Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-01-29

balance OF indebtedness. Thlrty-eight millions oil
dollars In god-oyer nne-tenths OF all our receipts
from California during the year. as officially report
ed--have simply passed through the country, in
transitu, and have been shipped away TO pay for
imported products Of European labor, and the in
terest of our European debt. This vast sum
should have been kept here as basis Of healthy
business, and as u more general substitute for
small bank notes, our present circulating medium.
Had this golden gift Of Providence been retain
ed at home to enrich the American artisan and
ter of the soil, instead of having been squander-
ed to purchase foreign Injuries and the products
Of alien labor, we should this day, as a nation
doubtless have enjoyed prosperity In every branch
Of industry, instead Of the threatened depression
and distress which now alarm the community.
Our remedy is not 30 much In Legislative enact
ments and tariffs in cultivating feeling Of pa
triotc nationality, and an united determination to
encourage the skill and industry of the American
laborer, by consuming the homo products Of the
shop, the factory and the field In preference TO i'm
ported fabrics and foreign productions, which re-
suit must be the inevitable sequence of truly
American sentiment pervading our nation.
The taxpayer, when called upon to contribute
from his well-merited earnings for the support Of
suffering pauperism and crime, will, and OF right
should Investigate their causes. When he finds
our State alms-houses now contain two thousand
foreign paupcrs, our State and county lunatic
prison, jails, and houses Of correction, over six
thousand five hundred foreign inmates per annum,
as shown by the returns and estimates for 1853, a
large proportion of whom were shipped here at the
expense Of foreign authorities to relieve their
tive countries from their support, or from their
crimes, and that this vast alien army Is supported
by Massachusetts, at an annual expense of three
hundred thousand dollars, he viii scarcely believe
his honest desires to correct these gigantic evils
IRE accustomed by prejudices, are unauthorized or
unjust.
It has been stated that many of the evils and
dangers referred to are within the exclusive prov
ince of the national legislation. Others, however,
can be avertcd through the agency OF the State
government If this duty is left unful6lled or but
partially accomplished, we neglect great respon-
sibiity intrusted to us.
Massachusetts, since the days of the Revolution,
has been accustomed to be among the foremost in
all measures of national progress She Is more
permitted to take the lead in that legislation be-
lievcd necessary to perpetuate religious and civil
privileges, both initiated within her boundaries the
one on Plymouth Rock, and the other upon the
battlefield Of Lexington.
I recommend, then, to the careful consideration
Of the Legislature, the following measures:
l. That amendment to the Constitution, which
last year passed one stage Of enactment, prohibit
ing the diversional Of the education funds of the
State to the support or establishment Of sectarian
schools.
O. The power to repeal or modify the naturali-
cation laws is confded alone to the Congress of
the United States but while Congress naturalizes,
each State for itself prescrbes the qualifications OF
all voters within its limits, for national as well as
State officers. recommend, therefore, an amend
ment to our constitution, prohibiting the exercise
of the elective franchise to all OF alien BIRTH quail
fed by naturalization, till they have resided within
the United States twenty-one years
s. A common school education, or its equiva-
lent Is necessary to rightly understand the duties,
and 70 Be competent to properly appreciate t the
constitutional provision, to the effect that per-
son shal be permitted to vote who cannot read and
write the English language.
4. recommend an amendment to the constitu-
ton, 90 that no person shall be eligible to any Of
fee In the gift Of the people who shall not be
legal voter In accordance with the previous sugges
tons.
s. The honor Of the American flag should be
contided only to those who are born on the soil
halowed by its protection. They alone can justly
be required to yindicate its rights. One of my
earliest official acts then will be- if sanctioned, as
the laws require, by the advice and consent Of the
executive council, whom you win select, to disband
all military companies composed of persons Of
foreign birth.
6. i recommend to your consideration the expe-
diency of exempting all alien citizens from militia
nv duty. If In your wisdom, this should be deem
cd insufficient to meet the designed object, re-
commend forbidding by law payment of the State
bounty to any military company which has en-
rolled among its members persons of foreign birth.
4. It has already been stated that two thousand
paupcrs, of alien origin, are this day in the State
almshouses, and eight hundred foreign idiots and
lunatics are occupants of the State insane asylums
or supported by the counties at the expense of the
Ind, a.
humanity and Christian precepts dictate, should be
shown to these poor unfortunates. At the same
time, il Is clearly our duty to protect ourselves
against the custom, hardly to be credited, were Ii
not proved to be systematically adopted by foreign
authorities, which empties upon our shores the
warehouses; and hospitals of the Old World. Provi-
dence seems to ordain that we should provide for
those, who, capable of sefsupport, immigrate vol
UNFAIRLY, but meet with misfortune calamity here
Those, however, whom cold-hearted cruelty or
misery calculation ships here, should, without
exception, be returned with humanity to their own
country.
The law Of 1872 provides that any justice of the
peace may cause this to be done. We need legs-
lation that shall make this duty imperative, not
merely permissive, and that shall place il in the
hands of the proper officers. To small extent,
the present law has been acted on but those who
ARE best competent to judge are Of the opinion,
that II II should be amended, SO as to make II the
duty Of the selectmen or oyerseers of the poor of
the several towns under suitable penalties, TO
send such persons TO the board Of commissioners
Of alien passengers at Boston, and to require that
board to return them to the country from whence
they came, we should soon be relieved from the
charge of one-half the inmates Of our State aims
houses. Moreover lift is known that We system
atically return all who are thus thrust upon our
sympathies, the cruel custom of sending them
hithcr viii doubtless soon cease The average ex-
pense of supporting an alien pauper Is not far
from sixty dollars per annum the cost Of sending
them to Liverpool, whence most Of them come
would not exceed twenty dollars each, including
comfortable outfit
g. The Board of Alien Commissioners now con-
ssts of the alien passenger agent the auditor, and
one member Of the executive council, and Its an
nual gross receipts about fifty thousand dollars.
Practically it's duties fall on the first named. They
are too onerous and too responsible to be trusted
to any one mans hands The last alien passenger
agent fell a victim TO the labors and exposures Of
his office. The present one Ia often called on to
toll fourteen or sixteen hours per day. There
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