New Took A cad. of Mas OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF EMIGRATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, LANE LIBRARY FROM THE Organization of the Commission, May 5, 1847, to 1880, TOGETHER WITH TABLES AND REPORTS, AND OTHER OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS, COMPILED THE BOARD, AUGUST 29, 1860. NEW YORK: 1861. 8.1-14 PREFACE. PREVIOUSLY to the year 1847, the subject of the care and support of alien emigrants was left either to the general quarantine and poor laws or to local laws and ordinances, varying sometimes as to the provisions, very often as to the practical administration. A general tax, under State authority, on all passengers arriving at the port of New York was applied to the support of the Marine Hospital at Quarantine; and aliens (as well as others) arriving in that port, suffering under contagious or infectious disease, as yellow fever, ship fever, &c., were there received, but no further provision was made from that fund for their relief under other circumstances, or after their arrival. Local laws authorized the requiring of bonds by the city authorities from the owners of vessels bringing such emigrants, to indemnify the city and county in case of the emigrant becoming chargeable under the poor-laws. With the great and rapidly increasing emigration from 1840 to 1847, these provisions were found very inconvenient to the ship-owner, and wholly inadequate to the important end of necessary aid and relief to the emigrant falling into disease and destitution. The bonds remaining uncancelled for a long time, were onerous to the better class of ship-owners; whilst they sometimes, as to others, were found of no value when enforced. But a much more se 15156 |