HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR, BY THE COMTE DE PARIS. 521 



of them, in the same coutiugeut, there was a race wliose inferiority was but poorly compensated by 

 the former, namely, that of the German emigrants and their descendants down to the second gener- 

 ation. These strange variations are all explained by the movements of emigration on the soil of 

 America, and the average staturcof each contingent was in inverse I'atio to the number of emigrants 

 who had settled in the State that furnished it. The current of emigration emptied itself at New 

 York and certain points of the northern coast, where the weakest and the least robust took up their 

 residence, while the others, passing through the Middle States, where the population was compara- 

 tively numerous, and shut out from the South by the insurmountable barrier of slavery, went to seek 

 their fortunes in those vast Western States that are watered by the Upper Mississippi, the Mis- 

 souri, and the great lakes. This current, leaving Vermont at the north and Kentucky at the south, 

 and traversing Pennsylvania too rapidly to leave traces of its passage behind, these States 

 possessed therefore a population which, for the most part, had already become American for two 

 or three generations back. It is from this time that the beneficent influence of the New World upon 

 the European races is felt ; henco the physical superiority, seemingly inexplicable, of the contingents 

 furnished by these three States." ' 



What the tables are which the writer refers to as " published at the end of the war," it is difiB- 

 cult to discover. Neither the partial tables embodied in the report of this ofiQce in ISGC,^ nor the 

 tables published by the Sanitary Commission,' give results which correspond with those quoted in 

 the foregoing passage. Minnesota, for example, takes high rank in the quality of mean stature in 

 all the tables printed, while the Comte refers to it as an example of inferiority iu that very particu- 

 lar. But putting aside the error in details, which does not necessarily affect the argument, it is 

 important to consider the applicability of the latter. 



The Comte's theory is that the stream of emigration striking the shores of New York and New 

 England deposits its poorest and weakest material in a part of those States, and, i)assing through 

 the tier of States bounded by Canada on the north and Kentucky on the south, finally empties itself 

 in the new States bordering the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Elvers. He argues that in pro- 

 portion as the population of a State is commingled with emigrants from Europe, so does its mean 

 statur edecrease ; and hence such States as Vermont and Kentucky, inhabited almost entirely by 

 native born Americans, exhibit a higher rate than most others. 



Unfortunately, this theory will not explain all the curious anomalies relating to mean stature 

 as observed iu the different States. It is true that the prevalence of manufacturing industry is 

 found to be attended by a low rate of stature, and it is not surpiising, therefore, that New York, 

 New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, whose factories and workshops are largely sup- 

 plied by foreign workmen, should exhibit this low condition ; but why should Maine and Vermont, 

 two contiguous States, neither of which is affected by emigration, and both of which are mainly 

 devoted to agriculture and maritime pursuits, differ so greatly iu the mean height of their inhabi- 

 tants °? In the table exhibiting the order of superiority iu stature of the States, at page 24 of the 

 present volume, it will be seen that Maine stands number ten, while Vermont is number sixteen, in a 

 list of twenty-live States. On the other hand, such States as Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, 

 Minnesota, and others, to which the vast stream of emigration has for years been flowing, either 

 equal or excel Maine in the quality of stature. 



This sulyect has been somewhat fully discussed in the text at ])age 14 ct acq. 



The military aptitude of the American people is thus commented on : 



" We have dwelt upon the defects of the American volunteers, because they were the cause of 

 their first reverses, and because in exposing them we are only exalting the merit of those men who 

 had so much to learn in order to become capable of accomplishing the great task they had under- 

 taken, and who succeeded by dint of perseverance and devotion. One trait in their character 

 redeemed all these defects, and already displayed, under the garb of these inexperienced men, 

 those valiant champions who, at the end of the war, carried the enemy's strong works bj' assault ; 

 they went under fire more resolutely the second time than the first. Bad soldiers, if unconscious 



' pp. 184-185. 



^ Final report of the Provost-Marshal-Gerieral, 1866. 



' Inreatiyations in the mHitarij and anihropologivul statistics of American soWiira, by B. A. Gould, published for tlio 

 United States Sanitary Commission. Svo. Now Y'ork IStii). 



