Some recent writers on immigration to the United States from Ireland
have very materially underestimated the numbers of the Irish who came
here even since 1790, and it seems proper now to call attention to some
important facts which throw light on the matter, and endeavor to correct
the erroneous impressions produced by misleading statements.
It will not be difficult to show that the Irish have come to this
country since 1790 in much greater numbers than available records,
statistics, or estimates show, and that their descendants are much more
numerous than many suppose them to be. The same might be said of the
Irish who arrived here before the period just referred to, and
particularly before the Revolution—a fact to which I briefly called
attention in a little work written several years ago. In this paper,
however, consideration will be confined to the Irish who arrived here
since 1790 and their descendants.
Until September, 1819, there was no supervision of immigration by the
national government, and no records were kept by federal officers of the
arrival of immigrants. For the numbers, therefore, of those who came
here from 1790 to 1820 we are practically left without official or
positive information, and the statements or conjectures of the writers
who have dealt with this subject not only betray their imperfect
knowledge, but show that they failed to take into consideration some
weighty facts essential to the formation of correct estimates.
Thomas Cooper, an Englishman who visited this country in 1794, tells us
that “emigration of all kinds from Europe to the United States amounted
at that time to about 10,000 a year.” Samuel Blodgett, Jr., however,
writing in 1810, assumed that the number of immigrants did not average
more than 4,000 a year for the previous ten years, but he gave a table
of the population, in one column of which the number of “freemen and
slaves” who entered the United States in 1804 was put down at 9,500.
Blodgett says that he relies on “the best records and estimates at
present attainable,” but he fails to tell us where those records were to
be found, or by whom they were kept. A. Seybert, an ex-member of
congress, who wrote in 1818, says that the statements in Blodgett’s work
“are deficient in details; they consist chiefly of general results and
the estimates of the author. Though many of his tables are ingeniously
constructed, they do not furnish sufficient data for legislators.”
Seybert, while admitting the correctness of Cooper’s estimate of 10,000
arrivals during the year 1794, differs from him with regard to the
immigration for the following years up to 1817, and assumes that 6,000
persons only, on the average, arrived here annually from 1790 to 1810.
He, however, furnishes us with a statement of the number of passengers
who arrived at ten of the principal ports of the United States in 1817,
which shows the entrance in that year of 22,240 immigrants, of whom
11,977 came from Britain and Ireland; 4,169 from Germany; 1,245 from
France, and 2,901 from British America.
Professor Tucker, another ex-congressman, in a work published in 1843,
says, commenting on Seybert’s estimate, “Since an account has been taken
of the foreign immigrants who arrive in our seaports as well as from the
intrinsic evidence afforded by the enumerations themselves, we must
regard his estimate as much too low.” Tucker admits that “our estimates
of the whites who migrated hither before 1819 are purely conjectural,”
but yet he adopts Seybert’s estimate of 6,000 a year from 1790 to 1810—a
total of 120,000—and assumes that from the last named year until 1820,
114,000 immigrants arrived, thus making the total number who came here
between 1790 and 1820, 234,000.
He, however, remarks in a note that he could not go beyond this estimate
“on account of his respect for Dr. Seybert’s opinion,” but he “could not
give a less number because of his regard for the progressive increase of
immigration before and after the three years of the war of 1812–1815.”
J. D. B. DeBow, superintendent of the census of 1850, in one of his
volumes published in 1854, relies on Prof. Tucker’s estimates for the
number of those who arrived here during the thirty years preceding 1820,
while W. J. Bromwell of the state department, writing in 1856, raises
the number to 250,000.
It will be observed that these “estimates” are in fact merely
conjectures, and that in the only year (1817) during the entire period
from 1790 to 1820 for which actual figures are given, the returns from
only ten ports show the arrival of more than twice the average annual
number of immigrants estimated by the writers above referred to. It
seems, then, evident that the immigrants from 1790 to 1820, and
particularly those of Irish birth or blood, were much more numerous than
the writers quoted seem willing to admit, and we are amply justified in
coming to this conclusion by several substantial reasons.
