Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-01-10


lei in number to the peaceful and insiduous
foreign influx to our shores at the present day
In England, the most liberal of the present
European governments, citizenship Is confer
red only by special act of Parliament. In the
Continental nations, there are still further
limitations, or a total prohibition.
When we witness the profuse hberality
with which the sacred right of citizenship is
bestowed among us, the slender guards that
exist against its unworthy or fraudulent gift,
and the great interests in the bands of those
who receive, as well as those who grant it, we
should pause and calmly consider the possible
consequences.
To a Republican Government, there is nee
essarily cause for greater alarm than to others.
Here the adopted citizen Is invested with both
the right of choosing and being chosen TO Of
fee. Not only must he be an elector, but he
may be- and often is, an officer. Every addi-
tional naturalization tends to denationalize, to
Europeanize, America The universal record
Of history teaches that all republics that have
risen and fallen owe their destruction to for
eign influence, unseen at first, permitted till
too strong for resistance, al last fatal
The danger of foreign influence was keenly
felt by the early fathers Of the Republic :
Washington, in language betting alike the
gravity of the subject and his own sagaeious
craftsmanship, repeatedly warns his country.
men TO beware of it. The writings Of nearly
all his distinguished contemporaries, Of every
shade of political sentiment, contain similar
counsels. This was at period when ships
were comparatively few and small, steamers
unknown. and practically the old world was
quadruple the distance from us that it is now;
at a time, too, when the stream of immigra-
ton was almost imperceptible in comparison
& Il, a. IL
day; at a time, also, before the alien ele-
ment in our elections had become important
that the fore On vote had been battered for Of
fee and no lors, and now on this side. and
now on that, had once and again decided who
should rule the destinies of the American Re-
public.
Time does not permit me to quote the names
Of the long line of distinguished statesmen
who have given utterance to similar senti.
ments, as this danger has more clearly deyel-
oped itself during the half century since in
teryening, but cannot f0rbear mentioning
the authority of our own Webster. He said,
more than ten years ago, in Faueuil Hall, and
in the presence of some who now hear me,
"There is an imperative necessity for reform
ing the Naturalization Laws Of the United
States
Were those patriots with US today, could
| they witness the more imminent danger now
existing, we feel assured that their voice OF
warning would be raised with redoubled ear
nestness.
Acting then on my conviction of duty,
express the opinion. that the people of our
Commonwealth believe our rights, privileges,
and liberties, 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 honor, ignorant vo-
tiers misled by designing politicians, for Place
| and power, vicious voters bought By promised
IMMUNITY and license for their wrong doings.
The alien born who has lived among foreign
customs and institutions, however honest and
well-disposed, cannot be competent to enter
into the spirit and comprehend the genius of
our institutions, like one born and educated
amid them. No native citizen can vote for his
civil rulers, except in the few cases of tempo
rary absence from the country, until he has
| lived twenty-one years under the blessings
and influence OF our system. lie must be-
come not only familiarized with it 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
facile to adapt themselves to the circumstances
around them, the whole time is spent, net in
Graduating old theories and preferences, but
IN acquiring new ones.
To the alien this is different. He comes
here at later age, with perceptive powers less
acute, opinions formed, judgment already
BIASED by the intellectual, political, social,
and religious influences in his native land -
loo frequently, also, the want of early edu-
cation, and the necessity of unrenitting toll
preclude those opportunities Of instruction
and habits of thought that our common schools
| afford to all who are born within tile circle of
| their influence. Looking only to the proper
educational training necessary to duly appre.
ciate the workings of our government, it is
important that at least the same period of
apprenticeship and probation should be re-
| quired of the alien as well as native voter.
To remedy the evil referred to- is a cause
alike glorious and permanent; glorious, for in
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 be reached
through the national government, and after a
protracted struggle, and tho remedy once ap-
Piled, must be rigidly and constantly enforced
Legislation for this purpose is not influence
ed by prejudice against the foreigner, but
rather by the truest regard for his as much as
our own interests, and those too of his and
our descendants, whose common birthright
will be citizenship. Leaving the old world Of
his own volition, because he can here find a
happier and better home, and because the old
worlds religious and political and social sys-
tens, with their temporal and spiritual shack
les upon body and mind, kept him i'm
poyerished, without a descent home, sufi-
Gent food, comfortable clothing, or means
Of education for himself or children, he glad.
ly flies to these Shores where he is told educa-
ton and land are public gifts. aud every ne.
cessary Of life is as certain to the industrious
as is personal protection itself.
Coming as he does, then, because our civil
and religious systems are better than his own,
let him avail himself of all the blessings his in
dustry and our laws can give him; but we
must insist that we ourselves shall continue To
administer those laws untramellcd, according
10 our own judgment and the example of our
fathers.
The laws of Congress, which give any clerk
or inferior police justice the right Of invest
ing the alien with the high immunites and
dignity of American citizenship, in secret. at
unknown times and places, by reading de-
claration the alien does not comprehend, on
testimony often mockery of sworn evidence
on oaths administered in a manner not con-
sidered obligatory, should be Fundamentally
modified. The practical operation of the
present machinery for naturalization is blot
upon judicial proceedings, and depreciation Of
md a1t.n s.E