a tremendous power, and its chief effects have been wrought
upon population. Neither the social companionship nor the industrial
competition of the foreigner has, broadly speaking, been welcome to the
native.

It hardly needs to be said that the foregoing descriptions are not
intended to apply to all of the vast body of immigrants during this
period. Thousands came over from good homes; many had all the advantages
of education and culture; some possessed the highest qualities of
manhood and citizenship.

But let us proceed with the census. By 1860 the causes operating to
reduce the growth of the native element--to which had then manifestly
been added the force of important changes in the manner of living, the
introduction of more luxurious habits, the influence of city life, and
the custom of "boarding"--had reached such a height as, in spite of a
still-increasing immigration, to leave the population of the country
310,503 below the estimate. The fearful losses of the Civil War and the
rapid extension of habits unfavorable to increase of numbers make any
further use of Watson's computations uninstructive; yet still the great
fact protrudes through all the subsequent history of our population that
the more rapidly foreigners came into the United States, the smaller was
the rate of increase, not merely among the native population separately,
but throughout the population of the country, as a whole, including the
foreigners. The climax of this movement was reached when, during the
decade 1880-90, the foreign arrivals rose to the monstrous total of five
and a quarter millions (twice what had ever before been known), while
the population, even including this enormous re-enforcement, increased
more slowly than in any other period of our history except, possibly,
that of the great Civil War.

If the foregoing views are true, or contain any considerable degree of
truth, foreign immigration into this country has, from the time it first
assumed large proportions, amounted, not to a reinforcement of our
population, but to a replacement of native by foreign stock. That if the
foreigners had not come the native element would long have filled the
places the foreigners usurped, I entertain not a doubt. The competency
of the American stock to do this it would be absurd to question, in the
face of such a record as that for 1790 to 1830. During the period from
1830 to 1860 the material conditions of existence in this country were
cont