The Placer herald., 1855-10-13
For the Placer Herald
Ashton. the Scion Of the Press.

| that luminous eassay without again revertlng
to some of the choice ideas advanced there
in. Take thus for instance
II now come to the third and most important
query, to wit: Ought foreigners to exercise the
right of suffrage without passing through the
same term of probation that is required of Amerl-
| can born citizens? | answer, No; and for good
and sufficient reasons First, it is unjust to COM
pei the native born citizen to wait Il years, re-
! gardless of any qualifications which he may pos
sess, while the foreign emigrant to our shores,
may exercise those rights in the short term of five,
and often does in a much shorter time If any
preference is to be given, should it not be given
! to the native instead of stranger? Can we eX-
pect to intuse pure and highminded patriot
| ism into the breast of that man towards whom
; we pursue course of conduct that leads him to
believe that we sympathise more deeply with a
stranger than with him, do we not say to the poor
unfortunate, who ''by chance" has been born upon
the soil of America Your birth, Sir, is in our
eyes serious objection, we cannot traternize with
YOU until by q long years of probation you
| have proved yourself worthy of our confidence,
will he not wish he was anywhere else than here,
where the society of strangers is preferred to
| his?"
There's knock-down argument. If men
of foreign birth, who land on our shores
with the experience Of European institutions
of say twenty-five or thirty years, and with
matured judgments are allowed to vote after
a five years residence among us, the boys
who are born on the land ought to vote at
| five wears of age. Only think of Ashton
waiting twenty-one years before being al
lowed the highest prerogative of a freeman.
Do not our Legislators know that our youth
are born with an instructive knowledge Of
civil liberty?
Why cruelty procrastinate the period of
the active exercise Of the full rights of man
hood in them, to the age generally conceed-
ed requisite for the assumption Of such re-
sponsibity: Nay more, why not let the
girls of America vote as well as the boys
and not alienate the native borns by PARTIAL
tv to foreigners. Speak up boys for your
riehts-and let's have woman's rights
convention-retorm's the the word.
He says that it is quite dangerous to the
welfare and peace of this Republic to extend
such privileges to these men and in proof Of
it remarks:-
LET the insane scrambling for power and spoils,
the low trucking un-American efforts used to Sc
cure the foreign votes for the last ten years
swer-no care has been exercised in the choice OF
material, anthng which was cheap and easily OBJ
tanned has been freely used and find the ore gner
laid side by side with the American with all his
/ prejudices. and his imperfect knowledge OF our
institutions upon his head while the mortar that
| forms the only bond of union between them, is
selt-interest, screened through the sciye of party
and the lime Of faction tempered with three cent
! whisky
| The injuries resulting to lis. are rather
unSpeciically pointed out but his concluding
sentences come out beautifully. lie carries
me back to the descriptive lines Of part in
the reign of King James, of England, where
in he says:-
"The wicked men they did con-spre
| To kill King James with gun-pow-dire."
There's treason in three cent whiskev as
well as gunpowder.
Let no man accuse him of not having
statistical knowledge at hand, when he
! chooses to use it.
He gives US a minute calculation OF the
relative increase of the nauralised voter. over
the native born since the year 1870, and de-
ducts the astounding conclusion that
"In twenty years at the farthest at this rate of
! increase, the foreign will outnumber the native
vote, and the American will become an alien in
the land Of his BIRTH
As astounding IS this may be to the rea-
| der. it is a mere fea-bite compared to what
follows:
1T may perhaps be urged that the superior in
crease of the American population by birth. will
! strike the balance between them. Let US see how
fact will bear out this proposition OF native in
habitants, nearly one half are between those ages
| the most subject to fatal diseases; while Of the
foreign born considerably less than one fourth fall
within these divisions Again, the capacity Of
! foreign females to produce accessons to the pop
ulaton is, when compared with like number of
American females unfortunately taken, as 5S, 20
to Al, H. Their superiority in this respect, there
fore is 16,5S per cent adding to this the smaller
ratio of children and aged persons, which is equal
to an advantage Of 342 per cent. shall find
that our European population will increase 20 per
| cent faster than the native"
Thus we see that Ashton's researches have
led him into the most diverse learning, he
has searched every nook and corner for facts
no stone has been left unturned. Until
this astonishing revelation, did not dream
that even the ladies of foreign birth could be
50 reasonable as to be gioing birth to little
foreigners in Anerica. Such manufactur-
ing of foreigners, right in our midst, ought
to be stopped, without doubt. Let Sam be-
stir himself for this is certainly a crying evil.
But must pass on to the consideration of
his fourth essay. have been seduced into
giving this third number more attention than
usual, suggested like the "Pome" to the
steam fire engine, by "seeing him squirt"
Number four is devoted to the intellectual
qualifications of the foreigner, to sustain free
institutions and he argues that they are not
sufficient.
Then follows an eloquent lecture upon
Roman history, in which it is made plainly
to appear that the people of that country
lost through their ignorance what in fact
they never possessed-civl liberty.
France, he says, is in the same fix and has
gained nothing by her struggles for the past
century. Minute calculations. are entered
into showing that our foreign population do
not send their babies to school, and therefore
they must not rule America. In this latter