Southern shield., 1855-10-20

ignorant of our language, who have come here from another land to teach morals to the fifteen Southern States, and Constitutional law to the greatest Statesman of the North? For myself if I cannot quite go to the length of wishing the old law of Athens revived, which denounced the penalty of death against any Stranger who raised his voice in the Legislative Councils of the State, I can and do go to the length of declaring that as long as my vote or influence can prevent it, not one For eigner shall ever have voice in making the laws by which am to be governed. It may be that the rigid enforcement of this rule will sometimes exclude a good man-better So than the wild dis cord, anarchy, and confusion which must follow in the footsteps of such Legislators.
 It is hard enough for Southern men to bear when our Countrymen permit a false philanthropy to hurry them be- vond the bounds of truth, of reason, Of justice, and of Constitutional duty, but when the injury comes from Stran' ger, whose shackles of SerFdom we have aided in knocking of, it is ming ling wormwood with the waters of Ma rah. The traveller who repays the hospitality of the host who has shelter ed him from the peltings of Decem- Der storm, by setting fire to his man. sion, and cutting the throats of his wife and little ones, is entitled to great CT mercy than the naturalized citizen who seeks to array one portion of this Confederacy against the other, by flaming the fires of sectional dis cord.
 Letme call your attention to anoth- CT portion of this German platform. It is one of the Ii6inlt gems in a mine of brilliants:
 "We therefd the Sabbatf laws, thanksgiving seays, prayers T Congress and Legislatures, the oatt upon the Bible, the introduction of thu Bible into the Free Schools, the ex, clusion of Atheists from legal acts etc., as an open violation of human rights as weN as ofMe Consultation and demand their removal"
 There, sir, is specimen of consti- tutional learning which Daniel Webster might have envied. Laws to preven the violation of the Sabbath unconsti. tutional, Returning thanks to Al mighty God for favors showered up. on a grateful people unconstitutional Permitting Children to read the Bool of Life unconstitutional, Imagine sucl men clothed with the power of Legis lators, dividing their time between La ger beer shops and the Halls of the National Capitol; what a glorious day 1t would be for America. What brill iant termination to the great experi ment of mans capacity to govern him self,
 You General, are New Englander In that land of steady habits Thanks "i':;''rt vflle- great eVerV0 Vr tne year and of many, ~"e have you partaker without the least suspicion on the part of the public that you were an habitu- al transgresssor of the fundamental law of the land. Can you so far for give the cruel exposure of the enormi- ties you have committed as to break another lance in defence of your pro- scri5ed and perSecuted, but wise and conservative friends from Germany? It was little ungrateful to expose your ignorance of the power of Con- gress over the Territories, but when they follow you down to your dinners and establish that you have, for more than three score years, been masticat- ing bread, and meat, and pumpkin pie unconst1uti0naHy you must be bet ter Christian than most men if you can forgive the evident malice of the pros ecution.
 In the third article of the platform 1 find some ideas which I commend to your especial attention:
 3-MEAsUREs FOR THE WELFARE OF THE
 PEOPLE.
 As the foremost of such measures we con slder the free cesSsion of public lands to act ual settlers; to occupy nature. the soil as ex- elusive property, this no individual has right to do; it is, fer the time. the common principal fund of that population which in- habits 1t, and anybody willing to cultivate it has an equal rigEt to appropriate share of the soil, as Tar as is not disposed of for pur poses Of common interest. It is high time that the ruinous traffic with the public lands should be abolished, that the wasting of them by speculation should cease. and that the eindigent people enter upon their rightful possession.
 But if this end shall be fully attained it will be required to aid poor colonists, at their first settlement, with national means, lest said measure prove useless for those very persons who most need it.
 In the closest connection with the land re- form question, stands that of emigration which, by its general importance, should be raised to the rank of a national affair and for which special office of colonization and emi- grafton should be created as a particular de- partment of the U. s. Government. Such a board would have to provide for the various interests of emigrants who are now helplessv ,o1 k,,o