Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1855-04-18

4 Know NoTHNGIsM AS LOOKED Upon BIZ AN INTEL
LIGEnT ADOPTED CITIzEN In the following which we
lind IN the South Carolinian, published at Columbia
i we think may be readily recognised the pen of Dr.
1iebsr who it will be Seen, turns the experiences of
history TO profitable account in his reflections. As
usual with his writings the article is in philoso
phic spirit, enlivened with anecdote and enforced
| by pertinent facts: .5ssss
MEssRs. EDIroRs The temperate and sound com
municaton of Southron," on the Know-Nothings,
in your paper yesterday, instances a number of
American citizens, born in foreign countries that
have loyalty and faithfully stood by their adopted
country on the battlefield, and served the govern
ment Of their choice with their head and heart and
blood, even to death
This suggests another remark. Let us look around
as matters stand now, and let survey the history
OF our land scan the names of those who have been
prominent in the many walks of life, and the varied
spheres of action and activity, and you will find in
every one OF them a fair, and even large number
OF men who were American citizens by choice.
Among the most eminent or most widely useful
American dlvInes there have always been, and
to this day, many born the other side of the At
lantc. The will be found to be the case if you
examine the list of great advocates and of American
statesmen throughout the land. The same is true
of teachers, authors philosophers of physicians of
editors, and artists, merchants artisans and farmers,
of navlgators and architects, of manufactures and
inventors
There are many persons who seem to have accus-
toned themselves to connect with the idea of the
usefulness of Immigrants canal-digging Irishmen
and farm-laboring Dutch" as if all the good we
muscle. A moments reflection will show them their
error We do not only or mainly speak of those
citizens by choice who in their spheres what the
foreigners" Astor and Girard, were in the mer-
camille pursuit As speak of all Spheres
speak of all degrees of of skill and intellect
Every reader can test what say in his immediate
circle around him. Let him call the roll let him
" mark" the citizens by choice and " inwardly di-
gest" the result.
Having mentioned Astor and Girard, whose indus
try and intelligence enabled them to acquire princely
fortunes, and who with corresponding Eberality rem
dered millions to the community in which they be-
came rich cannot refrain from telling little
anecdote which strikingy shows with what naivete
nativism is sometimes working. Girard, it is well
known, left many millions for the purpose of estab
fishing orphan house. He was native French
man. but left all his fortune to America. When the
time approached for the appointment of the chief
officer of that college for orphans, number Of trus
tees DESTROYS of electng person who for many
long years had been citizen OF the United States,
and to whom actually the drafting of plan for the
whole organization Of the institution had been COM
mitted.
He not however, appointed, because, as it
was intimated to him, nativism then too strong
in Philadelphia Nativism not too strong to
receive ten millions of dollars at the hands of
foreigner" The susceptibility of natvism does
not lie in that region but it of peculiar delica-
cy when the question to pay moderate salary
out of the proceeds of the gigantic capital to per-
son who it was declared considered otherwise
the very person the trustees would have selected
marking the place of his birth.
We say, then, that far SKILL industry, intel
ligence, productive labor elevating talent and sue
cess of every kind arc concerned, citizens by choice
found among the foremost. How is it with that
truthful loyalty which is the choicest jewel IN the
citizenship of freeman? We subscribe to what was
said in another place. that throughout all the his
tory of this hemisphere and the other, of ancient
times as we'll as modern, you will find among the
most devoted and patriotic citizens names OF foreign
origin
of the meeting Of the Netherlanders, when they re-
solved, in the darkest hours of the trial to which
Philip the Second, of Spain, submitted them, that
should it come to the last they would one and all
leave their country and liberty by carrying
the Netherlands to another hemisphere. They
loved their land yet they cried PariG cara, carior
i6ertas Little indeed do the men of ease VINO now
so lightly and yet bitterly dccry the foreign
ers know the pangs of fervent heart that has to
repeat PatrG cara, carior l6ertGs and when it must
act it, but when man is fol ced to act on it, he
clings to the country of his choice, even as man
cleaves to his chosen wife faster than to his kin.
Has any mind shed greater lustre on illustrious
Athens then Aristotle? Aristotle was foreigner,
and came to Attca when seventeen years old. Has
there been any Spanard more Spanish than Column
bus? Columbus Genoese. Has there been a
Frenchman more French than Napoleon, and Culver,
and Constant? Napoleon was an Italian; Culver,
by birth and education, German; Constant Swiss.
Who carried the Netherlands through the dreSt war
of independence record, and who founded the
great republic of the Netherlands? William of
Orange, German
Has England ever had more English King than
William the Third, the Netherlander? Has Ger
many ever had more German leader than Eugene
of Savoy? Who was Catharine of Russia, that made
her the great power? She was German woman
Has Oxford ever had greater professor than Eras-
mus of Rotterdam? The very country in which
the Know-Nothing reves " the foreigner" was
discovered by Cabot, Genoese, in the service of
England.
The to-martyr of the American revolution was
Montgomery, an Irishman; was Barry, called the
father of the American navy; anc Paul Jones, the
bold and early captain Scot. Were DeKalb,
LAFAYETTE Hamilton Gallatian,n no Americans? Mark
the list of signers and see how many foreign
ers" The hue and cry against foreigners belongs
to pagan antiquity, when one word served for for
eigner and enemy but not to Christianity, one of
whose earliest writers goriously said mostrG cUias
totas aaundas The very word Christianity rebukes
Nothingsm.
The term free trade has far wider meaning than
a merely economical one. 1t applies to all merit,
truth intellect Let every stand and fall by his
own individuality, and take the best of everything
where YOU it find it best. So did your foreathers;
so your Gospel demands it. When Sir Harry Sa-
vile founded, in 1919, his Savian professorshp at
Oxford be prescribed that the best man that could
be gotten matter where, should always be taken,
SO that he was man of good fame and honest re-
pute" er qtacunque natonis cribs ehrtstiane ct en-
juscunqu ordnis sioe fsssionts" And this ought
to be the rule in all spheres, but most especially
in our own land.