The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-05-05


countrymen who arrive now. Our neghbors
who migrate to California, look no better there
on their arrival, than those self-same imm-
grants. Is it not cruelty and folly to blame
these immigrants for things inseparable from
an immigrants life?
With them lies our couptry's future. Their
children are our childrens companions, for
veal or for woe. Do not commit I'M ustlce on
them forbear your insults. The humble, the
ragged, and the lowly of to-day, may be the
proud, the rich, and the powerful, in twenty
and thirty years. God is ever the protector of
the poor, and Of those whom their generation
despises The Bible tells the Jews to DO mer
ciful to the stranger for, remember that you
were once strangers in Egypt" That preceept
is meant for us, too Remember that the spirit
that drove here the honored Pilgrim Fathers is
working in the hearts Of nine-tenths of the
present immigrants. A. i:Ssilt to them is there
fore an insult to your own foreiathers. At the
Capitol, in Washington, they have hung up in
the rotunda the pictures of the Pilgrim Fathers
and of Du Sale. Those pictures ought to re-
mind all that the very founders of this land
were immigrants. Of the pilgrims of our day
no record is kept The only record of them
are the lists of Storage passengers; they are
never published The Storage passengers are
numbered as so many heads their names have
no interest for the public eye they are soon
forgotten. These poor immigrants utter no
complaint for this, nor do for them but they
have a right to ask, that when they come here
to labor for themselves, they shall be received
kindly, and that their rights shall be equally
respected with those of the natives.
An excuse for denying them political rights
is sometimes sought in the assertion that these
foreigners are easily operated upon, through
tho ministers of their religion, and political
demagOgues. The difference in language is
also brought forward, as if not to understand
English was proof of ignorance with free insti-
tutions What liberal mind does not smile at
charges like these They arise from a fanci-
full selfcomplacency, whose disregard of truth
must be forgiven, on account of the complete
ignorance of those who make them with those
against whom they are made. My only reply
lies in the fact that the foreign vote of this
country has, as yet, always been found on the
side of freedom and it will be time enough to
rcfuto the charge, when some facts transpre to
give it ut least some little substance | think
recent events in this country afford some evil
dence that the foreign voters are as sharp in
detecting demagogucs, and as quick in rebuk-
ing them, as any other portion of our popula-
ton.
Don't mistake these men, because you do not
know them. Liberty is, assure YOU dear to
the human heart in whatever sound the tongue
may clothe the idea. They may love freedom
to excess, having learned to prize it since they
have felt the heavy hand of oppression. In
this love of freedom, they may, in your opinion,
sometimes 20 too far; if 80, | ask you, in the
eloquent language Of Hayne, Of South Caro-
lima, to forgive errors, that spring from too
ardent devotion to freedom" Win them with
the sun of kindness; verify they deserve it; the
storm of prejudice will not drive them
Some of their habits may not suit you we'll
some of yours don't suit them. They have come
here and they must, therefore, respect, and
they do in many respects follow, yours Will
you not at least tolerate theirs, when they don't
attempt to impose them upon you2 Nothing
10 dearcr TO man, than sie social habits OF
his childhood.
And in connection with this point the ques-
ton will not be deemed improper, if ! ask
whether our habits and customs, in food, in
raiment in our lodgings and in our social re-
lations are such as are suitable to the country
we occupy? We have copied most if not all
, of them from England England is insular and
cold while the climate of France and Germany
as we'll rs its occupations and productions, are
almost identical with ours May not the hab.
its and customs of the latter be more conducive
to our health and comfort, than the ones
which we have brought from the sea shore !
North America has a climate and productions
as varied as the globe Does not good sense teach
us, that habits should vary with the climate,
and that, therefore, it must be beneficial to
Americans, to have before them in actual life the
habits of several nations 30 as to enable them
to choose those which their good sense will
teach them to DO the best Who does not see
already the beneficial effect of such mutual re-
lationst
He who does not see the finger Of God in this
apparently 80 planlcss commingng of all the
nations of Europe on this continents He who
does not see, in mutually kind and mutually
beneficial intercourse of these races, the prma-
ry cause for our decided progress, both mental
ly and physically; and who does not zee, in q
continuance of the same kindly feelings, the
surest basis of Americas future growth and
happiness, is one with whom to dispute were
proftless waste Of words
God bids these millions to come. He bids
the blood of the Elbe and the Shannon to min
gle with that of the Thames and the Seine. He
bids the inhabitants of the United States 10 own
n fatherland as well as a mother country; and
it has become an undeniable fact, that All
American may with equal pride call Shak-
spearc and Goethe, Schiller and Burns, Moliere
and Moore. the poets Of his fathers. He bids
the English miner the Scotch accountant, the
Irish laborer, the French gardener, and the
German farmer, to meet in free America By
joining their respective skill and labor they pro-
ducc country which combines, under the pan
oply of entire free trade within almost all the
| comforts of their various native countries with
in one The treasures Of science, AZ collected by
n I.iebg n Cuvicr, Humboldt, and Herschel,
are ours, too while Europc's bitter political
experience gives to our statesmen safo maxims
and rules, by which American Governments
may be kept pure and free
Why, what is America but the new field
where science, literature, inventive genius, Ia
Dor, and politics, may take new start; where
liberty il imperilled by few vested rights, and
where institutions may be moulded anew, with
out that generally doubtful and always severe
struggle between the acquisitions and accumu-
lations Of the past and the fresh impulses of
the present?
| Emigration is tho means provided by PrOvi-
dcnoe to alleviate evils which would otherwise
be intOlerable Through emigration old things
become now, and through the same process
new countries do avoid the errors Of tho old
countries Emigration is, therefore, almost gen.
orally period Of decided progress because the
old wrongs are left behind while in the new
countries new institutions may be based upon
abstract principles of prmcval justice. Emf
grafton has ever proved to be tho process OF re-
vivifying the nations Of the earth, and of re-
establishing Gods eternal laws Of justice and
right.
The occasion il an inviting one, to apply the
axiOms have laid down 10 the South and its
institutions; but ! have already trespasscd
upon your time too much, and must retain
for more favorable occasion whatever might
have to say uron that subject