The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-06-15
FOREIGN IMMIGRATION.

The number of immigrants brought from
the single port of Liverpool to this country in
the year 1858, was 219,672. Nine hundred
and seventeen ships, with tonnage of 844, 65S,
were employed in their transportation. Ac-
counts reach us, that, during the disturbed
state of Europe, the amount of the emigration
this year will be largely increased. 1t is well
known that the great majority Of the immi-
grants shun the slavehOlding States, from an
instructive dislike of slave labor, so that their
labor and the capital they bring go to augment
the power and resources of the free States, and
to promote the extension of freedom in our
Territories
It was the knowledge of this fact that
induced the Senators from the slaveholding
States to insert the Clayton amendment in
the Nebraska Bill so as to disfranchse foreign
settlers. Had an opportunity been allowed in
the House Of Representatives, we should have
seen this amendment sustained by nearly the
whole delegation from the South. In the Sen
ate as we arc aware, the Shareholders su1ren-
dered the amendment bat not till it was posi-
lively certain that the Bill could not be carried
with it.
Foreign immigrants ought to understand the
unfavorabIc opinions entertained of them
by the Slaveholding Oligarchy. The Rich
mond (Va.) Examiner has been abusing them
of late without stint. It's language in this case
as in all others when dealing in censure, is
reckless and extravagant; still the editor has
sense enough not to outrun very far the preju-
dices of the community for which he writes
His readers may not swear SO fercely as he
does, but they cherish similar sentiments.
We copy few samples of his opinion of
foreign immigrants, from one of his recent edi-
torials:
"The mass of them are sensual, groUelling,
lolU-,ninded agrGriGns and nine tenths of them
q0ould join the MOrmOnS or some such brutal
leUelling sect, If an opportunity offered to do So
X x
european writers describe large class of
population throughout England and the cont.
nent, as being distinguished by restless, wan
dering, nomadic habits, and by peculiar con-
formation of the skull and face. Animal and
sensual nature largely predominates, Nth them
ouer the moral and intellectual. 1t is they qcko
commit crimes fill prisons, and GdOrn the gal
lOtDS. They aciu not submit TO the restraints of
ldD or religion, nor can they be educated. Are
such men worth a thousand dollars head to
breed from? From their restless and hairless
habits, a0e should infer they composed large
part Of the Northern immigration.
"Slavery tends off the stream of vicious for
eign emigration from the South. In a few
years, the blasphemous reformers who curse
the Constitution for legalizing and the Bible
for consecrating Slavery, 1ciH curse Heaven that
1t did not bless the North Nth african Sauer4
the only Gntidote to a crowded. motley foreign
and ,at'Vs population.
"The editor of the New York Herald a for
eigner himself who therefore knows what his
paper says is not SO, describes these immigrants
as coming here to avoid despotic, aristocratic
distinctions at home. They run array from
liberty, and he kno1cS al. Had they feuaal lords
or masters like Russians, Hungarians and
Turks, to furnish them homes, houses, and sub
sistence, not one 1couLd quit"
This Eran,iner, by the way, is most con-
sistent devotee to Slavery. Color and race
make no difference with it at all In its raving
monomsnia, it goes for the enslavcment of the
poor white man, as well as black. Had these
homes, houses, and subsistence, not one would
quit" Aye, they would no more think of run
ming away, than Burns, or Sims, or Shadrach !
In another editorial, this Slavery fanatic de-
velops the idea thus incidentally preached.
Speaking of the enfranchisement of the peas
antry of Europe, he says
"The little experiment of free society that
has been tried for little while, in little cor
ner of Europe, and which, under the galvanic
battery of free competition, exhibited, for a
time, some little vitality, has eVentuated long
since an disastrous failure. and yet arrogant,
| impairment characters at the North, who are
the loudest in proclaiming the failure, and pro-
posing remedy, insist that we, aoho haze a
happy, quiet, contented society, should set our
negroes free. When Owen and his compeers
can cite an instance in history, of any consider
able civilized nation, The mass of uo6ose people
continued prosperous and contented, for three
centuries 'otthout domestic Slavery or some
similar institution, it will be time enough to