Professor Tucker, who estimates the number of immigrants between 1790
and 1820 at 234,000, “calculated after a very laborious analysis the
number of foreigners and their descendants to be above 1,000,000 in
1840.” Now, according to his own tables, the total number of immigrants
who came here between 1790 and 1840 amounted to 949,346, and yet of all
these people—over seventy-five per cent. of whom were adults—and their
descendants, he would have us believe that there could only be found
alive in 1840 the number just given. The total population had increased,
within the period named, from 3,929,827 to 17,069,453—more than four
hundred per cent.—while the descendants of the immigrants increased,
according to him, only five per cent.
We shall see later that, even after the passage of the act of Congress
of 1819—which directed the collectors of customs at the seaports of the
United States to forward quarter-yearly lists of all the passengers
arriving at their respective ports to the state department at
Washington—the number of immigrants reported was for many years very
considerably less than that of those who actually came here. One careful
and reliable writer, Dr. Chickering, estimates the number of those not
accounted for at fifty per cent. of those reported. Bearing this in mind
it will seem almost certain that, before the time when returns of
immigrants were required by law, their numbers were underestimated in a
far greater proportion.
Large numbers of people left Ireland for America between 1790 and the
beginning of the War of 1812. During the century preceding the year
first named half a million of Irishmen—more than the number of Huguenots
who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes—went to that
country and joined her armies to escape the English penal laws and
avenge the violation of the Treaty of Limerick. This fact is attested by
the French military records. But after the outbreak of the Revolution in
France the flight of the “Wild Geese” was checked, and comparatively few
entered the Revolutionary or Imperial armies.
Meanwhile the situation in Ireland was almost as gloomy as before.
Though as a consequence of the American and French revolutions the penal
laws had been somewhat relaxed, and in 1793 Catholics had been allowed
to vote at parliamentary elections, they were still persecuted and
harassed in almost every conceivable manner by the Loyalist faction. In
Armagh county murders, house burnings, and still more abominable crimes
were of constant occurrence, and many thousands of the people were
driven from their homes, some taking refuge in the South, some flying to
Scotland, and a large number coming to America. An idea of the condition
of things at that time in some parts of Ireland may be formed from
reading the declaration of Lord Gosford, governor of Armagh county, and
thirty magistrates, issued on Dec. 28, 1795.
“It is,” they said, “no secret that a persecution accompanied with all
the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have in all ages
distinguished that calamity, is now raging in this county. Neither age
nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence is sufficient to excite mercy
or afford protection. The only crime which the unfortunate objects of
this persecution are charged with is a crime of easy proof, indeed, it
is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith.” The Presbyterians,
who had for a long time been excluded from power and position by the
“Sacramental Test Act,” and many of whom had, during the eighteenth
century, emigrated to America, were also much dissatisfied with their
condition and that of the mass of their countrymen.
“The journals of those days,” we are assured by a careful writer on this
subject, “show that the Northern Presbyterians were not sharers in the
disgrace or afraid to denounce the dominant faction. Neither must we
forget that Presbyterianism was socially, though not religiously,
outlawed almost to the extent of Catholicism.”
But the English government, which had absolute control of the so-called
Irish Parliament, turned a deaf ear to all demands for justice and
encouraged the Loyalists to continue their atrocious deeds. Under these
circumstances, a number of prominent and patriotic men of all
denominations, who had formed the United Irish Society a few years
before, for the purpose of bringing about a union of Irishmen of all
religious persuasions with the object of effecting a reform in the
Parliament, now becoming convinced of the hopelessness of attaining
their purpose by peaceful methods, resolved to imitate the example of
the American Revolutionists and make an effort to achieve the
independence of their country. The movement was unsuccessful, though its
suppression in 1798 cost the English government the lives of over 20,000
of the latter’s mercenaries.
Multitudes of the patriots who had taken part in the insurrection
escaped to America, a considerable proportion of these going in fishing
schooners to Newfoundland, where their descendants are to be found in
great numbers to-day, notwithstanding the large emigration from that
island to the United States. The failure of Robert Emmet’s effort in
1803 for the freedom of his native land also led to renewed proscription
and the flight of thousands across the Atlantic. No records of the
numbers of Irish who came here during the period referred to are
available, or could in fact under the circumstances be compiled. The
notices, however, in the newspapers of the time of the arrivals of
immigrants and the accounts of events then occurring in those parts of
North America still held by the English, as well as in the United
States, throw considerable light upon the subject.
