zation which was to follow.

"To establish this civilization, based upon true principles of
government required not only wisdom and strength, but toleration,
brotherhood, justice and exalted virtue. The people chosen for that
great work came from different countries and different conditions of
life,--the English Pilgrims to New England, the Dutch, the Swedes and
the Quakers to the middle country, the English Cavaliers, the Scotch
Highlanders and the French Huguenots to the South,--and in them all,
combined and intermingled, were found the elements of body and of
mind, which have given to the world its best government, its greatest
nation, and its highest civilization.

"Since the English were the largest in number their language became
the language of all, and for that reason, perhaps, history has been
partial to those who first spoke it. Memorials and anniversaries have
often been celebrated over the landing of the Pilgrims and the valor
of the knights; their just praise has been written and sung a thousand
times, so that their honored names have become precious household
words among the generations of our day, while the others have often
been forgotten or ignored.

"Fully recognizing the merits of all, we have assembled here to-day
from many parts of the United States to commemorate a great historical
event,--in celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
landing of the Swedes on the Delaware, and to do honor to their memory
in prayer, song and speech, and to this intellectual feast I bid you
all a hearty welcome."

This celebration was unquestionably the largest and most important
gathering that ever took place among the Swedes in America; great
attention was paid to it all over the country, and it contributed
greatly toward placing the Swedes rightly in the estimation of the
people, throwing a clearer light on the achievements of the past, and
emphasizing the importance of the Swedish-Americans of the present.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The Causes of Immigration--American Influence on Europe, and Especially
on Sweden--The Condition of the Swedes in America--American
Characteristics--Antipathy against Foreigners--The Swedish Press on
America--American Heiresses.

Much has been said on the causes of immigration. These are numerous, but
the chief cause I have found to be that the people of the old world are
now being aroused to the fact that the