The Character of Our Immigration 



3 



had been at home. The title of ' 'Ameri- 

 can " was yet to come. It is not too 

 much to say that the migrations of these 

 centuries, from the fifteenth to the nine- 

 teenth, changed the whole aspect of the 

 world. We can scarcely picture to our- 

 selves the limitations of medieval life 

 confined within the bounds of western 

 Europe. This colonization established 

 world commerce and brought the prod- 

 ucts of the whole earth to the inhab- 

 itants of Europe ; it magnified the scale 

 of things ten- fold. It did more ; it 

 changed the relative position of nation- 

 alities ; it made the English race and 

 speech dominant throughout the world. 



EARLY AMERICAN IMMIGRATION 



But with the Declaration of American 

 Independence a new movement in the 

 history of changes in peoples became 

 evident. It has since then grown in 

 intensity almost every year, until it has 

 become an important phenomenon of 

 social life. It is not to be judged by 

 any of the previous migratory efforts ; 

 it must rather be considered on its own 

 basis and with respect to its influence on 

 the civilization of modern Europe. 



The Pilgrim fathers, fleeing to New 

 England because of religious and politi- 

 cal persecution, were the first real colo- 

 nial settlers of America. It was real 

 love of liberty and freedom that brought 

 them, and not the visions of Indian 

 wealth or mines of gold and fisheries of 

 pearl, with which the Spanish adven- 

 turers in Peru and Mexico had aston- 

 ished Europe, but the desire to worship 

 God in their own way and to open an 

 asylum to all victims of oppression 

 throughout the entire world. 



At the same time emigrants from Hol- 

 land had commenced the settlement of 

 Manhattan Island, and English settlers 

 came to the western part of Long Island. 



Contemporaneously, Gustavus Adol- 

 phus — at war with the Catholic powers — 

 wished to found a new Sweden in Amer- 

 ica, which would be devoted to the up- 



lifting of the Lutheran religion, and he 

 sent a colony of Swedes to the Delaware. 



Peter Stuyvesant, when he was gov- 

 ernor of New Netherlands, became in- 

 volved in difficulties with the New 

 England colonies, and also with those 

 Swedish settlers on the Delaware ; and 

 while he failed in his attempt to get the 

 New England colonies under the Dutch 

 rule, he did succeed in defeating the 

 Swedes, who accepted Dutch sover- 

 eignty. 



Religious toleration was the rule, and 

 Bohemian, English, French, Germans, 

 Italians, and Swiss were induced to 

 come to the new colony. 



Another colony of great importance 

 to the country was that founded by 

 Lord Baltimore in Maryland. This 

 colony was Catholic, but the principle 

 of religious freedom, which has since 

 become a part of our national life, was 

 first inaugurated in this territory. 



French Huguenots, coming here after 

 the edict of Nantes, formed an impor- 

 tant settlement in the south. 



The Quakers, who came to the United 

 States in the latter part of the 17th cen- 

 tury, by the straightforwardness of their 

 dealings with the Indians, did much to 

 supplement the civilizing influence that 

 was being carried on by the Jesuits in 

 French Canada, to whom no little credit 

 is due. Without regard to their per- 

 sonal comfort or safety, these priests in- 

 stituted a missionary work among the 

 Hurons, Iroquois, and Algonquins, 

 which lasted until the annihilation of the 

 Huron tribe. They entered into the 

 daily life of the Indians, and it required 

 years of good example to make the 

 slightest impression. Their sufferings 

 and martyrdom are incredible ; but as 

 fast as one was massacred another was 

 sent to take his place, and the recog- 

 nition of the Puritan governor of New 

 England in inviting Jesuit missionaries 

 to be his guests and the guests of the 

 colony is the best proof that these 

 Protestants were convinced of the ex- 



