The native American. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1840, 1839-05-11

you ARE not, we conju you 10 unite with us
: striving 10 obtain repeal OF the naturalization
\ Tvs. Or are you willing To conhde your nation
character for honor, virtue and intelligence, to
he keeping of every foreign vagabond vino may
! appen 10 wander loiour shores, and become a
aturalized citizen On the contrary, do you
OF hourly meet with hordes Of beings, who are
ntitled to claim that appellalion, whom. in dis
AMI land, you would blush to hear called Anne
leans
In ancient times, A Roman CITIZEN was a
title Of honor and a passport throughout the
world but, if our naturalization laws and their
concomi,anls continue much longer, the name of
an American citizen" will become bye-word,
4 scorn, kissing and reproach throughout all
the natl ons of the earth.
One brief word more to the native population,
the Creoles of Louisiana, and we have done.
No State in the Union has. perhaps, been more,
or as much oppressed by foreign influence as Lou
isiana heretofore, and, unless the naturalization
laws be repealed, there is every reason to appre
bend that she will be still more so hereafter.
What would be the feelings of a Louisianian,
who, having reared up his child, and, by his no.
nest industry, afforded him an education calculat-
ed to enable him to fill with honor and glory the
highest offices in the State, and imbued him with
the noblest principles of patriotism and love of
ber,y-and that SON having fulfilled all the du-
ties of a good citizen, from birth to manhood,
and, after arriving at proper age, being selected
by his brethren and native countrymen to fill the
lgubernatoria CHAIR any other high Office in the
EState-what we ask, would be the feelings of
that i.ouisianian, seeing that son defeated and
supplanted by stranger from foreign land, who
had been but five years in our country, and pos
sibly much shorter period in our State
And such circumstance might readily occur,
SO long the naturalization laws exist.
1t rarely happens that man is chosen to fill
any Of our high Offices under the age Of thirty or
forty years and we have but to continue to ex-
tend to foreigners the privileges of naturalization
until they have obtained preponderance in our
State, and we may have the modification of see
ing native Louisianian, who has resided thirty,
forty, or fifty years, whole lifetime, in
our State, set aside for an arrogant and presump
tuous foreigner, who has been but five years in the
United States.
Let, therefore, the native chivalry Of Louisiana,
so proverbla for their gallanlry, patriotism and in
telligence, exert themselves to avert this great and
glazing evil, while it is yet in their power SO to
do; otherwise, they may have the modification,
ere long, Of seeing their beautiful State oyerrun
by swarms of foreign locusts, who will eat out
their substance, and monopolize every Office of
honor, trust or profit within her boundaries
We will now conclude this address, by declar-
ing it as our solemn and unaterable determination
never TO abandon this great and holy cause-ne-
yer to suspend our efforts-unt the naturalization
laws are repealed.
IT, in striving to obtain this holy object, we
are compelled to suffer from the disapprobation
of our friends or the hostiliies of our countrys
enemies, be il so.
TO those nanralzed citizens who disapprove
of our views, or doubt the correctness of our OPT
mons, or the justice of our apprehensions the
subject OF foreign naturalization in future, we
can only say, in the language of the Patriarch,
| !" Let there be no strife between us, for we are
brethren
| But to those naturazed citizens who, looking,
with the eye Of the patriot, the philosopher and
the phanthropist, beyond the fleeing and transit
tory circumstances of the present moment, have
contemplated the future happiness of countless
millions of freemen yet unborn, to whom we are
DESTROYS of transmitting our benign institutions,
IN all their original purity, to the end Of time,-l
and who, believing that our humble exertons are
calculated 10 sustain and perpetuate those inslu-
tions-and who, bursting, with noble effort of
magnanimity, the hmsy shackles of prejudice or
misrepresentation, have aided us by their coun-
ellis, or sustained us by their appreciation, we
tender the need of our heartfelt gratitude.
1t is when the enthusiastic and devoted lover of
his country, "rapt in future times" struggles to
secure her liberties, and is chilled by the freezing
eye of suspicion, or repulsed by the bitter and
sarcastic reproaches of hostility or insensibty
that the kind consultations of congenal spirits
come over his scared and blighted feelings, like
gentle and balmy showers over parched and with
cred vegetation.
For ourselves, when we look forward to the
long ages Of posterity, we glory in the thought
that we are striving to perpetuate to them, unim-
paired, tina, happiness which has been transmitted
TO us. The children of distant generations may
never hear our names but still it gladdens our
hearts to think that we are now struggling for
their liberty, with all its countless blessings.
If America has reared temples and affairs to Ii
berty, and she require victims, are prepared
for the sacrifice; but, relying in the benevolence
of the great God, whose munifcent aid has been
manifested TO our country up to the present pc
Rod, cannot believe that our labors will be in
vain. Already the minds Of the American
people beginning to be reused to the necessity of
this great reform. From Maine to the extreme
Sabine, from the lakes to the seaboard, and from