The native American., 1838-07-28
COMMUNICATED.

! MEssRs. EDIToRs: | am not one of those. if.
indeed, there are any such, who, in arraying
themselves under the Native American banner,
seek to wage war of prescription and persccu-
ton against those who have sought in this coun-
| try for advantages and comforts denied them in
their own. | have not cried out against foreign
ers whose course here has been marked by quiet
ness and industry; nor in opposition to the peace
lnl exercise by them of all the rights which are
accorded to them by our laws; but yet have be-
held with disgust, the gross and impudent dispo-
siton manifested by most Of them to control our
elections and seize upon almost every office of
trust under the Government. | have witnessed
with indignation the anti-Amcrican practice Of
some of the heads Of Departments, Of employing
foreign aAvcnturers andparasies, for the perform
of public duties to the exclusion of honest and
capable men, who, proud of the Native privileges
Of Americans, cannot and will not soop to thrive
by fawning at the feet Of an official ordling. But
it is my present purpose to call the attention Of
your readers to subject, in comparison to which,
the employment of foreigners, merely as clerks
and messengers, is matter Of utter nsignilicancc
Those entrusted with the important duties of the
Executive Departments have not always been con-
tent with preferrng foreigners for the humber sit
nations OF the Government, which in general re-
quirc mere manual and clerical labor but they
seem to take especial pains to hunt up foreigners
for the Offices of most trust and confidence, and
place them in positions where treachery and vii
lany would inilct the greatest possible evil upon
our country and her institutions. At this mo-
ment the most important duties, and those requir-
ing the utmost degree of fidelity in the Depart
ments of State, Navy, and the Patent Office, are
in the hands of persons born under foreign govern
ments. Their attachment to the institutions of
the United States, if it exist at all, is but an dc-
Qarei sentiment and therefore entitled to but little
confidence, when compared to that infinitely
stronger and enduring attachment which eUcry
man, with the attributes Of a man, feels TO the
land OF his birth. 1t IS not my purpose TO wound
personally any one of the individuals alluded to.
Fol some of them entertain great personal re-
spect; but they must excuse me for declaring that
in principle it is wrong, and in practice it will be
found to be dangerous, to entrust men of foreign
birth and attachments with the important secrets
Of any Government.
But the immediate purpose Of this Commnni-
cation is to direct the serious attention Of your
readers and the American People to a remarkable
case which has already occurred, but which
seems to have escaped the vigilance and anmad-
versions OF the American Press. | beg of the Co
vcrnmcnt and the People to read and ponder
About the period of the restoration Of the Bour-
oons to the throne Of France, General Bernard,
an an, Engincer of distinguished celebrity, who had
haea an important post in Napoleon's staff, fed
10 this country. Immediately the usual engines
were set IN motion to puff of the extraordinary
abilities OF the French Engineer, and crowds Of
Americans, whose sickly sympatfies for the fallen
Emperor and his fugitive followers smo,hered
up their patriotism, swarmcd around the Execu-
tive and Congress, pressing upon them the great
xtbi oh
from making a great American from an outcast
frenchman Congress, in its zeal to honor the
faithful servant of Buoneparte, with nconsderate
and indecent haste created an Office with pay and
emoiuments OF several thousand dollars per an
num- and the Executive forthwith placed this for
eegn runagate in it. General Bernard, on accept
ing the ofhce, took the usual oath of fidelity to the
united States, and, when his probationary term of