Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1857-07-25
Can Foreigners Become Citizens.

Can Foreigners Become Citizens.
/ The Supreme Court has decided that
foreigners who come to this country subse-
lquent to September 18th, 1888, or their
defendants to all future posterity, can
mot become citizens of the United States
Hon. Stephen A Douglas, the elnbcdi-
ment and representative of the Democrat
ic party, endorses and defends this contor.
l,ion Of the Constitution, and the Demo-
Icratic party, of which three fourths to sew
en- eighths Of allthe foreigners in our coun
TRY are members, have engrafted it into
their platform, and made it ''the goose ques-
ton" to be right on which is essential to
secure favor.
] Although these are facts, and our for
eign population are reduced to the level
of the negro race, and deprived Of all the
rights of American citizens, by this deci-
sion of the Supreme Court still they adj
here to Tie party like ''grim death to a
dead niger" and suffer The leaders oil
this party, whose principles SO degrade
them, to lead them hithersoever they
will. In the face of this decision, and OF
the action of the Democratic party on it.
foreigners will stick, like an eagle in the
misers, grasp to the.party. Here is a Ian
guage on negroes in juxtapositon with that
| on foreigners:
4. A free negro of the African race
whose ancestors were brought to this conn
Try and sold as slaves, is not a Citizen
within the meaning of the Constitution Of
the United States.
| 4. Since the adoption of the Consti-
tuition Of the United States, no State can
I BY any subsequent law make foreigner
or any other description of persons, citi-
Gems of the United State, nor entitle them
to the rights and privileges secured to the
citizens by that instrument.
Z. a State, by its law passed since the
adoption Of the Constitution, may put a
foreigner, or any other description of per-
sons, upon a footing with its own citizen,
as to all the rig is and privileges enjoyed
by them within Its dominion and by It's
laws. But that will not make him citi
zen of the United States, nor enttle him
to sue in It's Courts, nor to any Of the priv
ileges and immunities of q citizen IN an
other State.
Now, according to this decision, the for
Ieign white citizens are placed upon an
equal footing with the free negro, whose
ancestors were slaves, but beneath those
whose ancestors were not slaves of whom
there are many in our midst, descended
from Africans who come from England,
Africa, the West Indies and India, and
whose children are entitled 80 ctize nshp;
| for the decision Of the Court does net turn
on the color of a man, but on Slavery.
| There were free black citizens iu Massa-
chusetts as early as 1880. and the children
of these citizens, recognized as citizens Of
| the United State, because citizens Of a
State, at tie time of the adoption of the
Constitution in September, 1897, must be
American citizens to day, and clothed With
all the rights of any white citizen who can
trace their ancestry to residents Of the Uni
ted States at the adoption Of the Consti-
tuition.
We cannot avoid the conviction that
The design of the Democracy, in adopting
this construction of the Supreme Court is
to degrade al foreigners to the condition
Of negroes, and when the party is suf-
lfciently strong, to do without them, to
cast them off as s.Althy mechanics and la
borers, unfit to be body servants Of South
ern planters We give the sentiments, if
not The exact words, of Southern Demo
Gratis, in the above quotation. We repeat
that this decision-this plank Of the Dem
ocratic platform cuts off all foreigners and
their descendants who have come to this
country since 1857, from every right Of a
citizen Of the United States, and from all
hope Of ever enjoying such rights. This
extra-judicial decision; is but beginning
of insults and degradation aimed at for
eigners by the Democratic party. Will
they stick to that party, and by SO doing
endorse their own degradion! Or will
they, while they have the power, assert
their claim to the rights Of American citi-
zensh pal Dubuque Times.