Presuming that immigration was a boon to national security, U.S. borders remained mostly open for the first century of the nation’s existence.
By Livia Gershon
To many Americans today, immigration looks like a safety risk. Some debates over the issue pit idealistic, humanitarian support for more open borders against devotion to national security. But back when the United States was a new country, the calculus seemed very different, as Robbie Totten writes.
In the seventeenth century, it seemed obvious to the leaders of Western countries that population was a key to a nation’s strength. As English nobleman John Holland argued in the 1660s, increasing immigration to England would “enlarge the honor and Glory of the King… enlarge the Trade of the Kingdom [and] weaken our increasing Neighbours that may possibly become the worst of our Eneymes.”
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