Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/587

 EMIGRATION 579 remarkable illustrations of this kind were pre- sented by the great exodus from Ireland and that from Germany during the period 1845 to 1854, when the highest figures till then known in the history of emigration were reached. After the great famine of 1846, the emigration from Ireland to the United States, which had increased from 44,821 in 1845 to 51,752 in 1846, rapidly rose to 105,536 in 1847, 112,934 in 1848, 159,398 in 1849, and 164,004 in 1850. It reached its maximum in 1851, when 221,213 Irish emigrants arrived in the United States; and in the following year it decreased to 159,548. During the period from 1845 to 1854 inclusive, 1,512,100 Irish left their coun- try for the United States, of whom 607,241 came during the first and 904,859 during the last half of the decade. Since 1854 the move- ment has fallen off to less than one half of the average of the preceding ten years. During this same period the emigration from Germa- ny also culminated. This increase was very marked as early as 1845, when the number of German emigrants was 33,138; in 1847 it reached 73,444; in 1848, 58,014; in 1849, 60,062 ; and in 1850, 63,168. This disturbance in the ordinary tide of emigration has been attributed to the political revolutions attempted in 1848 and 1849. The increase continued till 1854, when the German emigrants reached the number of 206,054. In discussing the causes of this remarkable exodus Frederick Kapp, for many years a commissioner of emigration, says in his work on " Immigration " : " The coup d'e- tat 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 oppres- sion had remained doubtful. But the second 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 regime 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 apprehen- sion of a new continental war, which actually broke out a year later in the Crimea, also hast- ened the steps of those who sought refuge in this country. People of the well-to-do class- es, who had months and years to wait before they could sell their property, helped to swell the tide to its extraordinary proportions." From the beginning of 1845 to the close of 1854 the number of Germans arriving in the United States was 1,226,392, of whom 452,943 came in the first and 773,449 in the last five years. In 1866 and 1867 the tide of German emigration again began to swell, "in conse- quence," according to Mr. Kapp, "of the emi- gration of men liable to military service from the new provinces annexed to Prussia in 1866, and of families dissatisfied with the new order of things." In 1872 it reached the unprece- dented magnitude, except in 1854, of 155,595. The extent of the emigration to the United States, however, is not governed by political events, failure of crops, commercial and in- dustrial crises, &c., acting in Europe alone, but also by the same causes operating in this country. The effects of the great financial crisis of 1837 are indicated in the falling off of the total immigration from 79,340 in that year to 38,914 in the following. And so the commercial crisis of 1857 was followed in the two ensuing years by a smaller im- migration than that of any year since 1845 ; while during the first two years of the civil war (1861 and 1862), the number of aliens ar- riving was less than that of any year since 1844. Since the close of the war there has been a marked increase. The arrivals amounted to 449,483 in 1872, being more than in any pre- ceding year, and 437,004 in 1873. The north- ern and western states, chiefly the latter, have been the chosen destination of the great ma- jority of emigrants to the United States. Prior to the civil war there was very little emigra- tion to those states in which slavery existed, except Missouri. Since the war great efforts have been made by the southern and south- western states to encourage emigrants to settle there, but with only partial success as yet. In many of these states bureaus of emigration have been established or commissioners ap- pointed, for the purpose of preparing reports showing the inducements offered to emigrants. This information is published in various lan- guages and gratuitously distributed in the Uni- ted States and in Europe. The United States bureau of statistics also publishes information for emigrants relative to the demand and com- pensation for labor in the several states, the cost of living, the price and rent of land, staple products, market facilities, the cost of farm stock, and such other practical informa- tion as the emigrant most needs. The con- tribution made by emigration to the popula- tion and wealth of the United States has been in the highest degree valuable and important. Its extent, however, is determined only by com- putation, and different authorities have reached different results. According to Mr. Kapp, who followed the estimate of Mr. Schade that the natural rate of increase in the native population of the United States, exclusive of slaves, had been 1'38 per cent., that population, including white and free colored, would have been 8,435,- 882 in 1860, and 9,675,041 in 1870 ; whereas the total white and free colored population, in- cluding the foreign element, was 27,489,662 in 1860, while the white population alone in 1870 was 33,589,377. According to this calcula- tion, more than 24,000,000 of the population in 1870 was of foreign extraction. Dr. Jarvis, however, has shown that this proportion is entirely too great, owing in part to the fact that the census reports of the number of births and deaths on which the calculation is based are erroneous. According to the federal cen- sus, the number of foreign-born living in th