Between 1652 and 1658, over 60,000 Irish—almost all adults—were by order
of the Cromwellian government transported to the West Indies and the
English colonies—a larger number than the total population of these
dependencies at that time. Many thousand of those sent to the West
Indies gradually found their way to this country through the Atlantic
and Gulf ports, but the fact that proscriptive laws against Catholics,
modeled after the English penal laws, were enforced in most of the
colonies, prevented many others from coming here before the Revolution.
It may be remarked in passing that to the feeling excited among the
French colonists on the St. Lawrence by these enactments and by later
mischievous displays of religious intolerance, is due the fact that
Canada still remains subject to Britain, and that the Starry Flag does
not wave over all the territory between the Gulf and the Pole.
After the Revolution, however, and when it became evident that religious
liberty would be allowed by law to all the people of this Republic, the
descendants of the expatriated Irish in the West Indies came to the
United States in considerable numbers to escape the insalubrious
climate, the almost constant turmoil caused by the conflicts waged there
between European powers, the troubles and dangers arising from the
frequent plots and uprisings of the colored population, and especially
to be rid of English rule.
To show the difficulties and dangers to which those living in the West
Indian islands were exposed, an incident which occurred on the island of
Montserrat in 1768 may be briefly mentioned. The negroes of that island
formed a plot to massacre the whites, and decided to carry out their
project on St. Patrick’s day, “which,” we are informed, “the inhabitants
generally assembled together to commemorate”—a fact which proves their
origin. It was arranged that “the negroes allowed within the building
(where the festivities were to be held) were to secure the swords of the
gentlemen participating and those without were to fire into the hall and
put every man to death. They were then to cast lots for the ladies, whom
they intended to carry to Puerto Rico in the vessels that lay in the
harbor.” The plot happily failed, through a warning given by a faithful
servant to one of the intended victims, and several negroes were
executed for complicity in it. The Irish in the West Indies sympathized
warmly with the American Revolutionists, and this made them objects of
distrust and hatred to the English. We are told that “from many letters
found in American prize ships, it was discovered that a traitorous
correspondence had been carried on between British subjects and the
revolted colonies in North America.” The merchandise and stores of those
suspected of sympathy with the Americans were confiscated by the
English.
The vindictive animosity displayed by Admiral Lord Nelson while in the
West Indies against the Americans and their sympathizers excited the
bitterest indignation among the people there. Nelson—whose feeling
toward the Americans, trading with these islands, may be judged from an
expression in one of his letters, “I hate them all,” and his declaration
in another, “I, for one, am determined not to suffer the Yankees to come
where my ship is”—did his utmost to ruin American commerce in that
quarter, and even went so far as to complain to the English government
of his superior officers because they failed to encourage and abet his
malignant efforts. His bitterness against the Irish may be easily
inferred from one of his letters written from the island of St. Kitts,
on March 18, 1785, in which he says: “Yesterday being St. Patrick’s Day,
Irish colors with thirteen stripes on them were hoisted all over town. I
was engaged to dine with the president, but sent an excuse, as he
suffered those colors to fly.” It is not to be wondered at that numbers
of the West Indian Irish sought a home under the flag with the “thirteen
stripes,” to which they had so patriotically shown their attachment.
It may be remarked here that Seaman, referring to the period just before
1790, says that “the proportionately rapid increase of the population of
the Southern states proved that they had received considerable
accessions of immigrants from the West Indies.” The great majority of
these were no doubt descendants of the transported victims of Cromwell’s
despotism. The able historian of South Carolina, Dr. Ramsay, tells us
that in 1791 a number of Catholics, “chiefly natives of Ireland,
associated themselves together for public worship, and put themselves
under the care of Bishop Carroll,” and adds that “The troubles in France
and the West Indian islands soon brought a large accession to their
numbers.”
