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    September % 1854.] THE LEADEK. 819

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    THE PROJECT TO EMPTY EUROPE. The followi...

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    September % 1854.] The Leadek. 819

    September % 1854 . ] THE LEADEK . 819

    The Project To Empty Europe. The Followi...

    THE PROJECT TO EMPTY EUROPE . The following is the communication ( to which we elsewhere refer ) of the Boston correspondent of the Times : — " The persons who accompanied the first party of the Massachusetts Emigration Company to Kanzas have returned , and made a favourable report of the expedition , and a new party is now about starting to join the colony . It seems that they passed in safety

    through the dangers of cholera and the yet greate r dangers of railways and steamboats , and after ascending the Missouri river , to the mouth of the Kanzas ( which is about on the western boundary of the state of Missouri ) , ascended the Kanzas river some forty miles , to a spot which struclcTihem as fiivourable for the foundation of their new city , and proceeded to 'locate' their claims , pitch their tents , build their cabins , and settle . I gave in my last letter some account of the reasons which had led to

    tins enterprise , and will now endeavour to state its plan , and the results which it purposes to accomplish . T ? he eyes of the whole country are now fixed upon it with interest . "When the passage of the Kanzas Bill was made certain , the advocates of free labour over slave labour gave up the question as lost , until this scheriie was devised . The Massachusetts Legislature was then in session , and application was made to it for a charter for an incorporated company , to be called the

    Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company , ' for the purpose of assisting emigrants to settle in the west . ' The company were authorised to hold capital , stock to an amount not to" exceed five millions of dollars , to be divided into shares of 100 dollars each , of which not more than four dollars were to be assessed during the present year . The company met and were organised , and proceeded to operate with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars . They appointed an efficient Committee , arid marked out a plan of operations , of which the following is the substance : —

    " The last census demonstrated what all persons familiar with America knew before , tliat there is a double migration going ori in this country—the emigration of EuTopean peasantry , artisans , and tradespeople to America , and the migration of native born Americans from the east to the west . The foreign arrivals in the country during the year IS 53 amounted to 400 , 777 ; the movement of both natives and foreigners during the same period to the west is estimated by the Emigrant Aid Company at over 200 , 000 . I am inclined to think that , unless it has been checked from causes unknown to me , it hu &

    been still greater . They propose to take both classes , and to plant them in the territories of the United States , and for this purpose have begun with the native population , The pioneer colony consisted of thirty young men , in the prime of life , in good health , and skilled in labour . All population of this kind is necessarily hostile to slavery , and go out with the purpose of becoming voters , that they may prevent that institution from finding a legal foothold there . To aid thorn in this objeot many kindred societies have been formed clscwh « ro , of which the largest is in New York , with a capital of 5 , 000 , 000 dols .,

    to bo distributed in very small shares , to enable every artisan and ovory opponent of slave labour who chooses to aid . in the work . Throughout Western Now York and Ohio leagues have been formed having in view simply assisting emigrants in getting to Kanzas ; but the Massachusetts and New York Companies havo larger and more purely business ends in viow . They arc , as to the emigrants , only a foTwarding company . They furnish them -with no money or aid 5 on the contrary , they receive from thorn pay for transporting 1 thorn to their new homes , and they have mado such arrangements with tho railways and

    stoambortfc companies as onablo thorn to do this work with greater expedition and cheaper than any other company can do if . They also proposo to become a land company , and Avhon any colony transported by them shall < locate- ' a village , thoy will at tho earno timo ' loonto' a section , or a half or quarter section , as tho caso may bo , -which thoy will retain to grow in value ns tho place shall advance in popul . iliou . From thiacr mso they anticipate that thoro will bo a return of their money to them—that tho philanthropic bread eaflt upon tho waters will return to thom m tlio ahupoof comfi » rtul ) lo dividends . Thus thoy havo hi tho pioncor Worcester colony located

    for themselves the best water-right lands in the projected city , amounting in all to 160 acres , which they think will in a few months become valuable from the numbers that they will bring there . In a month from this time they say they will have placed 1000 young me n in the settlement , and they promise , before snow and ice block up travel , to carry 20 , 000 to Kanzas . Even allowing for exaggeration , the scheme is on a- magnificent scale , and would " probably never have been called into existence had it not been for excited political feeling . It is rather extraordinary that some of the more prominent men in it were two years since the most violent advocates of the Fugitive Slave Law .

    " Their plans in regard to foreign emigration ar c still more extensive . They propose nothing less than to control it . They are building for themselves a line of packets entirely for their use . They then propose to establish / agencies throughout Europe in the manner of tlie present agencies , -who shall sell tickets not only for America ( as at present ) , but for any part of the western country to which the pur chasers mriy desire to go . Thus with a ticket obtained at Mannheim / or Hamburg , or Cork , the (¦ jerman . or Irish , peasant will , as they anticipatej be able to go in comfort and at a reasonable expense

    from his home in Europe to the farthest west of America , where , planted ; on land , near the possessions 0 ? the company , he will by his industry soon repay more than aiiy possible loss the cotnpany may suffer in his transportation ; and they think that when the completeness of their arrangements .-shall be known , and the emigrants shall be made' to comprehend that they are saved from the hands of-. ' sharpers during their whole ronte , the whole movement will fall into their channel . One of the worst features of the present system is the runners who meet the emigrants on their arrival . Their comfort and safety at

    sea are reasonably provided for by salutary laws ; but before leaving , and on arrival , although well watched and guarded by the Emigration . Commission ers , and the various national societies , they are undoubtedly subjected to all manner of impositions . Thii the new company promise to avoid . They will then , they say , take theni on arrival , and forming them into companies of 200 each , will carry them to their new lionies . There they will have , at least while the country is in its rough state , boarding-houses ready to receive them , capable of accommodating them till they shall bo distributed . They will send

