Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/313

Rh America shared the political beliefs of their English neighbors. The Anglo-Saxon civilization was not the separate property of the race from which it takes its name. The lowland Scotch and the Irish were and are as much Anglo-Saxon in this respect as the English themselves. In the War of the Revolution the Scotch and the Irish patriots held the same opinions and cherished the same purposes as the English, and fought for them with no less courage and devotion.

The American Revolution implied no change of principles. If it resulted in institutional changes, the new institutions are essentially English in origin and in quality. The establishment of the American republic was an advance in the true line of Anglo-Saxon development, and no part of the country has ever been so thoroughly Anglo-Saxon as the South. Even Mr. Douglas Campbell, who has written an ingenious polemical book to prove that everything good in the North is of Dutch origin, stops with Pennsylvania, contents himself with saying that the South, which was not under Dutch influence, contributed only one principle to the commonwealth and that a borrowed one.

The Anglo-Saxon supremacy in the South has never been overcome. The South has had almost no immigration. Foreigners go to the West and Northwest.

But statistics are more convincing than general statements. In order to show how thoroughly American the population of the Southern States is, I present the following statistics taken fresh from our new census. I confine my attention to the white population.

According to the census of 1890 there were for every 100,000 native-born Americans 17,330 foreign born. The State of New York has in round numbers 4,400,000 native and 1,600,000 foreign born citizens, being 35,000 foreign for every 100,000 native. In Illinois for each 100,000 native born citizens there are 28,200 foreign born; in Michigan, 35,000; in Wisconsin, 44,400; in Minnesota, 56,600; in Montana, 48,400; in North Dakota, 80,400.

When we turn to the Southern States the contrast is impressive. By Southern States I mean Alabama, Arkansas,