IMMIGRATION TO THE 

 UNITED STATES 



I. — The Earlier Immigration 



THE early immigration to the United States, considered 

 in the large, was almost wholly from English-speaking 

 countries. The vast Irish immigration between 1830 

 and i860 consisted of English-speaking people, who were thus 

 readily appreciative of the conditions which they found in the 

 United States and easily capable of making themselves and 

 their race understood in this great EngHsh-speaking republic. 

 This republic was founded upon English laws and traditions, 

 but by a commingled stream of English, Scotch and Irish colo- 

 nists, who found their common language a unifying element. 

 In fact, the Irish immigration lent a steadying force to the 

 ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the 

 constitution and establishment of these United States — the 

 ideas of political equality and opportunity and of separation 

 from Great Britain and her monarchical institutions. Never- 

 theless, the English language, which the United States had 

 inherited, as well as many of its legal forms and expressions, 

 was charged with prejudice towards and misunderstanding of 

 the Catholic Church. Consequently, the Irish immigrants were 

 misunderstood and depreciated in one respect. They were 

 almost to a man staunch adherents of the Catholic faith and 

 consequently did not command sympathy or respect, but rather 

 excited contempt and distrust among the citizens of the grow- 

 ing republic. Nevertheless, in the course of several decades 

 they managed to win both respect and sympathy, as well as to 

 live down a bitter persecution founded chiefly on hatred to 

 their form of religion, but also on the fact that they were alien 

 born and presumed to claim the advantages and privileges of 

 American citizens. 



To them succeeded the German immigration of 1848 and 

 after. This began during the "Sturm und Drang" period of 



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