Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/26

4 and far-reaching influence of these Canadian priests. Their humanizing influence was felt forever afterward. The Indians came to know that they could depend upon the work of these missionaries and the Quakers, which made their subsequent dealings with all white men more peaceful.

Not the least important of the alien forces that combined to make the colonial history of this country were the thousands of Irish, who were sent to England after the time of Cromwell, compelled to give up their Irish names, and given such names as "Brown," "White," "Black," "Carpenter," " Shoemaker," etc., after they settled in Virginia and northward. It is stated—which fact seems to be borne out by the parliamentary discussions in England after the war of the revolution—that one-third of the American soldiers in the Revolution were of Irish birth or descent.

This short history of the colonial settlement of the United States it necessary in order to emphasize the point that what we call "American character" is really a combination of the racial characteristics of the alien forces that came to the United States prior to the War of the Revolution. As President Roosevelt said in writing of New York city of 1775:

"New York's population was composed of various races, differing widely in blood, religion, and conditions of life. In fact, this diversity has always been the dominant note of New York. No sooner had one set of varying elements been fused together than another stream has been poured into the crucible."

In New York particularly this diversity of race is most noticeable. Baron Steuben was a Prussian; Hamilton was born among the West Indian Islands, of Scotch parents; Hoffman, the son of Swedish parents; Herkimer, a German; Jay, Dutch; Clinton, Irish; Schuyler, Hollander; Morris, Welsh. This amalgam of blood and diverse races has resulted in the acknowledged highest national character known to the civilized world, and the fusion of their ideas has had immense effect on the permanency of the institutions we now enjoy.

IMMIGRATION DURING NINETEENTH CENTURY

It is not necessary to go deeply into the story of immigration during the early part of the past century. It is interesting, pathetic, and in some of its details horrible. In the suburbs of Montreal is a stone with the inscription that it is "sacred to the memory of six thousand emigrants who died of ship fever in one year—1847." The conditions of immigration were then vastly different. Immigrants were subjected to treatment that would seem incredible now. Most of them could not pay their passage, and were sold on arrival by the shipping companies into temporary servitude as "indented servants." During the whole of the eighteenth century the prepayment of passage was the exception and subsequent slavery was the rule. As a consequence old people would not sell well, and their children had to serve longer to make up for them. Whenever a ship arrived at New York or Philadelphia, the immigrants were put up at public sale. Families were separated forever. A master not wishing to keep his servant could transfer him to another. Parents sold their children for a period of years in order to become free themselves. The treatment of these poor creature can be easily imagined. This state of affairs continued until 1819, when a law was passed compelling certain improvements and the manifesting of emigrants from 1820. Since this law went into effect the number of immigrants arriving yearly has practically been an almost infallible industrial barometer.

The variations in our immigration