u/, NATTVE-AMEllICANISM • DETECTED AND EXPOSED. • ' ^c o BV A NATIVE AMERICAN.* I ■■■: 'I i r • " '■ • * \ '>' fCl ' " - / o BOSTON: ;. . ^ PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. * ' ?01.n .*T JOKD.VN Jt CO'S, BOSTON.— W. II. OK.UIAM, N. TORK E. FEKBETT, & to"s, rUII.AUELPHIA. * o o O 18 45. % ° &. \ Entered accordino; ii-> Act of Coii;jrr!1, in the Clerk'* Otfice oi' the District Cuurt of Massachusetts. Q. o .•:^ o o NATIVE-AMERICANISM. . o o o O A new political party, called the Notice Amei'ican^ party, has lately sprung into existence. Its members prefer to designate themselves as American Republicans. The name is of little consequence; the object^f this tract is, to examine the thing; to consider the princi- ples, aims and tendencies, avowed and unavowed, of this new party ; to inquire how far it is entitled to the support and suffrages of the patriotic and the good. In pursuit of this object the truth will be spoken plainly and firmly; without partiality and without fear. ^ " The founders of this new party allege, that these United States are in imminent danger of being overrun by foreigners, to the irreparable damage, and even the dislodgment,of the native-born citizens, and the destruc- tion of our republican institutions. Very exaggerated statements are put forth by the organs of this party, as to the number of foreigners annually coming into the country ; and their character is painted in the blackest colors. They are described in the "Crisis," a pamph- let purporting on its title page, to be " issued under the sanction of the General Executive Committee of the American Republican party of the City and County of New York, ' as for the most part paupers, if not crim- inals, degraded and depraved as it is possible tO imag- ^ ine, with no knowledge of our institutions, nor fondness for them, but with the strongest attachment to those of the countries they have left. The ignorance of these t \ o ' foreigners is insisted upon with great emphasis. A large part of them, it is said, do not know the Enghsli lan- guage, and a great majority can neither read nor write. This ignorance of English does not seem to he con- fined to foreigners. The authors of the " Crisis" are, /probably, Native Americans ; but very limited is the knowledge of the English language, or of English grani- %" mar, which that production displays. Perhaps, howev- er, its patriot authors, in their horror of foreign dicta- <=, tion, scorn to speaker write English, and break through o * all the trammels of grammar, not because they are ig- ?:> norant, but to show their independence of foreign con- trol ! o ° b o ° ^°9 Of one part of the English language they must, at all events, be confessed to be masters. There is hardly a vituperative epithet in it, which they have not culled out, and applied to the foreign-born portion of our population. Their object appears to be, to kindle a blaze of passion in the minds of their readers, against o „ owhich both reason and humanity shall be powerless ; to " ° |irork up the public mind to such a furious heat of min- gled rage, fear, hate and indignation, as shall silence common sense, frighten away justice, and convert rational citizens into headlong bigots, o J3ut there are some, who in spite of all excitements, will choose to keep cool. In the present generation there awv^many doubters. Those who have listened unmov- pd to the prophetic calculations and solemn warnings of father Miller foretelling the end of the world, will per- o haps, be able to stand out against the kindred arithmetic / and rhetoric of the orators of the >i'ative American par- <> ^ ty, who just as confidently, just as solemnly, and no doubt Justus sincerely, prophecy the speedy downfall of " c ° °o . o this republic. Persons of this cool temperament may even attempt to gather consolation from the very state-, ments designed to work them up to a phrenzy of terror. Some such may be disposed to ask, — if these foreign im- ^ migrants be indeed such a poverty-stricken, miserable, degraded, ignorant creNv, how can they accomplish the great deeds marked out for them? Can such a set as they, usurp possession of the country, and revolutionise the government ? Has it come to this, that a few hun- dred thousand foreign paupers and criminals, are more than a match for millions of intelligent, enlightened, vir- tuous native Americans 7 For the native Americans to be devoured by a set of foreign vagabonds, not a twen- tieth part their number, would be more miraculous even than the dream of Pharaoh ; it would be as if one lean, ' decrepid, half-starved yearling should swallow down a whole drove of fat oxen. o" ° But our Native American orators are not thus to be « silenced. They are ready with a reply to these doubt- ing questioners. They aver that the foreigners, by selling their votes to the leaders of the great political parties, already control the politics of the country. What is more, the greater part of these foreigners are Catholics, and as such, completely under the control of their priests. These priests, we are told, to a man, are Jesuits, and intriguers of the very worst description, the sworn agents and servants of the Pope, whose object it is, assisted by the Catholic princes of Europe, to over- turn our republican institutions, and to establish a des-o potism in their place, with an inquisition, penal laws against heretics, censorship of the press, and all the oth- er machinery of wholesome Catholic government, such 1* o ^ ° °'„ oO O o as ejiists, at this moment, in the Pope's own Italian do- ° "minions. Here is a plot indeed; a horrible, treasona- ble, gun-powder plot; a damnable popish plot, as true and as terrible as that which Titus Gates invented. — With such a plot staring him in the face, who can hesitate a moment to join the Native American "S pgiyty; This is a brief, but correct and comprehensive account p( the statements, reasonings, apprehensions, inventions and appfeals, of the Native American leaders. The pal- pable falsehood, or the gross exaggeration of some of oq these statements, the absurd and childish folly of others, might lead us to conclude, that few, except fools and priest-ridden women, could be thus seduced into a cru- ,,;sade against our foreign-born