The mountain Democrat., 1863-05-23
Eloquent Words to Adopted Citizens.

Ex-Gov. Thomas Ii. Seymour, Of Con-
necticut, in a recent speech before the
Democracy Of Hartford, addressed the
following beautiful remarks to foreign
born citizens:
"Now, gentlemen, see around me
quito a number Of naturalized citizens,
and wish to say few words to them.
The time has come when we may speak
plainly to each other. ask you, my
friends, what induced you to come to
this countryG f"To escape tyranny."l
Don't think me impcrtinCnt for asking the
| question and giving the answer to it my
self Why did JOu leave the Rhine aud
the Rhone and the borders Of Lake Gene.
var Why did you leave Neufchatel and
Constance Why did you leave the
Elbe and the Scheldt and the IIaguOP
Why did you leave sunny Italy, the
scene of civil war for moro than a hun
drcd years, and why did you leave the
vine clad bills ofFrance? Why did you
leave Caledonia. "stern and Wild" and
sweet lakes that nestle in the bosom Of
hills: Why did you leave Killarney and
Kilkenny, and those consccratcd places
where Curran and Grattan thundcred
against oppression, and where Emmet
laid down his lifeH [Applausel Why
did you leave the graves Of your kindred
in the Fathcrland, "thc Gods acre" Of
Germany, and the churchyards of the
United Kingdom? Why did you leave
the historic scenes Of the old world
where the Roman, the Northman and the
blue eyed Goth have been, and where
they have left the impress of their moral
power, or Of brute force-sceneS where |
have sometimes stood, as it were en-
tranced, till seemed to be incorporated
with the past, whilst the ages surged by
me? Why did you leave the bright, the
beautiful, the touching, the sublime
why did you leave all these for the new
worldP Better, perhaps, I have some
times thought in these days of trial, that
the good ship in which you embarked
had been stranded on the French, the
German, or the Irish coast, and you
pluckcd from the remorScleSs wave-not
less cruel and remorseless than the wrath
of man-have returned to your native
village, there to take up the burden Of
life again; better this than that you
should have come here inst to taste the
sweets of liberty, and all at once have
the cup dashed from your lips. APP
plauscl And now for my answer. You
came here to get rid Of unjust law, Of
odious takes "that take from the mouth
of labor the bread which it has earned"
to get rid of large armies and navies that
eat out the substance of the people, to
get rid of stamp acts and conscription
acts, to be rid Of provost marshals and
game keepers and bum -haiIifS. the in
struments of the iron rule. Great ap-
plauSe.l You came hither to get rid of a
vile system Of espionage for which our
language has no name, and to get rid of
the passport system that stops you at
every frontier town till your passport can
be visited and stamped. You came
where speech was free and the press free,
where there was trial by jury, where Ia
Dor was honored, and man, the lord of his
little patch of ground, or, it may be, of
his acres, could take his children in his
arms and thank God that he was born in
land of freedom. Great cheering
This is what you carc for. And you
came where civil and religious liberty
had found an asylum and reared her
temples to justice and TO the worship Of
the living God. But, men of foreign
lands, you whom have sometimes well
coined to our shores, am bound to tell
you that in some things you have been
mised lately, deceiVrd, beguiled, and cast
as it were, into the horrible pit. In the
past year-a year which, for its violation
Of personal rights and disregard of con-
stitutional obligations, should be stricken
from the calcndar-the men in power,
disrcgarding the rights Of the people un.
der the constitution, have struck down,
in succession of outrageous blows,
many of the rights which you had ac-
quired here, and the privileges which
you had begun to enjoy, and have re-
newed here in our country some Of the
worst features Of the rotten dynastics
of European and Asiatic countries And
now, gentlemen, your remedy is in your
own hands. United together, and firm
in your purpose, you may recover that
which you have lost, and recover these
inevitable privileges in a constitutional
way.