eeding century the
Scotch-Irish and the Germans migrated in nearly equal numbers, and their
combined migration was perhaps as great as that of the English in the
seventeenth century. But they were compelled to move to the interior, to
become frontiersmen, to earn their living directly from the soil, and to
leave to their English-sprung predecessors the more prominent
occupations of politics, literature, law, commerce, and the army. The
Germans, who, according to Lodge, "produced fewer men of ability than
any other race in the United States," were further handicapped by their
language and isolation, which continue to this day in the counties of
Pennsylvania where they originally settled. On the other hand, the
Huguenots and the Dutch came in the first century of colonization. They
rapidly merged with the English, lost their language, and hence
contributed their full share of eminence. Finally, the Irish,
Scandinavian and other races, inconspicuous in the galaxy of
notables, did not migrate in numbers until the middle of the nineteenth
century, and, in addition to the restraints of language and poverty,
they found the roads to prominence preoccupied.

[Illustration: "RETURN OF THE MAYFLOWER" Painting by Boughton, 1834]

Besides the accident of precedence in time, a second factor distinct
from race itself has contributed to the eminence of one race over
another. The Huguenots and the French, according to Lodge's statistics,
show a percentage of ability in proportion to their total immigration
much higher than that of any other race. But the Huguenots were a select
class of people, manufacturers and merchants, perhaps the most
intelligent and enterprising of Frenchmen in the seventeenth century.
Furthermore the direct migration from France to this country has never
included many peasants and wage-earners, but has been limited to the
adventurous and educated. Had the French-Canadians who represent the
peasantry of France been included in these comparisons, the proportion
of French eminence would have been materially reduced.

The same is true of the English. Although sprung from one race, those
who came to America represented at least two grades of society as widely
apart as two races. The Pilgrims and Puritans of New England were the
yeomen, the merchants, the manufacturers, skilled in industry, often
independent in resources, and well trained in the intellectual
controversies of religion and politics. The Southern pl