A considerable number of Irish immigrants arrived here between 1800 and
1815 from the remnant of North American territory still subject to
England, and especially from Newfoundland. From a very early period,
Irish fishermen had been accustomed to visit the shores of that island,
and not seldom did they bring with them proscribed and persecuted
priests, who sought shelter there from the fanatical “priest hunters”
employed in enforcing the English penal laws in Ireland. But even there
were they harassed and hounded and the exercise of their faith
prohibited, and it was not until after the achievement of American
Independence that Catholics were permitted to openly profess the
principles and practice the duties of their religion. In 1784, the then
governor, Vice-Admiral Campbell, issued an order allowing “All persons
inhabiting the island to have full liberty of conscience and free
exercise of all such modes of religious worship as are not prohibited by
law.”
It seems probable that this official acknowledgment of the right of
liberty of conscience was hastened, not only by the triumph of the
American “rebels,” but also by the fact that in 1776 an attempt was made
by the Irish in Newfoundland to aid the Americans by sympathetic
movements, which clearly indicated their disposition to make common
cause with Washington and his compatriots.
The large numbers of Wexford and other insurgents, who had escaped to
Newfoundland after the failure of the insurrection of ’98, and who,
though defeated, had not lost heart or hatred of their oppressors,
became so numerous in 1799 that they formed a plan to expel the English
from the island, resolving in case of failure to “set off for the United
States.” They succeeded in extending the United Irish organization, not
only among a very considerable number of the people, but also among a
large proportion of the soldiers composing the Royal Newfoundland
regiment, then stationed in St. John’s, the capital.
The movement was unsuccessful, owing to the timidity or treachery of
some among the military. Five soldiers were hanged, seven sent to
Halifax to be shot, many others carried to the same place “to be there
dealt with,” and the regiment was removed from St. John’s and replaced
by another. Ogden, the governor, in a letter written in July, 1800,
says, “We do not know, nor was it possible to ascertain how far this
defection and the United (Irish) Oath extended through the regiment.” He
admits that “the defection was very extensive, not only through the
regiment, but through the inhabitants of this and all the out-harbors,
particularly to the southward, where the people almost to a man had
taken the United (Irish) Oath, which is ‘to be true to the old cause,
and to follow their heads of whatsoever denomination.’” He supposes that
the plans “are not given up, but only waiting a proper opportunity to
break through,” and adds that, according to statements made by a United
Irishman, who was only a “novice,” the movement had been undertaken “in
consequence of letters received from Ireland.” He further demands a
reinforcement of troops—1,500 men—which will be needed “while Ireland is
in such a state of ferment as it has been, and is likely to continue,
until the business of the Union is settled, for the events of Ireland
have heretofore, and will henceforth, in a great measure, govern the
sentiments and actions of the far greater majority of the people in this
country.”
The unsatisfactory outcome of this movement caused numbers of the United
Irishmen of Newfoundland to seek shelter in the United States. “American
traders came disguised, sold and bartered their goods in the outports
and stole away the men as usual,” about this time, just as during the
closing years of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th, the
French smugglers carried over to France the “Wild Geese.” It is, of
course, impossible to ascertain the number of those who came here at the
period and under the conditions above referred to, but it is evident
that there were many thousands of them.
In 1804, Irish immigrants to the number of 670 are reported as arriving
at St. John’s on their way to the United States, and for several years
after thousands of their countrymen chose the same route to our shores.
During the war of 1812 many of the Irish who had remained on the island
went to serve on American privateers against the English, and many of
these ships were commanded by Irishmen.
The large number of Irish who entered the United States from British
North America within the period considered is not taken into account by
our authorities on immigration, and their estimates of the direct
immigration from Ireland and Britain are also very evidently far too
low. They do not seem to remember that, there being no supervision of
vessels carrying passengers until a much later period, the ships for
America were crowded to a degree which in our day would hardly be
thought possible.
