The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-06-12
a STRONG GOVERNMENT.

From the present condition Of Affairs
10 50 calied Republican America, il
would seem that the time is far In the
future when the whole people shall be
wise enough TO be a law unto them.
selves Not need we wonder that thi.
is trns The low-born Irishman, fresh
from the monarchieal government oi
usurpine England, ignorant alike OF our
manners, custom and politics, born and
bred to poverty and pot-houses, taught
by bis mother to look upon the aristoc-
Iacy Of lis native land as superhuman,
who was glad during all his years Of
struggle in the Isle Of Erin to get ade-
quate potatoes and an occasional "thrap
O. the craythurr for a merry-makiug ;
the phle matte Dutchman, equally ig-
uorant of American institutions, com
prehend Dg nothing about him save
the fact that there is an aristOcracy Of
sex in LIS country which enables him
10 tyraunize TO bis hearts content over
bis wife and her earnings; the obtuse
Englishman, fresh from a wOman's
government, who has reached a paradise
for bis sex In the aristocTacy of America,
where s woman cannot be President /;
the mercurial Frenchman, with his hot
beaded opposition to rational democ-
racy-these are the elements that are
beirg poured constantly into the na-
Lonai current, 10 make naturalized citi-
zens according to the law, and hence
forth bear hand IN moulding the na-
tion's destinies, while every native-born
American must wait, if masculine,
twenty-oDe years after his adventamong
Us before he can vote, and il feminine,
according 10 the present statutes, must
wait forever. These ignorant foreigners,
who never thought Of exercising the
prerogatiyes Of citizenship in the old
countries, finding themselves suddenly
invested with a law-making power in
the Uniled States, become at once blat-
ant demagogues and unscrupulous ma
nipule Of politics. Seorning honest
wo4S for honest pay, they congregate
themselves together at sand-lot meet
ings, harangue workingmen's gather
ings 10 barbarous English, spit fire in
the faces If the toiling masses, stop the
machinery of manufactures through
strikes, aid utter anathemas against in
dustriocs Cinnamon, who, whatever
may be their shortcomings, have sense
CROUCH o obey the laws as far as they
understand them, and keep out of poll
tics whiel they know nothing about.
Then, n American born snobs, we have
the Southern "chiv," who never can
forget that he once drove "niggers.n or
bought aud sold them; whose wet nurse
or foster-mother was a wench land who,
perhaps, for that reason imagines him
self her superfor), and who spent his
hoyhood alternately in swapping gum
from The mouths Of young darkies to his
own, and in lording it over the said dar-
kies when the mood was on him. In
the North and East we have the high
headed, grim-visaged mans rights
iyrs at, avaricious, suspicious, sanctimo-
nious, conservative, tyrannical. t is
irne that in all Of these elements, inter
mingiing and modifying the whole,
there is a vast deal of pure, native, hu-
man goodness, which serves 10 hold each
faction o check till its side gets n show
ior The mastery. But the efTervescing Of
50 many antagonistic Ingredients so
constantly tries the strength of the old
vessel Of State which we call the Union,
that nothing short OF strong govern
ment can bind the hull and keep her
siauneh ald taut in all weathers.
ave, the people," have learned
through recent Congressional events
that secession is not dead; we have
learned from sand-lot orators that rebel
lion is rampant; @e have learned from
tie recent negro exodus that the South
ern "chiv' may yet be compelled to eat
tie bread Of his own labor or rstarve; we /
are learning that Northern tyranny
must abandon it's mans rights doctrine
aud demand the liberty Of all the people;
We will sometime learn that an iguor- /
ant foreigner can learn no more rapidly |
concerning Republican ethics than an
ignorant native; we will learn that the .
Chinese are setting an example Of sober I
Industry that other so-called working .
men, whose principal business is ours
ing the government, will do well to /
heed. let the efervescence go on. By /
and by some grains of the salt of COM
mon sense will be precipitsted in the
hull Of be old ship Of state. Men will
yet learn that they cannot violate the
Consultation with impunity. They will
learn ihat "we, the people," does not
mean the men alone, and then they will
be prepared for the beginning Of that
miiienium in government which can
only come with pure ballots In the
aanaa Of educated voters who have lived
in q meFiea for the space Of twenty-one
years But while they are learning
tAese lessons the government shin must
De Kept more sirous.y oound. or she will
necessarily go to pieces in the br4akars
To this end let the laws be riridly an
forced. e"'
Hou A. A. Sargent is travelling ou,..-
"Ha.