Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-06-13

the red-haired part of the inhabitants or the
biue-eyed part; nor yet government for any
other end than the good of the entire nation
but the democratic republic, pure and simple.
This is the political organism which individ-
ualises us, or separates us living unity from
all the rest of the world
All this, of course, would be too elementary
to be recounted in any mature discussion, if
recent events had not made it necessary to an
adequate answer of our second question--who,
then, are Americans? Who constitute the
people in whose hands the destinies of Amer
lea are to be deposited?
The fashionable answer in these times is
s' the natives of this Continent to be sure p
But let us ask again, in that case whether our
old friends Uncas and Chingachgook, and
Kag me ga bow wow-whether Walk-in-the-
water, and Talking-snake, and Big-yellow-
thunder, are to be considered Americans hdr
ercelleace? ? Alas. no: for they, poor fellows
are all trudging towards the setting sun, and
soon their red and dusky figures will have ia
ded in the darker shadows of the night! Is
it, then, the second generation of natives
they who are driving them away-who COM
pose exclusively the American family? You
say yes; but we say no! Because, if Amer
lea be as we have shown more than the soil
derivation from it entities one to the name of
American. Clearly, that title cannot enure
to us from the mere argilli cious or sillicious
compounds of our bodies-clearly it descends
from no vegetable ancestry-and it must dis
dain to trace itself to that simple relationship
to physical nature which we chance to enjoy.
in common with the skunk, the rattlesnale,
and the catamount. All these arc only the
natural production of America-exccllent. no
doubt, in their several ways-but the AmerI-
can man is something more than natural
product, boasting moral or spiritual genesis;
and referring his birth right to the immortal
thoughts, which are the soul of his institutions.
and to the divine affections, which lift his pol
tics out of the slime of state-craft into the dir
of great humanitary purposes.
The real American then, is he-no matter
whether his corporal chemistry was first igni-
ted in Kamschatka or the moon-who, aban-
doning every other country and forswearing
every other allegiance, gives his mind and
heart to the impulses and ends in which and
by which it subsists. If we have arrived at
years of discretion-if he produces evidence
of capacity to understand the relations he
undertAes-if he has resided ie the atmos-
phere of freedom long enough to catch its
genuine spirit-then is he an American, in
the true and best sense of the term.
Or. if not an American, pray what is he
An Englishnan, a German, an Irshman, he
can no longer be; he has cast the slough of
his old political relations forever: he has as
serted his sacred right of expatriation (Which
the United States was the first of nations to
sanction) or been expatriated by his too ardent
love of the cause which the United States rep
rescnts; and he can never return to the an
cient fold. 1t would spurn him more incon-
tinently than powder spurns the fire. He
must become, then, either wanderer or
nondescript on the face of the earth or be re-
ceived into our generous republican arms. 1t
is our habit to say that we know of no race or
creed, but the race of man and the creed of
democracy, and if he appeals to US, as man
and as Democrat, there is no alternative in
the premises. We must either deny is claims
altogether-deny that he is son of God and
our brother-or else we must incorporate him
in due season into the household. 1t is not
enough that we offer him shelter from the
rain-not enough that we mend his Topped
and windowed raggedncss-not enough that
we replenish his wasted midrif with bacon
and homony, and open to his palsied hands
an opportunity to toll These are commend
able charities. but they are such charities as
any one, not himself brute, would willingly
extend to horse found astray on the COM
mon. Shall we do no more for our fellows
Have we discharged our whole duty, as men
to men, when we have avouched the sympa-
thies we would freely render to cat9 Do
we, in truth, recognize their claims at all, ,
when we refuse to confess that higher nature
in them, whereby alone they are men, and
not stocks or animals More than that do
we not. by refusing to confess mans man.
hood, in reality heap him with the heaviest
injury it is in our power to infiict, and wound
him with the bitterest insult his spirit can re-
ceive
We cen easily conceive the justness with
which an alien, escaping to our shore from the
oppression of his own country, or voluntarily
abandoning it for the sake of better life,
might reply to those who receive him hospita-
bly,, but deny hlm political association q For
| your good will, thank you-for the privilege
of toiling against the grim inclemencies Of my
| outcast and natural cond ition, which you Of
| fer, thank you-for the safeguard of your
| noble public laws, thank you; but the bles-
sed God having made me man, as well as
you-when you refuse me like the semi-bar-
barians of Sparta. all civil life-when, with
Jewish exclusiveness, you thrust me out Of
| the holy temple, as a mere proselyte to the
gate-your intended kindnesses scum over
with malignity, and the genial wine-cup you
offer brims with wormwood and gall"
/ We are all aware of the kind of outcry with
which such reasoning is usually met. We
know IN what variety of tones-fron the
vulgar growl of the pot-house pugilist to the
minatory shrek of the polemic. frenzied with
rear OF the Scarlet Lady-iti is proclaimed thai
all foreign infusions into our life are yene.
nous, and ought to be vehemently resisted