86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



RACE MIXTURE AND NATIONAL CHARACTER. 



By LEWIS K. HAELEY, A.M. 



THE term "nation" as used at the present time involves 

 much confusion in thought ; and an eminent writer, in order 

 to fix clearly the meaning of this term in the mind of the student, 

 has defined the nation as a population of an ethnic unity, inhabit- 

 ing a territory of a geographic unity.* This high development 

 of the nation has scarcely been reached in any part of the world, 

 but as the geographic and ethnic elements tend to coincide, the 

 national character grows stronger, and resolves itself into a polit- 

 ical form called the state. In order to attain this high ideal, the 

 territory must be separated by natural barriers, so that the na- 

 tional unity may not be disturbed by foreign influence, and in 

 the development of ethnic unity there must be, first of all, a 

 common language, so that men may understand each other and 

 agree upon certain views. The introduction of the large number 

 of foreigners into our country leads us to inquire whether there 

 is such a thing as national character in the United States. Ban- 

 croft describes all the colonial traits as coming from the English 

 or Anglo-Saxon. The Germans are often spoken of in the sense 

 of being local, yet there is no better illustration of national unity 

 than in the German empire. The English are often looked upon 

 as being extremely practical, but the Puritan Commonwealth was 

 ideal. It seems to have been an original principle in the political 

 psychology of the Anglo-Saxons to evolve the national idea, and 

 thus give to the world the strongest political organization, at the 

 same time offering the widest range of liberty. It is generally 

 admitted at present that there should be some restriction upon 

 immigration. The influx of foreigners, being measurable by sta- 

 tistics, is wonderful. Since 1820 we have had statistics on immi- 

 gration, which form a very important study. In the first decade, 

 ending with 1830, there were 143,439 immigrants to the United 

 States, while in the decade ending with 1890 the number had 

 reached 5,246,613. In the census of 1850, statistics were for the 

 first time obtained concerning the number of persons of foreign 

 birth in the country. The proportion which each of these ele- 

 ments bore to the total population in 1850 was 90'32 per cent 

 native born to 9'68 per cent foreign born, while in 1890 the pro- 

 portion was 85*23 per cent native born to 14*77 per cent foreign 

 born. Before 1820 immigration was trifling in amount, but in 

 1847 it set in upon a wonderful scale, and the famines in Ireland 

 at that time led to a migration to this country which has been 



* Burgess, Political Science and Constitutional Law, vol. i, pp. 1-4. 



