Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-01-29
NUMBER GA.
% Naturalization Laws of the

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fer reforming the Naturalization Laws of the
United States
/ We're those patriots with us to-day, could they
| witness the more imminent danger now existing,
| we feel assured that their voices of warning would
be raised with redoubled earnestness.
Acting then on my conviction of duty, / ex-
| press the opinion, that the people of our Com
monwealth believe our rights, privileges and lib
| critics are endangered by these causes for long
time seen, but yearly growing more alarming.
They distrust foreign Influences nursed IN customs
and creeds antagonistical to republicanism venal
voters controlled by alien leaders for office and
honors, ignorant voters misled by designing poti-
clans for place and power vicious voters bought by
promised impunity and license for their wrong
doings.
The alien born who has lived among foreign GUS
toms and institutions however honest and well dis
posed cannot be competent to enter into the spirit
and comprehend the genius Of our institutions like
one born and educated amid them. No native citi-
zen csnsvpte for hia civil rulers except in few
cases of temporary absence from the country, until
he has lived twenty-one years under the blessings
| and influences of our system. He must become
not only familiarizcd with its workings, but aware
Of its value. This period of life being one when
the intellect is most active in acquiring information
and the faculties most facc to adapt themselves to
the circumstances around them, the whole time is
spent, not in eradicating old theories and preferen
ces, but in acquiring new ones.
| To the alien all this is different. He comes here
at a later age, with perceptive powers less acute
opinions formed, judgment already biasscd by the
intellectual POLITICAL social and religious influences
OF his native land Too frequently also the want
OF early education, and the necessity of unremt-
ting toll preclude those opportunities Of instruc-
tion and habits of thought that our common schools
afford to all who are born within the circle of their
influence. Looking only to the proper educational
training necessary to duly appreciate the workings
OF our government It is important that at least the
same period Of apprenticeship and probation should
be required of the alien as Of the native voter
TO remedy the evils referred to is cause alike
glorious and permanent glorious, form defending
the fundamental principles Of our republic we must
be co-workers with those who laid its corner stone
permanent, because our greatest evils and dangers
can only be reached through the national govern
ment, and after q prOtracted struggle, and the
remedy once applied must be rigidly and constant
ly enforced at4%
Legislation for this purpose is not influenced by
prejudice against the foreigner but rather by the
truest regard for his as much as our own inter-
ests, and those too of his and our descendants,
whose common birthrght win be citizenship
Leaving the Old World of his own voltion, be-
cause he can here find happier and better home,
and because the Old Worlds religious, and politi-
cal, and social systems, with their temporal and
spiritual shackles upon body and mind, kept him
impoverished, without n decent home, sufficient
food, comfortable clothing, or means of education
for himself or children, he gladly flies to these
shores, where he is told education and land are
public gifts and every necessary of life is as GER
tain to the industrious as is personal protection IL
self.
Coming as he does, then, because our civil, So
cial, and religious systems better than his owr
let him freely avail himself of all the blessings his
| industry and our laws can give him but we must
insist that ourselves shall continue to administer
| those laws untrammelled, according to our own
Judgment and the example of our fathers.
| The laws of Congress, which give any clerk or
inferior police justice the right Of investing the
nlcn with the high immunities and dignity of Amer
lean citizenship, in secret, at unknown times and
places by reading declaration the alien does not
comprehend, on testimony after a mockery Of
sworn evidence, on oaths administered in manner
not considered obligatory, should be fundamentally
modified. The practical operation of the present
machinery for naturalization is blot upon Judicial
proceedings, and depreciation of the dignity and
value of citizenship.
A few select, public naturalization courts should
be established in the greater centres of the foreign
population judge or commissioner, Of tried in
tegrity, should preside in each public officer be
appointed to inquire into and sit all applications
its sessions should be public and at stated times
hearings on application notified beforehand and
the whole process conducted with stringent car
| and guarded with the strictest circumspcction.
| recommend to the Legislature to consider who
| ther anything may be consttutionaly done to apply
these principles to the clerks Of our State Couris
and 10 our Police Courts Of Record.
| Three Of the most vital principles OF republican
government are spiritual freedom, a free Bible and
| free schools With these, we cannot fail to have
independent, upright, and intelligent voters, and
they necessarily insure just, impartial and wise
| government. With their opposites--spiritual dcs-
/ potsm, a fettered Bible, or, more probably, no
/ Ill anI
would exist but in name, and very soon but In
| history.
Recognising, TO its fullest extent, the right guar
antced TO every one In the preamble 10 the consti-
| tuition of Massachusetts, of worshippng God in
| the manner and season most agreeable TO the die
tstes of his own conscience" decming It the most
sacred right that be granted to man. the de-
termination to protect that privilege in all its pu-
rty cardinal doctrine of truly American states
manship.
But while no religious denomination, as such,
should be opposed, every citizen should earnestly
withstand the ntrigues Of those who would per-
vert the church to political purposes and should
protest against the union Of Church and State or
the subordination Of the State TO the Church Tho
State should protect all churches and not one
church control, or attempt to control, the State.
Spiritual despotism is antagonistc to the principles
of individual and public liberty. An alien may
forswcar his allegiance to the foreign potehtate,
anu may takc uie vhtn OF hneglance 70 ms auOpted
| country; but, when he has been taught, as tie
fundamental truth Of his religion, that spiritual OBJ
| legation overrides temporal and civil obliga-
ton, that bis duty TO his Church Is higher than his
duty to the State, the danger and probabilities are,
that he win the privileges Of voter not pri-
marily for the benefit of the State which granted
them, but Of the church, which, In his judgment,
| is supreme above the State.
| Believing these dangers and probabilities real, IL
is solemn duty so to restrict alien franchise that
while entire toleraton Is granted others to worship
their Maker according to the dictates Of their own
| Judgment we preserve the same right 10 us and
ours untrammeed and unendangered.
The present European immigration Is deeply pre-
judicial TO the fair remuneration Of American labor.
The mechanic the artisan, the agriculturist daily
suffer from its influence. There Is no statement in
political ethics more palpsble or fundamental than
that honest industry should receive its due reward