Wolfe Tone, in his “Memoirs,” gives us an idea of the manner in which
passengers were packed in vessels bound for the United States. Speaking
of his voyage from Belfast to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1795—which
occupied upwards of eight weeks—he says: “The slaves who are carried
from the coast of Africa have much more room allowed them than the
immigrants who pass from Ireland to America, for the avarice of the
captains in that trade is such that they think they never can load their
vessels sufficiently, and they trouble their heads in general no more
about the accommodation and storage of their passengers than of any
other lumber aboard.” There were over 300 immigrants on board the ship
on which he sailed, but when off the banks of Newfoundland, she was
stopped by three English frigates, and fifty of her passengers carried
off by the “press-gangs” to serve in the navy of their persecutors. Tone
narrowly escaped being among the number of those taken.
Many of the captains of emigrant ships at that time were thoroughly
unscrupulous. A few years before the incidents just referred to
occurred, the captain of a vessel, who had undertaken to carry a body of
emigrants from Dunleary (now Kingstown), Ireland, to Charleston, S. C.,
landed eighty of them on the island of Inagua, near Dominica, in the
West Indies, telling them it was well inhabited, and that provisions
were plentiful. When, after having landed, they found that they had been
deceived by the captain, and attempted to get on board the vessel again,
they were fired on and one of them killed. They were, however, rescued a
short time after by a passing American vessel, being, as might be
supposed, “all in a most distressed condition.” It was not only the
poorer people of Ireland who even then sought a free home in this land.
Many persons of means were always to be found among those who came
direct from thence. In 1798, a ship arrived at Norfolk, Va., from that
country “with 426 passengers, chiefly tradesmen and persons of
property.”
In the absence of any authentic records of immigration during the thirty
years preceding 1820, we are justified, when endeavoring to form
anything like an approximately correct estimate of the arrivals from
Ireland during that period, in taking into consideration the strength of
the Irish element here at that time, and the importance attached to the
movements of Irish Americans in aid of their struggling kindred in the
Old Land. Branches of the United Irish Society were established here
soon after the organization of that body in Ireland. “Its headquarters
were in Philadelphia, where Mathew Carey and other good men gave it aid
and impulse. The publications of the Irish society were reprinted in the
city just named as early as 1794, and funds were collected and arms
promised.”
The strength and influence of this organization excited the uneasiness
of the English government, and its minister here, Sir Robert Liston,
used every effort to check the progress of the sympathetic movement. He
was unfortunately enabled to attain his object, to a great extent,
through his close intimacy with the highest officers of our government.
In 1798, the “Alien Act” was passed in Congress, by a small majority. By
this enactment, the president could order any alien he deemed dangerous
to quit the country, others were to be licensed to remain during his
pleasure, and neglect to obtain a license was made an offense punishable
by three years’ imprisonment, and perpetual disqualification for
citizenship. Fourteen years was fixed as the time necessary for an alien
to reside here before he could become a citizen. This law excited deep
indignation, and was strongly denounced by many independent journals. In
order to prevent hostile criticism, the “Sedition Law” was passed, by
which a fine of $2,000 was imposed upon any one who should write or
publish a letter against the government, either house of Congress, or
the president. Many were tried and several punished under these acts,
and some had to fly the country to escape the threatened penalties.
The English minister was jubilant. In a letter to the governor-general
of Canada, written in 1799, he gleefully told how some supporters of the
coercive measures had “taken the law into their own hands, and flogged
one or two of the printers of the newspapers whose comments had offended
them,” and he remarked that this proceeding had “given rise to much
animosity, to threats, and to a commencing of armed associations among
those opposed to these laws, particularly among the United Irishmen,”
adding, “Some apprehend that the affair may lead to a civil war.”
The Alien and Sedition laws were repealed three years later, the bill
for that purpose being introduced by Senator Smilie, a native of
Newtonards, Down county, Ireland, and a veteran of the Revolution. In
1812 he was a member of the foreign affairs committee, and prepared the
bill authorizing President Madison to raise an army to fight the
English.
Among the many prominent United Irishmen who arrived here about this
period were Napper Tandy, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Mathew Carey, Dr.
