question, the number of people descended from the German immigrations since 1790, not before enumerated, viz., 3,370,000, we get a final count: — This number is a conservative estimate, and future investigators may add to the number of the Germans, especially in the first category. On the basis of the above calculation, we may say that the persons of German blood in the United States number between eighteen and nineteen millions, or about 27 per cent of the total white population of the United States. This German blood is diffused over a far larger portion of the population than is represented by eighteen to nineteen millions; it may be diffused over twice that number of persons; the question as to how far the German blood is carried through the entire American people, is one beyond all possibilities of calculation. Twenty-seven and one half per cent represents the amount of German blood in the American people in relation to the other formative elements. In order to give the German contribution a proper setting, it is necessary to make an attempt at an estimate, however imperfect, of the amount of English and Irish (including both Scotch and Irish) blood in the nation. These three elements by far outclass the contributions from all other countries. Using the same methods as applied to the German blood, we find question 1 (depending upon the Census Report of 1900), and question III (depending for its solution upon the statistical investigations of Tucker - Jarvis -Mayo-Smith) are not difficult to answer. The uncer tainty lies in the answer to question II, viz., what is the number representing each of the various national stocks in the population of 1790? The question of race and stock was never applied by the early census-takers, nor did the early historians pay any attention to it. Only very tentative estimates can therefore be made, based on impressions received from contemporaneous accounts and from the history of colonial settlements. The German population in 1790, including the Dutch, has been estimated above at 600,000. The Scotch-Irish population was estimated by Hanna' as 385,000 at the outbreak of the Revolution. This estimate seems fair, if we take Scotch-Irish to include both the Scotch and Irish, the latter embracing both the Protestant and Catholic Irish. Their increase in 1790 would make about 600,000, i. e., the same in amount as the German and Dutch together. As far as the present investigator was able to ascertain, there has been no attempt made to estimate the English element. If some such method as adopted for the German or for the Scotch and Irish be used, the result obtained indicates that the English stock numbered about 1,500,000 in 1790, i. e., about one half the white population. This estimate is little better than a guess, but it is a serviceable one to work with, and perhaps hits not far from the mark. If the English stock numbered 1,500,000, the Germans and the Irish each 600,000, there would be left out of the 3,172,000 white persons enumerated in the Census of 1790 a remainder of 472,000, representing other stocks, principally the French, Scandinavians, Jews, and Slavs. However unsatisfactory these estimates may be, they are quite 1 Charles A. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish, or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America, pp. 83-84. within the range of maximum and minimum possibilities. Allowing these data to stand, it becomes possible to apply exactly the same method for the English and Irish stocks as was used to determine the amount of German blood in the United States in 1900. The calculation in each case resolves itself into three parts, as above. For the English the results are as follows: — English Element I White persons, with both parents born in England Total 1,363,301 675,841 389,837 312,978 511,102 3,253,059 II English element in 1790, viz., 1,500,000, increasing at the same rate as whole population, i. e., 10.56 times, equals 15,840,000 III The English element in 1900 was 8.3 per cent, CanadianEnglish, 5 per cent of total foreign element. 13.3 per cent of 10,111,533 (descendants of immigrations since 1790 not enumerated as foreign element in census of 1900) Total for English element Irish and Scotch Element 1,344,833 20,437,892 I White persons, with both parents born in Ireland 4,000,954 White persons, with one parent born in Ireland, the other native, divided by 2 488,709 White persons, with one parent born in Ireland, the other in some other foreign country, divided by 321,949 Scotch parentage figured by same method, total 687,301 Total 5,498,913 II 600,000 multiplied by 10.56 equals III The Irish element in 1900 was 19.2 per cent, the Scotch 2.4 per cent of the total foreign element, together, 21.6 per cent. 21.6 per cent of 10,111,533 equals Total for Scotch and Irish element 6,336,000 2,184,091 13,919,001 The three leading elements, therefore, if the above methods of calculation be correct, compare as follows: Leaving for other national stocks, Scandinavians, French and other Latin stocks, Slavic races, Hebrews and others 14,290,000 Out of a total white population in 1900 of 66,990,000 The German is but two millions behind the largest, the English stock. By adding its large contribution, between eighteen and nineteen millions (or about 27 per cent of the entire white population of the United States) to the twenty millions or more from England, it has made the American people a Germanic nation. 1 The writer hopes at a future time to work out more in detail the comparison of the various national and racial elements that make up the nation. CHAPTER II THE INFLUENCE OF THE GERMANS IN THE MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY I. THEIR PROMINENCE IN AGRICULTURE AND DEPENDENT MANUFACTURES The Germans as farmers; leading traits; as owners of homesteads; settlement of the limestone areas; their choice of land with rich forest growth; the best farmers in the United States American specialties produced by Germans; fruit-growing - Schwerdkopf, the first strawberry grower in New York; viniculture in California, Missouri, etc.; Anaheim, California — Adaptability of the German farmer - Allied pursuits forestry; nurseries; gardening; landscape-gardening - The manufacture of food products: preserving and pickling; milling and manufacture of cereals; sugar and salt industries; small producers; butchers, bakers, etc.; brewing; hotels. The Germans as farmers If we would know the characteristics of the German farmer in the United States, we should go back again to the Pennsylvania-German of the eighteenth century. Whether located in Pennsylvania or in colonies to the north or south, this type of settler invariably showed the same unsurpassed qualifications for success in agriculture. No one has furnished us with a better characterization of the Pennsyl vania-German farmer, or was better qualified to speak concerning him, than Dr. Benjamin Rush, whose sixteen rubrics, whereby the Pennsylvania-German farmer was distinguishable from the native, have been given in an early chapter. By combining the features named by Dr. Rush with some of those emphasized at later periods, the characteristics of the German farmer in the eighteenth 1 Volume I, Chapter v, pp. 131–138. |