The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-11-13
THE CONGREGATIONAL CLUB.
First Autumn Meeting of the Asse-
citation.
Rev. Or. Renen Thomas Discusses
the immigration Question.

NnhSAcsdtiOuai OiuD at the. IFtDte House
last evening brought together fine company
Of gentlemen, members of the club, from
Portland and vicinity. The social hour was
especially attractive with its greetings after
the long vacation, and its lively interchange
of views ON the great events of the day.
1t is to the great regret of the club that the
removal of the Rev. G. Ii. Daniels from Port
land aud the State to accept the district sec
retaryship of the American Board at New
York. takes away the genial and most effi-
cient president of the club. His efforts to pro-
mote the interests Of the organization have
been untiring, always wisely directed, and
felt1n every relation of the association.
AT the table the divine blessing was invok-
ed by Rev. e. p. Wilson of Deering
The supper spread for the club in the grand
dining hall was excellent in quality and SER
vice. IL was to the evident satisfaction of
the club, in the absence of its president TO
have as presiding officer of the evening, Vice
President Prof. Ii. l.. Chapman of Bowdoin
College who very gracefully and efficiently
discharged the duties of the position.
At the business session the chairman spoke
feelingly and with high appreciation of the
interest and services of President Daniels,
and .becomingly voiced the regrets of the
club at its loss, which was also the loss of
the city and State, but a loss to inure to the
benefit of Congregational and religious inter-
ests in wider sphere through Cur land and
In the broad relations of the great mission
airy enterprise of our day.
For the nomination of officers for the CON-
| inO m no ms ia, of
the following committee was appointed !:
Rufus Hinklay, DIR. Warren Evans, A. L.
Burbank, III. III. Kicker and w. w. Brown.
The clue received with enthusiastic cor
dality the guest of the evening, the Rev.
keuen Thomas, ID. d.. of Brookline, Mass.
DR.. Thomas addressed the club on the ques-
ton, "0dght Immigration to this country TO
be restricted?" The clear strong and racy
utterances of DR.. Thomas were frequently
applauded. We are glad to give quite full
report OF this important address, whicL
touches vital matter to Americans and
America.
DIR. THoMAs's ADDRESS.
fought immigration to be restricted ?''
This question is now agitating the public
mind TO an extent which indicates that there
is suspicion deep rooted and widespread as
to the wisdom of the excessive generosity of
the past IN admitting to the American house
hold all and everybody without any testimo-
nial of character. In the old days before
facilities for crossing the Atlantic were so
many and SO cheap, emigration implied in
the emisrants some degree of vigor and TO-
bustnes, OF character. As general state
ment u Is true that those who originally
came TO this country had convictions of some
srt-vlftuous convictions All of them
| might not have sought here freedom to wor-
ship God" There were many who were not
| OF the quality of the men of the Mayfower
But they had In them purpose ana enter
| prise. History proves that they must have
had sane mind and sound body. They
| might not be as homogeneous as is sometimes
assumed. There were English, Dutch, HUI
| guenot, German, liish, Swiss and others, but
the most advanced AnglorSaxon ideas pre-
vailed among them, and the result eventu-
ally was the predomnence of those ideas
Which are dislinctively American 1t is adj
mltted by all intelligent writers on this
theme that the immigrants of the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries were supe-
rlor to the Immigrants of the nineteenth zen
tury. More than that, the immigrants of
the earlier years of this nineteenth century
were superior In quality to the Immigrants
Of the present time. The quality has been
deterlorating year by year until 1t seems as
II the nations of Europe were entering into A
| conspiracy to discredit American IDEAS and
break down American institutions, not by
| direct attack on them, but by sending here
| crowds OF people mentally unable t. grasp
them and morally unable to appreciate Them.
In the Boston Morning journal of the 18Th
inst /, this paragraph:
Never before III the history of Castle Gar
| den has the proportion of paupers, cripples.
lunatlcs, and generally Objectionable per,
sons among the arriving immigrants been
| SO large as 1t is at present. 1t would almost
seem that Europe's wretchedest people
were just now crowding to our
! shores in anticipation of the passage of ali
| immigration bill which would exclude them.
| A policy OF vigorous restriction cannot be
| adopted day too s0on."
With all our disposition to generosity and
humanity beyond that protested elsewhere.
the character of the republic is necessarily
bound up with the safety OF the republic
character of the families who compose it.
whenever majority of those families are
not intelligent enough to appreciate the DO
lltical, ecclesiastical and educational ideas of
America, what kind of men are they certain
to send to the places of power and honor i'm
the land? The man who can bamboozle
them into believing anything and everything
extravagant, and impractcabe is the man
who Will be sure to carry their voIes. These
are the people to whom those men who have
been poii.lcally reDellious against every form
OF European government look for their adj
vancement. We have entered on that age of
the world which is characterized by lawless.
ness. And II we are not on the alert all the
lawless men Of Europe will be here, talking
OF freedom and human rights, using the Ian.
euage OF nonest ana vlrtuous men, but
meaning by 1t something very different from
tlat which 1t contains when spoken by
Christian men, or by the ordinary average
American. believe with Theodore Roose-
nunism or anarcy as Most and Spies should
De excluded as vigorously as other profess
slonal criminals, or as paupers and unatcs
Inc liberties, and virtues, and opportuni
ties OF America have cost too much to be
sacrificed to mere sentiment, or to spurious
humanitarianism. All true piety has a ten
dency to become patriotism. The church of
Christ In this land Is charged with the duty
and responsibility Of maintaining the ideas
ana institutions OF this land, which it origi-
nated. Anything which has direct tenden
cy to make a free church in free State i'm
possible;, anything which has direct ten
dency to lower the quality of our population
So to jeopardize the existence OF the re-
puoiiei anything which has direct tenden-
cy to permanently establish among us pau
perism OF the kind which remains unaiter-
aDiy unlmprovable, as in the old European
cities, where there are thousands of panpers
who are the descendants of generations of
paupers, anything that has these tendencies
must be resisted with as much of unanimlty
and resolution as was shown when slav,
itself. A'"iiAo
That there is great recklessness and care
lessness In bestowing citizenship upon men
thersunprepared. for it is shown i'm the
fact that so many States of the Union do not
require even the apprenticeship of five years
residence before comforting citizenship. In
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado.
florida, Indiana, Kanas, Louisiana, Michi
gan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon. Texas and
Wisconsin the mere declaration of intention
TO become citizen is sufficient to confer the
sacred right to. vote. An immigrant can
land at Castle Garden today. be railroaded
through to Denver, Colorado, declare his in
tentl0n 10 become citizen and vote at the
next election
Surprising that several hundred thous
Garden and passed on by the rapid transit of
our day; with political parties as closely
matched as now, these immigrants might ac-
tually determine who should be the next
President of the United States There are
crowds of people in Europe who would be
very glad to have their fares paid across the
Atlantic especially if they could be allowed
to bring sufficient number of their own
kild with them so as to feel at home on the
way and after they arrive here. They will
not come one by one of their own accord and
pay their own passage money They have
not spirit, or vigor, or enterprise enough for
this. But under the influence of the extray
agant stories which in the slums of Europe
are told OF America, these chronic paupers
and chronic commuters of petty crimes
might be induced to come, provided their
iare Should be paid either out of municipal
taxes or by private benevOlence. No country
on the face Of the earth could allow this kind
OF expatriating benevolence to 90 ON for
many years and maintain any kind of re-