fellow citizens. This, o o however, would be a hasty and a false conclusion. °° Exaggerated, absurd or childish as most of these state- ments and apprehensions are, they are directly address- o ed to two of the crudest and most unreasoning of hu- o°man passions, — national antipathies and religious hate ! ?o It is these two terrible passions, as history informs us, that have, in times past, been the greatest scourges of ° mankind. Antipathy on the part of one community towards another, handed down from father to son, and constantly aggravated by the mutual infliction of new g injuries; religious hatred by which fellow men have J befen held up to each other, not merely as each other's enemies, but as servants of the devil, and enemies of o o° Gpd, — to wliat terrible evils, to what bloodshed, tor- o o I tures, horrible cruelties, have these delusions given rise ! o Under their influence the very worst of human actions have been perpetrated, — actions which exhibit men ' " iuothe frightful character of demons incarnate, priding o ' o K. ° O o ff themselves upon excess of wickedness. National an- tipathy leads the savage to drink the blood, to devour the flesh, to exult iii the tortures of his enemy ; religious hate has sanctified the rack, and kindled th« slow fire ! It is the boast, the high boast, of the age in which we live, that the civilized part of mankind are beginning to rise above the influence of such barbarous and bar- barizing sentiments. It had been, for ages, the dream of poets and philosophers, that mankind are, or ought to be, a band of brothers, all members of one great fam- ily. Thanks to the facilities of intercommunication, the increased force of the sentiment of benevolence, a more enlightened perception of self-interest, and a more accu- rate knowledge of the means of promoting human hap,- piness, the present age has seen the first advances towards realizing that blessed idea of a golden age of universal brotherhood ! o ** ° The authors of our American independence, may claim to have been the first practical statesmen, who recognized, by their public political acts, the brother- hood of the family of man. In forming the government under which we live, they went back to first prniciples. It was not any narrow notion of local privilege, or na- tional immunities, upon which they based their political system. It was not the rights of Americans, but the liighis of Man ! So with respeci to religious opinions. They steered wide and clear of that union of church and state, which has been and is the source of such scandalous abuses and such horrid tyraimy. While they protected all in the enjoyment of their particular opinions and usages, they took care that no sect, nor any alliance of sect§, should be allowed to lord it over the rest, or to suppress o O o o oo :•: 8 o that freedom of inquiry and opinion Uj)on which the ° progress of knowledge so intimately depends. The leaders of the Native American party, as if of- fended at these opening prospects of peace and happi- ^ ness, seek to undo this great work of our fathers. They are striving to wake from the oblivion to which the o' common sentiment of all enlightened men has consigned y them, those horrible demons, national antipathy and °° religious hate. o ° ° It was only by assuming the garb of virtues, that these bloody and barbarous passions were able, in times past, to exercise such an influence over human feelings and actions. National antipathy took the name of Pa- ° triotism; while religious hatred, with the sword in one hand and the torch in the other, passed itself off for ' o"^ Piety and Benevolence ! It is under these same dis- guises, that these same hateful passions are now again offered to our embrace. These Ameriran Republicans, ^o take their own word for it, are the most patriotic, pious, benevolent of men. Upon this point, however, it were better to draw our information from other sources. I shall accordingly proceed to inquire, who are these men that have set themselves thus diligently to blow into a flame the expiring embers of barbarism ; who have com- menced preaching in our midst, a politico-religious cru- ^ sade of the most dangerous character 1' ''^ The diflerent members united to form the Native American party, as at present it exists, may be symbol- ized us the Head, the Body, the Feet, and the Tail of ° that party. Each shall be described in order. The Head of the party, or what evidently aspires to -^hecome so, is that monied faction, which ever since the ^ formation of the constitution of the United States, has \ ^ o o Bo O been struggling, thoughhitherto with very little success, to obtain the control of the government. A certain Well- known orator, whom it is needless to name, may be ta- ken as the representative of this faction. He holds, aaid they hold, that property is the true basis of political power; and that the citizea ought to be allowed a weight in the political scale just in proportion to the heaviness of his purse. Wc may observe by tlie way, that the example of that gentleman himself might seem to be a sullicient refutation of this doctrine, — fpr, .were it strictly enforced, what business would he have oto meddle with politics ? • oO o ' This monied, aristocratic faction Ipoks to the gov-° ernment of England as the true model. ^ Uiiiversal suf- frage they hold m utter abhorrence ; and they can iKircf- ° ly pronounce the word, democracy, without disgust. Every plan to limit the right of suffrage, naturally enough finds favor with them. They easily see that ° if foreign-born citizens are debarred of the right of vo- ting, on the ground of poverty and" ignorance, an excel- lent foundation will be laid, for presently extending the same rule to the native-born. Besides, this faction has a special quarrel of its own with the foreign pbpu- » lation. Our foreign-born fellow citizens, whatever may be said of their political ignorance, have always had ,-, wit enough to know their friends from their enemies. § Having fled from aristocritic oppression at home, they have no fancy for lielping to introduce that sort of gov- ernment into the country of their adoption. Hence tbey have always voted, almost in a body, against the . would-be aristocracy, — giving their united support