Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1856-01-29
From the Philadelphia American Banner and Nation
al Defender, January IL, 1856.
Anti-Immigration; the Great Question.

AntI-immIgration; the Great Question.
| The political jockey Of the Freeman's Journal
whose defence of the Pierce and Campbell admin-
istration, and the socalled Democratic party, will
gofar to compass the death OF both tho party and the
Observation-Disclosures up an article Of ours which
first appeared in the Montgomery (Ala) Mail, OF
December Is, 1855, and breaches a sermon there
| from. The point at issue is simply our advocacy
of capitation tax, for the protection Of American
labor against the competition of European cheap
workers, who flood our labor markets to the ex-
clusion of American working men, The Frecman's
Journal c. the official organ of the most Rev. Arch
bishop, y with its accustomed honesty, fixes the
authorship of our article upon the editor of the
Mail, and quotes our sentiment as arelex of South.
ern sentiment and this in the face Of the fact that
the article appeared asa communication from New
York. The Journal knew our position was that
the South should join with the laboring classes Of
the North in the effort to check that flood of i'm
migration which is disastrous to the laboring in.
terests of the North, and which, at the same time
crowds upon the holders of the South--seeking to
gain entrance and occupy the field of labor of tho
South, as it does now Of the North
The manifest alarm of the Journal lest this eff.
cient plan should be adopted, drew forth in its
lengthy editorial Of the 9th Of January, on the
subject of Catholicity and the South" in which
Mr.. McMaster attempts to show that the imported
laborers of the papal stamp are the friends of the
South-arguing that ours is misapplication of the
theory of Mr.. Jefferson, who said that there was
" "a natural alliance between the South and the Ia
boring classes of the North" The people of the
South will indo
ty of our hypothesis, that they arc interested in
the checking of that immigration which not only
gives representative preponderance to the free
States, but crowds upon the fields of labor already
occupied in the South and threatens, at no dis.
tant period to GUST out the most valuable portion
OF their worldly possessions If the South cannot
see the necessity of joining hands with the labor
ing classes of the North in the effort to check the
evil of immigration-and il, on the other hand, the
laboring people Of the North do not see the adj
vantages of sustaining their Southern friends, who
seek 10 carry out the American principles and the
capitaton measure-then we are greatly in error
as TO the mental capacity of our native population.
AS we have said, in the article attributed to the
Montgomery Mail " Immigration in the ewes OF
the laboring millions, is the greatest evil to which
they are exposed" and the working classes at
the North necessarily abhor the companionship
and competition of the imported cheap laborers"
How can IL be otherwise, when American mcchan-
les are crowded out of the national workshops and
factories Of individual capitalists and manufactu,
rers, by those cheap workers from Europe, who
offer to do the work at half price? This clement
of discomfort should be seized upon and welded
by the Southern statesmen in view Of its availa-
bility in checking the greater legislative power of
the non-saveholding States and in staying the on
ward march of imported cheap labor toward their
pre-occupied plantations On the question Of slave.
ry, there are no heart burnings among the men of
tie Union, and, in order to sink that "black apple
OF discord" entirely out of sight, it is only nrces-
sary to force before the eyes of the working mil
lions the more momentous question of non-immi
grafton, which touches the mechanics of the North,
as nearly as Abolitionsm does the South, because
bread and 6utter--the means of living-are in.
yolved in both cases.
There is natural alliance between the people of
the South and the laboring people of the North,
and that alliance is based upon the principles Of
selfdefence and lfprotection-defence against
the oyerbalanced scale of national representation
| in the Congress of the Union, and protection
against the evil of immigration which causes it.
There is natural alliance which is founded on tue
principle of protection to American labor against
theinroads of foreign immigrant labor--a principle
as vitally important as any which can be named
of national and political nature. Southern men
win perceive then, that their friends at the North
looked to them for cooperation in the advocacy Of
a captation tax.
| The Freeman's Journal says
| can extract from the Montgomery (Ala.) Mail,
| OF December 13, 1855, contains q programme for
uniting the South with the laboring classes of the
North, for the enactment OF wholesome and eff
fcient checking Of the swarms of cheap labo -ers,
pouring into the American labor market of the
| North 1t proposes to make 'aati-iamigratio,,
the one great, overshadowing question of the
day
Why notY There is no greater curse resting
upon us, a nation than the filthy stream Of pau
per and felon immigration from the stews and ails
Of Europe. It's attending evils are incalcuable--
our elections have been rendered curse instead
OF blessing, by that imbecle policy Of ndiscrm.
mate suffrage, which allows the most ignorant be,
sotted, and soulsuborned tool Of the papacy to 20
from the ship to the otbox-there to offset the
elective power Of a Webster, Clay, or Calhoun
Our alms-houses are teeming with the lazzaroni Of
the Old World-our jais with the murderers and
robbers spewed out of the purlieus Of Europes
reeking cites. immigration has "made our faith.
er's house den Of thieves our country COM
mon sewer, whose filthy office it is, to drain the
kingdoms, the popedom, and the princpalities Of
Europe. Why not make anti.iDmigration the ono
great, overshadowing question of the day If the
American people wiI that it shall be so--whosc
business is it? Are the American people to be