Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-04-29
N ASHVIIIE:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 90, 1857.
Relative strength of the North and
gOuth-FOreignIsnn.

the latter to be nearly three times that Of
the former; and, whenever the struggle is
narrowed down to pure sectionalism, we
are left completely at the mercy of the
North. If the Union is to be cherished,
the constitution upheld, and the rights of
all the States under it, respected, it must
be done by magnanimous nationality,
whole-souled patriotism which shall turn
deaf ear to the appeals of the demagogue
and fanatic of all sections alike, and which
shall cleave to the union of these States,
as the paramount object of patriotic de-
sire" 1t would be the acme of folly for
one section to attempt to bully or intimi-
date the other into measures. Not less
would it be beneath the dignity of pow
erful and enlightened people, to put on the
airs Of a staggering braggart. This will
do for the irascible and hot-headed extrem-
ist but would come with most awkward
grace from the calm, sober, and elevated
statesman, whose large comprehension
looks beyond the horizon of the present,
to the success and security of the future.
Entertaing these views, we have heard with
much regret, the proposition coming from
a portion of the democratic press Of the
South, to make sectionalism the basis of
their future action-presses, too, from
which, if any thing good, better things
might have been expected There have
been for some years a few presses and
many men at the South, claiming frater-
nifty with the democratic party, and acting
with it, whose sole aim appears to have
been to promote this result But we have
never believed that that party as body,
would seriously entertain such doctrines.
We have long contended that the leaders
of that party, many of them, were deeply
infected with these ideas, under the guise
of State Rights, and that the tendencies
of that party, as constituted and led ON,
if persisted in, would drive them, ultimate
ly, into this most dangerous position. And
we now put it to the sober, rejecting, and
consderate men Of that party who love
the Union more than mere party, whether
they will consent to follow longer those
whose advice threatens the overthrow of
all they bold dear as patriots, the most
magnificent fabric which the bloody toll
of Heroes ever raised and dedicated to
enlightened liberty.
But there are other facts and considera-
tons intimately linked and deeply affecting
the spirit of American nationality, which
we wish to present. The foreign popula-
ton, which is flooding our land, which has
corrupted parties, and made the ballot box
a subject Of bargain and sale, is exercising
far more blighting influence upon the
nationality of the American people In
the hands of bad men, it has done, and is
doing much to disipate the concord of feel
ing which is the strongest ligature of the
Union. 1t is a fact, derived from the Off
cial statistics of the government, that the
great mass Of the immigration from the old
world into this, takes its place in the
Northern States. 1t knows nothing, abso-
lutely nothing, of nationality. 1t is taught
that the South is a lane of semi-barbarians
and tyrants, that human beings are driven
in chains to the severest labors; and that
those labors are in direct competition with
their own. These, added to their radical
and incoherent red republicanism which
they imbibe before leaving their native
land, make them the most violent black re-
publcans in this country. Their ignorance
of the forms and principles of every govern
ment, and especially one of equal rights,
and liberty regulated by law, makes them
the docile instruments of the fanatic, mere
clay in the hands Of the potter. BY fat
terry and cajolery the democracy manage to
obtain portion, the rest fly to the aboli-
tion-freesoil party. But the fact that a
portion are seduced by the democracy of
the North does not make them any better;
for, in so doing, the foreigner forsakes none
of his agrarian ideas, and loses none of his
hostility to slavery. Do we wish proof of
these statements, let us compare the vote
cast in the elections of 1852 and 1856
The vote in 1852, discarding fractions,
amounted to three millions. OF this the
North cast 2, 1875 900, the South 5000
In 1856 the aggregate vote amounts TO
400, 600 of which the North has 8, O0O,-
900, the South 100000. These are not
the precise figures, but they are near
enough to Illustrate and do no injustice in
the argument The increased vote is L.
100, OOO-of which the North gains s75,.
600, the South 25,OOOl During four
years the increase of the North equals the
entire strength of the South in 1852! As
suming that the ratio Of increase. unaifect-
ed by immigration from foreign countries,
IS the same, the calculation viii show that
between three and four hundred thousand
vOiing foreigners were added to the popu-
ation Of the North. And when it is re-
that not one Of the persons
actually arriving from abroad, within that
time, were eligible under the laws to vote;
and whenit is remembered also, that the i'm
migration from 1852 to 1856, was perhaps,
double that Of any four years previously. |
not one of whom had voice in the last