The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1855-08-10


# they are congrcgatcd in one or a few
States, as if diffuscd through all the States.
Nor could the Know Nothing Order legally
disqualify the Catholic foreigner, who had
been legally naturalized in different State,
from voting for Or holding of Federal office,
if he chose to remove into this State, and
had complied with the acquisitions Of the
law as it now stands, because of another
provision of the Federal Constitution, which
enjoins that "no religious test shall ever be
required as qualification to any Office or
public trust under the United States"
This plan, then, is utterly Insufficient for
the purposes Of the Know Nothings; and
the other-by the action of Congress-
strikes me as oven less ctfectual, as I shall
next proceed to show. The remedy by
Congress implies the right Of Congress to
determine who is, and who is not, a citizen
of State. That Congress, with the con-
sent Of three-fourths Of the States, may cx.
punge the clause Of the Constitution which
refers to religious faith, or to the privileges
of the citizens Of the States, is admitted.
But has Congress the right now, or will
they ever have tie right, to grant or refuse
the privilege Of voting to the citizons of
sovereign State 2 If they have, then the
days of liberty, and the happiness of the
people of the Southern States, arc few and
bitter. Will the Know Nothings admit 2
will they dare to establish this principle {?
And if they do, how long will it ae before
an Abolition majority, in pursuance of the
precedent, will declare that your Negro
slave is a citizen, aud will authorize him to
vote at your elections? And what then
becomes OF our favorite doctrines of State
Rights and State Sovereignty My con-
vic,ion is, that tho right to vote is derivable
from the sovereign power Of the State, and
that the concession of the right to Con-
grcss is fatal to Southern liberty. Congress
may prohibit foreigners from entering the
territory of the United States, for it is their
peculiar province to regulate our foreign in
tercourse; but when a foreigner is once To-
Gated in a State, with view to remain,
whatever Of political privilege he is to en-
joy must be derived from the sovereign pow
cr Of that State.
For the sake Of argument, let us suppose
that Congress had this power, and that at
the next session they should pass law
Withholding all political rights in future
from men Of foreign birth; what would be
its effects An intelligent and accomplished
gentleman, like JOHN M1rcuEL, (who has
embalmed himself in my affections by sigh
ing for a plantation and negroes in Ala.
bama,) would indeed avoid country which
denied him the most valued and yet the
most ordinary right of free citizen; but
how would it be with the poor and the
famished, who come to our shores for bread !
with the restless and intractable 2 or with
the criminal and fugitive, who swell the
tide of immigrationa What care they for
political privileges or rights, whose European
heritage is ignorance of either' Tho opc.
ration Of such a law would be to exclude
all the intelligent and good Of every cline,
and to leave the door wide open to the Vi
cious and debascd.
The Order has gone too far, or not far
enough. Too far in provoking the hos
tility of the immigrant population, with
out achieving an equivalent benefit; and
not far enough for their purposes, which can
only be attaiued by the absolute prohibition
of immigration. A feeble blow recoils and
brings injury with its return; vigorous
one may demolish or correct. In common
with many of my fellow citizens,I 1 expert
ence some discomfort because of the influ-
enee and impudence exerted and displayed
by few men who have become Ameri-
cans by sort Of hot-house process yet 1
will not disguise my belief that we of the
South have but little interest or concern in
the single issue Of Native -Amer;can;sn,.
The institution Of negro slavery protects
lis from the evils attributed to the foreign
population. The States of the North, BY
manumission-by incessant and hypocfitical
cant about the horrors and degradation 81
slsvery-by their greater wealth., which
they have flched from the pocketsof South
ern planters by means Of protective tar
itts-by their inordinate desire for the DO