New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-12-05
MONDAY MORNING. DECEMBER s. 1853
THE DUTIES or CITIZENS.


have boon wrongsd or worsted in their native
land. arc no sooner safe and happy In this coun-
trv, than they turn around and want us to en-
list in whatever quarrel they have left behind
than The Delta thinks one of our positions
very absurd. Now, we are perfectly willing It
should appear so, provided it be proved so; We
therefore insert, in another place, our friends
reasons, in all their force and as it is now our
turn, we proceed to review the Delta's review OF
us begging only that our mutual judges, by
whose decision we must both ever stand or fall,
will, by way of the better understanding us as
we 20 on, cast their eyes on the Delta's article
Mt foot.and then resume what we have to answer
The Delta considers our paragraph &c an obvi-
ous truism,' except the two concluding SEN
tences; which it looks upon in just the opposite
Iicht 1t thus does US the honor Of representing
one part of our propositions as so well known to
he true, that it was absurd to utter them, and
the other part as SO plainly false, that it was
ridiculous even to think them. But, let us sec.
Now, a trueism is by all definitions, either
self-evident truth, or one that nobody can
doubt. 1t would puzzle the Delta to show that
these Of ours have ever been uttered before: but
it is little uncommon that a proposition in pol
itics should be at once self-evdent and new,
When one chances to be both, it is considered
great merit, not a reproach. Our truths. then,
if self-evident. only became so after we had
stated them.
But say, on the other hand. that they had
been stated before and had never been doubted
BY any that had heard them. What then !
Are there not many people who have never
heard them stated and never thought of them
Self-evident truths are merely such as are seen
to be true, as soon as stated. The Delta seems
to us to confound them with intuitive or in
stinctiye truths, which every body knows natu-
rally, without having ever heard them. Unjust
be ridiculous to state instructive truths: but self
evident truths have often need to be stated
The " Declaration of Independence thought it
not idle to set forth whole series of such and
calls them SO. Surely q newspaper may do
what an eternal manifesto of the nation does.
Once more, what we said was no truism be-
cause there are multitudes of men in this coun-
try who-true as the Delta admits our PROPOSE
tions to be-do not believe them, and are con-
tinually acting in opposition to them. This, the
Delta and every body else knows.
We turn to what the Delta alleges to be our
illogical conclusion y from these truths. What
is the illogicalness of saying that ''the good
citizen must love only his own country; hate
only that which she bids him hate !"
If it be q truism that she adopts none of his
passions, must it not be true that he should, to
be good CITIZEN" repress them in himself
least they should influence and dangerously
pervert his conduct on public questions How
can a man indulge privately in violent feelings
against country or government, and be sure
that he will be able to act wisely and coolly, in
cases where that nation or government is con-
cerned We did not say as much as this We
only said that, as a citizen, it was mans duty
to have no passion that was not for the good Of
his country; that, as citizen, he must Danish
such from his bosom that, as a citizen, he
cannot indulge them without becoming bad
one. We did not say that, in private, for his
individual amusement or happiness or philan-
thropy, he may not solace or delectate himself
with these foreign luxuries of hating this peo-
pie or that, and wanting to shed blood in vari
Gus countries yonder. But it strikes us he
might as well let all such things alone, and try
to forget, as fast as he can, every thing that
may stand in the way of his becoming, heart
and soul, an American, and nothing but an
American.
But the Delta, for the very profound reason
that sDr. johnson loved good hater," wants
our adopted citiztns to keep on hating, with
all their might. Well; let US see how it will
answer, in practice.
An Englishman hates a Frenchman, an Italian
German, Protestant Catholic, Jew a Chris
tian, an Irishman Saxon: WE'LL shall all con-
tinue hating each other, in this country Or,
again; the GO Far -downers" hate the &c Corkoni-
ans" nobody knows for what but what then !
They are " excellent haters,' and should be en-
couraged to go on in their old, laudable and pa
triotic practice of splitting each others skulls,
whenever they meet The Delta and the Doctor
will approve, applaud.
The whole amount of it is, we suppose, that
the Delta wants to keep fair with feelings that
are pernicious, not only to the country, but to
the foreign born citizens who are thoughtless
enough to indulge these alien passions. These
men are numerous, and therefore are fiattered
The Delta wishes to please them: we only desire
TO 90 them BOou we tell them honest and saiu-
tary truths, such as they have need to hear
like them or not the Delta falls, thereon, to
criticising us. 1t is welcome
1t is easy, it is profitable, to give into public
errors, to fall in with passions that are popular
while to do the opposite, seldom pays Men are
rarely grateful to you for correcting their
ignorance; always for fattering their passions.
Where we make one friend by telling alien
born citizens their duty to this, their adopted
country, and to their own we'll being in it, the
Delta will make five and much noisier ones. by
advocating all their mistakes
But what would these people have? Would
they have us retrospectireIy adopt all their in
juries before they had any relation to us II
80, each man should give in, before he is natur-
allied, q regular schedule of his loves and hate.
abroad, that we may not only have fair motto,
Of what we assume for him, but have littl,
time to digest list Of our wars on hand, an,
make some preparation for them. The French
man wants Louis Napoleon pulled down; tn,
Italian, the Pope; the Cuban, Spain; the Hun
garian, Austria; the German, the Empire anC
Prussia the Pole, Russia; Ireland, Britain
Mexicans, Santa Anna. Now, here's a poot
deal to undertake: but where shall we begin
For somebody's wars against the government
which is the ifavorite object of his aversion will
have to be postponed many years: we cam