Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1851-06-11
Mr.. WISE.


% diversity his employments, become
contractor on our Public Works = In oth-
er words, we are informed that during the
debate on the report of the committee on
the Right of Suffrage, he availed himself OF
a motion made by Col. ANDERSON, of Bote-
tourt 10 exclude transient laborers on our
railroads and canals, to put in bid for pop
ularity with that part of our population IN
q speech replete with barbarism and 0"n-
cou,5e. He undertook not only to deieno
the foreign labourer generally from Tue
charges of ignorance and stupidity so ire
quently brought against them, but went De-
yond the record, and beyond all decency
and self-respect, into an extravagant euloSy
Of the oIrish and Dutch who are swarm
inc over the Northern States, and threaten
ING ere long to have our national destiny IN
their hands. According to Mr.. WISE, we
need in Virginia a vast and rapid increase
of this sort of emigration, and it is not STRAIN
mo his remarks too far to say that he affects
TO REGARD them as among the most hopeful
and reliable elements of political organl-
zation. and such as should be allured to our
soil by every proper cxpedient that can be
devised.
We are not in the least degree tainted
with that sort of ''Native Amencanlsm
which would draw an invidious distinction
between the various classes Of naturalized
citizens and ourselves. On the contrary we
are disposed to place them upon footing
of perfect political equality with the native
born population of our country, not merely
as an act of generous concession, but be-
cause it is essential to the consistency and
the safety of our institutions. More than
this. we can admire many of the distln-
gushing qualities of the Irish and German
emigrants, and do most earthly welcome
them, from the hardships and expressions
of their native land, to the privileges and
prosperity of ours. But it is an insult to an
American community to proceed further
than this and say that the unfortunate en-
;orant who has been all his life trained by
the rigid rules or ground down by the eSac-
tons of European despotism, is equally mt
with the native citizen to exercise the right
of suffrage and encounter its responsibilities
1t is insulting to Virginia, especially, to re-
duce the capacity of her people for self-gov-
eminent to level with that pertaining to
those who have been educated in the schools
of submission and superstition. Such how
ever, we are compelled to infer, is the mean
mo of the eccentric Jacobin who takes so
many opportunities to harangue the gale
ries of the Convention on the multitude OF
miscellanies with which he is accustomed
to amuse his auditory. If Mr.. WISE is not
emulous of that kind of fame which history
has accorded to the LEDRU ROLLINS, the
LOUIS BLANcs, and the PRoUDHoNs OF mod
ern France if he does not aspire to the
mischievous and tainted celebrity of the
W1LKEsEs and Tom PATNEs of seditious
Ensland-he certainly takes particular trou-
bic to mislead mankind as to his wishes and
designs. If he is not on the "public high
road" to the Ultima Thule" of social "a
gralianism, he certainly squints in that di-
rection with most awful perseverance.
We are inclined to think, however, that
he has miscalculated the effect of his fiat
tering speeches. The Irish labourer and
the German farmer, may not sec through
the articles of the demagogue, at their first
arrival in this country. They may suppose
for while that he is their best friend who
praises them most extravagantly to their
faces; but the atmosphere of America is
luminous with instruction on this subject.
They can learn in a few years to suspect
rather than trust the noisy declaimer about
popular rights and must assuredly, in the
end, discover the difference between those
who love and cherish the truth, and those
who cruelty sacrifice it on the polluted al
tar of party.