrants from
South Poland, Galicia, and Russia were Ashkanazim Jews, descendants
in part of Alpine Khozars, with a Mongol admixture, who entered the
eastern Ukraine from Asia in the early centuries of our era. Many of
the Khozars and their Khan were converted by Jewish missionaries and
they formally accepted Judaism in 740 A.D. It is doubtful whether there
is a single drop of the old Palestinian, Semitic-speaking Hebrew blood
among these East European Jews. They are essentially a non-European
people. The language they speak, Jüdisch, or Yiddish, is a corrupt
German of the Franconian dialect mixed with Slavic and Hebrew elements,
which fact strengthens the tradition of a large migration of German
Jews into Poland in the Middle Ages. It may be that the strain of these
German Jews has died out, leaving only their language behind, but in
any event the Polish Jews are now distinctly Alpine--a mixture of Slavs
and of Asiatic invaders of Russia.
Exact figures of Jewish immigration are not obtainable until 1899, when
this group was listed separately. Prior to that year probably 500,000
Jews had arrived; after that date nearly 2,000,000. From the beginning
of this century the Jews made up 10 per cent of the total immigration
into this country, and there are now more than 4,000,000 of them here,
half of the number being in New York City. This is more than one-fifth
of the Jews of the world.
Because they speak Yiddish, they are often colloquially referred to as
"German Jews." But, in fact, the number who come from Germany is small,
and, as said, the great bulk of them are more properly described as
"Polish Jews" and are much despised socially by the true German Jews.
Many of them are from those parts of Poland which were held by Russia
prior to the World War. Immigration figures show the last place of
residence of Jewish arrivals, 1899-1924, to be as follows:
_Countries_
Russia and Poland 1,243,000
Austria-Hungary 260,000
Rumania 103,000
United Kingdom 73,000
Turkey 20,000
Germany 15,000
British North America 57,000
All other countries 67,000
---------
1,838,000