Daily national Democrat., 1859-07-21
Irish-American Views on Cass's Letter.

unnatural ndtRrchzcd ones) who agree and
subscribe to the doctrine laid down in the
Cass letters to lie Clerc and 1Iofcr BY far
the greater portion, however, of our foreign
born residents are naturalized and take toe
deep an interest in the preservation of the
rights of American citizens to sanction any
such odous principle as is announced by the
Administration Of James Buchanan. Certain
ly, we expect our naturalizcd fellow citizens
to vote against the Administration party on
this very ground. We give them credit for
good sound sense and knowledge Of their
own interests, and we cannot conceive of the
possibility of their voting point-blank against
} those natiye-born citizens who are laboring
: for the perfect equality of the foreign born,
| in rights and privileges, with themselves.
, The leading organs of our foreign born
citizens in the Atlantic States, are taking the
same view of this subject that we do. We
quote from the Southern Citizen, edited by
the celebrated John Mitchell. lie says
"Adopted citizens, when they are called upon in
an American Court of Justice to renounce upon
oath all duty and allegiance to any monarch on
CQrtn ana 10 take on tlem tile OuIleS ana feSOOn-
sibllites OF American citizenship, have been too
much in the habit of deluding themselves with
the idea that they are invested with the rights as
well as sadded with the duties of citizenship
that if they sOemnly renounce all cl i'm to the
protection of their former government they en-
title themselves to the projection of this Republic.
Let them give up that too ilattering idea the
doctrine of our government is RoaU that a natnr-
allied citizen owes divided allegiance-an allie
glance varying with latitude and longtude-that
though citizen of this country (nominally y)while
on these shores, he loses that character the mo.
ment he travels abroad for business or for pleas
ure-that the doctrine of the right of expatriation
is moonshine; and that the claim of an European
sovereign to military servlce-or of course to any
thing elso-and the sovereign right to enforce the
same-are paramount and superior to the prlvi-
leges of an American citizen, for which the emil
grant has waited five years. and to which he has
been at last solemnly admitted in a Court of
Record Of the United States
We have been somewhat surprised at the de-
fectiye information of all citizens foreign born and
native, upon this question. They have been la
boring under as strong deusion i'm this matter.
"lndepcndent South" Georgia. under the inter-
rogatory caption rs ii so ?" says
1--WE cannot believe that Secretary Cass gives
expression to the true American doctrine in the
note below Ifhe does, then we can see no pecu-
liar advantage accruing either to this Government
tion laws"
Well, sir, we can't help that is So"
The Irish-American, published at New
York, by Lynch d Cole says:
SHALL WE BE PROTECTED?
"Untl within few days past, we had been un-
der the impresslon-nevc heretofore disturbed
or overclouded-that natuIalized foreigners, hav.
ing duly complied with the requirements Of the
Constitution and the Statutes enacted by Con-
gress, became, ipso fdcto, CITIZENS of this Repub
lie, equal in every respect (save the excepted mat
ter of eligibility to the Chief Magistracy,) to ma
uve-bOrn Americans, and equally entitled with
them to the protection Of the arms and influence
Of the Confederation in every lawful enterpris in
which citizen may engage. We believed fur
thermore, that the oath ofallegance taken by the
naturalized citizen, and accepted by the United
| States, was bond between them, by which the
Republic, in exchange for the featy sworn to her
by her adopted child, pledged herself to release
| and guarantee him against the claims and pre-
tensions ofall powers and potentates whatsoever
even as he, with his whole heart renounced them
| in her fag0r. We thought too that this princi-
pie was Of those for which the United States
contcndcd in 1912, when they did not hesitate, in
pursuance of it, to measure their infant force a.
ganst the richest and strongest power in the Old
World; that it had been maintained by General |
Scott in the case of the Irish prisoners taken in |
Canada by the British during that war; and again |
enunciated by the administration of Gen. Pierce |
in the case of Martin Koszta. 1t would appear |
however according to our present Secretary Of |
State (and exc the New York Herald that in all
these ideas we have been wofully in error-pro- |
ping, in fact, in Cimerean darkness for the true |
solution of the nature and attributes of adopted
citizenship"
IMPERFECT CITIZENSHIP.
"The more we reflect upon the policy-as re-
CARDS the relations between this country and the
despotic governments of Europe-deveOped by
the letter of General Cass which we gave last
week, the more convinced we become of the i'm
portance of its bearing, not alone upon the inter
ests of adopted citizens but upon those of the Re-
public at large,-the more impressed are we with
the duty that is incumbent upon us to resist, by
every means in our power, the practical applica-
tion of this heterodox doctrine which recognizes
distinction between citizens never dreamed of
heretofore. 1t creates, in fact two distinct class
es of citizens-perfect and imperfect-a state of
things the possible existence of which evidently
never entered into the minds of the trainers of the
Constitution, and which, in IFS very nature, is OPP
posed to that true and simple principle of Repub
| licau equality to which this country is indebted
for its present proud position and advancement
in national prosperity, and on the strict adher-
| ence to which we can alone depend for the sta
bility and permanence of its institutions. Ofwhat
value is such imperfect citizenship either to the
recipient OF to these United States, in whose
name it is said to be conferred Ii the subject
still owe allegiance to the power he has forsworn,
and the United States, in the person of its Minis
ter and Executive, acknowledge his Indebtedness,
then is the whole ceremony of his naturalization
fraud and farce, for the legitimate inference is
that he cannot even if he would shake off this
subjection, and that it clings to him closely on
American soil as on that of his birth. The Uni
ted States, then, demands other adopted children
every thing that she demands from the native
born, their allegiance, their love, their blood i
necessary I'm exchange she gives to the latter
all that her power affords freedom at home-pro
lection and the ensured respect Of the worlC
abroad; to the former, according to Gen. Cass
and those from whom he takes his inspiration
: she affords only the sanctuary given in Older
} times to the hunted outlaw, the leave to exercis
the franchise and become beggars at the bacl
:. doors ofpower for crumbs of place and pelf;-t
become money-grubs-to eat, drink and be merry
so long as they choose to remain within her i'm
e mediate boundaries. The moment you dare
e pass beyond these, says General Cass your cit
zenship falls from you like ill-6tting cloak an
) leaves you naked and defenceless, to bear th
eers or the vengeance Of the rulers whom yo
a have provoked by abandoning them. Instead {
protecting the adopted citizen against the claim
Is the allegiance which he compelled to renounc
e at the time of his naturalization he is abandone
the moment that claim is put in, and thus all ri
N cprocity offealty and protection between him an
Is this Republic is at once destroyed"
"No IRISH NEED ArrLY."-It was currentl
reported, before the late Administration Coz
e. yention in this county adjourned, that tn
ne doctrine implied in the caption of this para
cro nh rulad II, tho da1iharotio of 4ha+ ~,