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institutions. They must learn to reverence the law and to obey it. They must acquire self-respect, and self-confidence, and understand that their well-being is inseparably interwoven with the peace and good order of society. They must comprehend that the restraints of social organization are not the arbitrary impositions of tyrannical power, but the voluntary surrender of a portion of their natural liberty for the more secure enjoyment of the residue. Without such training, the efforts of our ancestors to establish our present form of government would have proved an abortion. For more than one hundred years, they were educated in the principles of free government, under the fostering care of the mother coun

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their fathers, the dangers and troubles by which the country was surrounded, and the difficulty with which they were surmounted, should look with jealousy on everything which tends to put their priceless heritage in peril? Is it to be wondered at, that, knowing the complexity and delicacy of the great machine intrusted to their charge, they should be unwilling to see it surrendered to ignorant, incompetent, or unfaithful hands?

How is it possible that foreigners can have the same interest in, and attachment to, our country and its institutions as Americans? All their early recollections are associated with a far distant land. Their traditions, sympathies, and affections (if they be good men) are

try. Widely separated from England, the colo- all with the homes of their childhood. As relieved and maintained in Massachusetts at public expense, and of this number 6104 were foreigners.

nies were necessarily intrusted with the power of legislation, subject of course, to the supervision of the supreme government of Great Britain. This led the colonists to study the principles of freedom, engrafted during a long succession of ages on the British constitution, and to practise them in the regulation of their own affairs. When the crisis, therefore, arrived in their affairs, caused by the attempt of the mother country to violate the rights of the colonies, they were prepared to understand the wrong that was about to be done them, and to assert the true doctrines of liberty in their own behalf.

The protracted struggle of the Revolution, and the dangers and sufferings incident to it, also tended to enlighten the minds of the people, and to fit them for the high responsibilities of their position. Discussion was the order of the day throughout the colonies. The ablest men of the country were busily engaged in explaining to the people, in oral harangues, and published addresses, the nature of the evils with which they were threatened. The whole country was aroused to the highest pitch of excitement. Information was greedily sought for by all classes. The works of Milton, Locke, and Hampden were in every hand; and there never has been a day, when the mind of a nation was so thoroughly aroused, and so well instructed, not only in regard to the particular questions involved, but also in regard to the abstract nature of the rights and duties of the government and the people, as were the colonists at the close of the Revolutionary war.

Thus taught in a seven years' school of trial and adversity, when they came to form a government, they brought to the council chamber an amount of knowledge of the true principles of freedom which, I venture to say, no nation of the present day could equal. But with all these advantages, it was after long trial and tribulation that they were enabled to consolidate their liberties, by the adoption of the admirable system of government under which we live.

Is it a matter of surprise then that Americans the descendants of those who accomplished this great work, and who have learned, not only from history, but from the lips of

Archbishop Hughes remarked, with equal truth and beauty, "I would not exchange the bright memories of my early boyhood, in another land, and under another sky, for those of any other man living, no matter where he was born."

Who does not concur in the noble sentiments expressed by Henry Clay, in the Senate, on the 7th of February, 1839-"The Searcher of all hearts," said he, "knows that every pulsation of my mind beats high and strong in the cause of civil liberty; wherever it is safe and practicable, I desire to see every portion of the human family in the enjoyment of it. But I prefer the liberty of my own country to that of any other people, and the liberty of my own race to that of any other."

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Shall we then jeopard the liberty of "our own country" and our own race" by intrusting it to the custody of people of foreign countries, and of a race alien to our own?

But let us now turn to the statistics of pauperism, crime, intemperance, and vagrancy, and see what revelations they will make in regard to the virtue and intelligence and capacity for self-government of our foreign population.

The report of the superintendent of the census shows that, in 1850, there was expended in the United States, of public money for the support of paupers, $2,954,806. This was, of course, independent of all private charities.

The number of paupers supported was 134,972, and of these, 68,538, or more than one-half, were foreigners!

New York had, in that year, 40,580 foreign paupers, and only 19,275 natives. In that state, one in every sixteen of her foreign population was a pauper, whilst of the native population, but one of every one hundred and twenty-seven was of that class.

In Pennsylvania, one in fifty-four of the foreign population was a pauper, and one in three hundred and forty-two of the native population.

