Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1855-03-17

ncnts OF the respective States alone have the liy
to refuse residence to such of the immigrant pop
lation as may be considered obectit naJle by them
While some OF the advocates OF latitudinaiian con
struction OF the Federal authority contend that TIL
power OF the States over the admission OF aliens i
limited, IN certain respects, by tepower OF the Gen
eral Government to regulate commerce, The absolute
power OF the States to exclude alien paupers and
convicts is universally conceded The power to per-
NIT orfeuse residence to Objectionable aliens belong
ing thus appropriately to the States the subject
beyond the control OF the Federal Government and
affords no legitimate object for the organization OF
national party.
The right to acquire and hold real estate, and the
right OF suffrage, equally subject to State all-
thority The powers OF the State these subjects
have been too often exercised and too generally adj
mltted to need any discussion at this time. Probably
all the States permit resident aliens to acquire aid
hold real estate prior
ainly does. some of the States confer the right of
suffrage upon aliens who have declared theirntenti, a
to become citizens, While others require then. to be
fully naturalized before they allowed to vote The
whole subject Of suffrage is exclusively regulated by
the State constitutions. 1t may be confined to native
born citizens, it may be extended to all resident
aliens, at the sole discretion the State soyeregnte
The naturalization laws affect the subject only far
as the State constitutions may direct. 1t is wholly
impracticable for the Federal Government to control
the right ofsufrage through any laws which it could
enact.
Those who seek to curail the privileges enjoyed by
the immigrant population can accomplish no essen
tial object through the agency Of the Federal Govern
ment So long Us the alien enjoys, under the State
government the right of residence the right to ac-
qure and hold property and thergh OF suffrage, he
can experience but little from the want
Of the few additional privileges which full and for NAL
citizenship would confer. The only appropriate thea
tire for the operations OF party, organized to effect
the blessed objects of Know ohngisn, is to be
founo in the States where the immigrant population
ahounds, and where the alleged evils of toreignism
may exist Those evils essentially local, and can
be properly reinedied only by the local authorities
They afford the appropriate subject for municipal and
police regulations. five-sixths of the foreign born
population of the United States resident in the
nou-s!av ehoding States and even there nearly
half OF it is accumulated in the cities. The whole Of
this population in the United States numbers 2,224
d4s OF that nuuber only 43 5Sl are in the Southern
States, with native white popuationo 255, and
lO5335 in the Southwestern States, with a native
white population Of ,9l3, 53l A considerable pro-
portion of this class of population in the slave
holding, as in the slaveholdng States are CON
gregaed in the cities. These facts strongly display
how singularly local must be the alleged evils OF for
eignisul. full investigation, perhaps, might show
that the real evils f such there are) confined to
the cities, which, according to the census returns,
contain nearly one half of all the foreign-born resi-
dents in the Union. The entire repeal OF the natural
ization laws would not materially diminish the
Der OF that class Of immigrants, who here seek
ing employment for their labor, and accumulate in
the cities. They come to make living, not to ac-
quife the right of suffrage by no expectation
OF easy naturazation but by the prospect OF higher
wages and more constant employment than they can
find in the country which they leave Of the foreign
born males the age OF twenty one, in the city ct
Boston, returns lSl0 1901, show that i've
sxths werc unnatafalizcd. 1t is fair to presume,
that similar proportion in theother cities have tail
cd to avail themselves Of the advantages of pre-
sent naturalization laws.
