ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how “friends of industry” in New York City navigated the contentious issues of immigration and urban growth between the major recession of the late 1810s and the Panic of 1837. More specifically, it looks at two leading lobby associations—the American Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures and its successor, the American Institute of the City of New-York—and pays particular attention to how migrants factored into these associations’ vision for the city and the American republic at large. Industry friends initially presented foreign migrants, and their valuable experience of the latest technological innovations and machinery, as a vital resource that would help revive the economy and enhance the standing of the United States in the world. As Manhattan was devoid of waterpower, industry friends projected that manufacturing would proliferate in upstate districts and that these well-ordered establishments would help draw the poor and potentially troublesome out of the city. This vision, however, became increasingly difficult to sustain as new modes of production, based on a more intense division of labor, massive immigration, and, in time, advances in steam technology drove the city’s rapid industrial and demographic growth.
