Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/20

6 perseverance of these voluntary and involuntary exiles have, in a comparatively short time, built up a powerful commonwealth, the proud structure of this Republic, which in itself is the glorification, the epopee of free and intelligent labor.

The immigration of Europeans in large masses into America, however, is of a more recent date, an outgrowth of the nineteenth century. It is true, in earlier periods, immigrants also found their way to the European possessions in the New World, but their number at any given time was comparatively small. There arrived during the whole year, in all the American colonies, hardly as many as land now on one summer day in the city of New York alone. During the first century of the settlement of the country by the English and the Dutch, a few hundred new immigrants attracted the public attention of the whole colony, and towards the end of the last century the arrival of two ships laden with Germans, on one day, created quite a sensation in New York.

The reasons for this numerical difference are obvious. Communication between Europe and America was in its infancy. During the favorable season of the year, a vessel now and then sailed from an English, Dutch, or French port for America. No Continental country had any intercourse with the then English colonies except by way of England. The trips required seldom less than eight weeks. Their regular time was from three to four months, but very often the passage occupied six months and more. On the other hand, the horizon of the European masses did not extend beyond their native village and its immediate neighborhood. The great majority of the people were too poor, too degraded even to conceive the idea of throwing off their shackles, of trying, at least, to run away from their misery to the New World. The two countries, which were then, as they are now, the principal sources of emigration, viz., Germany and Ireland, furnished a small number only. In South-western Germany, emigration on a large scale commenced in the beginning of the eighteenth century, in consequence of wars, famine, and religious persecutions; but, during the whole century, only from 80,000 to 100,000 Germans settled in America. Ireland did not send forth as many tens as it does now thousands.