True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1855-02-08
OUR IMMIGRANTS.

the immediate causes, the degradation Of
average intelligence in he voting body.
This degradation he traces to several sour
ces, one of which is-"The ingress Of ig-
nOrant foreigners" of whom he says:
"A short ercmsas at this point will save
misunderstanding Ignorant, we intend
not merely in respect of literary cultiva-
tion, (for many of the continental new
comers have enjoyed very thorough school
or college discipline but ignorant for the
purposes of Republican government. 1t
is truth almost entirely ignored of late,
that Republican frame of government
can exist only by virtue of intelligence
and morality among the governed. This
has been proclaimed and reiterated to nau-
seation, but it is not felt. Americans by
birth and descent, growing up among a
law-abiding community, in law-abiding
habits, do not understand the dislike and
disregard Of our immigrants for law. 1t is
felt, here, that the law is body of regu-
lations most deliberately elaborated from
the best wisdom of the nation-that it is
substantially the expression of the common
and moral sense of the community-and
that as such it is to be obeyed. And when
law transcends either this common sense
or this moral sense, or contravenes them,
it is repealed, silently ignored, or steadily
disobcycd, and porishes. The law is up
held by the consent of the people to obey
it; and their consent is based upon the truth
that it is right and good, and that, there
fore, for the sake Of right and of cOnsis-
tency too, since they have actually or ac-
quicscently made it, they must obey it.
"Our immigrant population, however,
whether Intellectually and scholastically
educated or not, have nothing of this
Their relations to established laws have
not been those of the intelligent operator
to the machine which he has made, but
those of the surly bindfold beast under
burdens cxtraneously superimposed. Their
relations to constituted government have
been such as to array all their manly feel
ings and sympathies against it instead Of
for it. Their government is something es.
tablished before their day, by some arbi'
tralily and irresponsibly powerful individ
ual or class, for the interest of that indi.
vidual or class. tits not their voice, speak
ing their will, but another voice, ignoring
or crushing their will. It has restrained,
silenced, exacted, oppressed. And so they
never acquire any reverence for it, but on
ly fearful and hateful obedience, which
| makes them ready to ovcrturn and destroy
while they learn nothing of the self-re
straint and governing power which shoulo
! fit them to build up. When, therefore
r they have erected any fabric of law to re
place an old one destroyed, this education
in irrcverence makes them ready to kick
+ down for the merest theoretical shadow O
n experiment, even for just change. eucl
defects, together with that other great one
: the want of religious element, in socia
+ and political character, have caused the In
stability and unreliablcness of modern Eu
l. ropean Republics, and fully explain an
n Justify the doubtful feeling with whic
# men looked upon them, and wished rathe
J. than hoped or expected, that they woul
v endure. How surely would the Europea
i dcmocracies of 1913 have lasted until nov
J. and been more deeply and firmly consol
.c dated day by day, if they had been col
l. structcd by the representatives, and uphel
J. by the strong wills, clear heads, and hoI
O. est, true and steady hearts, of Maine
a Massachusetts, population.
n, "Thus too many Europeans feel in FL
ly rope, and thus they feel here. Withol
IT, clear perceptions of the proper extent
the province of law-of the right rclatic
between the mental and moral progress
the human race, and the stringency
:" scope of legislative enactments-indee
~ very often with an idea that no law, 9th
"' than that of individual supremacy, i. c.,
ID brute might and right, is either right
y expedicnt, they rebound from the clio
despotism at home into almost deliriu
"o of unrcstrained freedom here. In t
III, wide liberty of this Republic, they do n
d, III infringe every moment upon the contract
'0 cnactmcnts of a power working only
'"' pressure and constraint They come ii
III an exhilarating atmosphere which gladde
., them into an unrefecting extremity of
VI y, ccnse;Oas children running out of glool
III, and silent school, riot and frolic with sho
s. ing and outrageous mirth, in the brig
'J' warm sun outside.
~, :,. "Therefore, when they feel their n
10 importance, and demagogues and hon
,a men seek their votes, the demagogues S
I a,,o coed best, for they flatter most and pre-