“The Balance of Trade With Great Britain Seems To Be Still Against Us”

Published in New York’s Harper’s Weekly on April 28, 1883, “The Balance of Trade with Great Britain Seems to be Still Against Us” depicts the rising tensions between immigrants, particularly Irish, coming to the United States from Great Britain. During the Great Famine (1845-1852) many Irishmen under the rule of the Crown emigrated to the United States. Tensions began to flare between both parties once the Irish nationalist group, “The Fenians,” situated in the United States, began to terrorize Great Britain. The United States felt its Irish immigrants were implicated, and Great Britain felt that the United States was allowing this to occur