The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1845-09-30

a conflict Of rdces This is the very wotst Of all
dissertations that can nfict country, the history
OF mankind in all ages proves. Il 10 kind of dis
sension to produce eternal quarrels and even civil
war, until at last side or the other is entirely
5ubdued or exurpated.
Is this a state Of things that any one of you
would wish 10 see in our once happy landi / can
not believe it, No prudent man can think Of Il but
with alarm. No good man can contemplate its re-
atty but with horror.
am native American; and confess that in
that capacity, am mortified to think that the day
should ever have come when party would be
formed with any view To protect me in any OF my
rights or privileges, political other; to give me
any special advantages at elections, or in any other
conceivable way IL implies ,eeakness or interiors
ty IN native Americans. Il holds out to the world
that something is required TO support them, some
organized association, with baniiers. badges, and
new maine, to give them strength and consequence
in their own country. This is a novelty and pug
zle to me. L bewlders my judgment and strikes at
my pride thought that we were strong enough
TO support ourselves. l had never imagined that l
and fy family, and the millions in the same predic
aitent, we're IN any danger from newcomers. l
thought that Toe were the cobniryj that our name
was legion; that our strength was resistess, il ever
we could think Of exerting it upon the weak; that
we need be afraid of nothing and least of all of be-
ing kind, and hosptable, and generous to the stra
gers WHO come, no matter how many Of them, to
east their LOT Upon our shores and again, say that
feel mortified to think L should lettery come to Be
reputed otherwise. | never could have dreatned Of
il.
~ am Roman citizen lam Roman citizen %
These words we have all heard quoted thou
sand times. Did anybody ever hear Of the excla-
nation, 81 am natire Roman ctizeni | am a
nafire Roman citzeni" How such words wound
the classic ear! They would have implied, more
over, birth in Rome, or it's neighborhood; whereas
man, il made citizen Of Rome by the laws Of
hal tka ELL IL e a. -
thrown over him, matter where born.
Suppose person born in Philadelphia to be
cruelty treated abroad and while suffering under his
tormens, TO cry out, ~ am a nGtips American! |
am a naiipe American! l am naps Americana
The very thought seems ludicrous. 1t be-ttles the
whole subject Never ought there be but the one
simple, ali-powerful description of himself AM
AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.
Perhaps all of you may not at the moment re-
member the origin Of this prejudice against natural
ized citizens IN our country, and will therefore
briefly explain it.
the federal constitution gone into operation, Euro
peans. attracted by our liberal form Of government
and the equal rights il secured to all, came in great
numbers to our shores. The newcomers were
generally republicans and II 50 fell out thet When-
ever they voted, after being naturazed they almost
always voted the republican, rather than the federal
ticket in the United States The fedsralis,s were
not slow in discovering this to be the fact They then
began to raise camor against them; and during
the administration of the elder Adams, they passed
the famous alien law, and naturalization law.
The former gave the President very high handed
power over aens--unconsttutionally, as the repub-
leans thought; and the latter extended the term Of
naturalization IN the case of all foreigners to four
teen years previous residence In Our Country when
only five years had before been required AT first,
only two were required. You may thus see that
hostility to foreigners is federal in its origin; and
bnr tIxr Il
that such the illustrous father of your dis
tnguished and beloved Dalas-of whose great abili-
ties, and services to the democratic cause am sure
you all must have heard as you all k,ow of the
kindred abilities and services in the son--you may
hardly believe me, but it Is nevertheless true, when
tell you that such man was again and again de-
nounced as that Did foreigner! The venerable
Albert Gallatin, who still lives among us, was also
denounced, If possible, still more-G allatn, the pu-
pill of Muller and classmate Of Dumont-G alatin,
whom enlightened and republican America was al.
forwards more afraid to place at the head Of her
finances, than France had been to place Ncckar at
the head Of hers, though each alike of foreign
birth to the land which each served with so much
ability and purity. In fact all foreigners naiuralized
or not were more or less denounced in the lump, the
English excepted. Stephen Girard came in for his
share; the learned and excellent Duponceau for his
because both were born in France, and both DEM
ocrats. Very likely John Jacob Astor, of New
York, had his share, though do not know the
fact; but he was born in Germany, and, believe,
was democrat; as that great and munifcent mer-
chant Of Baltimore-Robert Oliver--was born in
Ireland. II seemed to be forgotten, all this while,
how freely the blood Of foreign patriots had been
shed in armies for the establishment Of our own
The denunciations were of little
avail, however, in the endj for in 1900, Mr., Jeffer
son triumphantly elected President
When Mr. Jefferson came in, the naturalization
law requiring fourteen years previous residence was
repealed and the term reduced again to five years,
as it had been under Gen. Washington's administer
ton, and us il now stands.
The wisdom of mankind has invariably been in
favor of the easy naturalization Of foreigners in
countries circumstanced at all like ours; and, for the
most part, in favor of it in countries far fully
peopled. That this great fact should have been
struck from the memory of the federalists only
shows how far temporary passions will sometimes
carry men in opposition To permanent truth. They
forgot that human life and human industry were the
best of oil imports into country They forgot that
France in Calonnes time, less that century back)
invited to her shores-populous she then was
pared the United States, in reference to the ter
rtory of each-nvited strangers to her shores from
all Christian nations, allowing them the same privi-
leges they enjoyed in their native country and even
granting them, for limited time, an immunity from all
duties the importation Of materials used In their
lactres, and erempiing them and their teork,nen from
the payment Of all iares! They forgot that Holland,
III ubyS OF Hef power anu Srdnueur--tne udyS
when her people lent out, TO their own government
and foreigners, three hundred millions of pounds
sterling; and when their country, as an able writer
has sad," exhibited an accumulation Of more in
habitants, in the same space, than were known in
any other part of Europe; of more industry, in the
same population, than was ever found in any other
country; and of more wealth, in the hands Of the
nation, than was ever possessed elsewhere by the
same number Of men;n--the federasts forgot that,
in that same Holland, no distinction was made be-
tween natives and foreigners, whether as regarded
the privileges of trade political privileges, and
that these advantages open TO all who chose TO
settle there, for hotcsrer short time They forgot
that Russia, in GATHERINGS time, in order to draw
foreigners to her borders, besides comforting upon
them at once the rights Of her subjects, grant
ed them an exemption from all duties to the Grown
for six years. They forgot the advantages which
Russia thence derived from the Germans, the French,
and the English, who went there in shoals, carrying
industry and art and money with them, and multi
plying each among the Russians. All Of these
r.