628 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the possession of the Wyoming Valley had been settled by a legal 

 decision soon after the Revolution, the Pennsylvania Legislature 

 passed an act in 1787 organizing the valley as a part of Pennsyl- 

 vania. A meeting of the Connecticut settlers in the valley was 

 called to decide whether they should accept the act. There were 

 two parties among them, one in favor of the act, the other against 

 it, and in the heated discussion of the meeting they came to blows. 

 After the first blow was struck each party rushed, not for their 

 guns, but for sticks, which they cut from the neighboring trees, 

 and for a time there was a very savage contest ; but not a single 

 shot was fired nor was there a single blow given with a knife, and 

 after a while they came together again and passed a resolution 

 accepting the act. Yet they were all frontiersmen, accustomed to 

 the almost daily use of rifles and hunting knives. 



About the time of the Revolution there were riots in Boston, 

 New York, and Philadelphia, and much property was destroyed ; 

 but in only one, the riot in Philadelphia over the depreciation of 

 the Continental currency, were lives taken. The same character- 

 istics prevailed in Shays's Rebellion in Massachusetts. 



The first riots in which an intense desire to use firearms and 

 kill was shown were the Catholic riots of 1844, which were begun 

 by foreigners firing into a meeting of native Americans. From 

 this we have gone steadily on, until we now have more rioting, 

 bloodshed, and murder in a single year, or even in six months, 

 than can be found in a hundred years of our previous history, 

 and in almost every instance it can be traced to the alien element 

 in our population. 



Washington, in writing on the subject of immigration, said : 



My opinion with respect to emigration is that, except of useful me- 

 chanics and some particular descriptions of men or professions, there is no 

 need of encouragement ; while the policy or advantage of its taking place 

 in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) may be much ques- 

 tioned. (Works, xi, p. 2.) 



On another occasion he wrote : 



It is not the policy of this country to employ aliens where it can well 

 be avoided, either in the civil or military walks of life. (Works, xi, pp. 

 392, 393.) 



Jefferson, though belonging to the party opposed to Washing- 

 ton, had very much the same opinion : 



They will bring with them the principles of the government they leave, 

 imbibed in their early youth, or, if able to throw them off, it w-ill be in 

 exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one 

 extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at 

 the point of temperate liberty. These principles, with their language, they 

 will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers they will 



