The American. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1857, 1857-09-12

ferred by Congress. Congress has conferred no
such power on Michigan, nor, indeed, could confer
it, as il has no authority, under the Constitution,
over the subject except to pass uniform laos Of
Standardization"
"Citizen and alien have been properly consid-
cred az correlative terms citizen Ia not an alen
and an alien Is not citizen. A citizen may be,
defined TO be any person residing in any State or
territory of the United States who enjoys all the
rights, privileges, and immunities OF man OF
full age, born and resident In those States or ter
ritories. What is naturalizations II 10 sufficient
for my purpose to define it as that process, by
which the Congress Of the United States roaoves
the disabilitiss Of alienage. Now, what are the
disabilities of alienageS In the first place, an
alien cannot vote unless the power Is specially con.
ferred on him. In the next place, All alien Is not
entitled to- and cannot demand protection from the
government. He is under no obligations to it,
and may make war upon it, without mourning the
penalties Of treason. He cannot petition the gov
eminent for any wrong which he has suffered IF
he be here while tho country from which he came
is at with the United States he is liable under
an act of Congress- to be ordered out Of the coun-
try within given time, and therefore he has no
right Of permanent residence here In such con-
tingency as that which have mentioned These
are all known and acknowledged disabilities of
alienage. The disqualification Of an alien to vote
does not merely arise from an act Of Congress, or
an act of State Legislature. It exists as an in
cident to alienage here and everywhere. II must
be removed by competent authority, and by posi-
tive enactment, before an alien can exercise the
rights Of suffrage 1t is inherent in the very ma
ture OF aenage, that it cannot exercise right by
which it may govern others. There can be no
just ideas Of popular rights and national sover-
eighty, or national independence when the notion
prevails that an alien ought to vote. Give this
right to foreigners, as is proposed by this bill, and
you surrender all that distinguishes him from an
American. Nay, you give these rights to strang-
ers, with whom you may be at war tomorrow,
while you refuse to your own citizens in one State
the right to vote in another"
In the same debate, Senator Brown, Of Missis-
sippi, said:
II the section passes as it stands it is, beyond
all question: that foreigners in the territory, and
not being in the service Of the United States, may
vote, no difference what may have been their char
acter abroad, or what their inducement to come
here--however discreditable to the country from
which they came, they have nothing to do but to
make declaration of their intentions to become
a citizen, and take an oath to support the Const-
tuition, to entitle them to vote; while American
citizens, who have been so from their birth, and
whose characters are above reproach, if they are
in the military service of their country in the ter
ritories, will BY the same act be denied the right
to vote. *t~
81 have heard before of putting foreigners on
equal footing with Americans, but this is the first
time when ] have been called upon to give them
an advantage.
" ! cannot reconcile it to my sense Of right to
vote for proposition which gives to foreigner,
and care not who he may be, or under what cir,
cumstances he may come to our shores, the right
to vote in these territories
Senator Bayard, in the same debate, said:
The moment you admit the right of citizens
OF another country, or those who are not citizens
of ours, to assume equal political rights with our
own citizens, you take long step in the process
of Standardization. Do YOU not Donation
alike your country when YOU enact that because because
the man who has come here to-day declares that
he means to become citizen, he shall exercise
the same political rights and privileges as il he
81 consider the principle Of this amendment
absolutely necessary for the permanence of the in
stitutions of this country and therefore can re-
cord my vote for no bill which authorizes right
of voting to others than citizens of the United
States
Can any one doubt, after reading the opinions
and arguments of these eminent gentlemen, that
it is unconstitutional for State to give the right
of voting to an alieng Congress gave It to aliens
in the Kansas Nebraska Act, but that was done
under a state of feeling which blinded members,
or rather determined them to do that which many
OF them knew and admitted TO be wrong-a yio-
lation, indeed, of the Constitution They cared
not for the Constitution or any thing else one
portion were determined to pass the bill, while the
other were equally determined to secure to them
selves all the advantages which the "tSquatter
Sovereignty" it established, would give them,
stand what would In the way.
The South, We should think, had had enough of
"Squatter Sovereignty and alien suffrage; if not,
let them try the two little longer.