    forward steam saw and grist mills , to meet the first wants of the settlement , which will be leased at moderate rates to the new comers , and will also , as soon as circumstances will permit , see to the establishment of a newspaper . The only condition they ask of those whom they propose to aid ( and I am not sure ; that even this condition is to be made ) is , that they will advocate and support free labour in preference to slave labour . Such is this scheme , eo far as it is developed . It is certainly one of the most gigantic ever conceived . In its primary aspect of an opposition to slavery , and a combined

    movement to make Kanzas free , it is regarded with favour in tho north and witli diatasto at the south , but will probably secure its object . Indeed , it has probably already settled the question , since the ownors of slaves will now hesitate before bringing thpir property into a land where there is great danger that they will bo stripped of it by popular vote . The very spot on which the Worcester colony is located had been selected by a Misaourian as tho sito for a plantation , but whom ho arrived there with his nogroos and found theso young men on the spot full of hostility to tho institution , he wisely turnorl his back , and crossed over into the Stato whero his

    property was safe . Tho designs of the antUslnvery loaders of tho movement go beyond Kanzas oven . Thoy profesa that thoy will not only nmko Kanzas free and coloniao New Mexico with free labourers , but that thoy will plant colonies in Virginia , whore largo tracts can bo bought for littlo money , and in Missouri , wlioro thoy can enter lands directly from the Government , and that thoy will so fill up those States with tho anti-slavory element that thoy shall bocomo favourable to emancipation . It Is ( lillicult to eny how much of this is gasconade ami how much is real . If thoy tiavo any such purpose in vlow , they will havo difficulties before thom tliat they do not encounter iu Kiuizns . Thoy will have

    not only to overcome the decidedly proslavery sentiment prevailing in these States ,, but also to provide some means of remuneration to the owners in case of immediate emancipation , or some means of fitting the blacks for freedom , in case of a gradual disenthralment . Either of these is a serious obstacle to get over . Whether their plan of operations will or will not be extended so far , even when limited to Kanzas , it has great interest for the people of the United States . It is the first time that the two classes of labour have been so directly brought in conflict with each other , and on the result is to de =-pend whether a new slave-breeding state is to be brought into the Union . The demand for raw cotton has brought land under cultivation more rapidly

    than negroes could be furnished for it , the African slave-trade being abolished . Consequently ., field hands , who were WOrth formerly 500 dols . or 600-dDls . each , now command 1000 dols * or 1200 dols . ; and , though it is said that the dispersion of the same numbei > of negroes over a greater territory would not make them reproduce faster , I think that the laws of population show the contrary . The addition of Kanzas to the number of slave states would not only increase the political power of that section of the Union , "but would probably also ultimately reduce the value Of slaves to the cotton states . The Louisiana delegation seem to hive been of a contrary opinion , and therefore opposed the bill in Congress ; but I am inclined to think that they were mistaken .

    "As to the effect of the company on foreign emigration , I am inclined to think that they over-estimate their power . It is riot easy to divert the channels of any business after they are well established ; and the course of no business is better established than that of the European emigration to this country . It is in the hands of leading and responsible houses , enjoy jng the confidence of European authorities , who receive the emigrants through their agents at various stations throughout Ireland and in the Rhine country , and superiatend their-transport with care and humanity . It -will not be easy to persuade the public to abandon them . Many of the

    emigrants also , especially Germans , are tradespeople , who wish to remain in the great Atlantic and Mississippi towns , and who consequently will riot be willing to come out under charge of a company interested in carrying tjiem into the new country . And perhaps a still greater difficulty lies in the settled hostility between native and foreign labour , which fouud vent eight years ago in native Americanism , and which is now expressed by 'know nothiiigism . ' The whole ' know nothing' movement , which now threatens to

    upset all political organisations , is only the expression of aversion to foreign labour . It takes the higher form of a religious warfare against Roman Catholicism , but it is in reality only tho outcry of native labour , on finding itself pressed by foreign competition . As those new territories are to be filled tip mostly by young labourers ( using the word in its most extended sense ) , there is little probability that they will escape from the influence of this feeling ; sind it is not difficult to imagine what would be tho effect of pouring in upon thom much of the foreign clement

    . " The career of Mr . Thayer , tho originator of tho Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company , is a remark - ablo instance of perseverance . Until nineteen years of ngo ho wns a labourer upon a littlo farm in tho interior of Massachusetts . lie then conceived thq idea of educating himself , and , tying his few clothes in a cotton handkerchief , ho placed the bundle on a canal-bout , and walked to tho torminus of tho canal , whero ho reclaimed tho bundle , and continued his walk some miles further , to a neighbouring village , wlioro was situated a school of preparation for the University . Supporting himself there by manual labour , and sleeping at first in a garret , ho so fit tod himself as to bo ablo to pass examination in nil but

    mathematics , and was admitted to Brown University on condition of bringing himself up in tJmt branch boforo tho end of the first tonn . TJioro boing two spare daya boforo tho beginning of term , lie Htrippcd off his conL and hired himself to dig 1 post holes , by which ho onrncd onoiipfli to buy a bed and n , table and a chair for his room , and tho few books ho would imiDediiitoly want . In this way , also ,, hu , wont through tho University , and , though entirely unnidud / frmtlunU' * tho eloso with high honours , and with somo !> ol . in Ms poukot . WiLli this ho began lifo us a wJiool tonuhor somo eight or tonyoars since , nnri in now tlio possessor of a handsome competency , ami at the Iiond of llio most rofliarkaMq A . inorlcau rnovemont of tlio ago . "

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 2, 1854, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02091854/page/3/