Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-05-15

aWokS OF Inc fate That awaited hun. hut here
Is an inquisition whose sentences are executed
without even that premonition. Do the Know
nothings object that the Catholics deny the
right Of private judgment in matters Of con-
science? Surely, they do the same thing with
regard TO the Catholic when they prescribe
and persecute him on account of his religious
opinions. They refuse to allow him to worship
God according to hin own conscience, except
under such pains and penalties as they choose
to prescribe. Do they object to the Catholics
as members of political community because
they believe in the supremacy Of the church in
spiritual matters? Why then, do they declare
far more dangerous doctrine, and assert the
supremacy of their council in matters temporal
and political? A man may believe In the spiri
tual supremacy of church, and yet discharge
his political duties according TO his individual
conscience and conviction; but he who admits
the political supremacy of a council cannot
perform his duties as citizen according to his
own judgment and conscience. When the
edict is one pronounced by the council, it can
neither be disputed nor disobeyed by the mem
bers After this, there must be neither major
tiles nor minorities in the Order; but all must
move, act and speak together, as if with one
will That greatest of all liberties--as Milton
called 1.-THE liberty to know, to argue, and to
utter freely according to conscience, is not one
of the privileges. With what face, then, can
party, holding such doctrines as these, pro-
scribe men for entertaining far less dangerous
opinions? What the practices Of these Know
nothings may be with regard to confession and
absoution, | know not; but it is very clear,
that if the power to command the moral action
OF individuals exist, the power to absolve them
from the consequences of sin ought to 20 along
whit.
| But this party is not content with proscrib.
ing Catholics, and treating them as aliens in the
bosom of American society. There are about
100000 foreigners amongst US, and these,
too, are to be considered as incapable of hold
ing office under government. Not only are
they to be forever disqualified for office, but
hereafter the term of probation for naturaliza-
ton is to be SO heightened as to make the law
itself ilusory. 1t is to be observed that what
IS proposed to be done, will not diminish much
the number of emigrants who hereafter will
come to our shores, nor was it probably in
tended, when this Order originated, that such
an effect should be produced. for reasons which
| will presently give. The proposed policy
will deteriorate the quality of the emigration,
1t will shut out men of fortune and education,
because they prefer our institutions and desire
to incorporate themselves into the great BODY
of American society, to share its privileges and
partake of its destiny, it viii cut off those too,
who come here from choice, not from any desire
or expectation of Office, but who would be un-
willing to live where they could never be cap
able of holding it. But all those who move
from necessity, for the means of substance,
must still come, for even the Know-nothings
will give them leave to toll. Then these con
stitute the great mass of foreign emigrants that
come to our shores. The question, then, u.s. as
to heir treatment after they reach here. Shall
they be denied all political franchises? Shall
they be treated as aliens in our midst, and thus
made Indifferent, or, perhaps, hostile to our
government and institutions? Or, shall they
be treated, as heretofore, by our fathers and
ourselves, who have sought to bind them to
our country by the ties of sympathy and in
terest, and for that purpose have held out a
reasonable hope, that place should be made
for them in our political society, as soon as they
can show by certain evidences, that they are
| fit for it.
| Here IS an immense power In our midst.
| The question is, how shall it be treated? Shall
we bind it to US by the kindly ties of affection,
and the still stronger bonds of interest, or shall
we ALLEVIATE and estrange it? That, then, is
the true issue of principle to which shall
speak. There are minor questions of detail,
| which l have not time now to discuss. In all
the great operations of society," certain evils are
incidental, which must be provided for as they
arise, not by destroying, but by regulating the
system. So, too, the process of assimilating
the foreign element into American society has
its incidental evils, which may be met as the
! special cases arise; for some the police powers
of the States are ample, and others may be
| guarded against by the Federal Government
without disturbing the general features Of the
process itself What maintain is, that this
new element ought to be assimilated with the
| great blood Of American Society, as far as il
can be done, and that place ought to be made
for the foreigner in our political society, as soor
as reasonable evidence is given of his being
fit for it.
In discussing this issue, may be permitted
| trust, to enter little into the history of The
question itself At all times the tide of human
emigration seems to have been directed by
some law of nature, which thus provides fol
that fusion and inter-communication of races
which has been proved to be necessary to the
general progress Of the whole. There is not
great people upon record who did not spring
from mixture of races. The Greek, the Ro
man, the English, and the French, all sprane
from mixture of stocks The Jewish wer,
more exclusive, but il is also to be remembered
that they lost power and empire. The emigra
tons from which all this resulted in ancien
times, we're forced or armed emigrations. The
stronger and weaker races, when living side b,
side, owed their proximity to the fact, that thu
former had brought the latter to their owl
homes AS slaves, or else Selling the country o
the subjugated, had settled in it as being NOR,
desirable than their own. Thus it was, in an
Gent times, that the necessity for an inter
change Of the habits, thoughts, and character
istic ideas of the different races was satisfied
Routes through which the forced emigration o
the African slave was conducted before tn,
Egyptian pyramids were built, are, some o
them, still used for the same purpose. TIL,
irruptions Of the Goths, the Vandals, and Huns
we're SO many armed immgratons, and tn,
same may be said Of the Crusaders. All thes,
seem to have been designed to serve some
| great purpose in the economy Of nature, by
mingling different races, and interchangnf
amongst all the ideas and thoughts peculiar Il
each. The discovery Of America, which made
SO many changes in the course Of human
affairs, seems also to have presented a new Law
for the direction OF the stream Of emigration
The great law Of trade, the law Of demand and