Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-04-06
Alien suffrage.

ton. are to flock to our territories. and
there exercise the high prerogatiyes of
suffrage in the formation of State govern.
ments, is one of very vast moment to the
mass of the American people. 1t is not
theoretical or visionary; it addresses itself
directly and powerfully to the cool and dis
passionate Judgment of the Union-loving,
patriotic people. Kansas, Nebraska, Min
nesota-all the wide territorial domain of
the government, is rapidly passing into the
position Of applicants for admission as
States. They are to be moulded and fash
Toned into great and powerful bodies poll
tic; anil on their advent into the Union,
they are to take their places side by side,
and exercise an influence coordinate with
the old States, in perpetuating or destroy
ing the institutions under which we are
now and hereafter, to live. These rise in
fnitely above mere partizan considerations
for however we may be divided as to ques-
tons of policy and expediency, we should
all be united upon questions affecting our
integrity, our perpetuity, our very exis-
tence as great nation among the powers
of the earth. If the foreign, anti-slavery
sentiment is to be transported, wholesale,
to these territories, to manufacture Black
Republican Constitutions, to the order and
under the directions of the fanatical abo-
litionists of some Of our northern States,
let us, of the South, in the name of all we
hold dear, be apprised of the facts, so that
we may take some steps towards selfpres-
ervation.
We have been endeavoring for some
time to enlist the sympathies and co-opera-
ton of our contemporary, of the Union
and American, upon this subject. We are
sorry that it cannot differ with the Presi-
dent on this question, as it does with him
on that of the Pacific Railroad. In its is
sue of March Goth, we understand it to en-
dorSe the doctrine of alien suffrage, in its
broadcast extent, by saying at is really a
sound principle l0hich has been uniformly
practiced By our Gorernnsent and supported
By men Of all parties 1t promised, also,
to show these facts in day or two, "but
has preserved silence, perhaps as polite
as profound 1t has a wonderful facility
of pronouncing everything presented by
the American press or party bugaboo"
or humbug;" and thus it evades the con-
sideration of the most vital subjects. In a
synopsis of their argument--which we
take as an index to the body of the work
before them-our neighbors seem to justify
their own and the position of the Presi-
dent, upon the ground, that it is the laD of
the land and that, therefore, it is right and
proper that Mr. Buchanan was only an
nouncing in his inaugural, "the duty of the
Government resulting from the force of ex-
listing Lal0" 1t would seem then, that
whatever may be the law, at any given
time, with respect to the organic law of
territory, it must always remain, not only
the law, but, also, the best, most polite
and expedient through all time to come
and must be applied in the organization Of
all future territorial governments. The
fallacy of such reasoning does not require
exposure; to the reader of ordinary per-
ception, it exposes itself. To say that q
law is just and right, merely because it is
law, and that it will or should always re-
main so, is proposition at which sanity
would revolt. Neither did Mr.. Buchanan
assert it as an existing law-there was no
occasion that he should recapitulate the
statutes of the government, as if he had
been charging grand jury-but he assert
ed it as general principle, upon which his
administration, in these affairs, should be
conducted. While the language of the
Union and american is lacking in every es-
Sential of sound argument, it takes the
turn of q baseless subterfuge, and results
in a miserable and unsatisfactory apology.
The advocates of this sophistical modi6ca-
ton of the odious Squatter Sovereignty
principle, cannot relieve themselves from
its overwhelming force, by pretended logic
or plausible evasions. Itmust be met fair
ly and squarely. 1t will not do to call it
"a Know Nothing humbug" 1t is not the
same question as that presented by the
American party, in demanding an extern
sion of the time Of the naturalization laws
Il is whether, as respects our territories,
! those laws shall be abolished IN toto, and
aliens admitted, on the day of their arrival
in the country, to all the rights and powers
Of native citizens 1t removes all restric-
tions, and wipes out all indifferences be-
tween the American character with all his
ideas of free and liberal government, and
the serf from the old world, who never en-
tertained any other idea of government
than to doff the hat aud bend the knee in
obeisance to royalty. If the democracy of
this day, are willing to assume this posi-
ton let them declare it, aud defend it, in
all its odious and mischievous length and
breadth.
The following article taken from the Ma:
tiOnal Inidligsnosr, presents brief history