The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1859-06-02
Letter Of Col. Curtis.
KEoKUK, May IS, 1859.

| ... .... Abohuh, May 10, 1908.
| Gentlemen -
| Your circular addressed to the Iowa dele
CATION was received few days since, and m,
answer is delayed on account of temporar,
Illness. You ask the following questions
which am very willing to answer, although
my colleagues the Senate have donefull jus
tice to the subject. These are your questions
! 1st. Are you in favor of the naturalization
laws as they stand, and particularly agains
all and every extension of the probation time'
I'd. Do you regard ita duty of the Repub
lcan party, as the rarty of equal rights, tc
oppose the war upon each and every dis
elimination that may be attempted to be
made between the native born and adopted
citizens, as to the right of suffrage?
3D.. Do you condemn the late action of the
Republicans in the Massachusetts, Lenisla.
ture, for attempting to exclude the adopted
citizens for two years from the ballot box as
unwise, unjest and unoalled for? -------
l.. In answer to your first enldiry re-
spond as follows: | consider the probation
time longer than necessary, as time only
proves that main is satisfied with his new
domie55; and he and others can determine
that part about as well in five years as
twenty. The intent is what determines a
mai.'s domicils (Which will be for all time)
we shall allow men to change their domicil,
and become settled, and certainly satisfied
with the change. ...... ...:
Our present naturalization laws institute a
kind of initidtion, which as now executed.
is either farce or fraud, as all lawyers
well know. | am not disposed to tie my
political faith to such badge of imperfection,
which leads to needless trouble, cost, false
proof, and false swearing. / think they can
and should be improved for the sake of emf
grants and good morals.
2 Our principles as party, as well as the
dictates of reason and justice, oppose all po-
litical distinctions between native and adopted
citizens; not especially because our platform
was made for the purpose, but because as
Republicans we have adopted the fandamen-
tai principles of the founders of our republic
who made their platform wide enough for all
the world.
) As to two years additional probation, /
am utterly opposed to it. If man is full
grown and fairly domiciled according to
law, let him exercise his rational functions.
10 naturalize foreigner, and then require
two yers before admitting him to his natu-
raj rights, is like building and finishing a
ship, and requiring her to lay two years on
the stocks before she is permitted to float in
her natural element. | can readily premise
the grounds ofyour indignity. 1t seems like
requiring you to dress for and conclude nup
tials, two years before you are to enjoy your
marriage.rights.
But this is entirely a legal question, as
every State has the sovereign right to pre-
scribe her own voters, Massachusetts,, as one
other Hon. Representatives recently said is
crowded with population. 1t is very differ
ent in the West, and therefore the encour
agement given to emigration, viii be different
In different localities. From this apparent
political blunder in our distinguished sister
OF New England, we may hope to receive
some advantage, by becoming the recipients
of those who will escape from the new pro-
vision; and in the end it may assist in dis
tributing the surplus population of the East,
where they can find better homes on the rich
prairles of Iowa,
Very Respectfully your fellow citizen,
SAMUEL r. CURTIS,
To Messrs. Kuestenmacher, Henry Ritchter,
Silas Schmit and 40 other German Repub-
licans.