When Europeans were the "Bad Immigrants"
America's nativist history of ideological exclusion
In 1903, Judge magazine, a satirical weekly with a Republican bent, published a political cartoon with the caption, “The Unrestricted Dumping-Ground.” A ship “Direct From the Slums of Europe Daily” releases rats representing “undesirable” immigrants into America.
The image shows Uncle Sam staring out at the ocean as swarms of immigrants, depicted as armed rodents, exit passenger ships from southern and eastern Europe and swim ashore. The vermin have human heads with swarthy complexions, and they wear hats or bandannas labeled “Mafia,” “Anarchist” and “Socialist.” One carries a sword that reads “Assassination” on the blade. Another holds in his teeth a gun with “murder” inscribed on the grip.
Looming off in a corner of the drawing is a likeness of President William McKinley, who had been assassinated two years earlier by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. Czolgosz was not an immigrant; he was born in Detroit to parents who had migrated from Poland.
But that detail didn’t stop McKinley’s successor, Teddy Roosevelt, from using the assassination to call for what today might be described as extreme vetting. “They and those like them should be kept out of this country,” said Roosevelt in his eulogy of McKinley delivered to Congress. “And if found here they should be promptly deported to the country whence they came; and far-reaching provision should be made for the punishment of those who stay.”
The late 19th century had seen the start of the second great wave of immigrants from Europe, and Roosevelt understood that resistance to these newcomers was growing. More than 25 million people arrived in the U.S. between 1865 and 1915. But they were no longer coming mainly from places like England, Ireland, Germany and Scandinavia. The more recent immigrants were Italians, Poles and Russian Jews, who some saw as upsetting the country’s social balance. Their different religions and political traditions provoked fears and anxieties among the native-born population that politicians were happy to exploit. Roosevelt’s Republican Party didn’t mind his—or Judge magazine’s—conflation of immigration and homeland security because it was concerned that too many of these latest arrivals ultimately would vote Democratic. ~ History News Network
More anti-immigrant posts:
Build That Wall (1891)
Cartoon shows a man holding a top hat in one hand and gesturing toward horde of arriving immigrants labeled "German socialist," "Russian anarchist," "Polish vagabond," "Italian brigand," "English convict," "Irish pauper," etc., at Castle Clinton in New York City.
Their New Jerusalem (1892)
An anti-semitic cartoon from Judge Magazine. At the right, Russian Jewish immigrants flee the whip of persecution to New York as the waters of the Atlantic part to accommodate them. In the center is a stereotypical Jewish businessman, well dressed and carrying a scroll labeled "Perseverance and Industry." Behind him is "Broadway in…
The Hyphenated Americans (1899)
1899 cartoon hostile to immigrants voting in the United States. Cartoon shows Uncle Sam seated at left, looking displeased. A row of men are lined up to place ballots in a ballot box. Each of them is split down the middle, one side dressed in stereotyped European garb, the other in contemporary US fashion. They are labeled "Irish-A…
Louis Dalrymple (January 19, 1866 – December 28, 1905) was an American cartoonist, known for his caricatures in publications such as Puck, Judge, and the New York Daily Graphic. Born in Cambridge, Illinois, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Art Students League of New York, and in 1885 became the chief cartoonist of the Daily Graphic.
More from Dalrymple:
School Begins: Critique of US Imperialism (1899)
Invading foreign lands was a relatively new experience for the U.S. Given the rhetoric of civilizing uplift used to justify expansion, training was expected as part of the incorporation of new territories into the U.S. Uneasiness over the idea of using force to govern a country was overcome by tracing the issue of consent back through re…
Title: The Unrestricted Dumping-Ground
Artist: Louis Dalrymple
Publication: Judge Magazine Vol. 44-45
Date: 1903
Archive: Picryl
Wonder why America’s “anti-immigrant” thing keeps popping up?
Why do we only get immigrants from shithole countries like England, Germany, and Sweden?