Civil and Religious Toleration-Mr. Barry.

33D CONG....2D SESS.

matter; and I do not know, in all history, of more than one inquisitorial attempt, by an ex post facto law, to compel the citizen to declare for whom he had voted; and this attempt, so tyrannical, was made, not by foreigners, who, ignorant of the genius of republicanism, might, unconsciously, have violated its principles; nor by the old parties of the country who, immersed in senility and corruption, might be indifferent to the forms of liberty, but by the conclave of patriots who assembled in New-York as a Know Nothing Council, representatives of those who are to regenerate America; who, mourning the decay of public spirit, and the corruption of national virtue, have, by self-election, and the imposition of their own hands, set themselves apart for the work of reformation. I have said, and I repeat it, that I think there is the strongest obligation among freemen to be open and candid in all political matters. Among slaves, or those who approach the servile condition, even though they have the forms of freedom, secrecy is to be expected. But its use is an unwholesome regimen for the growth and nurture of the manly virtues. I am sure, sir, you would hardly be willing to continue a private partnership-and society has often, and not inaptly, in many important respects, been likened to one-in which you knew & portion of the partners had formed a secret league, in reference to partnership business, confirmed by oaths, guarded by mysterious ciphers, grips of the hand, passwords, signs of recognition, and all the machinery of secrecy by which the men of disorder have, from time immemorial, guarded their schemes against the peace and the welfare of society; I am sure you would be justified in the suspicion that your rights were very insecure, and in taking prompt steps for their preservation. And yet we, sir, the people of a free country, are told that there is a political association in our midst, secret as the grave, except when accident has betrayed it, and as inexorable in the proscription of all not connected with it. If your rights are safe from it today, will they be so to-morrow; or from some secret association to be formed next week? If the right to create such is recognized now, how can it be denied in future, when other isms will be seeking the aid of secrecy to accomplish their schemes, or wreak their revenge? Free Governments are controlled greatly by precedents and general rules, and if, for a temporary purpose, or a scanty good, you abandon wholesome principles, you have broken down the most effectual barriers against despotism.

Public opinion is one of the most efficient restraints on human action. The punishments of this world seem, with but too many, more terrible than the retribution of that which is to come. The criticism, the censure of men often restrain evil-disposed persons, and an enlightened public opinion guides and sustains the virtue of individ uals. We find the action of political parties is purest when it is most under the public eye; and as the veil of secrecy is thrown about it, there is a culpable laxity of conduct. A private caucus, though there is no obligation of secrecy, is thought less free from corruption than a public convention. Meetings, of which there is no record but the unsafe memory of those present, are likely to be less judicious than those in which every thing is recorded and published. A railroad, or other corporation directory, which gives its proceedings no publicity in a twelvemonth, is the subject of distrust, and too often falls into downright knavery. These things we all see and know; and yet it is maintained that it is possible for an association, secret, irresponsible, its members unknown, and denying their connection with it, to select its candidates and elect them, and to control the Government of a great country without danger to the rights of the people, or of corruption among the members. Where this secrecy begins, freedom ends. When the streets of Paris streamed with blood; when the guillotine was the only engine whose activity was not palsied by the general terror that pervaded the land, the orders that plunged France into such frightful calamities issued from the midnight, secret, irresponsible association of the Jacobins. A career that begins in religious and political proscription may well end, like theirs, with the lamp-post and the guillotine.

These new political doctors object to the secrecy

Civil and Religious Toleration-Mr. Barry.

which prevails in an ordinary convention, yet se-
crecy is not the rule, but the exception, in such
assemblies. They know that the corruption which
attends them is proportioned to the privacy with
which they are conducted; that men commit acts
in the safety of midnight caucuses, which they
would not dare in the light of day, and the remedy
they offer is an association in which all is caucus,
all secrecy, all irresponsibility. The evil excep-
tion which they denounce in others, they adopt
as the rule of their own conduct. If a little secrecy
works such harm in ordinary politics, what must
the whole machinery of oaths, and grips, and pass
words, do for this new association. I believe it
will work everywhere, as it has wrought in the
instance of the New York Council already quoted, ||
its abundant harvest of tyranny, deceit, and per-
jury. The order employs more secrecy in a single
night than is used in preparing and conducting
both the national conventions of the Whigs and
Democrats. How, then, can this terrible poison
fail to work its natural effect of corruption on
the
them. Perhaps, on the principle that one poison
sometimes neutralizes another, the proscription
and intolerance which they swear to practice are
an antidote to the secrecy which is found neces-
sary in accomplishing their purposes.

