Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-04-10
NUMBER 124.
Mr.. Patton,s speech.
CONCLUDED

said, gentlemen, that in regard to some Of tho
details OF this basis of principles of Know Nothing
ism, was not prepared to adopt them in all the,
breadth and length do not bind myself by an
pledge, either written, spoken, or sworn--that
never will under any circumstances, vote for for
eigners for any Office That is matter that will
leave altogether at my discretion. Were to act
otherwise should be abandoning the ground
which | have maintained all my life, and upon
which can now stand up and defy those Demo
cratic denunciations that are hurled against me.
have never been in party caucus in my life, III
congress or out OF 1t, while there are views OF
party obligations and the means of CARRYING out
objects OF party organization have no right to be
censor upon those who, as party men, pursue h
different course, and entertain other opinions The
American party choose to hold their meetings il,
secret as the Wing and Democratic party have been
and are in the habit of holding secret caucuses, by
night or day. This party enter, 1t is said, into mr.
ual obligations, as to their party action, no matter
what is their form, they can't be held more binding
than the Democrats claim to hold the implied oh
legations OF their party. violation of them, by
disobeying the behest Of the party or quitting it,
| is followed by the most vehement denuncation:
while this party, as understand, allows every man
to go out Of the party when he peases, and his oh
| legations are at once Mt an end without denuncia
| tion With the Democratic party it does not seem
to be So for although there is no oath taken, no
pledge registered, no man that acts with them can
/ uiIc W utly THEIR DcHeSlS ana dissent from their
| DEGREES. :" If he does, off with his head So much
for Buckingham"
The freedom of thought and opinion which they
allow at this day is happily illustrated in an anec-
dote which is told of one of Napoleon's Marshals,
when Napoleon was candidate for the first Con
sulship for life. 1t was to be determined by uni
versal suffrage Marshal Augereu addressed his
division in the following words: 'Soldiers, there
| is an election to-day to determine whether Napo-
leon shall be Consul for life. 1t is to be matter
| of the free choice of the people. You will march
to the polls and vote just as you think proper
but IT you vote against Napoleon, will shoot you
| as soon as you come back" While do not and
cannot, according to my notions about party en-
| gagements, come under its obligations | agree
that, general rule, yours is proper principle
of action and shall probably act upon it practically
myself. There may be occasion under some very
| peculiar circumstances, which should induce de-
parturc from that course, in respect to the exclu
| sion OF a foreigner from all political offices. But
maintain against the world in arms that free citi-
zens of this country, native or foreign have right
to enter into such an agreement without violating
the rights of any other citizens, and without in
fringng upon any principle of the constitution, or
the bill of rights, or any other guarantee.
II is to my mind one OF the strangest and most
extraordinary peryersions of principle that ever
has been seriously insisted upon that the rights Of
foreigners are affected because a portion of the
high important public policy say and unite them
selves together for the purpose OF maintaining the
principle that foreigners should not be allowed TO
have the political Offices of the country For what
are the rights Of foreigners? The rights of for
eigners under our laws are TO come here and
acquire a residence and carry on their business
under the @gis and protection of our laws--to sit
spending the term of probalio6 nxed ny law,
enttle them to the right of suffrage, to exercise
that right, and so far as the constitution permits
to be capable of election to any Office if the peo-
pie choose TO confer il upon them-and because
portion of the people in the exercise of their fun
damental indisputabe and essential right, say we
wont vote for you for this Office, they are repre-
sented as acting In direct conflict with the cons,'
tuition and the principles Of civil liberty.
Foreigners have exactly the same right, when
they become citizens, to say won't vote for you
and suppose nobody would pretend say that that
was violation and invasion Of your rights Why,
gentlemen do you know-and suppose you don't,
for you -Nothing-do you know that this
principle so destructive Of the rights OF foreigneTs,
which you have advocated, and which you state is
one Of the rules of action for your organization Is
not your thunder nt all. You are the copyists
merely You have borrowed the thunder, and Of
whom, do you suppose We have n constitution
here which, as ! told You some time ago. had
read once or twice. and we find in that constitution
that no rson shall be eligible TO the office of Gov
L
years. Is a native citizen OF the United States, and
has been citizen of Virginia so many years. Tho
Lieutenant Governor shall be elected at the sanio
| time and for the same term, and his qualifications
and manner of election shall be the same so that
| here is the Know.Hothing principles-so fatal and
destructive TO the rights Of foreigners so incou.
sistent with equal rights Of all citizens, incorpor
ted into the Fundamental law Of the land, so that
II you wanted to vote for foreigners every one Of
YOU the constitution forbids your doing for the
Office Of Governor or Lieutenant Governor Of tho
Commonwealth.
Well, now you have only carried II little fur.
ther than the constitution The constitution docs
not prohibit you from doing as you propose In r.
gard TO voting II Is matter left TO the exerciro
| of your will. II Is perfectly competent for the
| citizen, IN the exercise of his fundamental and
sential right to select for himself any particular
individual TO vote for. The principles which gov
| ern his action in this regard cannot Of course be
affected by any constitutional enactment, nor can
they by any means be said to conflict with any pro-
vision in our constitution. But, lest you might,
pcradventure, put foreigner into the Office Of
Governor OF Lieutenant Governor our legislators
have put an insuperabe barrier in the constitution.
You cannot do it,
And now, gentlemen, who do you suppose in
hicted this violation of the rights Of foreigners and
Incorporated IL into this constitution. In the con-
| venton which formed the constitution IL
moved by Mr.. Hunter to amend the report by stfi-
king therefrom the word native so ms TO permit
foreigners to be elected TO the Office Of Governor.
Mr.. Letcher moved to amend the amendment by
striking out in the second and third lines the
words !" shall be n native citizen OF the United
Statesn
The question upon the adoption Of the said
amendment being put to the Convention, was de-
cidcd in the negative.
The question then recurring upon the motion of
Mr.. Hunter, was decided in the negativc-ayes ~,
noes SO.
read from the journal.
Those who voted in the negative were Messrs
John Y Mason, (President) Banks, Besle, Bocock,
Bolts, Bowles, Braxton, Burgess, Richard G. Boyd,
Chambers, Chambliss, Chiffon, Cooke, Denealc,
Douglas, Edmunds, Edwards, Faulkner Finney,
Floyd, Fultz, Fuqua, NJ. X. II. Garnett Muscol
Garnett, Goode, Hall, Hill, Kenny, Leake, Lucas,
McCandlish VIM. Martin, Moore, Newman Price,
Reeves, Saunders, Scoggin, Frances W. Scott,
She'll Berry II. Smith Jas. Smith, Archibald Stuart,
Taylor, Tunis Turnbull, J. Watts, Whtue, Wiley,