The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1855-08-31
WHAT CAITsEs ELECTION RIOTS

WHAT CAUSES ELECTION RIOTS
is the low education Of our foreign popula'
ton. The musket and the bayOnet are the
opponents of the Law in foreign eites-and
what we bow to here, in Difference and ODE
dience, as "Law,"-as the t0iH Of the majority
i'm other countries is bowed to, under the
prick of the bayonet. Hence, when among
such people-the prick of the bayonet is
removed-the Law, or the will OF the major
ity that makes the Law, is resisted by riot
row or murder. In Louisville, Kentucky, fol
example, the Americans beat on election day
but the Foreigners there, instead OF doing
as Americans do-submit to the majority
in the absence of the bayonet, shoot IRON
their houses Americans in the streets. III the
division in Louisville had been between
Wing Americans, and Democratic Americans
the moment the result was known, 1t would
have been acquiesced in, with general submls
sion-but the indignant Foreign population
in Louisville do-just as they would do
when they dare-in Paris, or Berlin, or VI.
enna-that is, appeal to the bayonet and
fight.
1t is this spirit of resistance to Law-to the
majOrity-and to the declared will OF that
majority-which makes Republican Govern
ment almost impossible over sea-a minority
that will not submit to maJorlty-but pre-
fers a fght-as in Louisville-and hence n
result so deplOrable.
These numerous OTIS that we are having,
wherever American interests come into point
zeal conflict with the interests or passions OF
Foreigners, only 90 to show-that Govern
ment is trade, which a Foreign Population
cannot learn by instinct, but must be educa.
ted in by long training. Voting is very
simple act-but it means, and embodes the
idea of Government-and is n science which
an lrishman, who cannot read, German, who
knows not our language, and customs, and
traditions, cannot learn in single day. In
deed, the education of our foreign Population
is far easier-if we NAV 80 express ourselves
than their uneducatiof To unlearn what
they know is their first duty, and it take years
and years-but il is much harder work to
unLearn than to lean. Jury Trials, Habeas
Corpuses. &C., are all Greek to them-but
all these they can barn. What they have to
unlearn, however, harder than Greek-and
that is, armed resistance to Law, TO Govern
ment, to maoritie,. The prick of the bayo
net is not half so formidable to an American
as the writ of thu constable-but this neces-
si:y of feeling thu prick of the bayonet, be-
fore they yield-they must all unlearn. Rev
olutons are wrdght here not in arms, but
with bits of papr in the ballot boxes Mi
norities have NJ rights against laws constitu-
ally passed, ap constitutionuly expounded
and executed while majorties, even, have
no rights, undr laws unconstitutionally pass
ed, or unconstual!y executed. These are
very hard problems for foreigners to solve
but we Ameicans solve them. We often
learn, too, thu submission to wrongss often
wiser than armed resistance by force. When
we are whippd, election day, we lament our
bad luck, andtry it again-but seldom or
never fight, uless attacked by force. The
loss of Col, Heston, however, the anti-Amer-
lean candidate fer Congress, in Louisville,
led to shooting Americans in the streets
and of cours4, to the subsequent fearful re-
tribution.
Foreignes-if they were wise-would
themselves, cal for a long training for their
countrymep, before they gave them the right
of governing at the ballot boxes. Men can
no more lie good soldiers after days enlist
ment, tina, good voters without any training.
Government is curious piece Of mechanism,
which uItaught fingers may spoil, but which
they can never safely touch. A foreigner
may be as wise as Humboldt in philosophy,
but as ignorant as babe of the mechanism,
of the Government of the United States of
America. Twenty-one years are wisely de-
manded of us, Americans, TO live, TO think, to
look on, to hear, and to talk, and to see, and
to study, before we vote Thousands of for
eigners vote fraudulently, who have been in
the country scarcely year-and hundreds of
thousands that cannot read the constitution
of the United States in the language in which
its makers wrote tn. Y. Express.