The first avowed purpose of the order which I
shall discuss is the exclusion of foreigners from
office. The pledge of the member on entering the
order is, that he will not vote, or give his influ-
ence, for any man for any office in the gift of the
people, unless he be an American-born citizen."
A judicious man, it seems to me, will hardly deny
that it is equally criminal to do, by indirection,
as to do openly, that which we are forbidden
under the Constitution. That instrument provides
that no man shall be a Senator in Congress who
"shall not have attained to the age of thirty
years, and been nine years a citizen of the Uni-
ted States," &c.; that no man shall be a Repre-
sentative "who shall not have attained to the age
of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citi-
zen of the United States, "&c., (art. 1, sec. 2 and
3)

These clauses of the Constitution confer on alien-born citizens a complete eligibility to seats in the House of Representatives and Senate, when the respective periods of age and citizenship have been completed, as upon native-born citizens. No man will deny that Congress possesses no power to add, by law, to the age or period of citizenship fixed by the Constitution, and that such a law would be unconstitutional and void. Any attempt to do so would be an assault upon a right which the framers of the Constitution thought of sufficient importance to guard by a special provision, and I can see no distinction in justice between attempting to rob them of the rights by a law and by a secret association. The first is the bolder and manlier way of assault. The men who do the injury in that case are known and responsible; they hold themselves amenable to criticism, to discussion, and to the public judgment. They plant themselves upon the merit of their action, and not upon the force of numbers and the chances of escape from detection. All men admire candor and sincerity in political as well as other conduct. Until now all Americans despised secret political associations, midnight juggling, and the hatred that would strike, and yet fear to avow the blow.

There is no obligation, in my judgment, to vote for a foreigner to any office more than for any other citizen; but there is an obligation not to form a combination against him by which he is to be disfranchised, or stinted in the enjoyment of any constitutional right.

If it be true that foreigners are less fit for office than native citizens, it is a gross distrust of the national common sense to suppose the people will not act upon it, and a poor commentary upon public spirit, that special oaths, and the terrors of a secret inquisition are needed to urge them up to the discharge of an obvious duty. I cannot but believe that true policy and justice are, in this case, harmonious. These foreigners are in our midst; they have come under our invitation, and have trusted to the liberal spirit of the age, and the generous provisions of our laws and Constitution, and our purpose should be, by acting up to the full measure of good faith, to encourage them to the highest standard of republican citizenship, They are citizens, with the right to vote, and

Ho. OF REPS.

policy dictates that they should be so treated as soonest to nationalize them, that the peculiarities of their birth, education, language, and ideas may be lost in the character of our own people. There is no safety in a course that excludes them from any right which is theirs by the Constitution and laws, and which induces them, from wounded pride, to perpetuate the distinctions which separate them from the native-born citizens.

To a foreigner of just self-respect, the equality implied in voting, and the right to be elected to every office, even though he may never desire any, is one of the strongest ties that can bind him in love and interest to the fortunes of the Republic. And if, at any time, it becomes necessary to disfranchise him of either, in the name of manhood, and justice, and republicanism, let it be done in the open light of Heaven, let it be done with the forms, the sanction, and the solemnity of a national act, and let him not feel himself the victim of a nameless persecution, tried, condemned, and punished, unheard, in the hateful manner of the inquisition, by those who blush to avow their connection with the deed. Justice would teach us that foreigners should receive a share of offices proportioned to their number, if the subject becomes a matter of mathematical division; but it would be more fortunate for the peace of the country if the question of nativity and religion were never raised, and if selections to office were made according as Mr. Jefferson's strong questions are answered, "Is he honest? Is he competent? Is he faithful to the Constitution?”

Second. The extension of the term of natural ization to twenty-one years, or some other period longer than five years.

When our country was weak, and there was apprehension that we might be attacked by foreign Powers, anxiety was felt to secure an influx of immigration. The time for that apprehension is past. I, sir, as an individual, have never cherished or expressed the anxiety which I have witnessed in others, to see our country goaded into premature growth and population; though I have rejoiced to see those who came here, either from choice or to escape oppression, sitting, in due time, at the national board, and sharing equally the abundance of our unstinted hospitality. The vision of a splendid Government, which has such fascination for many, to me is without a charm. I know that its magnificence, the pomp of its officials, the number and equipment of its fleets and armies, are but so much wrung from the scanty subsistence of labor. Wherever I witness the reckless pageantry of wealth, I know that the gaunt shadow of poverty is near by. I doubt if our rapid increase in numbers, in wealth, and power, however gratifying to our pride, have been attended with a proportionate increase of those robust and homely virtues, on which alone permanent national greatness is founded. It is the effect of great and sudden prosperity to disturb the ordinary action of the public mind, and to introduce false and deceptive standards of conduct. The whole nature of man runs wild, in a variety of excesses, and this inundation of prosperity sweeps away many of the established and respected landmarks. Seasons, such as these, try the national character more than whole years of calamity. This has produced that exuberance of intellectual movement, that redundance of activity, that Egyptian fecundity of isms, which distinguish our country to-day. At such times, a recurrence to honored and established principles is the most wholesome regimen for the public mind.