The other ostenslbe object of the Know y othng
is entirely beyond the reach OF the
Federal Government 1t cannot touch Roman Ca
tholicism by any Constitutional action. The folly
OF attempting to arrest the progress of religious
creed by prosecutions and civil disabilities has been
often demonstrated that it is surprising to see it
revived in this age and country, distinguished
advocate of religious liberty declared nearly half
century ago, that even in Great Britain, nearly all
its opponents had. been slenced--some had been
taught sense, others inspired with shame, until
were LETT upon the field, except those who could
neither learn nor blush. The principles of religious
liberty cherished il Virginia with peculiar alice
ton. Our actor the establishment Of religious free
dem, asserts in imposing and authoritative language,
that 'the prescribing any citizen unworthy the
public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity
OF being called to Offices Of trust and emolument
less he profess or renounce this or that religious
opinion, is depriying him njurousy of those prv-
lcges and advantages to which in common with his
fellow -ctizcns he has natural right that it tends
oay to corrupt the principles of that religion it is
meant 10 encourage by bribing, with monopoly
OF worldly honoss and enoluments, those who will
externally profess and conform TO it; that though,
indeed, those are criminal who do not withstand
such temptation, yet neither those innocent who
lay the bait IN their way. In the struggle which
terminated in the complete emancipation of religion
in this state the dissenting Protestant seets under
the energetic lead OF the Baptiss, bore oonspieu
Freedom was eminenty Protestant achievement,
and Professionalism in Virginia rudely despoils itself
OF the farest ornament with which it is decorated BY
history, when it violates the letter or the spirit of
that celebrated law. The men who now seek to re-
new the dogmas of religious intolerance, pay an APP
propriate homage to the virtue and intelligence of
this country, when they conceal themselves from
public observation. Those who are afraid to meet
the Roman Catholic arguments in the field of fair
discussion, may well be alarmed at its anticipated
progress; but its more Intelligent opponents will
ard
rors, so long is left free to combat them.
For every Roman Catholic Priest in the United
States, there 20 Protestant preachers; for
every Catholic altar there are 30 Protestant pups.
Scarcely one-wenteth part ei the population OF the
Union is attached TO the Roman Catholic religion.
Ii Professionalism is not safe with these heavy odds in
Its favor its ascendancy vii not be maintained by
prosecutions and civil disabilities imposed upon its
opponents. Know Nothingism may do more to add
the Catholic than all its Priesthood and
place Catholicism on the right side and Protestan-
ism On the wrong side of the great question OF Re
ligious Liberty, by a course ilibernl and uuwar
rantable. This is attempted to be justified by an
absurd exaggeraton of the political influence OF Ca
svyania, addressing the House of Representatives
few weeks since, declared that he knew OF but
Catholic besides himself who was member of that
House OF Congress. We may, then, at least pro-
nounce the Legislative Department to be free from
Catholic control. There to be occasion to
organize new party to protect that branch OF the
Federal Government, and the Catholic influence is
nlents. La
What then can Know Nothngism accomplish
upon the sub jects which it undertakes to agitate 2?
1t may expel from the Executive department few
naturalized citizens who incumbents OF Office
but nine tenths of the Federal Offices are said to
be already filled by native citizens, that scarcely
be OBJECT worth the attention OF national party
Those who originated and expect to control this
ganizaton, must have other and undvuIgcd objects
in view. Temporary prejudice and excitement on
the subects of Foreignlsm and Catholicism may
to place them i'll power. How will they use power
when so acquired VIZ may well recall the eloquent
warning of great English statesman, and beware
of $50 trying thing power in new persons,
of whose principles, tempers and dispositions we
have little or experience, and in situations where
those who appear most stirring the may not
be the real movers" What is this new party ex-
peeted to do upon those great subjects of practical
interest to which we have before referred? The
elections in which they have already triumphad ar
ford suiicaet data to infer their policy upon the
most important Of these subjects
Know othingism has had its origin and growth
in those quarters of the Union where Abol itionsm
is most powerful. At the very instant that Know
Nothingsm has swept over the non-saveholding
States, Abolitionism has acquired aseendaney to
which tire yer before aspired Every ection VIII oh ia
Northern KNOWN othingism has triumphed has in
ured to tha benefit of Abotionism. Every indiyid-
ual whom the Northern Know Nothings have elected
to either branch Of the Federal Legislature, is
nitted to the violent views of the Abolitonists.
They have Frustrated, wherever they had the power
to do so, the same men whom tho Abolitonists Wish