[Sidenote: American Life Changing]
When immigration began in the early years of the nineteenth century, the
American people possessed a distinctive life and character of their own,
differing in many respects from that of any other people. The easy
amalgamation of the races that formed the colonial stock--English,
Huguenot, Scotch, Dutch--had produced an American stock distinct from
any in the Old World. The nation was practically homogeneous, and its
social, religious, and political ideals and aims were distinct. That
great changes have taken place in the past century no one will deny. The
material expansion and development have not been more marked than the
changes social and religious.
[Sidenote: Influence of Immigration]
Just what part immigration has played in producing these changes it is
of course difficult to say with exactness, but unquestionably the part
has been very great. The twenty-three millions of aliens admitted into
the United States since 1820 brought their habits and customs and
standards of living with them; brought also their religion or want of
it; and it would be absurd to imagine that all of these millions had
been Americanized, or, in other words, had given up their old ways for
our ways of thinking and living.
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