From other sources, such as the Prison Discipline Journal, American Register, American Almanac, &c., the following facts have been ascertained:

From 1837 to 1840, there were 8671 persons

The number received into the Baltimore Almshouse in 1851 was 2150, of which number about 900 were Irish and Germans. In 1854, the whole number received was 2358, of whom 1398 were foreigners; 641 being Germans, and 593 Irish.

In Louisville, the number of inmates of the Almshouse was 164, of whom 135 were foreigners.

In Buffalo, New York, the returns of commitments to the Work-House are as follows:

Native. Foreign.

Total.

1852

254

708

962

1853

318

832

1150

1854

344

854

1198

1855

360

1022

1382

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In Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the Transcript says, that during a period of nine months, 553 paupers were received at the Poor-House of Franklin county, of whom 522 were foreigners.

In New Orleans, the number of commitments to the city Work-House for two weeks ending 3d August, 1855, was 108, of whom 92 were foreigners.

I might extend these details almost indefinitely, but those that I have given must be sufficient to satisfy any reasonable mind of the character of the mass of the immigrants. Crime. I have already, in connexion with the letter of Mayor Wood, and to confirm his statements, shown that more than half the criminals of our country are of foreign birth. I will now add a few more specific facts from the different states.

But I pass from these disgusting details, to consider the indirect effects of this population on social and political order.

No argument can be necessary to show that such elements as those described in the statistics above cited, must necessarily create disorder, riots, and violations of law in any community into which they may be thrown. The tables themselves show that fact. But such persons bring other and indirect evils on the country which, if possible, are more fatal to its security than those to which I have referred. When they become invested with the right of suffrage, candidates for office will seek their votes, and, in order to get them, will pander to their prejudices, consult their pleasure, and adopt every means to win their favor. To do this, the office-hunter must sink to their level. He must promise to do what accords with their wishes and tastes. He must associate with them, drink with them, flatter them, and, if need be, bribe them! In this way the candidates become prostitutes, and the representatives become corrupt. After election, being anxious to retain their places, their eyes are constantly fixed on the voters, and their legislative action is shaped, not by a regard to the principles of the Constitution and the welfare of the country, but by a desire to conciliate the favor of this potential element in elections. And having made large sacrifices to secure their seats, they think it but fair to seize the earliest opportunity to reimburse themselves by plundering the treasury, under the guise of some contract or claim on the government. Have we not even beheld the humiliating spectacle of candidates for the Presidency courting the foreign vote in the most open and undisguised manner? And what are all the homestead laws, and pre-emption laws, and land distribution laws at nominal prices, but palpable, and I had almost said corrupt bids, by politi

In Massachusetts there were, according to the tables of 1850, 7250 convicts, of whom more than half were foreigners-and through-cal aspirants, for the foreign vote? The dig

out all New England the proportion was about the same.

In Missouri there were 908 convicts, of whom 666 were foreigners.

In Connecticut the whole number was 850, of whom 305 were foreigners.

In Illinois the whole number was 316, of whom 189 were foreigners.

In Maine the whole number was 744, of whom 460 were foreigners.

But without going more at large into the subject, I will state the general fact, that according to the census of 1850, the convictions among the native population were but one in every fifteen hundred and eighty-those in the foreign population were one in every one hundred and sixty-five.

In the four cities of New York, Brooklyn, Albany, and Buffalo, the number of convictions in 1852 was 3733, of whom 2802 were foreigners.

Of three hundred and one arrested in New York for drunkenness, in the first week in August, 1855, two hundred and fifty-two were foreigners.

nity and independence of the officer is destroyed by practices like these, and he soon becomes a supple tool in the hands of an unscrupulous constituency.

The next step is from indirect to direct bribery. Instead of honeyed words, which do not satisfy hunger, or homesteads for men who would be too lazy to work them if they had them-money, ready money, will be demanded-yea, has been, and is now in some states too often demanded, as the price of votes! Thus money is made an element in political contests, and we already begin to see in our republic the germ of that corruption which enabled the foreign Pretorian bands to put up the imperial crown of Rome at auction! Continue to import hordes of ignorant and depraved foreigners, and clothe them with the elective franchise, and the day is not far distant when the party that can command the most money will control the elections; and men of property will justify themselves with the idea that they are buying their peace because the alternative left them is corruption or agrarianism.