to tlie party which, for the time-being, professed the most libera; principles. Hence these tears- hence this rage o ; '10 ^o of the moiiied faction, against the exercise ot the right \ of voting by foreign-born citizens. Hence, it was, that , John Adams procured the passage of the alien law ; hence, the harping upon this subject, by the high-toned ° federal and high-toned whig papers, from that time to , this ; and hence, the opening of the flood-gates of Mr. Webster's indignation against foreigners, in his late 1 speech at Faneuil Hall. ' g This monied faction long ago found out, tliat the open avowal of their political principles, is a certain means (b ensure their defeat. Hence they are obliged to bring ' ^ them forward under cover. Some of the more brazen- I faced, even venture to assume the character of demo- °crat^; and flourish forth sentiments in their public ad- dress"., which they repudiate in private, with the bit- terest scorn. But this constantly playing the hypocrite is an irUsomc business. Notliing could delight them more, than to find a subject upon which they can speak S candidly and sincerely, and yet hope to carry a certain portion of the people with them. Hence the eagerness _?p with which they have clutched at Native Americanism. ^ What better sport for these would-be-aristocrats, what more likely to confirm them in their opinion of the in- capacity of the people to govern themselves, than to entangle their fellow citizens in the net of prejudice, °to cotwert their antipathy against foreigners, into a snare for themselves'? The Body of the Native American party, that which gives it such strength and force as it has, and whence alone it is likely to become formidable, consists of a great . number of all stations in soci<^ty. and of all sliades of o political opinion, many of them intelligent and well-in- lending men, who dread and hate their foreign fellow i ' * 11 o citizens, not so much because^ they are foreigners, as be- " caJise they are CathoHcs. „ This Anti-Catholic sfentiment is very deeply roofed in these United States ; nor is it to be wondered at<, ° ft is a natural consequence of the atrocities which, in former times, the Catholic clergy committed, in order to retain their despotism ovei the public mind. The mem- "^ bers of a sect whose priests and leaders have plaimed ° ° and exercised the right to proscribe, denounce and ex- communicate every body else, ne6d not be surprised at finding themselves excommunicated and denounced; But though this Anti-Catholic sentiment be natural, ° and to a certain extent, ^ust, we must t^ke good care that it does not betray us into unjust measures. The o heaviest charges against the Catholic faith are, that it does not recognize the liberty of religions opin'on ; and^ that it calls in the aid of the secular power to punish heresy, and enforce conformity. Shall we, out of ha»- tred of these tyrannical doctrines and practices, be our- selves guilty of the very same thing which we charge^ upon the Catholics'? Shall we, out of love of religious freedom, refuse torecognize the liberty of religious opin- ° ions, and punish the Catholics with political disabilities ? ^ Impatience of contradiction, intolerance of^ opinions different from their own, fondness for despotic power, and the clairu to be God's representatives on earth, are, ^ ' by no means, ^peculiar to the Catholic clergy. The priests of all religions are alike. r. Q O Toleration is not a religious, Jjut a philosophical doc- trine, which no priesthood has ever admitted^ except just so far as circumstances compelled it. What stronger proof of bigotry and intolerance, could we have, ^han the zeal with which so many clergymen and church ■^ ., ~ o • ., O -, , o o o '■ • » ■ Q • O • • • . o • 4. -• ." ^■^' '^ 12 = members of the principal protestant sects, have been at work, for the last fifteen years, trying to kindle up in s^ the public mind, a dread and hatred of the Catholics? Considering our history and education, one would think that the popular mind was quite enough imbued already with such sentiments. What then shall we say of those who have made it a business, with very little scruple as to. the kind of means they employed, a business in which they have succeeded but too well, to inflame these senti- ments to the height of riot, arson, and murder? These men pretend to preach a religion of peace, char- ity and good will ; — yet is there more than one perfum- ed flourisher of white cambric pocket-handkerchiefs long them, afraid to advocate the cause of the slave, "V too timid to preach against the grog-shops or the distillers, ho seek popularity by the safer and more congenial task of maligning the members and clergy of another »sect, who must be very bad Christians indeed, if they ° have half the bitterness, malice, recklessness of truth and justice, pitiful time-serving, and fondness for filthy '- lucre, so obvious in their assailants. ^ Jt belongs to the laity of all denominations to keep '^o ° these rampant priests, whether Catholic or Protestant, o" in order. No doubt, could they have their own w^ay in othis,matter, they would soon bring back the times of * the Religious civil wars. The scenes lately enacted in ^ *°°the streets of Philadelphia, are quite enough to show, that we are somewhat nearer those times, than many ° "have i margined. The y ought to satisfy us too, of the great danger to the public peace, attendant upon the preaching and agitation of fiery bigots, of whatever sect. o° There a|e, in all sects, a number of men, whose religion seems .wholly to consist in a violent hatred against those C a ' lO o O o° who entertain difierent opinions ; such men are quite ' , as numerous, it is to be feared, and quite as active o among Protestants as among Catholics. • o Surely our thoughtful and inteUigent countrymen, ^ whatever opinions they may entertain of the Cathohc religion, do not intend to put themselves under the guid- '^ ance of such leaders. The doctrine of civil disabilities 5 on account of religious opinions being once proclaime4*^ and established, who can tell v/here we shall stopj The Catholics are the victims now, but when the Cath- olics are disposed of, whose turn will it be next ? Ther^*"/ are three gieat protestant sects