The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-26

OF the flttsDurgh Platform, should find a cor
dial welcome TO homes of comfort and fields OF
enterprise in the New; and every attempt tc
abridge their privilege of becoming citizens
and owners of the soil among us, ought to be
resisted with infexible determination" They
| have the same right to come here as had ouI
| forefathers. When they have cast in their lot
| with US, let them be treated as Americans. II
| they violate the laws, let them be punished. II
| they demean themselves as good citizens, let
| them be recognised as such. Let the heather
spirit of caste be exercised, in our dealings with
| them as well as the negro. If they give them
| selves up to intemperance, unthriftiness, and a
life of mere animalism, let us strive to enlgbten
and elevate them, as we would our own people
under like circumstances. If, under the lead of
foreign ruffans or Jesuits, they become clannish,
and inclined to take sides against US, let every
| good citizen rebuke them. If our native dem
agogues and pot-house politicians pander to
their ignorance for selfish ends, let us apply the
lash to their bare backs, instead Of making the
| deluded foreigner the vicarious victim of a
| chastisement he does not deserve. In short,
let the alien races among US be treated accord
ing to their deserts, in the light of their num-
bers, intelligence, and character. Under such
a policy, demagogues and their tools would soon
| find their true level. Notwithstanding minor
diversities, we should become, in spirit, one
people. The solvent power of American ideas
would melt and fuse the different nationalities
| into one common mass-thus averting the ca
lamity of furious and amending war of races,
| by converting into friends and brethren those
whom Native Americanism would make per-
petual aliens and fireside foes in our midst
Sir, it is thus manifest, that justice to the
foreigner and our own true policy as nation are
in harmony. We find our duty and advantage
going hand in hand / have already said that
our emigrants are needed here to build up the
cause of free labor. AS matter Of fact shown
by the census returns, the growth of the for
elgn element among US has kept pace with that
OF the slave power, and thus prevented that
more complete supremacy over us which other
wise would have been secured. 1t is some
times said, / know, that our foreign vote is
uniformly thrown on the side of the Pro-Slave-
ry Democracy; but l answer that, in this re-
spect, our adopted citizens are in the company
of a very large division of our native popula-
ton, including many enlightened and good
men. | answer, further, that voting with the
Pro-Slavery Democracy is not much worse
than voting with the Pro-Slavery Whigery
which has likewise been ,ciLling to receive for
eign aid and comfort. i would not disfranchise
men In either case, however wrong l might re-
gard their action.
1t is further insisted, that our emigrants are
intensely hostile to the cause of Freedom and
the most inveterate haters of the negro. This,
at best, can only be partially tue. 1t is re-
futed by their choice of the free States as their
home, and by the known opposition of the
South to their migration TO our shores. 1t is
contradicted by other facts. The States that
have been most Anti Slavery, as Massachusetts,,
New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin, give the larg-
est foreign vote whilst those which have been
D.,
ticut, New Jersey, Iowa. and Indiana, give the
smallest foreign vote. These facts are signiii-
cant. They account for the prevalence of
Know Nothingism in the South, where the pro-
portion of foreigners to the native white popu-
lation is only as two to one hundred, and prove
the movement to be- in fact, a crusade against
the growth of free principles in the Northern
States for the meager force of foreignsm in
the South can obviously occasion no local mis-
chief. That Anti Slavery men, therefore, should
actively oppose the settlement of foreigners
among us, or even throw the slightest obsta-
eles in the way of it, seems to me perfectly un.
accountable. But were it granted that all the
emigrants landing on our shores are Pro-Sla-
very, it would not warrant the policy of pro-
scription against them. If so, a very large pro-
portion of our natives would fall within its
mischief. including very many whose hypocrisy
in urging this objection is beyond dispute. This
nation is most undeniably Pro-Slavery.
Similar reasoning applies to the argument
often urged, that our emigrants are unfit to
exercise the privileges of citizenship. That
this is true of many of them, l do not deny; but
1T Is likewise true of many of our natives
Foreigners are not the only men among us
who get drunk they are not the only men who
profane the Sabbath and Gods name; they are
not the only ruiiians and vagabonds; thew are
not the only pugilists and mobocrats they are
not the only men who can neither read nor
write; they are not the only men whom dema-
gogues can dupe. la all that constitutes thor
ough vlciousness, corruption, brutality, and
the most stupid incompetency, multitudes of
our muchauded native Americans can cope
tolerably well with our adopted citizens. 1t
seems to me that real patriot should have far
less desire to see America ruled by Americans,
than to see Americans themselves improved in
character, loving justice, thoroughly mbued with
thespirit offreedom sternly demanding all rights
for all, rigdy squaring our democratic theory
of equality, both in our foreign and domestic
policy, by the precepts of Christianity, and thus
making themselves an example and power
on the earth. This would be an object worthy
of the purest ambition. Without this aualifi-
cation, the demand, Let America be ruled by
Americans" is the meanest of twaddle 1t is
by shareholders and doughfaces let our Gov
eminent continue to espouse the cause of des-
potism, at home and abroad; let it trampe
upon justice and humanity let it scott at the
Declaration of independence, and verge farther
and farther from the landmarks of our Fathers
let nationality, not character, be the touchstone
OF merit" Sir, if any class is to be disfran-
chised, the rule ought to be, "Let America be
governed by the intelligent and the virtuous;'
for, on principle, the vicious and ignorant for
eigner should fare precisely as well as the
vicious and ignorant native.
Lastly, wage war against Know Nothing
ism because it ignores the Slavery issue, and
thus becomes the practical foe of the Anti
Slavery cause. Nothing could have been more
wisely planned or more OPPORTUNITY concocted
by the shareholders and their allies. Having
sown the wind, in the passage Of the Nebraska
bill, something must be done to avoid reaping
the whirlwind. They saw the Northern sky
darkened by omens of a coming tempest, and
something must be done to break its surges
The people could no longer be humbugged
about banks and tariffs; the old party lines
we're crumbling, and tempting the people to
escape from their political keepers; and the
great crisis between Slavery and Freedom was
rapidly and Enthusiastically approaching. All
eyes were turning TO the struggle which at last
seemed inevitable: Sir, does anybody, familiar
with the tactics of the STAKEHOLDER, believe that
the birth of the Know Nothing Order, Just at
this crisis, was an accident? There is both
internal and external evidence that it was a
design. If the Protestant jealousy of our peo-
pie, ever ready to take fire, could be kindled
against the Pope, it would divert their minds
from the STAKEHOLDER. If they could be enlisted
in crusade against foreigners, it would have
the same happy result 1t mattered not that
these were miserable bugbears, and would uti-