Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-06-20


their going up to the national altar after aresidence
of five years, to take upon themselves the VOWS of
allegiance? We know that in thousands of instances
they become naturalized without knowledge of our
language, without ever having read or heard read
our constitution, and thus go rough-shod to the
baIlot-box with the same untutored rage with
which they would go to the Jacobin clubs Of Europe
Is it not absurd to claim that those who were in
capable at home of organizing and maintaining free
government, are yet capable of administering ours?
That they are prepared to judge wisely of our policy
and vote understandingly in our elections? To learn
here in few years what they have not learned at
home in centuries? Such theory is ike the patent
quackery Of those who go about protesting to teach
the French or German language in ten lessons when
no man can acquire them in a hundred. We are
undertaking the dignity of citizenship, the highest
with which freeman can oe invested. No prerog-
alive equals that which determines by free choice
who shall sway for season that vast power which
belongs to us all-which indirectly prescribes the
rules that shall govern life, liberty and property
1t is sacred trust and every citizen is directly in
terested in the character of all who are endowed
with it. Wholesome laws, and sound judiciary, do
mestic tranquility, love Of union, safety at home,
responsibility abroad, and ardent consistent pat
riotism, the fruits of an enlightened virtuous
public opinion. And how can that public opinion
remain enlightened and virtuous when it is being
fed every hour by new and strange aliment, made
up of every variety of Ingredients You might as
well expect a stream OF water to remain pure and
limpd when exposed to the fresh secretons from the
adjacent soil. Suppose it were announced to the
people of the q. States that there were one hundred
thousand foreigners now assembled at Liverpool,
and ready 10 embark in a body for New York, and
that they were made up of criminals and paupers
from the different jails and pauperhouses of Eu-
rope ask if it would not create universal senSa
ton The evil would be concentrated and tangible
and therefore startling. But the same thing is 60
ing on by retail They are coming in broken
columns landing at different points and disappearing
like scattered hive, into the larger hive of this
great American family. Not less than that vast
number and that description of persons, reeking
with crime and bending with degradation arrive in
our midst every year. and the cry is still they come
They fill your prisons and your alms-houses They
squat upon your public lands, and appropriate to
themselves after and section after section
of that fair inheritance which your fathers and mine
won for us by their valor and by their toll They
crowd your hastings and thunder around your ballot.
boxes, with that same wild Indifferent fury, that
characterized the mobs Of Paris. Not an election
now occur, in places where this description of
foreigners reside, but native Americans are mall
treated and brow-beaten and slaughtered like wild
beast upon their native streets. And if these things
are now "dOne in the green tree, what will be done
in the dry?"
When this stream, now rolling from Europe,
shall be swelled into a torrent-a cataract-what
dixie or barrier that native virtue or patriotism can
erect will be adequate to resist the mighty pressure:
1t is the interest of European States to get rid of
this species of population. They are a tax upon
industry and constantly threaten the public peace.
In the way it would be to our interest to ship
off the inhabitants of our jas and penitentiaries and
pauper establishments, and throw the burthen Of
their correction and support upon others. BIT it is
the policy of the States of Europe to send US this
description of population and voters for another and
deeper reason. They have witnessed with displeas-
ure and disquietued our growth and prosperity
They know that liberty is contagious and has been
the desire Of man in all ages. The fire that we have
kndled upon our affairs has not failed now and then
20 communicate with the combustble material in
their midst, and threaten conhagratiOn. To de-
stroy and defeat our plan of government is their
paramount interest And henc. they are now en-
couraging the emigration from their shores to ours
not only their redundant population, but especially
those classes that will smite us with the curse of
lswlessness and anarchy, bring reproach upon the
experiment and name of popular government
That this policy animates several of the leading
States of Europe, | entertain not doubt. They
seek to undermine and destroy, by slow approach
es what they cannot conquer by open force II this
government were to ferment and efiervesce and ex-
plode by the inherent vices that aiiict it, it would
kindle bOnfres from Lands end to Archangel, and
the loud thunder of royal and imperial cannon would
proclaim in booming accents the end of popular gov
eminent, and the triumph of legitimacy over the
sovereignty of the people. We cannot live without
virtue and intelligence, and yet we are tolerating
every day the importation of vice and ignorance up
on US, that operates a dead weight and more
than dead weight upon our Institutions What
mean the large armies and the sentinels that meet
you with fixed bayonets at every corner in every
capital in Europe? 1t is system Of repression that
lives in perpetual dread of popoular ferment
and furious onslaught upon society.
And what they deem a nuisance, is good enough
to make American citizens Our country, without
the name is becoming penal colony for the GRIM
inals of western Europe, and grand poor-house to
receive the cast-of and miserable sons and daugh..
ers of poverty. Have not enough of our own
to take care Of that we must open our gates and
take in all the ofal and filth that other nations in
their narrow economy and deep policy may choose
to cast upon our shores? Ought we not to reject
such boOns, and compel governments, that by their
expressions, haYe rendered their subjects vicious
and by their exactions, made them poor, to take
care OF them and keep them in order? But re-
peat, it is not the tax imposed upon US by these
classes of which chiefly complain this could be no
harm, for il is only matter Of dollars and cents But
these degraded classes can, by our laws they now
stand, become citizens in five years and in some Of
the States aud Territories, by the bounty of the
Democratic party, they can vote without being cit
zens at all; and thus they become, with all their
vices and degradation constituent agents in the adj
ministration OF the government Their votes are
equal 10 yours mine. They are potent for evil
and there is no help for it. Emigration from this
country to Europe, would not be permitted by any
well organized State, that regards the preservation
Of its own distinctive nationality. Still less could
we be allowed the full rights of citizens or subjects.
But II the tenants of our penitentiares and poor
houses were to attempt to land there, they would
be met with instant expusiOn-they would be driven
back upon And yet, all the world can come
here, in one mingled stream of races, colors and
condiuOn-from the idOlatrous Chinese 10 the cul-
tivated Englshman; and all who can claim to be OF
the white race, without regard 10 intelligence or
morals, can be and are made citizens. All that is
wanting is the mummery of residence FIVE years,
good habits and attachment to our institutions,
which has never failed to be proven, and have
never known or heard OF a case of rejection. Cit
izenship here seems to be dreg in the market,
| hunting for purchasers
What the lights Of history on this great subject?
Not a single free State that ever existed but owed
its decline ard ruin to foreign Influence Its native
genius changed; its energies impaired, and then
il becomes prey either 10 domestic faction or for
/ eign conquest. The States of Greece were once
vigorous, independent and free, and continued 50
/ long as il was honor TO be a citizen. But when
/ in the course of time an Athenan or Spartan could
not be distinguished from a Persian and the States
themselves became receptacles for all the world
they decayed and persisted forever. Rome IN the
days of her freedom, bestowed the rights Of citizen
ship with a spaFing hand. To be Roman either
was an honor coveted by men Of all ranks. When
at last this great brth-rght put TO sale in tht
! kafa hs.fF
ulaton Of the provinces became endowed with III,
privilege by the arts and influence Of aspiring men
the rep Ible langushed and became a prey 20 the
race Of Cesars and at last to foreign conquest.
But let notice the increase OF immigration into
the United States according 10 the census table:
From 1890 TO 1880 there arrived 100000
! $500 1910 10000