in the country, Presby- ^ / » terians. Baptists and Methodists, who call themselves o par excellence, Evaiigelical, and whp declare, that the Unitarians and Univcrsalists are not Christians. ^ If a o man is to be deprived of his right to vote because he is o o a Catholic, surely, just as little ought he tobeallowecl a flight of devouring locusts, an invading army of evil spirits, against whose machinations it is necessary to guard. '^ Let us proceed then to examine, somewhat in detail, < the particular allegations upon which the Native American writers rely; and to inquire, how far those allegations afford any foundation for the edifice of terror o erected upon them. » • As to the number of foreign immigrants. Jt is ° estimated, but witliout any sufficient data, by the American Republicans, that the number of foreigners immigrating into this country, has averaged one hun- dred and fifty thousand annually, for the last ten years. Probably this estimate is at least twice the truth. It is assumed that within these ten years, tlie annual number of immigrants has doubled: and it is taken for granted that the same ratio of increase will°^ continue indefinitely. Then, supposing that none jof o these foreigners die — and the Native Americans have endowed them, among other attributes of devils, withe the gift of immortality — within ten years, we shall have in the country, in addition to those already here, three .0° o II o I* 16 9 " millions of foreigners; within twenty years, nine mil- lions; within tliirty years, twenty-one millions: and ^within the next thirty-five years, thirty-three millions of foreigners ! (See Crisis, p. 22.) ■ Surely the authors of this calculation either must be fools themselves, or must reckon largely upon the folly $ind credulity of others. Within thirty-five years, the r^e of immigration is to reach two millions four liuu- dred thousand a year, bringing into the country, in ten years, twenty-four millions of immigrants ! This is considerably more than the entire population of Ireland and Northern Germany, whence the great bulk of our immigrants come; and this too notwith- standing the same countries in the preceding thirty-five years, will have parted, according to this account, with eighteen millions of their inhabitants ! It is probable, upon the largest calculation, tliat the number of persons born in foreign countries now resi- dent in the United States, may amount to a million, or about one in twenty, of the whole population. If we suppose the average immigration for the next five and thirty years to amount to two hundred and fifty thousand a year, which is a very liberal allow- ance, there may be in the country at the end of that period, making due deduction for deaths, some five millions of foreign-born inhabitants. But by that time, the entire population will amount to upwards of fifty millions; so that even then, the foreign-born will be but one tenth part of the entire population. But this balancing and contrasting the numbers of the foreign-born and native-born inhabitants, proceeds altogether upon an assumption as dangerous as it is false. 17 * • a o O O 0° It assumes that there is, and must be, something hos- * tile between the two classes. The only ground upon * ' which ihe increase of the foreign-born population can reasonably be deprecated, is, that there is something ^ about foreign immigrants incompatible with their be- coming good citizens. This indeed the American Re- publicans allege. I , o The first charge brought against the immigrants by , the American Republicans, is, that they are poor. It . is even pretended that the greater part of them are paupers fresh from the alms-houses of Europe, sent ° ' hither to relieve their parishes of the burden of sup- '- porting them, and immediately on their arrival, seeking ° relief from charity. This is one of those reckless asser-° tions which shows, how utterly careless of truth the American Republicans are; and which must soon de- stroy their credit with all intelligent and thinking men. A few paupers no doubt, have been sent to the country. These are rare exceptions. Every body who ° has eyes knows perfectly well, that the great mass of our foreign-born citizens, are industrious hard-working men, who support themselves by the sweat of their o brows, and who would scorn to ask or receive charity from any body. So far from being the sweepings and offscourings of * their native countries, as the American Republicans pre \ the great bulk of those who emigr te hither^ ° arethe very elite of the laboring population of Europe. " It is only the better part of the European laborers, the'' more industrious and economical, who can find the means to emigrate; it is only the more enterprising, o thoughtful, and better informed, who have the disposition. 2* ' °o 'i % , o •- o \ 19 Nor is it true that the immigrants are so universally destitute of means as the American llepubUcans represent. A large portion of the German immigrants bring money with them, and they constitute a wealthy, as well as a highly respectable and valuable portion of the population of several of our new Western States. But grant the charge in its fullest extent, — grant that these foreign immigrants are poor. Is poverty so des- perate and unpardonable an offence, that all guilty of it, are to be disfranchised; declared incapable and unfit to exercise the right of citizens 7 Here we .see the cloven foot of the monied aristocracy ! Here we see an entering wedge for the principle, that no one shall be allowed to vote, wlio has not a certain pecuni- ary qualification. Of all the numerous immigrants who annually leave iVew England, to seek their fortunes in the other States of the Union, how many are rich? How many have much more than the clothes on tlieir backs 1 Yet from this immigration do many of the sister States derive their legislators, their judges, their most worthy and influential citizens. If pov'erty is to work disfranchise- jnent^ where shall we stop ? Is not poverty just as great a sin in a yankee as in a foreigner? ,^ If the truth were known, a good deal of this late outcry against foreigners, has arisen not so much l>om thetr poverty, as out of envy at their wealth. Already have many who arrived here with nothing