We often hear about the glory days of immigration when America threw open her arms to the huddled masses
acknowledges The Federalist's
D.C. McAllister,
but one thing you don’t hear about is how those people had to make it on their own without a government safety net. There was plenty of private charity, which was highly encouraged, but health care, a minimum-wage job, college entrance, housing, legal representation, and education certainly weren’t promised—not like today.
In 1819, John Quincy Adams wrote a letter as secretary of State under
President James Monroe to a man named von Fiirstenwarther, who had
written a report about emigration in Germany and wanted the U.S.
government to give him a job if he immigrated to the United States from
his native country. The letter gives great insight into attitudes about
immigration at a time when it was becoming a serious issue; the nation
was in a financial crisis because banks were printing too much money,
and the country was expanding at an overwhelming rate. Jobs weren’t as
easy to come by as they had been in the past (sound familiar?). The idea
of immigrants receiving government subsistence was nonsensical. The
borders were open, but it was up to each individual to make his or her
own way in the New World. Americans then valued personal responsibility
and liberty more highly than security and public welfare.
Adam’s letter reveals this fact like nothing else. It is difficult to find (it was printed in Niles’ Weekly Register, Volume 18, in 1820), and it would be a surprise if most politicians today have even read it—but they should.
Here it is … (italics added). Let its wisdom be a lesson for
today as we throw open our borders to the poor in an age of government
largesse.
The Letter from John Quincy Adams
Sir—I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 22nd April,
enclosing one from your kinsman, the Baron de Gagern, and a copy of your
printed report, which I hope and have no doubt will be useful to those
of your countrymen in Germany, who may have entertained erroneous ideas,
with regard to the results of emigration from Europe to this country.
It was explicitly stated to you, and your report has taken just
notice of the statement, that the government of the United States has
never adopted any measure to encourage or invite emigrants from any part
of Europe. It has never held out any incitements to induce the subjects
of any other sovereign to abandon their own country, to become
inhabitants of this. From motives of humanity it has occasionally
furnished facilities to emigrants who, having arrived here with views of
forming settlements, have specially needed such assistance to carry
them into effect. Neither the general government of the union, nor those
of the individual states, are ignorant or unobservant of the additional
strength and wealth, which accrues to the nation, by the accession of a
mass of healthy, industrious, and frugal laborers, nor are they in any
manner insensible to the great benefits which this country has derived,
and continues to derive, from the influx of such adoptive children from
Germany.
But there is one principle which pervades all the institutions of
this country, and which must always operate as an obstacle to the
granting of favors to new comers. This is a land, not of
privileges, but of equal rights. Privileges are granted by European
sovereigns to particular classes of individuals, for purposes of general
policy; but the general impression here is that privileges granted to
one denomination of people, can very seldom be discriminated from
erosions of the rights of others.
Emigrants from Germany, therefore, or from elsewhere, coming here, are not to expect favors from the governments. They
are to expect, if they choose to become citizens, equal rights with
those of the natives of the country. They are to expect, if affluent, to
possess the means of making their property productive, with moderation,
and with safety;—if indigent, but industrious, honest and frugal, the
means of obtaining easy and comfortable subsistence for themselves and
their families.
They come to a life of independence, but to a life of labor—and,
if they cannot accommodate themselves to the character, moral,
political, and physical, of this country, with all its compensating
balances of good and evil, the Atlantic is always open to them, to
return to the land of their nativity and their fathers.
To one thing they must make up their minds, or, they will be
disappointed in every expectation of happiness as Americans. They must
cast off the European skin, never to resume it. They must look forward
to their posterity, rather than backward to their ancestors; they must
be sure that whatever their own feelings may be, those of their children
will cling to the prejudices of this country, and will partake of that
proud spirit, not unmingled with disdain, which you have observed is
remarkable in the general character of this people, and as perhaps
belonging peculiarly to those of German descent, born in this country.
Yes, Europeans must must
cast off the European skin, never to resume it — i.e., it is the total opposite of what leftists say, that Americans must start acting like all other nations, especially those oh-so-wonderful Europeans.
That feeling of superiority over other nations which you have
noticed, and which has been so offensive to other strangers, who have
visited these shores, arises from the consciousness of every individual
that, as a member of society, no man in the country is above him; and,
exulting in this sentiment, he looks down upon those nations where the
mass of the people feel themselves the inferiors of privileged classes,
and where men are high or low, according to the accidents of their
birth.
Indeed, the disparaging image the leftists trot about Republicans, or conservatives, or flyover country, or Americans generally, is a centuries-old image that comes precisely from those very "strangers", the — offended — upper classes of Europe.
But hence it is that no government in the world possesses so few means
of bestowing favors, as the government of the United States. The
governments are the servants of the people, and are so considered by the
people, who place and displace them at their pleasure. They are chosen
to manage for short periods the common concerns, and when they cease to
give satisfaction, they cease to be employed. If the powers, however, of
the government to do good are restricted, those of doing harm are still
more limited. The dependence, in affairs of government, is the reverse
of the practice in Europe, instead of the people depending upon their
rulers, the rulers, as such, are always dependent upon the good will of
the people.
… We expect therefore very few, if any transplanted countrymen from
classes of people who enjoy happiness, ease, or even comfort, in their
native climes. The happy and contented remain at home, and it requires
an impulse, at least as keen as that of urgent want, to drive a man from
the soil of his nativity and the land of his father’s sepulchres. Of
the very few emigrants of more fortunate classes, who ever make the
attempt of settling in this country, a principal proportion sicken at
the strangeness of our manners, and after a residence, more or less
protracted, return to the countries whence they came.