Reynolds, Dr. Robert Adrian, who became professor of mathematics and
natural philosophy in Columbia college, and later was made vice-provost
of the University of Pennsylvania. There came at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, Thomas Addis Emmet, afterward attorney-general of
New York state; Dr. William J. Macneven; Counselor Sampson; W. Theobald
Wolfe Tone, a worthy son of his heroic father; Nicholas Grey, who had
been adjutant to General Harvey, commander of the Wexford insurgent army
in ’98; Henry Jackson, John Cormack, and many others. Alexander Porter,
another of these immigrants, was too young in ’98 to become a member of
the organization in Ireland, but his father, Rev. W. Porter, a
Protestant minister of Newtonards, Down, had been hanged at his own door
for his patriotism during the insurrection. Mr. Porter was later chosen
United States senator from the state of Louisiana.
During the war of 1812–’15, large numbers of Irish joined the armies of
the republic and shared in the victories as well as the defeats of that
conflict. When General Scott and his small force was overpowered at
Queenstown Heights by a greatly superior body of English and compelled
to surrender, a number of the Irish prisoners of war were separated from
their comrades and sent in irons to England “in order to be tried and
executed for the crime of high treason.” The United States government,
however, threatened to retaliate, and because of this fact, the men were
ultimately released and allowed to return to this country. Many Irish
also fought under Harrison, one of them (Mason) being credited with
having killed the Indian chief, Tecumseh, at the battle of the Thames,
and among the gallant men who under Andrew Jackson so decisively
defeated the English at New Orleans on January 8, 1815, were numbers who
had been born in his father’s native land, including several veterans of
the insurrection of ’98.
While the war lasted, immigration from Europe was checked, but very soon
after the restoration of peace, immigrants, particularly from Ireland,
began to come here in far greater numbers than ever before. The English,
however, notwithstanding the treaty of Ghent, were still bitterly
hostile to the Americans, and their press indulged in the coarsest abuse
of our institutions and public men. Inflamed by jealousy of this
republic, and anxious to prevent the Irish from emigrating to it, the
English parliament in 1816 passed a law which prohibited British vessels
from carrying more than one passenger for every five tons burden to the
United States, while allowing them to carry one passenger for every two
tons to any other part of the world.
But this law did not produce the desired effect. Professor Smith says
that “from Great Britain (and Ireland) the number of emigrants for the
year 1815 was only 2,081. The next year it rose to 12,510; in 1817 to
20,634; in 1818 to 27,787, and in 1819 to 34,789.”
Holmes says, speaking of the year 1816: “In this and the preceding year
there was a great emigration from Ireland and England to America. This
year 1,192 American and foreign vessels arrived at New York, bringing to
that port alone 7,122 passengers.” From the same authority we learn that
the returns of vessels and passengers at Baltimore showed the arrival at
that port early in October, 1816, of 1,878 passengers; those reported
being estimated at probably three fourths of the whole number that
arrived. From another source we find that “within three weeks, in the
month of September, 1816, about 2,000 immigrants arrived in the United
States.” Similar notices may be frequently found in the newspapers of
those times.
The English authorities, while endeavoring to prevent the Irish from
coming to the United States, exerted themselves vigorously to promote
emigration to Canada. Municipal bodies, local organizations, and various
societies contributed funds to assist those intending to emigrate, and
at the same time liberal grants of land and other inducements were
offered to prospective settlers in Canada. As a result of these efforts,
the immigrants from Ireland and Britain to Canada out-numbered, for many
years, those who came to the United States. The great majority of the
Irish, however, soon found their way to this country, and especially to
New York, where work was progressing at that time on the Erie and
Champlain canals. Of all these, no account was taken by officials or
writers on emigration at the time, and but little by those who wrote
later on the subject, though one writer admits that there was even more
recently “considerable overland immigration, much of which escapes
attention.”
It seems evident, taking all the facts above cited into consideration,
that the estimates of those writers of the number of immigrants, and
particularly of Irish immigrants who arrived here between 1790 and 1820,
are very much too low, and it appears very reasonable to assume that Dr.
Chickering’s estimate of the number of immigrants who came here after
1820—that is 50 per cent. more than the officially reported number of
arrivals—must be largely increased when we are endeavoring to ascertain
how many immigrants landed on our shores before the date just mentioned,
and before any attempt was made to obtain the number of those who
arrived in the United States, even through our Atlantic ports.