but their hands, succeeded by industry, economy and the exer- cise of their sagacity, in amassing considerable fortunes, ^he possession of this property makes them objects of envy to many native-born citizens, infinitely below « e » e 19 them in every good trait of character ; and from enyy, it is but n short step to hatred and. abuse. , Thus "Tlie Crisis/' with admirable consistency, after dwelhng with great emphasis upon the poverty and destitution of our foreign-born citizens, grows vastly indignant, a few sentences after, at its own account of the great sums remitted home by the Irish in this coun- try, to assist their friends and relations, in coming hitiier, IJut according to the iSative American oracles, not only are the foreign immigrants who arrive here, poor, they are intolerably idle. Were this charge alleged against certain rather conspicuous American Republi- cans, abundant evidence might be produced to sustain it. When brought against the body of our immigrant population, it is utterly false, and has indeed been an- swered already. There are idle individuals among the immigrants, as there are among the native Americans ; but the great body are industrious hard-working men. ^.Vho have dug our canals, and built our railroads; who sweep our streets and clean our common sewers; who do the largest part of the hardest and least inviting work } Is it not those very immigrant foreigners thus unjustly accused of idleness 7 The Native American editors cannot even dispose of their newspapers, except by employing Irish boys to sell them. The autliors of "The Crisis" (p. 10) refer to certain official documents as showing, that the greater part of the immigrants s " who arrive here, have no occupation whatever ! This % means, being interpreted, that after deducting the wo- g men and children, of those who remain the greater part ^^ have no profession or trade, but are merely day ^o" laborers. O o O O o 20 The Ih'ird charge against the foreign immigrants is, that they arc drunken, dissolute, and a large proportion of them criminals. Unfortunately it is too true, that numbers of immigrants, as well as a still greater num- iv ber of native-born citizens, fall victims to the hundreds -^ of grog-shops, set like traps in every nook and corner f of our great cities. They are first seduced into drunk- »^ enness, and then betrayed into crime. But the remedy for this is obvious, and easy. Shut up your grog-shops ! With all the progress which the glorious cause of temperance has made, our towns and cities hold out to the luiwary, greater facilities and temptations to drunk- \ enness, than any other spots upon the face of the globe ! It is we who are to blame in this matter, not the immi- grants. They are but the victims. Of the crimes committed by foreign-born residents, by far the greater part can be traced to the grog-shops. Close them, and you may shut up half your prisons at the least. "' ^ As to the idea insinuated, if not directly charged by '"■ ' the Native American organs, that a large part of the emigrants who arrive here, have been criminals at homo, it is one of those extravagant falsehoods which serve to prove, that whatever other vices we may have derived from abroad, the vice of lying flourishes here in full-blown native perfection. But up come the American Republicans, with a fourth charge. The emigrants are intolerably ignorant, whotlicr in a literary or political point of view, and therefore utterly unfit to enjoy the rights of citizenship. J It is alleged that half the imeniigrants who arrive in this country, are unacquainted with our language. This no doubt is a misfortune, — but that it is a fault, is not o O o 21 quite so clear. Though the American Republicans may not have thought of it, it is possible nevertheless, for a man to be very well informed, and yet not know English. There are in the French and German lan- guages, some writings almost as valuable perhaps as our American Republican newspapers, and pamphlets. In those parts of the country where the Germans have settled in bodies, they have newspapers of their own, and the laws and public documents are officially pub- lished in German. Where they are less numerous, they find themselves obliged to learn English for their own convenience. But it is alleged that the larger part of the emigrants are totally illiterate, and cannot read or write in any language. This statement is greatly exaggerated. The Germans all come from countries in which instruction is rigidly enforced by law; and where every body is obliged to learn. Many of the Irish are quite unin- structed ; but the immigrants from most other countries, possess at least the rudiments of education. If, however, we are going to lay it down as a rule, that nobody shall have the rights of citizenship, who cannot read and write, we shall have to disfran- chise quite as many native-born, as foreign-born, citi- zens. It appears by the last census, that in the state of Virginia, one in twelve of the free population over twenty, are unable to read. The same ratio prevails in South Carolina. In the state of Tennessee it is otie m eleven; in North Carolina, one in nine; in Kentucky and Georgia, one in thirteen. It is perfectly notorious that in all thes3 states, the number of foreign-born citizens is very small. iS'othing can exceed the men- dacious dishonesty of the "General Executive commit- tee of the American Republican party of the city and county of New York," in sanctioning the statement, contained in their pamphlet, "The Crisis," (p. 39,) that not more than one in twenty of these nninstructcd per- sons is a native American. The truth is altogether the other way; — in the states enumerated, not one in twenty is of foreign birth. It is plain, then, that this proposal to disfranchise a part of our fellow citizens on the ground of their ignor- ance, will take a pretty wide sweep, and involve in ' common degradation, no small number of the home- born. This may be very agreeable to that aristocratic faction which regards with disgnst the extension of the right of suffrage, and which eagerly clutches at every means of curtailing popular influence. But those among the Native Americans who are sincere democrats, those who are indisposed to give iip the control