dray at the head of the artillery you will lose a very valuable officer in General Knox, who is a man of great military reading, sound judgment, and closer inspections, and who will resign if any one is put over him.

I am, &c.,

George Washington."

"White Plains, July 24th, 1778. "Dear Sir: The design of this is to touch cursorily upon a subject of very great importance to the well-being of these States, much more so than will appear at first sight. I mean the appointment of so many foreigners to offices of high rank and trust in our service.

"The lavish manner in which rank has hitherto been bestowed on these gentlemen will certainly be productive of one or the other of these two evils, either to make us despicable in the eyes of Europe, or become a means of pouring them in upon us like a torrent and adding to our present burden. But it is neither the expense nor the trouble of them I most dread; there is an evil more extensive in its nature and fatal in its consequence to be apprehended, and that is the driving of all our officers out of the service, and throwing not only our own army, but our military councils entirely into the hands of foreigners.

"The officers, my dear Sir, on whom you must depend for the defence of the cause, distinguished by length of service and military merit, will not submit, much if any longer, to the unnatural promotion of men over them, who have nothing more than a little plausibility, unbounded pride and ambition, and a perseverance in the application to support their pretensions not to be resisted but by uncommon firmness; men who in the first instance, say they wish for nothing more than the honor of serving so glorious a cause as volunteers, the next day solicit rank without pay, the day following want money advanced to them; and in the course of a week want further promotion.

"The expediency and policy of the measure remains to be considered, and whether it is consistent with justice or prudence to promote these military fortune-hunters at the

hazard of our army. Baron Steuben, I now find, is also wanting to quit his inspectorship for a command in the line. This will be productive of much discontent. In a word, although I think the Baron an excellent officer, I do most devoutly wish that we had not a single foreigner amongst us, except the Marquis de Lafayette, who acts upon very different principles from those which govern the rest. I am, most sincerely yours,

Adieu.

"To Governeur Morris, Esq."

George Washington.

During his Presidency he wrote thus:

"Philadelphia, Nov. 17th, 1794.

"Dear Sir: *** My opinion with respect to immigration is that except of useful mechanics and some particular description of men and professions, there is no use of encouragement. "I am, &c., G. Washington.' "To John Adams, Vice-President of the United States."

Mount Vernon, January 20, 1790.

"Sir: *** You know, my good Sir, that it is not the policy of this government to employ foreigners when it can well be avoided, either in the civil or military walks of life. * * * There is a species of self-importance in all foreign officers that cannot be gratified without doing injustice to meritorious characters among our own countrymen, who conceive, and justly, where there is no great preponderance of experience or merit, that they are entitled to all the offices in the gift of their government.

"I am, &c.,

G. Washington." "To J. Q. Adams, American Minister at Berlin."

About the same time he wrote to a foreigner who applied to him for office:

"Dear Sir: * * * It does not accord with the policy of

this government to bestow offices, civil or military, upon foreigners, to the exclusion of our own citizens.

Yours, &c.,

To Sir John St. Clair, he wrote thus:

G. Washington."

"I have no intention to invite immigrants even if there are no restrictive acts against it. I am opposed to it altogether."

No man will have the audacity to question that George Washington was a wise man as well as a true patriot. In the passages from his writings above cited, we have the clearest evidence of his concurrence in sentiment with the American party. May we not then assume, from the fact that he sanctioned them, that those sentiments are both wise and patriotic? And yet presumptuous men, who set themselves up as wiser and better than Washington, rail against those very sentiments as illiberal, unjust and unpatriotic! In whose judgment will the people of Virginia place the most confidence-in that of the partisan politicians of the present day, or in that of the illustrious Father of his country?

In discussing the subject of naturalization I have already had occasion to present some passages from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, showing his opinions of the unhappy effects of immigration and foreign influence, and his conviction that no foreigner should be allowed to serve on a jury, grand or petty, in any case, civil or criminal.

In this last proposition he went further than the Americans propose to go-much further than the writer of this article would be willing to go.

But these are not the only expressions of his sentiments on this subject. While Minister to France, in 1788, he wrote to Mr. Jay in the following words:

"Native citizens, on several valuable accounts, are preferable to aliens or citizens alien born. Native citizens possess our language, know our laws, customs, and commerce, have general acquaintance in the United States, give

better satisfaction, and are more to be relied on in point of fidelity. To avail ourselves of native citizens, it appears to me to be advisable to declare by standing law that no person but a native citizen shall be capable of the office of Consul."

Again, shortly after his election to the Presidency he addressed a political letter to Nathaniel Macon, dated Washington, May 14th, 1801, in which he details to Mr. Macon many of his reforms. In this letter we find the following remarkable paragraph:

"An early recommendation had been given to the Postmaster General to employ no printer, foreigner, or revolutionary Tory in any of his offices."

We may judge of his distrust of foreigners when we find him classing them with Tories!

George Mason, the author of the Bill of Rights and of the Virginia Constitution of 1776, a man who was pronounced by Mr. Jefferson to be "himself a host," and "a man of the first order of wisdom," also expressed his concurrence in this doctrine of the American party.

In the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, four years' residence had been proposed as a qualification for election to the Senate of the United States. Governeur Morris proposed to substitute fourteen years, alleging as a reason, "the danger of admitting strangers into our councils."

A discussion thereupon ensued in which Mr. Pinkney said:

"As the Senate is to have the power of making treaties, and managing our foreign affairs, there is peculiar danger and impropriety in opening its doors to those who have foreign attachments. He quoted the jealousy of the Athenians on this subject, who made it death for any stranger to intrude his voice into their legislative proceedings."

"Colonel Mason highly approved of the policy of the

motion. Were it not that many, not natives of this country, had acquired great credit during the Revolution, he should be for restraining the eligibility into the Senate to natives."

I am happy to be able to add that his distinguished descendent, the Hon. James M. Mason, now honored by his native State with a seat in the Senate of the United States, has within the last three years expressed in his place in the Senate sentiments which justly entitle him to the thanks of the American party. In the debate on the Kansas Bill, the amendment of Mr. Pearce being before the Senate, James M. Mason of Virginia, said:

"I am one of those who regret very much that a majority of the American people-so far as opinion is to be gathered from the vote of their representatives—consider it wise or expedient to grant to any others than citizens a participation in political power. * * *

"Sir, I repeat it again, although I know but little, because it has not come in my way to know much of this foreign population that is streaming on our shores, I do know something of human nature, and of the sentiments of enlightened and intelligent men; and I say that the sober sense of that population, when it is brought to reflect upon the subject, ought to satisfy them that before they become American citizens, they should understand something of American institutions."

In the debate in the Federal Convention on the qualifications of members of the House of Representatives, Mr. Elbridge Gerry said that he wished "that in future the eligibility might be confined to natives. Foreign powers will intermeddle in our affairs and spare no expense to influence them. Persons having foreign attachments will be insinuated into our councils in order to be made instruments for their purposes. Every one knows the vast sums laid out in Europe for secret services."

The strength of the American feeling during the admin