But this is not the only form in which the evil of foreign influence on political affairs developes itself. Many of the educated foreigners bring with them the most distorted views of the ends and views of social organization. Many of them are infidels, atheists, socialists, and agrarians, and by their wild and demoralizing ideas corrupt the very fountains of liberty. Mormonism is a striking illustration of this species of foreign importation. In it we behold the most disgusting exhibition that the civilized world has ever witnessed of imposture, irreligion, and beastly licentiousness, introduced into the heart of our country, and sustained by the aid and influence of foreigners.

The political and religious or rather antireligious-theories of many of the Germans, are quite as shocking to the moral sense of the mass of our people, as the practices of the Mormons are revolting to their ideas of decency and propriety.

It is well known, that some years ago an association was formed, under the title of "Free Germans," having its head quarters in Louisville, with branches in all the principal cities of the Union, which entertained and sought to give efficiency to the most dangerous and anarchical doctrines. In March, 1854, the branch in Richmond published a platform of its principles, and the measures designed to carry them into practice. This platform is now before me, and I would gladly incorporate it into this article, did not its length forbid. But I hope that during the canvass it will be republished at large, so that every Virginian may see and reflect upon it. It denounces slavery as a "political and moral cancer"-protests against the extension of slavery into any new territory-demands a repeal of the fugitive slave law, as demoralizing and degrading, and as contrary to human rights and to the Constitution and insists "that in national affairs the principle of liberty shall be strictly maintained, and even in the several states it be more and more realized, by gradual extermination of slavery." It further affirms that "in free states the color of the skin cannot justify a difference in legal rights."

This platform also holds that "Sabbath laws, Thanksgiving days, prayers in Congress, and legislative oaths upon the Bible, the introduction of the Bible into free schools," &c., shall be abolished " as an open violation of human rights."

It also demands a free cession of lands to

all settlers, and that citizenship must be early acquired, and that new settlers shall be aided with "national means."

All elections to be by the people, and the people to have the power to recall their representative at pleasure.

ples; but as this is a picture of their doctrines in "the green tree," let us see how they exhibit themselves when more fully developed.

With this view, I submit the following extract from a German paper published in St. Louis :

"The first and most principal mark whereby we distinguish ourselves from religious people is, that in a belief on a God, and that which connects itself with this belief, we recognise a destructive cancer, which for thousands of years has been gnawing at humanity and preventing it from attaining to its destiny. No individual can live as a human being; in no family can true happiness flourish; the whole human race is hastening on ways of error so long as the most abominable hobgoblins God, future existence, eternal retribution, are permitted to maintain their ghostly existence. It is therefore the greatest task of every genuine revolutionist to put forth his best powers for the destruction of flagitious non-trio, viz.: the hobgoblins, God, future existence, and future rewards and punishments. No revolution is more than half executed unless the vi et nerve of the great arch-monarch beyond the stars is cut asunder; every attempted revolution is vain if the ministers of this monarch are not exterminated, as we are wont to exterminate ruinous vermin."

Can horrid blasphemy like this need a word of comment in a Christian community! And yet we find men denouncing the American party as "hostile to the cause of civil and religious liberty," because they are unwilling to see wretches who hold doctrine like these elevated to places of power, and trust, and dignity, in this land of religion and liberty!

I had proposed, in this number, to present some views of the bearing of foreign immigration on Southern institutions; but as I find I have already transcended my accustomed limit, I will reserve what I have to say on that subject, until a more convenient season.

My next number will be devoted to a consideration of the true relations of the American party to the members of the Romish church; and to a vindication of it from the slanderous charges of intolerance, religious persecution, and a disposition to violate the rights of conscience.

No. 9.

There is no subject on which the American
party has been more misunderstood and mis-
represented than in regard to its relations to
the members of the Roman Catholic Church.

It has been charged by its enemies, with being
hostile to religious freedom, and as making
war on the Catholics on account of their pecu-
liar modes of faith and worship. The motive
which prompts these accusations is obvious.
The purpose is, to fasten the odium of intole-
rance, and of a disposition to deny to individu-
als the right to worship God according to the
dictates of their own consciences, on the

Neutrality in our foreign relations to be
abandoned. Women to have the same politi-
cal rights and privileges as men; and the
death penalty to be abolished in all cases. American party. But I affirm that all these
This is a summary of their avowed princi- charges are untrue. The American party

!

