| Title: | Alexander M. Sullivan, Liverpool to Vere Foster, [Wimbledon?]. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3078 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Sullivan, Alexander M/57 |
| Year | 1857 |
| Sender | Sullivan, Alexander M. |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | politician |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Liverpool, Ireland |
| Destination | prob. Belfast, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Foster, Vere |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | Mr. Sullivan writes Mr Foster about |
| Source | D 3618/D/8/10: Deposited by the late Mrs A. C. May. |
| Archive | The Public Record Office, Northern Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9405182 |
| Date | 05/08/1857 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | LET |
| Log | Document added by LT, 09:05:1994. |
| Word Count | 992 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Bend Hill, West Derby - Liverpool 5th August 1857 Dear Sir I feel that I need offer no apologies for addressing you upon the subject of this letter; the zeal & devotion with which you have given yourself to the mission of Friend of the Irish Emigrant mark you as peculiarly qualified to afford aid or counsel in any undertaking having in view the protection and welfare of our emigrant countrymen. While in New York, during a visit to the United States - from which I have only just returned - I became indebted to Mr Greely [Greeley?] of the Tribune for most useful information & suggestions upon a subject which had long occupied my mind, viz some place for protecting the emigrants at the ports of embarkation and debarkation - these being, in my opinion the most perilous points in their journey from the moment they leave the "cabin door fast by the wild wood" until they reach their destinations in the vast continent of the West. The journey is, and, at best, must be, fraught with difficulties and dangers to a rustic people unused to travel and utterly unfitted to cope with what they have to encounter in making it. I happened to mention to Mr Greely [Greeley?] an idea which I had conceived during a residence in Liverpool some years ago; an idea the result of long and close observation of the process of embarkation, or rather of the system of extortion and plunder to which the emigrant about to embark almost inevitably falls a victim. I found that observation of similar practices at New York, as a point of debarkation, had evoked not merely impotent sympathy on the part of observers but protective interference on the part of the legislature. The more I become acquainted with the history of the efforts to found the New York Emigrant Landing Depot - of the difficulties that beset the movement, all eventually overcome by energy & perseverance, the more was I incited to hope that if public attention were only effectually aroused & concentrated upon the present most objectionable state of thing here, men would be found able & willing to take up & push to success the project of an Emigrant's Home in Liverpool. I visited the Castle Gardens [Garden?] Depot in New York; M. Rudolp Garrigue, one of the State Commissioners, and Mr Kennedy the Superintendent, who have thrown themselves into their mission with all the earnestness and devotion of men whose hearts are in the cause - accorded to me all the assistance and information which their experience qualified them to supply. They devoted to my visit a great part of one day during which I witnessed the landing and "passing" of the living freight of two large emigrant ships just arrived - one from Liverpool and one from Bremerhaven. I was made minutely acquainted with the working of the entire system, from the "checking" of baggage on board the ship in the river, to the forwarding of the emigrant to his destination. But however admirable this institution however powerful an argument for the erection of a cooperative one in Liverpool, still more to the purpose is the fact that Bremerhaven - the great outlet of German emigration - has already carried into effect a project identical with that which suggested itself to me in Liverpool. Das Auswanderer House in Bremerhaven renders such a project no longer "visionary"; it affords to it the powerful support of an accomplished fact To you I need enter into no long argument to shew [show?] the necessity there exists for some such institution in Liverpool from which port the amount of emigration is far beyond that of Bremerhaven. To you I need not point out the moral depravation of the emigrant wrought under the present system. You have already shewn [shown?] how well you understand all this, & given practical proof of how deeply you feel it; but I do turn to you for at least your opinion as to whether something may not be done whether some effort ought not to be made to set on foot a movement towards establishing in Liverpool an institution similar to the Emigrant house of Bremerhaven. I know & have estimated all the difficulties to be encountered; most of them peculiar to this case. Bremerhaven is in Germany - Liverpool is not in Ireland; yet perhaps we shall find with pleasure the "Merchant Princes of Liverpool" disposed to act not the less warmly because that the Irish emigrant does not stand towards them in every respect in the relations of the German emigrant to the men who in Bremerhaven have nobly stepped forward for his protection Might I ask you to give this project consideration &, in case you are of opinion that an effort ought to be made, to enlist for it the support of men able to make it a success. The New York Commissioners of Emigration will officially & otherwise - give all their influence in aid & cooperation - they have expressed to me their opinion that the want of such a house at Liverpool as that at Bremerhaven is to them a source of trouble & difficulty - indeed operates largely to neutralize their efforts for the protection of the emigrants sailing from that port. I have written to M Jol. Georg. Claussen Superintendent of the Bremerhaven house - I have by me the printed description, rules, &c of that establishment but as I think it would be desirable to be acquainted with the history of the movement which succeeded in founding it - as a guidance in any similar effort here - I have applied to him for such information. I do not now enter into an exposition of any plan of operations; I await your opinion as to the advisability of launching the project. I shall hope for a line from you at your earliest convenience - and subscribe myself very faithfully your obed [obedient?] ser [servant?] Alexander M. Sullivan Vere Foster Esq 1857 Liverpool August 3 Alexander M Sullivan |