of the government into the hands of an aristocracy, may as well think a little what they are about. To deny the , right of voting to those who cannot read and write, is but the first step; and according to the French proverb, it is but the first step that costs. Once establish the , principle, that want of information is to disqualify from voting, and how easy it will be to go on limiting the number of the qualified ! But, say the American Republicans, these immi- grants whether they can read or not, are politically ig- norant in the highest degree, with no knowledge of the forms, much less of the spirit of our institutions, and therefore unfit to be received as citizens. /^ It were to be wished that political ignorance were confind to immigrants. There is too much reason to ' fear that it prevails to a most alarming extent among o o I O b 23 native-born citizens. One Mr. Green, editor of the New York American Republican, made his appearance a few nights shice, in Fatieuil Hall, in Boston, and there delivered a speech wliich was received with un- bounded applause; and y«-t that speech, as reported in the Daily Pennant, one of the new Boston organs of the American Republican party, exhibited a most lam- entable degree of political ignorance. Among other things, this orator asked — " What are the rights that the foreigner has? Tell me what right he has to any thing in this country. I never yet could find the man who could tell me of a single thing to which a foreiga- er was entitled here, until the people, in their sovereign capacity and generosity choose to give it to him." — This then is the doctrine of American Republican- " ism. This double-distilled essence of despotism, was o proclaimed in Faneuil Hall by a traveling apostle, as o the creed of this new political party. It was received there with applause. I blush for my townsmen when I write it ! If no living voice of rebuke was c heard, at least the venerable portraits on those conse- crated walls, must have sighed out a lament ©ver their degenerate sons ! What ! — are Mr. Green, and the Bos- tonians who formed his audience, now to hear, for the first time, of the Rights of man — rights which apper- tain equally to all members of the human family, o wherever born? "What are the rights that the for- eigner has?"' quoth Mr. Green, — and an audience of Bostonians re-echoed the question. They arc the ° rights of man, — the same rights that you have, and that "'o 1 have. It is upon these rights that our free constitu- g tions are based. The people, in adopting those consti-c tutions, have but proclaimed these rights, not enacted o° ° o =00 o " O o o O ° o thorn. God forbid that our rights should depend upon the good will, or be held by the allowance of any des- o ill fact, which the body of their Protestant fellmv-citi- °o zens liave, for being Baptists, Methodists or Presbyteri- o aus. They are not zealots ; and though like the mass of the IVotestants, they are willing to go to churdi and to pay the usual church dues, having been taught to regard that as but decent and proper, — tliey are no more ° oo under the control of the clergy, and namore disposed to submit to spiritual dictation, than their felloy-citizenS> ^ the Protestants. As happens among th|3 Protestants, ^° o O o o ' o c g o o Oc r." * *" " 28 there are ten Catholic women who are priest-ridden, to one man. As far as regards the Catholic clergy, it need not be denied that as a body, and with many individual ex- ceptions, they are ambitious, aspiring, grasping, and ought to be carefully watched. But the same is true of the Protestant clergy ; and as they are far more nu- merous and far more powerful, any danger to our lib- erties from priestly ambition, ought, for the present at least, to be rather apprehended from them. Have we not just seen a great convention of the evan- gelical sects assembled at Baltimore, to contrive means for enforcing a more rigorous and puritanical observance of Sunday, or as they affectedly call it, the Sabbath ? Have not these same Sabbath zealots made strenuous efforts to stop the Sunday mails, and Sunday conveyances 1 Have they not, in many places, by law, prevented the barbers, confectioners, and news- men from opening their shops on Sundays, and other- wise interfered with the business and recreations of the citizens? It may be said that these are small matters; but whether large or small, if the Catholics had at- tempted one hundredth part as much towards impos- ing their particular views and observances on the community, the country would have rung with it from one end to the other ! We are told fearful tales about the army of nuns and Jesuits in the service of the pope. But have we not quite as much to fear from those bodies of Protestant Jesuits, male and female, the church members of the several great Protestant sects? I call them Protestant Jesuits without intending any offence, but merely to in- dicate their relation to the sects to which they belong. 29 o , 8 G .-, o ,, O ° o c They are persons having a semi-clericai character, (Jcr voted as they say, to God and religion — ^jnst what the Jesnits say of tliemselves — and ready to compass the earth, as they do with their missionary societies, ^to extend the dominion ot their sect by making one prose- lyte. ^ , ., ^ " All religionists are despots in principle, hostfle t5 ^ civil, as well as religious liberty. They inculcate to, the mass, implicit faith, profound submission, and hum- ble obedience, as thcogreatest of virtues. The only dif- < ference on this point, between Catholics and Protestants is, — who is to be obeyed, — to whom is this submission due? The Catholic religionists gay, it is due tb the pope and to the Catholic church, that is, the Catholic clergy; the Protestant religionists say, it is due, to the° Bible, — which is only another way of saying that it is ' due to themselves : for unless you look upon the Bible as they do, and implicitly receive their interpretation of it as the revealed will of God, they denounce you without ceremony as errorists, blasphemers and infidels, the proper objects of social excommunication and legal punishments. The Catholic clergy pretend that°tliey have received by an uninterrupted tradition from Petcr° and Paul and the