in the United States in Fifty Years. 81 



The coloured part of the population, which also owes its origin 

 exclusively* to the old continent, has, since 1808, received no 

 accessions from abroad ; but is, on the contrary, constantly losing, 

 by emigration, a part of what it gains by natural increase. 



It is obvious, that if the number of persons thus migrating to and 

 from the United States could be ascertained, the census, periodically 

 taken, would enable us to determine the precise rate of our natural 

 multiplication. But such certainty is, as yet, unattainable. Of the 

 coloured race, we have no means of knowing the loss sustained, 

 either from the free portion who settle abroad, or from runaway 

 slaves ; and our estimates of the whites who migrated hither before 



1819, were purely conjectural. In that year, indeed, an act of 

 Congress required accounts to be taken by the collectors at the 

 seaports of all passengers who arrived from abroad, distinguishing 

 foreigners from citizens, and to be returned to the office of the 

 Secretary of State. But even this regulation has not afforded the 

 desired certainty, for, besides that the returns are defective, a part 

 of the British emigrants who arrive at New York, take that route 

 to Canada, in preference to a voyage up the St. Lawrence ; whilst, 

 on the other hand, a part of those who pass directly from Great 

 Britain or Ireland into Canada, migrate thence by land into the 

 United States ; and the numbers of neither portion have we any 

 means of ascertaining. With these sources of uncertainty, our 

 estimates of the amount of emigration to and from the United States, 

 with all the collateral aid to be derived from the census, can be 

 considered only as approximations to the truth. 



Let us first estimate, from such data as we possess, the number 

 of white persons who have migrated to the United States from 

 1790 to 1840. 



In the twenty years between the census of 1790 and that of 1810, 

 Dr. Seybert supposes the number of foreign emigrants to the United 

 States to be 120,000, averaging 6,000 per annum. From 1810 to 



1820, I have been able to procure no data, except Dr. Seybert's 

 estimate for the year 1817, founded on the records of the custom- 

 houses at the principal seaports ; according to which estimate, the 

 number of passengers who arrived in the United States that year, 



* The number of Indians, or descendants of Indians, comprehended in the decennial 

 enumerations of the people of the United States, is too small to deserve to be regarded 

 as an exception. It certainly would not amount to a thousandth, perhaps not to a ten- 

 thousandth part of the whole population. 



