Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1855-08-15

South Carolina, foreigner is required to wait
five years, after declaring his intention to be;
come citizen, before be is admitted to the full
fruition of all the rights of citizenship. In
Michigan and Illinois, but six months are requlr.
ed; while in the Territories of Kansas and Ne
braska, actual residence will qualify every Wnite
male adult to vote ut the first election. but
the Federal Constitution also declares that "the
citizens of each State shall be entitled to oil
the privileges and immunities of citizens in the
several States" Now if one of these new hedg.
ed citizens of Michigan was to come into the
Fourth Congressional District, and in compli'
ance with your State Constitution remain two
years, could you, under either Constitution,
refuse him the elective franchise? You could
not, unless your own Constitution had been
previously altered-a mode of procedure which
the Know Nothings seem seduousy to eschew
And yet that man may have been within the linn.
its of the United States but little more than
half the lime required by our State law to invest
him with the political rights of citizen OF
South Carolina. The effect of citizenship Is to
remove alienage; and when man once becomes
citizen of sovereign State Of this Union, his
right is as perfect, under the Federal Constitu:
ton, to oil the privileges and immunllies ol
citizens of the several States" as though ne
had been born on the soil.
have assumed, and it seems to me upon ten
able grounds, that the Western States will
never consent to further restraint upon lmml-
grafton and it is evident that the evils which
the Know Nothings ascribe to redundance Of
foreigners, and to peculiar religion, will be as
great, fI think greater,) if they are congregated
in one or few States, as if diffused through all
the States. Nor could the Know Nothing Or.
der legally disqualify the Catholic foreigner,
who had been legally naturalized in different
State, from voting for or holding of Federal
office, if he chose to remove into this State, and
had complied with the acquisitions of the law as
il now stands, because of another provision OF
the Federal Constitution, which enjoins that " no
religious test shall ever be required as qualifi-
cation to any Office or public trust under the
United States"
This plan, then, il utterly insufficient for the
purposes of the Know Nothings; and the other
by the action of Congress-strikes me as
even less effectual, as shall next proceed to
show. The remedy by Congress implies the
right of Congress to determine who is, and who
is not a citizen of State. That Congress,
with the consent of three.fourths of the States,
may expunge the clause of the Constitution
which refers to religious faith, or TO the privile
ges of the citizens of the States, is admitted
But has Congress the right now, or will they
ever have the right, to grant or refuse the priv!-
lege of voting to the citizens of sovereign
State! If they have, then the days of liberty,
and the happiness of the people Of the South
ern States, are few and bitter. Will the Know
Nothiugs admit? will they dare to establish this
principle? And if they do, how long will it
be before an Abolition majority, in pursuance
of the precedent, will declare that your negro
slave is citizen, and will authorize him to vote
at your elections? And what then becomes of
our favorite doctrines of State Rights and
State Sovereignty! My conviction is, that the
right to vote is dcrivable from the sovereign
power of the State, and that the concession of
the right 10 Congress is fatal to Southern ber-
ty. Congress may prohibit foreigners from
entering The territory of the United States, for
it is their peculiar province to regulate our for
eign intercourse; but when q foreigner is once
located in State, witha view to remain, what
ever OF political privilege he is to enjoy must
be derived from the sovereign power of that
State.
For the sake of argument, let US suppose that
Congress had this power, and that at the next
session they should pass law Withholding all
political rights in future from men of foreign
birth; what would be it's effect? An intelligent
and accomplished gentleman, like John Mitchell,
(who has embalmed himself IN my affections
by signing for plantation and negroes in Ala.
baua,) would indeed avoid n country which
denied him the most valued and yet the most
ordinary right of free citizen; but how would
it be with the poor and the furnished, who come
to our shores for bread !? with the restless and
intractable! or with the criminal and fugitive,
who swell the tide of immigration2 What care
they for political privileges or rights, whose
European heritage is ignorance of either? The
operation of such law would be to exclude
all the intelligent and good of every cline, and
10 leave :he door wide open 10 the vicious and
debased.
The Order has gone too far, or not fur enough.
Too far in provoking the hostility of the immi.
grant population. without achieving an equiva-
lent benefit; and not far enough for their pur.
poses, which can only be attained by the abso-
lutte prohibition of immigration. A feeble blow
recoils and brings injury with its return; vig-
orous one may demolish or correct. In common
with many of my fellow citizens, l experience
some discomfort because Of the Influence and
mpudence exerted and displayed by u few men
who have become Americans by sort Of hot
house process; yet will not disguise my be-
lief that we of the South have but little inter.
est or concern in the single issue Of Natire
AmericahiSm.
The institution of negro slaves protects US
from the evils attributed to the foreign popula-
ton. The States of the North, by manumis.
sion-by incessant and hypocritical cant about
the horrors .and degradation Of slayery-by
their greater wealth, which they have tilched
from the pockets of Southern planters by means
of protective tarits-by their. inordinate desire
for the political power of numbers, and which
has caused them to hold out inducements of
employment and heretofore higher wages-have
succeeded in diyerting tho tide Of immigration
from tho slave to the free negro States. They
are now reaping the fruits of the seed sown by
themselves and that it is bitter fruit occasions
me no manner of distress. Our policy is 10
view this Kilkenny cat fight III serene silence
and composed equanimity. II we don't inter-
fere, we are sure to have the good will of the
foreign cat; and if the belligercnts eat each
other up, why, don't know then that we should
refuse to he comforted.
have suid that the President, the immigrant
and the Catholic had much to do with the slave
ry issue. Many of you who have passed the
meridian of life, will live 10 see the day when
the Aboltionist is held off from his prey only by
the veto of President. The connection Of
the foreigner is not 80 perceptible or available;
yet he indirectly exerts salutary inAence upon
it with the conservative portion Of The Northern
people. There is in every society, save that in
which the institution of slavery obtains, natu.
ral and unavoidable contest between capital and