other apostles, an exclusive right to administer the Christian ordinances, and the exclu- sive capacity of discerning religious truth. The Prpt-*^ cstant church members claim to have received each a call from God, to have undergone a miraculous change, whereby their minds have been enlightened, their stony hearts turned to llesh, and they alone of all men made capable of discerning trutli and acting right, while alj, the rest of the world are left wallowing in the^pitof darkness and filth of iniquity. o o 3# » %, O o " ° ; 30 » o Comparing these two sets of pretensions, we find that °in arrogance of claim the Protestant professors do not fall one whit below the Catholic clergy. This indeed, o is the true source of that furious zeal against Cath- olicisih, which so many Protestant zealots have lately "exhibited. Before the Catholic faith began to be dif- fused among us, there was hardly any body to contro- ° vert thte lofty pretensions of our self-constituted saints. It is true the Unitarians and Universalists did modestly suggest some doubts. But they were few, feeble, and timid; and assuming the Bible as an inspired and invin- ciblcr authority, it must be confessed that the Orthodox have altogether the best of the argument. Tlie Catholic clergy encounter our Protestant dicta- tors in another spirit, and with other arms. They meet o arrogance with arrogance, and claim with claim. They too fjossess the gift of the Holy Spirit, and tradition to boot; while they denounce the pretended election, sanc- tification, and enlightenment of the Protestant zealots as no better than delusions of the devil. It is this that ' stings them to the quick. It is this that makes them '■■ " ready to put down the Catholic faith, by lies, by sfan- ders, by proscriptive laws, by prohibiting Gatliolics from coming into the country, if need be, by riot, fire, and sword. Ignorant and thoughtless mobs were the mstrumcnts, but it was Protestant doctors of divinity who .lighted the torches, that set fire to the convent of Mount Benedict ! It was these same doctors who array- ed l^rotcstants and Catholics with arms in their hands, and caused the streets of unhappy Philadelphia to be ° baptised in blood ! Let it not be overlooked that the first of that series of mobocratic acts, by which, for some twelve years past, o 8 s ^ -.06 o - „ o these United States have been disgraced, occurred in the sober, and peaceful CommonweaUh of Massachu-" setts, in the close vicinity of the enlightened city of Boston, and was a natural result of the laborious dis- semination of slanderous accusations, the diligent stir- ring up of old prejudices against the Catholics, on the part of spiritual rivals. Let it not be overlooked, that the first affray assuming the character of civil war, in which American citizens have shed each other's blood, occurred in this same religious quarrel, making i(^ necessary to subject to martial law what was once the most staid, peaceful and tolerant of our cities. ^ If the spirit of religious hatred has made'^such a pro-o gress in twelve years, what have we not to dread for the future? Shall religious zealots be allowed to involve ^^ the country in the most terrible of all calamities, a war° of religion 1 The great mass of the men of tliese United States are not zealots. They profess to bdong to some religious sect ; but that same liberty of worship which they claim for themselves, they are willing to allow to others. Let then the reasonable and moderate, with whatever religious sect they may be connected, unite together for the preservation of the public peace. Let the bigots of all sects, be given plainly to understand, tliat they must confine themselves to a war of words, — that they cannot be allowed to press fire, gunpowder, mobs, and penal enactments into the service of "what they call religion. The Romish church, whatever we may think of it, or however Protestant clergymen in their prayers and sermons may publicly denounce it as "the soarlet whore, the mother of harlots," — is yet the fruitful mother of all the Protestant sects. Catholicism may disown them , o :32 as bastards, but that various brood are her natural pro- geny. The Cathohc, is still the religious faith of three fourths of Christendom ; it is the established religion of some of the most enlightened countries in the world. If we have no principle about it, no veneration for his- torical Christianity, no regard for the sacred rights of conscience and opinion, yet a decent respect for the preju- dices of our brethren, with the very smallest tincture of common sense, ought tosave us from the folly of attempt- ing by penal laws, and civil disabilities, by the old worn-out, cast-off expedient of persecution, to exclude the Catholic faith from our country. The little success which our Puritan fathers had in the use of these same weapons against Q,uakers and Baptists, might serve as a warning to our modern Puritans. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church; and however the martyr spirit may have died out in the Protestant sects, Cath- olicism has never yet wanted tliose to whom the crown of martyrdom was the object of the most ardent desire. It is not persecution that Catholicism dreads. What she fears, what she shrinks from, is, that still small voice of reason scarcely heard amid the worlds hub- bub, but which, like the constantly dropping water, gradually wears away the most solid fabric of super- stition. It is one of the professed objects of the American Republicans " to prevent all union of church and state." {Crisis p. 8.) This object they propose to ac- complish by forming a union between the state and the Protestant churclies, for the purpose of disfranchising their Catholic fellow citizens ! It is not by such means that the union of church and state is to be prevented. Most fortunate it is, that the religious zealots are split up into ' 33 so many sects and factions. Were they united in one compact body, with all their zeal, and untiring energy, and with their great influence over the public mind, it would not be long before they bent the state to their purpose. United they might easilyconvert their spiritual, into a civil, aristocracy such as existed in Massachu- setts in the days of the Puritans, when