The native American. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1840, 1839-03-02
LOUISIANA MEMORIAL.

r LOUISIANA MEMORIAL.
: TO The Honorable The Senate and House of Re-
B presentufires Of the United States, in Congress
5 assembled:
3 The petition of the undersigned, citizens OF
! Louisiana, respectfully represents:
That they are native born American citizens.
and deeply imbued with all that love Of country
which its glorious and free institutions are cacu
lated TO awaken, and as such, they view with feel
ings Of epregret the circumstances under which
they feel themselves constrained to address you.
They find themselves in this, their native land,
the liberty Of which was consecratedb by the blood
|of their forefathers, aliens to many privileges
guaranteed by the existing lays to foreigners,
whereby they have a preference over us, which
we cannot but consider mpotic and unjust.
! 'Ihey believe that the naturalization laws have
ceased to accomplish the benefcent purposes for
which they were at first instituted, viz: the mu-
tuai advantage OF our common country and her
Immigrant cilizens-lhat hordcs Of foreigners ce-
mcnted together by social political and religious
ties, alien TO the obligations which they so readily
Fincur in our country, are daily permitted to ac-
quire equal rights, immunites and privileges,
with her native inhabitants, for the proper en-
| pIoyment of which we have no adequate guar
antce.
l
with either of the great political pa.tles of the
United States--they consist indiscriminately Of
Wings and Democrats and, in making this
avowal, lliey cannot but call the attention Of your
honorable body to the fact, that the charge Of en-
lploylng bribery in obtaining masses of immigrant
voters TO control our elections has, for years past,
been constantly made in almost all the elections
throughout the United States. II cannot then be
charged to us. that we are employing our consti-
lutional privilege in cndeavoring to bias your
minds i'll favor of one party or the other but we
consider il conceded point, on all hands. that
there is strong ground for suspicion that the sa-
cred right Of suffrage is daily prostituted, through
out our country, by both parties, in the unwar-
rantable employment of foreigners at the ballot
boxes, and the welfare. happiness and liberty of
four beloved country thereby placed in imminent
peril. 'Fhis is a rapidly increasing evil; and,
without some adequate remedy, we fear that, in
the course of another generation, our glorious in
situations will be either subverted or finally over
thrown. But whether the fact be admitted or not,
as having actually occurred the possibility Of such
Ia contingency is enough to awaken the keenest
Fapprehensions in the mind of every sincere pa
lriot.
The present facilities by which foreigners are
|enabled 10 obtain all the rights and privileges OF
American citizens, are highly injurious, in the
opinion Of your petitioners, to the safety and per-
Ipetuity of our free institutions. Coming to this
country imbued with all the feelings and preju
IEdices Of moHarchial governments, themselves the
vassas and serfs of arbitrary and aristocratic es-
pots, they know not the responsibility incurred by
the exercise of theeective franchise; and in their
Ezest for what they consider liberty, they exercise
icentiousness-for with them these words are too
4 often synonymous.
Let the patriot cast his eye throughout our coun-
ty, and witness the dreadful deterioration of mo-
raj and increase of CRIME in the United States III
the last 10 or Is years-et him note the inf1ic-
: ton of summary and impulsve vengeance subsli-
tuted for the majesty of the lea scripta, or writ
ten law, to whose supremacy the people Of the
i United States were formerly so proverbially sub
servent--let him see hordes of beings liz human
form, but Destitute of any intellectual aspirations,
brought up TO the polls, and bought and sold like
cattle at the shambles, whose votes are to control
the desnes Of the noble native inhabitants of the
United Sta,es--et him perceive the crime of per-
Jury, so common Of late as almost absolutely to
have ceased to awaken those feelings Of horror
which it formerly engcntlered in the American
community him witness all these, and he
cannot but unite with us in supplicaing our rulers
for protection from the fearful consequences which
must inevitably flow from these accumulated in
roads upon our national character; and were he
to trace still further the cause Of all these evils he
would find that they originated from foreign i'm
migration.
To one who has not looked with attention to
this subject, the immense number Of foreigners
landed in our atlantic cities would appear almost
Incredible. Within the last few months, some
hundred thousands have arrived, many of whom
are the refuse of the prisons and aims houses in
Europe and an instance stands recorded Of seven
hundred coNvIcTs having been sent to this coun-
try from one place in Europe.
] We deem it unnecessary 10 enter into detailed
account Of the situation, mental, physical, moral
or pecnnary, Of large portions of foreign immi-
grants: the records of the prisons, hospitals and
aims houses throughout our country, which have
already been Submitted to you, bear evidence
more conclusive than could be drawn from any
other source.
To you, as the Representative of the People,
to whose hands is confded the power to guard
against the subversion Of free Institutions in
the name Of all those dear and nestmable rights so
firmly guaranteed to us by the great Magma
Charta Of freedom, by the memories Of those
revolutionary patriots who sealed their devotion to
the cause with their sacred blood, we appeal, and
ask, ere itbe too late, some check to the evil of