The Roman church is now, and has been for near three hundred years, divided into two great parties. One of these is known as the Gallican, or French branch, and the other as the ultramontane or Italian branch.

seeks to interfere with the religion of no man. | without any sacrifice of principle, for political It cheerfully acknowledges that that is a mat- office. ter which rests and should continue to restbetween each individual and his Creator. It recognises the freedom of religious opinion, and of religious worship, in the broadest sense of the terms. It is as tolerant of the religious sentiments of Catholics as of Protestants. It proposes to interfere no more with the religious faith and worship of the one than of the other. Individual members of the order may be disposed to go further, but I challenge the production of evidence to show that the American organization, as a party, asserts any such doctrines. Turn to the authentic exposition of the principles of the party, announced at Philadelphia, and see if it gives countenance to any such idea. The only provisions in the Philadelphia platform which bear on the subject of Catholicism in any form, are the following, viz., (the 5th).

No person should be selected for political station (whether of native or foreign birth), who recognises any allegiance or obligation of any description to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, or who refuses to recognise the federal and state constitutions (each within its sphere) as paramount to all other laws, as rules of political action.

And the 10th, which is in these words:Opposition to any union between church and state; no interference with religious faith or worship, and no test oaths for office.

It cannot be pretended that either of these, indicate any disposition to interfere with the freedom of conscience, or to persecute Catholics on account of their faith or worship.

On

the contrary, the doctrine emphatically proclaimed in the 10th section above quoted, "no interference with religious faith," "no union between church and state," and "no test oaths for office."

And yet, in the face of these solemn declarations of the creed of the party, our enemies persist in charging us with intolerance and persecution for opinion's sake.

This leads us to inquire why, and in what respects, there is any antagonism between the American party and the Roman Catholics?

The latter maintain that the power of the Pope is supreme in temporal as well as spiritual things. They hold that he is lord over all kings, and potentates, and governments of the earth; that the subjects and citizens of all governments owe to him a higher allegiance than to their immediate sovereign; and that the Pope has the power to subvert republics, to nullify laws, and to absolve both subjects and citizens from their allegiance to any sovereign or republic which may incur his displeasure.

The Gallican branch of the church recognise the supremacy of the Pope in all ecclesiastical matters, but utterly repudiate it in all temporal or political affairs.

Great misconception has arisen in the minds of men, from not understanding the difference between the two branches of the Roman church. And our adversaries, with a cunning worthy of Jesuits, have studiously endeavored to keep this important division in the back ground; whenever an American endeavors to show the danger of the ultramontane doctrine, and its irreconcilable antagonism to the principles of our Constitution, they deny that the Roman church entertains any such doctrines, and quote largely from members of the Gallican branch to prove their proposition!

Begging my readers not to lose sight of this marked distinction between the two branches of the church, I will now endeavor to exhibit, from the highest authority, the present position of parties on this most important question.

Politicians are not generally very well informed on questions of an ecclesiastical character, and they may, therefore, be very naturally led into error, by not understanding matters of detail.

A striking illustration of this fact was exhibited, but a little more than a year ago, in the Congress of the United States. In the course of a debate in that body, some allusion was made to the claims of the Pope to supremacy in temporal affairs. This at once drew from Mr. Chandler, himself a member of the Gallican branch of the church, an eloquent reply, in which he utterly disclaimed and denied any such assumption on the part of the Pope. The members of Congress not being profoundly versed in Catholic lore, were at country as a conclusive answer to the unjust

That there is a controversy between the Americans and the ultramontane branch of the Roman church, will not be denied. But that controversy is not of a religious character, but purely political. It has nothing to do with the faith or worship of the members of that division of the church, but relates entirely to certain political opinions, avowed by them, in regard to questions, not of an ecclesiastical character, but, affecting the policy of the state. With the Gallican branch of the Roman once silenced, and the speech went to the

church, which professes the same religious faith, and practises the same forms of worship, charge against the church. But unfortunately

with the ultramontane branch-but which repudiates the obnoxious political opinionsthe American party have no controversy whatever. They can cordially extend to them the embrace of brotherhood, and sustain them,

for Mr. Chandler, neither Protestants nor the members of the ultramontane branch of his church were disposed to rest quietly under his exposition of the doctrines of the church. The press, both in this country and Europe, tecmed with articles denunciatory of the the thority by virtue of his commission from speech of Mr. Chandler as insincere, or Jesus Christ, as the successor of Peter, the

founded in ignorance or cowardice.

