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Lunatics, Idiots, Paupers, and Negro Seamen—Immigration Federalism and the Early American State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2014

Anna O. Law
Anna O. Law*
Affiliation:
CUNY Brooklyn College
*
alaw@brooklyn.cuny.edu
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Abstract

Why did it take the U.S. national government until 1882 to gain control over migration policies from the states, and what does this situation say about the strength of the early American State? This phenomenon is especially curious, since the control of entry into and across a nation is so fundamental to the very definition of a State. I argue that the delay of the national government takeover was not due to a lack of administrative capacity. Instead, there were regionally specific reasons that the states preferred to retain control of migration policy. The national government did not take over migration policy because of the strong nineteenth-century political-cultural understanding that many migration policies were properly within the province of local control. This article explains the timing and sequencing of state and federal controls over nineteenth-century migration policy and what this timing meant for the freedom of movement of many politically vulnerable classes of people.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in American Political Development , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , October 2014 , pp. 107 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

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3. The scope of this article begins with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and extends to 1882. Because this is a study of federalism, it does not make sense to include the colonial period, when there was not yet a U.S. central government.

4. For an example of a publication that distinguishes “immigration” from “immigrant” policies, see Michael E. Fix and Karen Tumlin, “Welfare Reform and the Devolution of Immigrant Policy,” Urban Institute Series on New Federalism, No. A-15, October 1997. Available at http://www.urban.org/publications/307045.html.

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141. Hirota, “The Moment of Transition,” 1097; Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Thirteenth Annual Report, xxxvii-xlvii. A full draft of one such bill can also be found in the Annual Report of the Commissioners of Emigration of New York State for the Year Ending December 31, 1876, 74–78.

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