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Part Sixty: The Plight of the Irish
Got this update done surprisingly fast last night, so here it is. I couldn't think of how to connect the two sections in the title though. 
Part Sixty: The Plight of the Irish
The Irish Diaspora:
Throughout the 19th century, the Ulster Irish and Catholic Irish made up one of the primary sources of immigrants to the United States. The Ulster Irish came from northern Ireland and were usually Calvinist or Anglican, and often had more Scottish ancestry than Irish. The Ulster Irish mostly came to the United States in the 18th century and early 19th cenutry, settling primarily in the northern United States. In the 19th cenutry, many Ulster Irish contributed to the growth of the steel industry in the north and led to the prosperity of cities like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis.
After the National War, however, the majority of immigration to the United States from Ireland came from the Catholic communities in the rest of the island. The mass emigration of the Catholic Irish from Ireland largely began during the Great Famine and the European Wars, but the British government began to encourage Irish resettlement outside the British Isles in the following decades and gradually Anglicization of Ireland through epuration[1] and encouraging the movement of people from England and Scotland to Ireland. The squalid conditions in Ireland during and after the Great Famine and the encouragement of Catholics to leave Ireland created a large Irish diaspora in the late 19th century.
Besides the large urban center in the northern United States like New York and Chicago, the Catholic Irish immigration to the United States in the latter 19th century also centered around areas that already had a sizable Catholic community. For this reason, large Irish communities arose in Batlimore, Cuba, and New Orleans. From New Orleans, the Irish community spread up the Mississippi River and into Saint Louis. The large Irish communities would turn American politics further against the British as the turn of the century passed.
Aside from the United States, the exodus of Catholics from Ireland also led to Irish immigration in other areas. Irish immigration to Ontario and the majority Scottish areas in Acadia combined with a revival in Gaelic language and culture led to Gaelic becoming the largest language spoken in British North America by 1900. Outside of North America, many Irish Catholics migrated to Chile, Argentina, and the Cape Colony in southern Africa. Chile, with a history of encouraging Irish Catholic immigration extending from colonial times, welcomed Irish immigrants. Many of the Irish who went to Chile raised livestock and helped settle the far south of the country in Patagonia and along the Straits of Magellan.
A Natural Born Citizen:
The rising levels of immigration to the United States in the 19th century led to some major questions in Congress and the Supreme Court regarding the status of the country's growing population. The 1873 ruling in the Supreme Court that all people born in the United States became American citizens set the stage for official rulings on when a person became a United States citizen. However, there was also another citizenship issue that came to prominence in the decade after the National War; eligibility for the Executive Office of the United States.
The first section of Article Two of the Constitution states that only "natural born citizens" are eligible for the Presidency of the United States, and the Twelfth Amendment extends this restriction to the Vice Presidency. With more and more first-generation immigrants getting into Congress, the question of what exactly was meant by "natural born citizen" and whether to allow naturalized citizens to be eligible for the Presidency or Vice Presidency increasingly became an issue in the House and Senate.
In 1871, senators Carl Shurz of Missouri[2] and Antonio Seguin from Tejas[3] introduced a constitutional amendment that would enable foreign-born citizens to hold an Executive Office. The amendment had some support within the Senate, but the general nativist sentiment among Congress at the time prevented the amendment's passage. Some senators also raised questions about the motives for the amendment, saying that Schurz was only proposing the amendment so he could be eligible for the presidency, since he was born in Germany. While the Schurz Amendment failed, it laid the groundwork for future attempts at passing similar amendments.
[1] From the French for 'purging', basically ethnic cleansing, although I'm unsure of the details of it in Ireland yet. I didn't think the OTL term should be used since it wasn't really in use until the 1990s.
[2] OTL the first German-American senator
[3] Grandson of Juan Seguin
Part Sixty: The Plight of the Irish
The Irish Diaspora:
Throughout the 19th century, the Ulster Irish and Catholic Irish made up one of the primary sources of immigrants to the United States. The Ulster Irish came from northern Ireland and were usually Calvinist or Anglican, and often had more Scottish ancestry than Irish. The Ulster Irish mostly came to the United States in the 18th century and early 19th cenutry, settling primarily in the northern United States. In the 19th cenutry, many Ulster Irish contributed to the growth of the steel industry in the north and led to the prosperity of cities like Pittsburgh and Indianapolis.
After the National War, however, the majority of immigration to the United States from Ireland came from the Catholic communities in the rest of the island. The mass emigration of the Catholic Irish from Ireland largely began during the Great Famine and the European Wars, but the British government began to encourage Irish resettlement outside the British Isles in the following decades and gradually Anglicization of Ireland through epuration[1] and encouraging the movement of people from England and Scotland to Ireland. The squalid conditions in Ireland during and after the Great Famine and the encouragement of Catholics to leave Ireland created a large Irish diaspora in the late 19th century.
Besides the large urban center in the northern United States like New York and Chicago, the Catholic Irish immigration to the United States in the latter 19th century also centered around areas that already had a sizable Catholic community. For this reason, large Irish communities arose in Batlimore, Cuba, and New Orleans. From New Orleans, the Irish community spread up the Mississippi River and into Saint Louis. The large Irish communities would turn American politics further against the British as the turn of the century passed.
Aside from the United States, the exodus of Catholics from Ireland also led to Irish immigration in other areas. Irish immigration to Ontario and the majority Scottish areas in Acadia combined with a revival in Gaelic language and culture led to Gaelic becoming the largest language spoken in British North America by 1900. Outside of North America, many Irish Catholics migrated to Chile, Argentina, and the Cape Colony in southern Africa. Chile, with a history of encouraging Irish Catholic immigration extending from colonial times, welcomed Irish immigrants. Many of the Irish who went to Chile raised livestock and helped settle the far south of the country in Patagonia and along the Straits of Magellan.
A Natural Born Citizen:
The rising levels of immigration to the United States in the 19th century led to some major questions in Congress and the Supreme Court regarding the status of the country's growing population. The 1873 ruling in the Supreme Court that all people born in the United States became American citizens set the stage for official rulings on when a person became a United States citizen. However, there was also another citizenship issue that came to prominence in the decade after the National War; eligibility for the Executive Office of the United States.
The first section of Article Two of the Constitution states that only "natural born citizens" are eligible for the Presidency of the United States, and the Twelfth Amendment extends this restriction to the Vice Presidency. With more and more first-generation immigrants getting into Congress, the question of what exactly was meant by "natural born citizen" and whether to allow naturalized citizens to be eligible for the Presidency or Vice Presidency increasingly became an issue in the House and Senate.
In 1871, senators Carl Shurz of Missouri[2] and Antonio Seguin from Tejas[3] introduced a constitutional amendment that would enable foreign-born citizens to hold an Executive Office. The amendment had some support within the Senate, but the general nativist sentiment among Congress at the time prevented the amendment's passage. Some senators also raised questions about the motives for the amendment, saying that Schurz was only proposing the amendment so he could be eligible for the presidency, since he was born in Germany. While the Schurz Amendment failed, it laid the groundwork for future attempts at passing similar amendments.
[1] From the French for 'purging', basically ethnic cleansing, although I'm unsure of the details of it in Ireland yet. I didn't think the OTL term should be used since it wasn't really in use until the 1990s.
[2] OTL the first German-American senator
[3] Grandson of Juan Seguin
- wilcoxchar
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