The native American., 1837-08-10
COM M U CATIONS.
For the Native American.
NATIVE AMERICAN MECHANICS.

| I would address myself to my fellow-countrymen,
who, like myself aborers, in the physical sense
Of the term, and inquire how we who artizans and
wcrkmen, and have ,oed out years of apprenticeship
to acquire the right 10 exercise trades, to be
affected by this indscrimnate host Of strangers, who
swarm, like the Huns of early days. from the northern
hives of Europe and the continent? Nothing has
saved the tradesmen of this land thus far from actual
paupersm but the great extent Of internal improve
ments, in Roads and Canals, made through borrowed
means; but these stop, and they cannot last
much onger this tide of foreign aborers will fall back
upon us as dsonted fragments in the social SCALE and
thus form body polite of paupers; or, like the spirits
of Macbeth, rise to "push US from stools"
utter not one word of complaint against those poor
men, who pursuing the ordinances Of nature seek the
best condition for themselves rather feel fol them
likely to become severe sufferers while they aggravate
the wants of the very people who have, in better times
welcomed them with open hands.
The wealth of nation surely cannot consist in the
extent of its territory, in the ulness of its popula
ton; or otherwise England would be mere Laputa in
greatness, and China the very compendium Of the
world.
consists, should reason, in the greatest amount
of morality and effective industry among its citizens
"'o'S N'S
acuated to promote social order, mutual interests and
to form homogeneous society and government.
Can this be attained when the regular establish
mens that proceed from the organized classes of the
trades, arts, professions, and occupations contnu-
ally interrupted by corners, having neither part
nor lot in our concerns, and who dsplace many in
those different pursuits ofle, according to the ratio Of
the number that arrive! 1t cannot; and therefore two
~, l., nj n
economy are destro, ed-the harmony of trades, and
the motive to industry No man be induced to
waste the years Of his youth under ndentures, and then
struggle with the world through the degrees of jour
neyman aud master, in the hope that prudence and
saving will his years with success, if the mis-
taken policy of Government, or the improvident law
Of his country, made for the politician than
the man, should be eernay inviting the alien to come
from his occupations in other lands, and mar and break
up those Of the mechanic here But it has been for
years; the tradesmen Of more than twenty years stand
ing have been driven by the nroad of the stranger, in
few months, from their old communities, to seek new
homes in the wids of the west; and many of us here
in the mental inquiry, 10 where number OF our IN
dustrious mechanics have wandered can realize the
illusion of the echo, which answers-Where!
| will not agtate the subject of immigration as to
its effect upon the politics Of the country, though that
is serious evil but will ask boon of some more In
,egent co-laborer in the mechanic arts, that he may
tell me how, in the decline of my age, when "my
right hand shall forget its cunning" when my children,
who have followed the trade Of their father, shall have
stepped into the deeper folds Of society, and Them
selves become parents, the aged 'master workman"
shall manage support the old companion of his days,
and the girls of his household, when the competitors
from the old world shall have driven him from his
labor the tools Of his trade be laid by to be only
more used, and like those in emblematc masonry,
called for as types Of the past to lay the ccIner
stone---of his grave!
j MECHANIC OF THE ID WARD.