no body but church-members had the right to vote, and nobody could become a church-member except by the consent and admission of those who already were so. It is in the division, the mutual hostility and distrust of re- ligionists, that our only safety lies. They control already all the schools and seminaries of education ; they have a most extensive influence over the public press ; and if they could only unite, they would carry every thing before them. Our only safety consists in their divisions; and just in proportion as they go on dividing and comminuting, does liberty of opinion and action upon religious subjects, begin to establish itself All those wlio do not regard the predominancy of some particular religious sect as the great panacea for all social evils; all those to whatever sect they may nominally belong, who are really attached to freedom of opinion, will unite to preserve this balance of spiritual power, will take care that the stronger sects are not allowed to devour the weaker. Once give these religious zealots a taste of persecution, and their appetite will become -insatiable ; those who combine to devour a weaker sect, that sect out of the way, will presently be- gin to tear each other. There is still another point upon which the profes- sions of the American Republicans, are quite at variance . . 34 with the necessary tendency of their doctrines, and proposed measures. They profess not to wish to put a stop to foreign immigration, but only to Umit the right of citizenship. Btit if their principles arc to be adopted, it were better for all parties, to come np to the mark at once, and peremptorily to exclude all foreigners from settling in the country. Such is the policy of the Chinese, — a policy which according to John Q,. Adams, is an outrage upon all civilized nations, and a suflicient excuse for the war lately waged by England against them. * * • It is not to be thought of, that we are to have grow- ing up a numerous, and presently a wealthy body, among us but not of us, — marked as aliens, cut off from the possession of civic rights^ hostile therefore to us, nourishiuj, bitter feelings of hate and indignation, and ready to join any foreign invader, or to take part in any domestic insurrection, by which our peace might be disturbed. This was the policy of most of the an- cient Greek republics; but they paid dearly for it. They were perpetually torn by civil contentions, and they all at length fell a prey to foreign invaders. The Romans wore wiser; they admiUed tlie vanquished nations of Italy to the rights of citizenship, and thus strengthened themselves for new con(iuests. ■ The people of the United States must renounce the fundamental principles of democracy, they must sub- scribe to an entirely different system of political doc- trines, before they can adopt the measures recommended by the American Republicans. This is what the great mass of the people are not yet prepared to do. Native Americanism is a good enough hobby for monied and religious aristocrats, for political adventurers and na- 35 tive-born loafers to ride, but it is not the sort of loco- motive to which the true and sincere friends of liberty and equal rights, will choose to trust themselves. It is rather too crab-like in its gait. The American people are not yet ready to begin to advance backv/ards. It is highly proper that before admitting foreign im- migrants to the rights of citizenship, the law should subject them to a reasonable probation, aud should re- quire proof of their bona fide intention to become Amer- ican citizens. If, as is alleged, the present naturalization laws are liable to be evaded by the artful frauds and perjuries of political hacks, let them be amended in those particulars, — though perhaps, after all, the best security against this sort of frauds will be found, in the rigid prosecution and punishment of the guilty parties, those more especially, who are the authors of the crime, the politicians, the contrivers and promoters of these frauds. Such is a brief but comprehensive account of this new American Republican party, i^ composition, allega- tions, propjsals, aims and tendencies. It has not been an object to treat this new party with harshness; but it was necessary to speak with plainness and emphasis, in order that the many liable to be deceived and led away by bold assertions and plausible declamations, might be made to understand in precisely what sort of an enterprise tliey were about to embark, and under what sort of leaders. Upon those, and they are but too numerous, the de- scendants and representatives of the old federalists, who in their hearts, whatever masks they may put on, or grimaces they may make in public, are enemies to the 36 principles of democracy, holding the idea of universal political equality in -utter abhorrence, — upon such, it were vain to expect to make any impression, Jnst as little hope is there of moving those Protestant zealots, unfortunately also too numerous, who regard the Cath- olics with all the traditionary hate and prejudices of three centuries of religious struggles ; for however they may descant in public about the virtue and the bless- '"gs of toleration, they secretly long to retort upon their Catholic brethren of the present day, the fires of Smith- field and the racks of the inquisition. We hardly need expect to bring over to the side of reason, justice and common sense, the political adventurers whose only hope consists in the triumph of passion and prejudice, nor that crowd of thoughtless boys and grog-shop loung- ers, who find in riot and arson a pleasurable amuse- ment; and who are always ready to do the bidding of more discreet and cautious prompters. But the great mass of the thoughtful, prudent and sober citizens, however they may have yielded to the first impulse of prcjuc^ces and antipathies in t-he midst of which they have grown up, and which so much pains have been taken to intiame and excite, will be very cautious how they give in their permanent adhe- rence to this new party. They will look carefully to it, lest they lose the substance in clutching at a shad- ow; they will take good heed lest in assailing the rights and liberties of others, they prepare the way for the sacrifice of their own.