istration of Mr. Madison will be apparent from the fact that when he nominated Mr. Gallatin as one of the commissioners to negotiate the treaty of peace with Great Britain, William B. Giles, of Virginia, Samuel Smith, of Maryland, and Mr. Stone, of North Carolina, strongly opposed the nomination on the ground that Mr. Gallatin was a foreigner, and he was rejected in the Senate by a vote of 18 to 17. Mr. Madison afterwards nominated Mr. Gallatin as Minister to France, and he was confirmed in the absence of the above-named gentlemen. The apology for this violation of the settled policy of the Government was that Mr. Gallatin came to the United States in 1781, prior to the formation of the Federal Constitution.

Mr. John Randolph was also a strong American in his sentiments. When the bill for chartering the Bank of the United States was before Congress, Mr. Randolph moved to add the word "native" in the clause which limited the choice of directors to citizens of the United States.

In the course of his remarks "he inveighed, with much acrimony, against the whole class of naturalized citizens; attributing to them the declaration of war, and almost all other political evils; maintaining that they ought to be admitted only as denizens without any participation in the councils of the country, and the benefit only of protection during good behavior."

But there is another authority which, among all professing to be Democrats, will, I presume, be regarded as of the most important character. I allude to the Virginia Legislature of 1798-99. That venerable body has received at the hands of the Democracy a sort of political apotheosis. Its patriotism and wisdom and profound knowledge of the Constitution are the constant themes of praise. The celebrated resolutions passed by it on 21st December, 1798, are regarded as of but little less authority than the Constitution itself. No convention of the party, State or Fed

1Niles Reg. 10, 31-47.

eral, closes its sessions without a reverent acknowledgment and reaffirmation of the doctrines of 1798-99.

Let us then see what that illustrious body of statesmen thought and officially declared in regard to the peculiar principles of the American party? By reference to the New Series of Hening's Statutes at Large, Vol. 2, p. 194, it will be seen that on the 16th day of January, 1799, the Legislature of Virginia, in response to certain resolutions of Massachusetts, passed the following preamble and resolu

tion:

"The General Assembly, nevertheless, concurring in opinion with the Legislature of Massachusetts that every constitutional barrier should be opposed to the introduction of foreign influence into our National Councils :

"Resolved, That the Constitution ought to be so amended that no foreigner who shall not have acquired rights under the Constitution and laws at the time of making this amendment, shall thereafter be eligible to the office of Senator and Representative in the Congress of the United States, nor to any office in the Judiciary or Executive Departments."

What will our Democratic friends say to this? This solemn resolution emanated from the same source and is recorded in the same journal with the other resolutions of '98-'99, which constitute the basis of their political creed. How can they discriminate between them? How can they claim infallibility for the one set of resolutions, and denounce the other as containing a dangerous political heresy? Truly they are placed in an awkward dilemma!

But it would seem that the Democracy have not always been such devoted friends of foreigners as they now profess to be. Some twelve or fourteen years ago Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, appointed Mr. Reynolds, a foreigner, to a clerkship in that department. This act at once drew down on Mr. Webster the most bitter denuncia

tion of the Democratic press. The New York Evening

Post, edited by W. C. Bryant, published an article on the subject (which was copied by the Globe), from which the following is an extract:

"The appointment of a man named Reynolds, an alien, by Mr. Webster to a place in the Department of State has astonished those who knew him in this city.

"The indecency of this appointment of an alien to a post in the department which has charge over our foreign relations will surprise those who have not, like us, ceased to be surprised at anything done by Mr. Webster."

I will close this article (already too much extended) by a gem from the celebrated oration of Mr. Buchanan, the favorite candidate of the Democracy of Virginia for the Presidency. This oration was delivered at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on 4th of July, 1815.

Mr. Buchanan said:

"Again we stand neutral towards all the European powers. What then should be the political conduct of our country in future? Precisely to pursue the political maxims adopted by Washington. We ought to cultivate peace with all nations by adopting a strict neutrality not only of conduct but of sentiment. We ought to make our neutrality respected by placing ourselves in an attitude of defence. We ought forever to abandon the wild project of a philosophic visionary (Query: Does he mean Mr. Jefferson?) of letting commerce protect itself. For its protection we ought to increase our navy. (No more gun-boats! I suppose.) We ought never to think of embargoes and nonintercourse laws without abhorrence. (A pretty hard hit at Mr. Jefferson!) We ought to use every honest exertion to turn out of power those weak and wicked men, (Mr. Madison was then President) who have abandoned the political path marked out for this country by Washington, and whose wild and visionary theories (the doctrines of the Democratic party) have at length been tested by experience and found wanting. Above all, we ought to drive

from our shores foreign influence and cherish exclusively American feelings. Foreign influence has been, in every age, the curse of Republics. Her jaundiced eyes see all things in false colors. The thick atmosphere of prejudice by which she is ever surrounded excludes from her sight the light of heaven. Whilst she worships the nation which she favors for this very crime, she curses the enemy of that nation for her very virtues. In every age she has marched before the enemies of her country, proclaiming peace when there was no peace, and lulling its defenders into fatal security while the iron hand of despotism was aiming a deathblow at her liberties. Already our infant Republic has felt her withering influences. Already she has involved us in a war which has nearly cost us our existence. Let us then learn wisdom from experience and forever banish this fiend from our society."

MADISON.

CHAPTER XVI

MADISON LETTER NUMBER SEVEN-IMMIGRATION: ITS GROWTH, EXTENT AND CHARACTER

HE next topic which I propose to discuss is the immigration to this country, its growth, extent and character, and its relations to crime, pauperism, social and political order, and to Southern institutions.

If the inquiry were propounded to any candid man whether, in his opinion, there is any great nation in Europe, at the present time, which is capable of sustaining Republican institutions, the answer would necessarily be in the negative. England, the most enlightened and best educated in the principles of liberty of all the countries of the old world, has made the experiment and failed. France, which boasts of its refinement and civilization, and which has outstripped every other country in its progress in the arts and sciences, has twice made the effort, and after passing through the most appalling scenes of anarchy and blood, has relapsed into despotism. Neither Russia, Prussia, nor Austria have ever ventured on the hopeless attempt. The spasmodic convulsions in Italy and Hungary have not been marked by a single circumstance tending to indicate that those who incited the people to insurrection had the faintest comprehension of the principles of national freedom. And yet it is from these countries that the immigrants flock to our shores. As a general rule, too, I may add that those who come are not of the better classes, not those who are educated and prosperous in their own country, but the ignorant, the starving and the depraved, those who "leave their country for their country's good." That there are many exceptions I am willing to admit, but that the general remark is correct will not be denied by any who have seen the hordes of for