The native American., 1840-05-09


those days Of toll and privation, Indian var
fare and kingly oppression, as it has been in
more recent times. Few, then, assayed y
emigrate, and those few were men of differen
stamp from those who come now Some
there were who courted the fatigue and dan
ger for the love of adventure, simply but by
far the greater portion were actuated by fee
lings kindred to those which induced the ear
lier pilgrims to tear themselves from their
homes, and to brave the perils of a painless
ocean in fraH bark, called the May-Flower,
bound for shore which they knew was at the
best, but wilderness, inhabited by no civil
zed thing, and only occupied by beasts OF
prey, and the still more ferocious "red man.
Such settlers could but be a valuable acqui-
sitlon to the new country, and the colonlsts
were naturally DESTROYS Of embracing them,
Perhaps they had near relations and dear
friends amongst them; if SO, that in itself was
enough to enrage them against the tyrant who
detained them in Great Britain: it was wrong
deserving the mention which it received. AT
that time, the United States were sadly in
want Of population, and immigration III those
days was necessarily great desideratum. 1t
cannot be wondered at, then, that the colonsts
had put upon it.
But this was sixty-four years ago-when
the colonists were " few and far between"
Now, though we may entertain the same hos
pltality, we cannot feel the same necessity
which caused them to open thor arms to the
We have now become sufficient
ly numerous to dispense with numerical in
crease from abroad. If we crowd the land
aoao, by and by there will be no room for orr
natural increase, and our descendants will,
not long hence, be forced to seek another land
for an abiding place !
The signers ofthe Declaration of Independ-
ence never anticipated for a moment what
hordes of foreign serfs and maletactors would
IN afterdaysbe vomited upon this devoted land:
they only saw honest and high-minded men,
who, (as we have before stated, prompted by
the same feelings which actuated the pilgrim
fathers were seeking to join their kindred
spirits in America. 1t would be folly to liken
the immigrants Of the present day to those
men, and worse folly for Americans to con-
tinue their arms open to the scum and dregs
Of all Europe But how much greater is that
Weakness consummate that idiocy,
which not content with welcoming these To-
Gusts to our shores, invests them with the
right of suffrage and makes them heirs, equal
y with ourselves, to that inheritance which
our fathers earned with their own blood and
reasure, and beqheathed to us as a sacred
rust which we should ever maintain pure and
lnsullied !
We have no inclination to prevent this
country from being place of refuge for the
,i11uous oppressed of other lands but we do
al, J
ion which is flooding the United States with
he worst population Of the old world. And
lbove all let us cease dssipating with corrupt
that glorious heritage, to guard
which in safety the great Washington coun-
;eled the American people to beware of the
nsidious and wild influence of foreigners!
The necessity of this earnest caution, from
he "Father of his Country, is not SO appar-
mt in the country as in the larger towns and
ties. 1t is in such places that the evils atten-
ling naturalization are most appalling.
Again, the speaker whom we have before
quoted, proceeds with what is, at the best, only
plausible sophstry. Though he has gilded
lis pill with pretended maenanlmlty and SEN
iment, it is shallow enough to remind one
hat call is not gold that gIitters."
q know theory has of late been promul-
gated by q band of exclusives and bigots in
lirect contravention Of sentiments avoWed and
boldly sustained by the founders of our Gov
know that associations have been
formed among us; the object Of which is to
lake away the right to become citizens from
he descendants and kindred Of those who
eft their homes in foreign climes and perilled
heir lives and poured out their blood in be-
paf of freedom and our common country;
yet have the proud satisfaction of feeling and
knowing that such principles never can pre-
vail as long as the Declaration of American
remains the corner stone of
our Republic. lam anative American citizen
md am proud to exclaim in the language of
poetry and devotion,
Here is my own, my native land
The home of the blest and free
Yet feel that would be undeserving the
lame of an American citizen, and recreant to
he high and holy sentiments entertained by
he patriots and heroes Of the revolution were
to uphold the doctrine that our land was no
onger to be the shome of the emigrant and