Year: 1859

We have from the first opposed Gen. Cass's
LeClerc letter. With equal promptness we en-
dorsed his letter to Mr.. Hofer, wherein he took
the position that this Government could not
protect such of her adopted citizens as had, be-
fore becoming naturalized deserted from the ar
mics of their native countries, in the event that
such citizens should voluntarily return to their
native lands. If an American soldier deserts
from our army and becomes q citizen of Mexico,
and afterwards returns upon our SOIL the Amer
can Government will arrest and punish him. Of
course we have no right to claim national pre-
rogative that we are not willing to grant to
other nations. Desertion is a crime in all coun-
tries, and while deserters, SO long as they remain
on our soil, will be protected against punish
ment for said crime, if they voluntarily return
to the land whose laws they have broken, they
will of course be held amenable to those offend
ed laws. This is a doctrine so plain and just
that no man ought to object to it.


This is the doctrine that Gen. Cass holds in
TO our Prussan Minister written several months
anterior to the appearance of his letter to Mr.
Hofer. He says:


If at the time, they were in the army, or
actually called into it, such emigration and ma
turalization do not exempt them from the legal
penalty which they incurred by their desertion."


Now it will not do for any man of sense to
contend that the subjects of Prussia, for instance
are actually called into the army from their
infancy by the Prussian laws. Such an argu-
ment is childish. 1t is foolish and weak to say
that baby can be called into the service. We
admit that after their arrival at certain age,
they are liable to be called into the service Just
as every American is to-day liable to be drafted
into the service upon the happening of certain
events.


The Opposition have been deprived of much
powder in this campaign, by the action of the
administration in a case in point. We quote
from the latest overland news:


WASHINGTON, July l6.-Previous to the pre-
paration of the letter to our Minister at Berlin
instructing him to demand of the Hanoverian
Government the surrender of Mr. Ernst, Attor-
ney-General Black at the request of the Presi-
dent, rendered an opinion in the case, maintain
ing the general rlSht OF expatrlaton as lncon-
testible, and that in regard to the protection of
our citizens in their rights at home and abroad
we have no law which divides them into classes
or makes any difference whatsoever between
them. A native and a naturalized citizen may,
therefore, go forth with equal security over
every sea and through every land under heaven,
including the country in which the latter was
born. Either of them may be taken for a debt con
tracted, or crime committed by him, but both
are absolutely free from all political obligations
70 every country but our own. They are alike
American citizens, and their exclusive allegiance
is due to the Government of the United States
1t is Judge Blacks opinion that the Hanoverian
Government cannot justify the arrest of Ernst
by showing that he emigrated contrary to the
laws OF that country, unless it can also be proved
that the original right of expatriation depends
on the consent of the natural sovereign and
this last proposition he is sure no man can es-
tablsh.