Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/28

14 German contingent of emigrants to the United States showed an average twice as large as in the same space of time previous to the year named. But a voluntary expatriation on a much larger scale resulted from the final triumph of political reaction. The coup d'état of Louis Napoleon closed for all Europe the revolutionary era opened in 1848. In the three years preceding that event, the issue of the struggle of the people against political oppression had remained doubtful. But the 2d of December, 1851, having decided the success of the oppressors for a long time to come, the majority of those who felt dissatisfied with the reactionary régime left their homes. The fact that the largest number of Germans ever landed in one year in the United States came in 1854 showed the complete darkening of the political horizon at that time. The apprehension of a new Continental war, which actually broke out a year later in the Crimea, also hastened the steps of those who sought refuge in this country. People of the well-to-do classes, who had months and years to wait before they could sell their property, helped to swell the tide to its extraordinary proportions. From January 1, 1845, till December 31, 1854, there arrived 1,226,392 Germans in the United States, 452,943 of whom came in the first five years of this period, and 773,449 in the last five.

But the numerical strength of immigration to this country is not governed by material and moral disturbances in Europe, only. While bad crops, commercial and industrial crises, and unfavorable turns in political affairs in the Old World tend to increase immigration, the appearance of the same phenomena in the United States as certainly tends to decrease it. Thus, in 1838 the total of immigration decreased to 38,914, while in the previous year it had amounted to 79,340, and in 1839 and 1840 it increased again to 68,069 and 84,066 respectively. The reason of this extraordinary decrease was the great financial crisis of 1837, which shook the foundation of the whole industrial and agricultural life of the United States. Again, the influx of aliens into New York was smaller in 1858 and 1859 than in any previous year since 1842, for the only reason that the commercial crisis of 1857 had frightened those who wanted to make a living by the labor of their hands. Thus, the total emigration from the