of the immigrants disembarked at the port of New York, and upon the State of New York was imposed the obligation of looking after the thousands of strangers who landed weekly at the Battery.  To cope with these conditions the State devised a comprehensive system and entrusted its enforcement to a Board of Commissioners of Immigration, erected hospitals on Ward’s Island for sick and needy immigrants, and in 1855 leased for a landing place Castle Garden, which at once became the popular synonym for the nation’s gateway.  Here the Commissioners examined and registered the immigrants, placed at their disposal physicians, money changers, transportation agents, and advisers, and extended to them a helping hand.  The Federal Government was represented only by the customs officers who ransacked their baggage.

In 1875 the Federal Supreme Court decided that it was unconstitutional for a State to regulate immigration.  “We are of the opinion,” said the Court, “that this whole subject has been confided to Congress by the Constitution; that Congress can more appropriately and with more acceptance exercise it than any other body known to our law, state or national; that, by providing a system of laws in these matters applicable to all ports and to all vessels, a serious question which has long been a matter of contest and complaint may be effectively and satisfactorily settled."[51] Congress dallied seven years with this important question, and was finally forced to act when New York threatened to close Castle Garden.  In 1882 a Federal immigration law assessed a head tax of fifty cents on every passenger, not a citizen, coming to the United States, and provided that the States should share with the Secretary of the Treasury the obligation of its enforcement.  This law inaugurated the policy of selective immigration, as it excluded convicts, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become a public charge.  Three years later, contract laborers were also excluded.

The unprecedented influx of immigrants now began to arouse public discussion.  Over 788,000 arrived in America during the first year the new law was in operation.  In 1889 both the Senate and the House appointed standing committees on immigration.  The several investigations which were held culminated in the law of 1891, wherein the list of ineligibles was extended to include persons suffering from a loathsome or contagious disease, polygamists, and persons assisted in coming by others, unless upon special inquiry they were found not to belong to any of the excluded classes.  Thus for the first time the Federal Government assumed complete control of immigration.  Now also both the great political parties adopted planks in their national platforms favoring the restriction of immigration.  The Republicans favored “the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations for the restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration.”  The Democrats “heartily” approved “all legislative efforts to prevent the United States from being used as a dumping ground for the known criminals and professional paupers of Europe,” and they favored the exclusion of Chinese laborers.  They favored, however, the admission of “industrious and worthy” Europeans.