According to statistics published by the Herold, a New York paper, at least ten million foreigners came to the United States during the last ninety years. Prior to 1820, no definite records were kept. A careful investigation leads one to believe that 250,000 persons came to the United States from the time of the founding of the Republic to 1820.

Dr. Adam Seybert, former member of Congress and author of Statistical Annals of the United States for the Years 1789 to 1818, estimates the average yearly immigration at six thousand persons during the years 1790 to 1810. Throughout the war period from 1806 to 1816, when all of Europe was involved in strife, and when England and America were preparing for the War of 1812, immigration ceased almost entirely.

In those early years emigrants had to embark from England, that being the usual 2route, and when Napoleon's decrees closed every continental European harbor to Great Britain, all adventurous emigrants simply had to postpone their travels until more auspicious times.

Immigration revived in 1817, when more than 22,240 persons came to the United States. In no previous year was such a number recorded; in fact, it exceeded by more than one half any previous yearly figure. The suffering the voyagers had to endure on the badly equipped vessels, as well the large number of arrivals, prompted Congress to pass a law for the regulation of passenger ships and the issuance of a travelers list which had to be forwarded to the Treasury Department. How this trickling stream of immigrants grew into a mighty river-- a "Human Mississippi", as the Herold aptly calls it--is shown by the following table comprising the years 1789 to 1877:

Year	Number of Immigrants	Year	Number of Immigrants
1789-1819	250,000 (in round numbers)	1820	8,385
1821	9,127	1822	6,901

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Year	Number of Immigrants	Year	Number of Immigrants
1823	6,354	1824	7,912
1825	10,199	1826	19,837
1827	18,875	1828	27,382
1829	22,250	1830	23,322
1831	22,633	1832	60,482
1833	58,640	1834	65,565
1835	45,374	1836	75,243
1837	79,640	1838	38,911
1839	68,069	1840	84,066
1841	80,289	1842	104,565
1843	52,496	1844	78,615
1845	114,371	1846	154,416
1847	234,968	1848	226,527
1849	297,024	1850	369,980
1851	379,466	1852	371,603
1853	368,645	1854	427,833
1855	200,887	1856	200,436

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Year	Number of Immigrants	Year	Number of Immigrants
1857	251,306	1858	123,126
1859	121,282	1860	153,640
1861	91,920	1862	91,987
1863	176,282	1864	193,416
1865	349,061	1866	318,494
1867	298,558	1868	297,215
1869	395,922	1870	378,766
1871	367,789	1872	440,483
1873	437,004	1874	277,593
1875	209,063	1876	187,027
1877	149,020		Total 9,880,793 [sic]

The increase in immigration during some years can be ascribed to various interesting factors. During the years 1827-1837, the building of the Erie Canal and other public works of large proportion, brought about heavy immigration. In 1832, when Europe was ravished by cholera, immigration increased from 22,633 5[1831] to 60,482 persons. Political conditions prior to 1850 also tended to increase the influx, and the Irish famine of 1848-50 and the German reaction, 1851-54, produced similar results. After 1857 there is a decline throughout several years in our immigration, and, at the outbreak of the Civil War, 1861, immigration figures reached the lowest level in seventeen years. However, before the termination of the Civil War confidence in the permanency of the Union manifested itself again throughout the world and immigration figures were doubled in a single year. From then until the financial crash, immigration showed a constant increase, and from 1872 to 1873 almost one million people came to the shores of the New World. The cessation of activities due to the panic and the ensuing years thereafter--a period of great depression--were followed by a new movement, the German immigration which outnumbered that of any other nationality. Emigration from Germany was more than twice as large as the Irish migration during the last three months. The following figures show the percentage of immigration:

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Year	Irish Percent	Germans Percent	Other Nations Percent	Total Immigration Percent
1847	41.02	45.30	14.68	100.00
1848	51.84	29.05	19.11	100.00
1849	51.04	28.63	20.43	100.00
1850	55.00	24.10	20.90	100.00
1851	56.32	26.04	17.64	100.00
1852	35.92	40.85	23.25	100.00
1853	39.71	43.12	17.17	100.00
1854	25.78	56.56	17.56	100.00
1855	31.59	40.81	27.60	100.00
1856	31.11	42.47	26.42	100.00
1857	31.08	45.87	23.05	100.00
1858	31.91	41.99	25.10	100.00
1859	41.16	37.11	21.73	100.00
1860	45.01	37.39	17.60	100.00
1861	43.44	38.29	18.27	100.00
1862	42.22	40.32	17.46	100.00

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Year	Irish Percent	Germans Percent	Other Nations Percent	Total Immigration Percent
1863	58.12	24.90	16.96	100.00
1864	49.04	33.14	17.82	100.00
1865	35.89	44.56	19.55	100.00
1866	29.16	46.44	24.40	100.00
1867	26.83	52.28	20.89	100.00
1868	22.26	56.17	21.57	100.00
1869	25.56	30.39	24.05	100.00
1870	30.71	42.25	27.04	100.00
1871	28.52	45.88	25.60	100.00
1872	23.34	52.46	24.20	100.00
1873	26.31	36.74	36.55	100.00
1874	34.56	38.73	26.71	100.00
1875	23.56	30.22	46.22	100.00
1876	15.11	30.82	54.07	100.00
1877	15.08	32.57	53.35	100.00
1878	17.27	30.59	52.14	100.00
Average	35.28	37.96	26.76	100.00

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During the period from 1847 to 1879 we have the following figures on immigrants from various countries:

Germany, 2,165,232; Ireland, 2,020,071; England, 742,271; Scotland, 742,271; Sweden, 124,703; France, 110,853; Switzerland, 85,946; etc. According to these figures, 5,732,183 immigrants came to the United States during the aforementioned years [1847-1879].

Quite aside from the gain derived from a greater supply of labor, the country as a whole obtains considerable pecuniary advantages from immigration. Several years ago the superintendent of Castle Garden, estimated the per capita wealth of every immigrant at $68. According to that estimate, immigrants have increased the capital in the United States by $389,788,444 during the period from 1847 up to April 1 of this year; applying the same figures, we find that the nation has been enriched by $700,000,000 since the beginning of immigration.

The estimate is probably too low, because German and Scandinavian immigrants 9often have considerable money. If one therefore assumes a per capita wealth of $100--which is probably more accurate--then the capital increase in the United States, due to immigration, amounts of $1,000,000,000.

New capital from this source [immigration] will not be cut off. No, indeed! Bismarck and the sovereigns of Europe will see to that.