The strength and influence of this organization excited the uneasiness of the English government, and its minister here, Sir Robert Liston, used every effort to check the progress of the sympathetic movement. He was unfortunately enabled to attain his object, to a great extent, through his close intimacy with the highest officers of our government. In 1798, the “Alien Act” was passed in Congress, by a small majority. By this enactment, the president could order any alien he deemed dangerous to quit the country, others were to be licensed to remain during his pleasure, and neglect to obtain a license was made an offense punishable by three years’ imprisonment, and perpetual disqualification for citizenship. Fourteen years was fixed as the time necessary for an alien to reside here before he could become a citizen. This law excited deep indignation, and was strongly denounced by many independent journals. In order to prevent hostile criticism, the “Sedition Law” was passed, by which a fine of $2,000 was imposed upon any one who should write or publish a letter against the government, either house of Congress, or the president. Many were tried and several punished under these acts, and some had to fly the country to escape the threatened penalties.
The English minister was jubilant. In a letter to the governor-general of Canada, written in 1799, he gleefully told how some supporters of the coercive measures had “taken the law into their own hands, and flogged one or two of the printers of the newspapers whose comments had offended them,” and he remarked that this proceeding had “given rise to much animosity, to threats, and to a commencing of armed associations among those opposed to these laws, particularly among the United Irishmen,” adding, “Some apprehend that the affair may lead to a civil war.”
The Alien and Sedition laws were repealed three years later, the bill for that purpose being introduced by Senator Smilie, a native of Newtonards, Down county, Ireland, and a veteran of the Revolution. In 1812 he was a member of the foreign affairs committee, and prepared the bill authorizing President Madison to raise an army to fight the English.
Among the many prominent United Irishmen who arrived here about this period were Napper Tandy, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Mathew Carey, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Robert Adrian, who became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Columbia college, and later was made vice-provost of the University of Pennsylvania. There came at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Thomas Addis Emmet, afterward attorney-general of New York state; Dr. William J. Macneven; Counselor Sampson; W. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a worthy son of his heroic father; Nicholas Grey, who had been adjutant to General Harvey, commander of the Wexford insurgent army in ’98; Henry Jackson, John Cormack, and many others. Alexander Porter, another of these immigrants, was too young in ’98 to become a member of the organization in Ireland, but his father, Rev. W. Porter, a Protestant minister of Newtonards, Down, had been hanged at his own door for his patriotism during the insurrection. Mr. Porter was later chosen United States senator from the state of Louisiana.
During the war of 1812–’15, large numbers of Irish joined the armies of the republic and shared in the victories as well as the defeats of that conflict. When General Scott and his small force was overpowered at Queenstown Heights by a greatly superior body of English and compelled to surrender, a number of the Irish prisoners of war were separated from their comrades and sent in irons to England “in order to be tried and executed for the crime of high treason.” The United States government, however, threatened to retaliate, and because of this fact, the men were ultimately released and allowed to return to this country. Many Irish also fought under Harrison, one of them (Mason) being credited with having killed the Indian chief, Tecumseh, at the battle of the Thames, and among the gallant men who under Andrew Jackson so decisively defeated the English at New Orleans on January 8, 1815, were numbers who had been born in his father’s native land, including several veterans of the insurrection of ’98.
While the war lasted, immigration from Europe was checked, but very soon after the restoration of peace, immigrants, particularly from Ireland, began to come here in far greater numbers than ever before. The English, however, notwithstanding the treaty of Ghent, were still bitterly hostile to the Americans, and their press indulged in the coarsest abuse of our institutions and public men. Inflamed by jealousy of this republic, and anxious to prevent the Irish from emigrating to it, the English parliament in 1816 passed a law which prohibited British vessels from carrying more than one passenger for every five tons burden to the United States, while allowing them to carry one passenger for every two tons to any other part of the world.
But this law did not produce the desired effect. Professor Smith says that “from Great Britain (and Ireland) the number of emigrants for the year 1815 was only 2,081. The next year it rose to 12,510; in 1817 to 20,634; in 1818 to 27,787, and in 1819 to 34,789.”
Holmes says, speaking of the year 1816: “In this and the preceding year there was a great emigration from Ireland and England to America. This year 1,192 American and foreign vessels arrived at New York, bringing to that port alone 7,122 passengers.” From the same authority we learn that the returns of vessels and passengers at Baltimore showed the arrival at that port early in October, 1816, of 1,878 passengers; those reported being estimated at probably three fourths of the whole number that arrived. From another source we find that “within three weeks, in the month of September, 1816, about 2,000 immigrants arrived in the United States.” Similar notices may be frequently found in the newspapers of those times.
The English authorities, while endeavoring to prevent the Irish from coming to the United States, exerted themselves vigorously to promote emigration to Canada. Municipal bodies, local organizations, and various societies contributed funds to assist those intending to emigrate, and at the same time liberal grants of land and other inducements were offered to prospective settlers in Canada. As a result of these efforts, the immigrants from Ireland and Britain to Canada out-numbered, for many years, those who came to the United States. The great majority of the Irish, however, soon found their way to this country, and especially to New York, where work was progressing at that time on the Erie and Champlain canals. Of all these, no account was taken by officials or writers on emigration at the time, and but little by those who wrote later on the subject, though one writer admits that there was even more recently “considerable overland immigration, much of which escapes attention.”
It seems evident, taking all the facts above cited into consideration, that the estimates of those writers of the number of immigrants, and particularly of Irish immigrants who arrived here between 1790 and 1820, are very much too low, and it appears very reasonable to assume that Dr. Chickering’s estimate of the number of immigrants who came here after 1820—that is 50 per cent. more than the officially reported number of arrivals—must be largely increased when we are endeavoring to ascertain how many immigrants landed on our shores before the date just mentioned, and before any attempt was made to obtain the number of those who arrived in the United States, even through our Atlantic ports.