In order to reach an approximately correct conclusion as to the
proportion of the immigrants of different nationalities embraced in this
aggregate, we must be guided “by the relations then existing between the
United States and the countries from which persons emigrated,” to quote
the words of the last-named writer when speaking of the number of
immigrants. There is no need to dwell on those relations. The bitter
feeling with which the English had regarded the Americans from the days
of the Revolution, lost none of its intensity during the period under
consideration, and the feeling was frankly and fully reciprocated by the
great mass of the American people. As a consequence, there were but few
English among the immigrants to this country at that time.
The Irish, however, who had always sympathized with our republic in its
struggles, and gloried in its triumphs, came here in large and
constantly increasing numbers all through the thirty years preceding
1820, as well as afterwards. Many thousands of French, Germans, and
others arrived here during the period, but the great majority were
undoubtedly Irish. It seems clear that the immigrants were more than
twice as numerous during the period considered as the commonly received
estimates or conjectures would lead us to believe, and it appears
evident from the facts above cited that at least two thirds of the total
were of Irish birth or blood—including those from the West Indies,
Newfoundland, and Canada.
That number seems very small now, when we think of the enormous
immigration of later years, and our population of 80,000,000. But it
should be remembered that the white population of this country in 1790
was only 3,172,464. Of this total, those between the ages of twenty and
fifty numbered less than two fifths, or 1,268,986. Now the immigrants
who sought our shores in those days were almost all in the prime of
life. Children and aged and weakly people, being unable to undergo the
difficulties and hardships certain to be encountered in a strange and
new land, were left behind. Among the new arrivals marriages took place
in far greater proportion than among the descendants of the earlier
immigrants, and the children of the former were proportionately more
than twice as numerous as those of the latter. This continued to be the
case down to a much later period. During the years 1849, 1850, and 1851,
the marriages among the native born in Massachusetts were at the rate of
220 in 10,000, while those of the foreigners (mostly Irish) were in the
proportion of 450 in 10,000. The children born to native parents in the
same state during the same years numbered 47,982, or 578 in 10,000,
while those of immigrants amounted to 24,523, or 1,491 in 10,000. That
is more than twice and a half as many. It is impossible to determine
accurately how much the population of the United States was increased by
the immigrants who arrived here between 1790 and 1820, and their
descendants, but careful investigators have furnished us with estimates,
which maybe fairly regarded as approximately correct.
Some writers who gravely state that “the mortality among Catholics is
greater than among Protestants,” and who complacently assert that “the
vitality of the Irish is very low,” have, as might be expected from
these expressions, glaringly underestimated the number in 1820 of the
immigrants and their descendants who arrived here during the period
under consideration. Dr. Chickering says that they then numbered
1,430,906 out of a total population of 9,638,131.
But the Hon. F. Kapp, one of the commissioners of immigration for the
state of New York, allowing a yearly increase of 1.38 per cent. for the
descendants of the earlier immigrants, shows that at this rate the
population—excluding slaves because their numbers have no bearing on the
question—of 3,231,930 in 1790, would have only increased to 3,706,674 in
1800, to 4,251,143 in 1810, and to 4,875,600 in 1820, instead of
amounting to 8,100,056, the total population including slaves being
9,638,131. Assuming his estimate to be nearly correct, his declaration
that “immigration has enabled this country to anticipate its natural
growth some forty years’” seems reasonable.
A similar estimate was made by Louis Schade of Washington, D. C., and by
Hon. M. W. Closkey, ex-postmaster of the United States house of
representatives, who shows that the rate of increase of our population
(1.38 per cent.) was greater than that of any European nation, and
proceeds to estimate what the numbers of our people would have been at
each census up to 1850 had immigration been prohibited when the
constitution was adopted in 1789. The estimates just quoted together
with the facts above stated seem to prove that the number of the
immigrants arriving here between 1790 and 1820 were absurdly
underestimated by most of those who wrote on the subject.
The same remark applies to some extent to several writers who have dealt
with the question of immigration after 1820, and even the official
reports and statistics down to a comparatively recent period were
admittedly defective in important respects, and failed to mention or
enumerate a large proportion of the immigrants to this country. This
subject will, however, be dealt with in another paper.