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

winds of the sea-
History is full of warnings to us on this
head. No causes were more potent, in sun
dering the social ties of the ancient nations,
than the fierce civil wars which grew out of
the narrow policy of restricting citizenship to
the indigenous races.-No blight has fallen
with more fearful severity ON Europe than the
blight of class domination, which, for centu-
ries, has wasted the energies and the virtues,
the happiness and the hopes of the masses.
Nor is there any danger that threatens our
own country now-scarcely except slavery
more subtitle or formidable than the danger
which turks in those i'll suppressed hatreds of
race and religion which some persons seem
eager to foment into open quarrel. Already
the future is walking in to-day. The recent
disgraceful exhibitions in this city-the arm
ed and hostile bands which are known to be
organized-the bitter taunts and encounters
of their leaders-the low ordinations of the
Senate House-the pugilistic melee, ending in
death-the instant and universal excitement
the elevation of bully of the bar-room into
the hero of cause.-The imposing funeral
honors, rivaling in pageantry and depth of
emotion the most solemn obsequies that ma
tioh sould decree its noblest benefactor-all
these are marks of soreness which needs
only to be irritated to suppurate in social war.
Our statesman at Washington are justly
sensible of the dangers Of sectional divisions;
but no sectional divisions which 1t is possible
to arouse are half so much to be dreaded as
an infamed and protracted contest between
natives and aliens, or Catholics and Protes-
tants The divisions which spring from terri
torial interests appeal to few of the deeper
passions of the soul, but the divisions OF race
and religion touch cord in the human heart
Il. L of
hell Accordingly, the pen of the historian
| registers many brutal antagonisms-man last
ing and terrible wars, but the most brutal OF
all those antagonisms, the most lasting and
terrible of all those wars, are the antagonisms
of race, and the wars of religion.
1t will be replied to what we have hitherto
urged, that our argument proceeds upon an
assumption that aliens are 70 be totally exclu-
ded from political life, whereas nobody propo-
ses such thing, but only longer preparato-
ry residence.
We rejoin, that the persons and parties who
are now agitating the general question, because
| they propose the exclusion of adopted citizens
| from Office, do, in effect, propose total po-
litical disqualification of foreigners. All their
invectives, all their speeches, all their secret
! assemblages, have this end and no other
| They agree to ostracise politically every man
who is not born on our soil they conspire not
to nominate to any preferment, not TO vote
| for any candidate who issborn abroad; and
these agreements and conspiracies are pres
ent disfranehiscment, so far as they are efec-
| tive, of every adopted citizen, and a future
anathena of every alien. Whether the aim
be accomplished by public opinion, by secret
conclave. or by law, the consequences are the
same and the general objections We have al
| legged to the division of society into castles
| apply with equal force
| We rejoin again-in respect to the distinc-
| ton made between total exclusion of for
eigners, and change in the naturalization
laws-that it is a distinction which really
amounts to nothing for, firstly. if the proba-
ton be extended to long period-say twenty
one years, as some recommend-it would be
equivalent to a total exclusion: and, secondly,
| if a shorter period-say ten years-be adop-
| ted, the change would be unimportant, be-
cause no valid objection against the present
term of FIVE years would thereby be obviated
Let us see for moment.
| Firstly, as to the term of twenty-one years:
| We say that, inasmuch as the majority of for
| eigners who arrive on our shores are twenty
| five years of age and over when they arrive,
| if we impose quarantine of twenty-one years
more, they will not be admitted as citizens un-
| til they shall have reached an age when the
| tardy boon will be of little value to them, and
| when their faculties and.their interests IN hu-
man affairs will have begun to decline
Whether they will care to solicit their right at
! that period is doubtful and, if they do, they
| can regard it as scarcely more than mockery
| How many of them will live to be over forty
/ five or fifty years of age, if we leave them IN
| the interval to loiter in the grog-shops, and
| amid scenes of vice, as they are more likely
to do if not absorbed into the mass of citizens!
/ How many, having passed twenty-one years
/ of political ban, and even ignominy-for 1t
| would come to that---would be thereby better
4 prepared for adoption? The younger ranks
of the emigrants might possibly benefit by
the hope of one day becoming citizens. and
look forward to it with some degree of inter
est, but to all the rest it would be fdta NOR
CANA, aud the protracted test virtually an In
/ terdiction.
4 Secondly, as to any shorter noyitiate-say
ten or twelve years-it would not be more
effective, in the way of qualifying the pupil,
than the existing term. As the law now
stands, an alien giving three years notice Of
intention, must have been five years conseca-
lively resident of the United States, and
one year a resident of the State and county II
which he applies be of good moral
character-must be attached to our constito-
, ton and laws-must abjure all foreign powers,
particularly that he was subject to-and mus
t swear faithful allegiance to the government O.
i his adopted country before he can De admit
t ted member of the State. What more
could we exact of him. at the end OF tel
years, or twenty? In short, is there singst
t disqualification which jealous nativists are ap