The “Old Immigration”

When the first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790, there were about 3.9 million people in the newly independent United States. Inhabitants of European descent numbered about 3.1 million,^[1] roughly 60% of whom were of English descent. Other groups from the British Isle, included Welsh, Scotch-Irish, Scottish and Irish peoples who collectively made up another 26% of the European population, bringing the total of British inhabitants to about 2.6 million or 86% of the total white, European population.^[2]

In 1790, Germans comprised the largest group of non-British people of European descent, making up a sizable 9% of Europeans. (However, in Pennsylvania, Germans were so numerous that they outnumbered all other groups, including the English.) Besides the large German population, there were smaller non-British populations of Dutch living primarily in New York and New Jersey. Otherwise, there were some French settlers scattered throughout the colonies and a much smaller population of Swedes.^[3]

In addition to people of European descent, the census provided for the counting of enslaved and free people of African descent. In 1790, enslaved blacks numbered more than 700,000, and free blacks numbered nearly 60,000.^[4] Indians, however, were not counted, as Article I: Section 2 of the Constitution called only for the counting of “the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

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At the time the U.S. Constitution was created, the issues of immigration and naturalization—or the process by which an immigrant could become a citizen—were not much discussed. However, it was generally understood among the nation’s founders that in order for the new country to grow and prosper, it would be necessary to admit new immigrants.^[5] Among the many pieces of legislation passed by the first U.S. Congress was the Naturalization Act of 1790. Although it placed no restrictions on immigration, it limited citizenship to “free white person[s] … of good character,” further stipulating that the prospective citizen must have resided in the U.S. for at least two years.^[6] The wording of the Naturalization Act of 1790 obviously privileged Europeans and excluded even free-blacks. Indians, of course, were also not included. The various naturalization laws also set the stage for the exclusion of Asians, who at any rate would only begin showing up in large numbers in the 1850s.

Although the acceptance of immigrants was generally recognized as a practical necessity, native-born Americans worried from the very beginning, as many still do today, about the (largely imaginary) dangers that immigrants might pose. Thomas Jefferson thought that the principles upon which the U.S. was founded, being “a composition of the freest principles of the English Constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason” might be too difficult for the foreign-born to grasp, since he expected virtually all foreign-born immigrants to come from countries ruled by monarchies. Another popular concern was that the foreign-born would not easily embrace loyalty to their newly adopted country as against the tendency to cling to their loyalty to a home country. James Madison was sympathetic to Jefferson’s concerns but thought it prudent “to invite foreigners of merit and republican principles” although it was not really clear just how it would be possible to figure out which foreigners satisfied Madison’s criteria.^[7]

On the other hand, Benjamin Franklin, having overcome the doubts he had expressed as early as 1755 when he complained about the unwillingness of the Germans in Pennsylvania to assimilate, was less concerned about the supposed dangers that immigrants might pose. Franklin thought it “sufficient proof of fealty to republican ideals and principles of government if individuals had left the countries of their birth and had chosen to live in the new nation.” James Wilson, who had been born in Scotland, pointed out that most officers on the front lines during the Revolutionary War had been foreign-born. in Wilson’s view, it was clear that newcomers could be just as devoted to the well-being of their adopted nation as anyone born in the United States.^[8]

Nevertheless, very few of the founding fathers were themselves immigrants, and throughout the 1790s, debates on immigration and naturalization policy raged among the predominantly native-born, Anglo-American elite with little regard for the opinions of immigrants themselves.^[9] In fact, Congress revisited the Naturalization Act of 1790 twice before the end of the decade, each time making it more difficult for an immigrant to become a naturalized citizen. For example, in 1795, Congress increased the residency requirement for naturalization from two years to five years. Then in 1798, Congress raised the residency requirement again, this time increasing the waiting period from five to fourteen years! Finally, as the 19th century dawned, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1802, and reestablished the less restrictive five-year residency requirement for naturalized citizenship.^[10]

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Migration from Europe to the United States remained light for the first several decades after the American Revolution. It only began to pick up after 1815 when the Irish kicked off what would become a wave of ever-growing European mass migration to America that would last for a century. Shortly thereafter, beginning in about 1830, German immigration, too, began to build. Meanwhile, in 1848, Chinese immigrants began arriving in California although their numbers were never as great as those of the Irish or Germans. These three groups were among those that by the early 20th century would come to be called “the old immigration.”

For decades, Irish and German immigrants outnumbered all other groups, but by the 1870s, new waves of immigrants began arriving from countries in southern Europe and the Middle East as well as from eastern Europe. In the section that follows, we tell the stories of three groups representative of the old immigration: the Germans, the Irish, and the Chinese.^[11]

We begin with the Germans who although comprising a major element of the old immigration also made significant contributions in the early colonial era, which is where we will begin the German story (Chapter 5). Next, we take up the story of the Irish (Chapter 6). While there were some Irish immigrants in the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, their numbers were relatively small compared to the later waves of Irish immigration, and the Irish presence during this period was often overshadowed by the dominant English colonial culture. Therefore, we begin our treatment of the Irish during the major wave of Irish immigration between 1815 and 1845. We finish off Part II with the story of the Chinese (Chapter 7).