Chapter 606 Eastern Immigration Wave

Chapter 599 Eastern Immigration Wave

The calm death of John Brown, a small figure, caused a great shock in America.

This small figure, who had very limited influence most of the time during his lifetime, became famous after his death.

Although the Pennsylvania authorities prohibited northern journalists from entering Pennsylvania to interview John Brown and his followers, John Brown's deeds were still spread to the North through other channels.

Northern newspapers processed the second-hand information obtained and then reported it with exaggeration.

John Brown's deeds were thus able to be spread to the streets and alleys of America through America's developed telegraph network and media.

People from all over the North regarded John Brown and his followers as heroes and martyrs, and even the deserters in John Brown's team were treated like heroes.

John Brown's hometown, Connecticut, negotiated with the Virginia authorities, hoping to get John Brown's body back home for burial.

Considering John Brown's current influence and propaganda role in the North, the Virginia authorities rejected Connecticut's request on the grounds that John Brown had already been buried.

Even so, Connecticut held a grand funeral and memorial ceremony for John Brown without his body.

Government agencies and the parliament in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, lowered their flags to half-mast to mourn John Brown and fired salutes for him. Even churches across the state rang bells to mourn John Brown, and the bells rang for several days.

Orators and politicians in Connecticut also took this opportunity to publicly and in newspapers to criticize the cruel slavery in the South and the incompetence of the Buchanan government.

Soon, the trend of commemorating John Brown spread rapidly from Connecticut to the entire North. Major northern cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago successively lowered their flags to half-mast to mourn John Brown and fired salutes to pay tribute.

Under the influence of this atmosphere, the northern people's disgust with slavery and southern slave owners reached an unprecedented level.

Of course, John Brown's death not only caused an uproar in the North, but also caused a great response in the South.

The first time the northern extreme abolitionist armed forces took the initiative to enter the territory of the southern state, they directly occupied the important ferry and armory of the southern state, which made the southern slave owners feel uneasy.

In order to enhance the sense of security, the southern states not only accelerated the pace of regularization of the militia to cope with the obvious military conflicts in the future.

At the same time, the connection between the southern states became closer and closer, and the frequency of banquets held by the top leaders of each state increased significantly.

However, the theme of these banquets was no longer romance and showing off wealth. These well-dressed southern gentlemen began to openly discuss the idea of ​​seceding from the Union and establishing a new alliance that was in line with the interests of the South.

The southern elites were trying to break away from the North politically and completely get rid of the constraints of abolitionism on the South.

John Brown's deeds were also spread to the West through the developed modern telegraph network, but in the West, John Brown's deeds had a very limited impact.

First, because the distance between the West and the South was high and the road was long, ordinary Westerners had never even set foot in the South, and they had no direct contact with and understanding of the slavery system and slaves in the South.

Second, compared with the bad things happening in the far east, Westerners were more concerned about wage increases and price fluctuations, factory output and efficiency, farm defense, and whether it was worth the risk to immigrate to the newly developed areas of Utah Territory and Colorado Territory, which were closely related to their daily lives.

The duck knows first when the river water warms in spring. The biggest impact of the John Brown incident on the West was that after this incident, most of the eastern bourgeoisie, especially the elite class, began to realize that the risk of war between the North and the South was extremely high. Many of the eastern elites began to flee to avoid risks.

These people either moved their families or had some family members move.

There are two main destinations for these eastern elites to migrate. One is the European countries across the Atlantic Ocean, where their ancestral home is. The other is the western region.

Since the western region belongs to the United States, the West has always implemented a very generous immigration policy for technical workers and the bourgeoisie in the East. In addition, the Corwin family from Ohio was treated as a guest of honor by the locals soon after they immigrated to California, and was invited to serve as the Secretary of State of California, which also made the eastern elites see hope after immigrating to the West.

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, most of the eastern elites decided to migrate to the West.

After all, their ancestors were the losers and abandoned children of the European continent, and the high-handed Europeans always looked down on the Americans of the former colonies. Returning to Europe, they will not only face the problem of being unfamiliar with the place, but also face the risk of class slippage.

On the other hand, going to the West will not only avoid the risk of class slippage, but also have the possibility of class leap.

Liang Yao is naturally very happy about the sudden increase in the number of immigrants from the East.

Those who can afford the expensive train tickets to the West are basically the elites of the East who are above the middle class. These people come to the West with capital and can directly create wealth and jobs for the West in a short period of time, without him having to worry about the resettlement of immigrants.

Such high-quality immigrants are exactly what the West wants.

The West is no longer the West of ten years ago. The Chinese are now the absolute dominant ethnic group in the West. The West is now fully capable of absorbing and digesting tens of thousands of high-quality immigrants from the East without changing the absolute dominant position of the Chinese ethnic group.

Moreover, retaining these high-quality immigrants from the East is also a disguised way to strengthen the strength of the West and weaken the power of the North and the South.

In order to take the opportunity to absorb more high-quality immigrants from the East, Liang Yao not only asked the branches of the five major Western banks in major cities in the Eastern region to cooperate and assist these immigrants in cashing out their assets in the East. At the same time, the California Railway Company and the Atlantic Railway Company also gave free train tickets to the West to immigrants who could provide proof of assets and technical proof.

California also introduced preferential policies for Eastern factories that moved to California, implementing a tax exemption policy ranging from one to four years depending on the size of the factory, hoping to take this opportunity to attract more Eastern factory owners to open factories in the West.

Liang Yao, who was in North Platte, also personally met and entertained some northern celebrities who went to the West during this period.

These northern celebrities were deeply moved to see Liang Yao dragging his sick body to North Platte to personally greet them in order to welcome them to the West.

After all, it was no secret among the upper echelons of the North that Liang Yao was unable to serve as Secretary of War due to illness.

In July 1860, Liang Yao, who had been in charge of North Platte for more than four months, saw that both the North and the South were still sharpening their knives and that a large-scale direct military conflict would not break out in the short term, so he took a special train back to California to participate in the third gubernatorial election.