THE IRISH INVASION


After the Revolution, immigrants began to filter into America from
Great Britain and continental Europe. No record was kept of their
arrival, and their numbers have been estimated at from 4000 to 10,000
a year, on the average. These people came nearly all from Great
Britain and were driven to migrate by financial and political
conditions.

In 1819 Congress passed a law requiring Collectors of Customs to keep
a record of passengers arriving in their districts, together with
their age, sex, occupation, and the country whence they came, and to
report this information to the Secretary of State. This was the
Federal Government's first effort to collect facts concerning
immigration. The law was defective, yet it might have yielded valuable
results had it been intelligently enforced.[21]

From all available collateral sources it appears that the official
figures greatly understated the actual number of arrivals. Great
Britain kept an official record of those who emigrated from her ports
to the United States and the numbers so listed are nearly as large as
the total immigration from all sources reported by the United States
officials during a time when a heavy influx is known to have been
coming from Germany and Switzerland.

Inaccurate as these figures are, they nevertheless are a barometer
indicating the rising pressure of immigration. The first official
figures show that in 1820 there arrived 8385 aliens of whom 7691 were