Terrible abuses of steerage
passengers crowded into miserable quarters were constantly brought to
the public notice. From time to time the law was amended, and the
advent of steam navigation brought improved conditions without,
however, adequate provision for Federal inspection.
Indeed such supervision and care as immigrants received was provided
by the various States. Boston, New York, Baltimore, and other ports of
entry, found helpless hordes left at their doors. They were the prey
of loan sharks and land sharks, of fake employment agencies, and every
conceivable form of swindler. Private relief was organized, but it
could reach only a small portion of the needy. About three-fourths 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.
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