Professor McClintock was among the first to correct the error. He said, "if Mr. Chandler had been well informed on the subject, he would have told his auditors there are two parties in the Catholic church on this question: one (the ultramontane party) affirming,

prince of the apostles, and visible head of the church. Any defence of them on a lower ground must, in our judgment, fail to meet the real points in the case, and is rather an evasion than a fair, honest, direct, and satisfactory reply. To defend their power as an extraordinary power, or as an accident in

and the other (the Gallican party) denying church history, growing out of the peculiar that the Pope, by reason of the spiritual circumstances, civil constitution, and laws of power, has also a supreme power, at least the times, now passed away, perhaps for ever, indirectly, in temporal matters."

may be regarded as less likely to displease

He then proceeds to state the relative non-Catholics, and to offend the sensibilities

strength of the two powers, and shows that the ultramontane is largely in the ascendancy, and that the Gallican party is a mere faction, which is rather tolerated than cherished by the church. Indeed, Gallicanism is stigmatized as the "half-way house to Protestantism."

Professor McClintock then says:

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"It remains for me briefly to set forth the present state of Roman Catholic opinion. The ultramontane doctrine is held, 1st, by the Pope; 2, by all the cardinals, without exception; 3, by all, or nearly all, the Italian bishops; 4, by a majority of the bishops of Germany, Spain, and Portugal; 5, by about two-thirds of the French bishops. Among the religious orders it is held,-1, by the Jesuits without exception, as no man can be dmitted to the order who denies it; 2, by a majority of the members of the other (sixty or more) religious orders, which vie with each other in devotion to the Pope, each of them having a general at Rome. As for the Catholic journals,-1, the Civito Catolica at Rome was established for the very purpose of maintaining this theory, and does maintain it most effectually; 2, the Historisch Politische Blatter, the most eminent Papal journal in Germany, is strongly ultramontane; 3, the Univers, of Paris, is more ultramontane than Bellarmine; 4, the Belgian papers, I think, without exception, are on that side; and 5, Brownson's Review, in this country, is what I have shown you above.

*

"I have now done all that I promised to do in the beginning. May I not hope that, after reading this letter, you will rise in your place in Congress, at the first convenient opportunity, and restate your theory of the church?

of power, than to defend it on the ground of divine right, and as inherent in the divine constitution of the church; but even on the low ground of policy, we do not think it the wisest in the long run. Say what we will, we can gain little credit with those we would conciliate. Always to their minds will the temporal power of the Pope, by divine right, loom up in the distance, and always will they believe, however individual Catholics here and there may deny it, or nominal Catholic governments oppose it, that it is the real Roman Catholic doctrine, to be re-asserted and acted the moment that circumstances render it prudent or expedient. We gain nothing with them but doubts of sincerity, and we only weaken among ourselves that warm and generous devotion to the Holy Father, which is due from every one of the faithful, and which is so essential to the prosperity of the Church, in her increasing struggles with the godless powers of this world.'-Brownson's Review, Jan. 1854."

The Dublin Tablet, a Catholic publication of high authority, is equally emphatic in its condemnation of Mr. Chandler's speech. The writer, after arguing to prove the power of the Pope to depose sinful sovereigns, says:

"Mr. Chandler goes a great deal furtherwe are sorry to refer to him so often-and trenches on the real spiritual power, which he is so anxious to guard inviolate. His words are these: 'I deny to the Bishop of Rome the right resulting from his divine office, to interfere in the relations between subjects and their sovereigns-citizens and their governments.'

"It is impossible that he can mean what these words imply. The Pope is at this moment interfering in Piedmont, defending one class of citizens there against the government

Does not your reputation as a scholar and a -and yet, in the House of Representatives, a gentleman need such a vindication as you can Christian denies the right! Governments may only make by 'defining your position' anew? and do prohibit good works, and the Pope inIf you do not do this, my confidence in your terferes. They also encourage and commit candor and ingenuousness will have been evil-the Pope interferes, and good Christians sadly misplaced. If you do, I beg you to prefer the Pope's authority to that of the read in the course of your speech, the follow-state. The godless colleges in Ireland, the ing truthful passage from the coryphœus of hierarchy in England, the trouble in PiedRoman Catholic editors in America:- mont-all bear witness together against this ""There is, in our judgment, but one valid unchristian opinion which must have escaped defence of the Popes, in their exercise of tem- from the speaker, who did not ponder his poral authority in the middle ages over sove- words." reigns, and that is, that they possess it by

The closing paragraph of the article in the

divine right, or that the Pope holds that au- | Tablet is in these words:

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