I believe, sir, it had been better for us if we had never received, since our independence, more foreigners than could be readily assimilated to the general condition and character of our native-born population. I do not question that the intermingling of races here is one potent element of our growth and, success. Those nations have been foremost in the world's history whose characters have been the amalgam of the greatest variety of the best races of the earth. A constant immigration of enough to produce variety, but not to perpetuate diversity, would, I believe, contribute to preserve and increase our vigor. But I wish to see no foreign settlements in our country; no papers, schools, and school-books in a foreign tongue; no regions of country in which a traveler might fancy himself on the banks of the Rhine, or

33D CONG....2D SESS.

the green sward of Ireland. I desire our people to
be homogenous in language and institutions; I
would have the first generation of foreigners to
be the last, their children I would have American
in tongue, in education, in principle, and in law.
It is said that this extension is rendered neces-
sary by the abuses of the present system.

These abuses are chiefly through false naturalization papers, and false swearing. They exist, I am inclined to think, less through any defect in the present laws than through the defect in their enforcement. The use of false naturalization papers, illegal voting, and the perjury attendant upon both, are offenses against the laws of the State where they are committed; and it is to the State tribunals that the citizens must look for redress, and the vindication of their rights. There is no ground, none whatever, to believe that grand juries would be more active to find indictments under a new law than under the old one, nor that pettit juries would be more prompt to convict.

It is useless to cumber the statute-book with laws which there is not the public virtue to enforce. No law can execute itself; it must have the agency of man to administer it, and it is useless to attempt to make the barbarous severity of the statute atone for the apathy of the people. If it could be shown that the present law had been faithfully tried, and found inefficient, there would be ample reason to ask the enactment of new laws. But there is no such proof. On the contrary, it is known that if offenses are frequent, as is charged, indictments are few, and convictions still more unfrequent. If the evil exists in the magnitude described, if offenses are so many and punishments so rare, the root of the evil would seem to lie deeper than an imperfect statute. It cannot lie in the law merely, for that would be pointed out and remedied; nor in the officers of the law, the juries, the attorneys, and the judges, for a wholesome public opinion would impel them to the discharge of their duty; but it lies deeper; I fear it lies in a corrupted public sentiment. Individuals dislike the labor and inconvenience with which a prosecution is attended, and after an ebullition of temper, and a few newspaper paragraphs upon election frauds, the matter is allowed to drop. Another reason, perhaps, quite as effectual, is that both parties in the cities have been engaged in the disreputable work of procuring fraudulent votes, and each fears to provoke inquiry into its own conduct, by attempting to expose the crimes of the other. But even if all the illegal voting complained of were confined to foreigners, by whom is the temptation to commit the offense offered? Certainly by our own native citizens; and it seems strange that the whole indignation is visited upon the foreigner, who is denounced as "ignorant and corrupt," and scarcely a censure is bestowed upon the native who debauched him, and who, I suppose, by contrast, is to be regarded as "intelligent and virtuous."

But, Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the cause of the evil, which is ascribed to the immigration of foreigners, may be justly sought for even further back than the condition of public sentiment where it exists. As a State becomes more refined and populous, the disparity in the condition of the people becomes greater. The inequalities of wealth and social advantages are more obvious; the rich become richer, and the poor poorer. If there be any method of preventing this result, political philosophy has not yet announced it; and the evil has begun to be felt in this country in our large cities. There is, in all of them, a portion of the community, happily for us yet small,

Since the above was spoken I have seen a recent deeision of Judge Dean, of the supreme court of New York, on the administration of the naturalization laws. He remarks: Those courts, instead of administering this law, (of naturalization,) have, by their negligence and inattention, practically repealed it, admitting thousands to the rights of citizenship, who want all the requisites to entitle them to such admission; have been guilty of a gross violation of daty, and have made the law itself odious in public estimauon."

"The man who would collect and embody in a single act, the operative portions of the various statutes on this subject, with such amendments as experience has shown are necessary to their due and faithful execution, would be a public benefactor."

"When that is done, and the laws are administered in their purity, it will be apparent that the faults have been far more in the administration than in the laws themselves."

perhaps, but fear to grapple with. The discussion of it is too portentous, too pregnant with the high philosophy of races, population, and government, to be handled by those whose whole political pharmacy is persecution, whose highest ambition the ejection of an Irish tide-waiter from his office, and the summit of their statesmanship to combine the "isms" that are out against the Democrats who are in. The real danger is, that foreigners will congregate in some States of the Union in such numbers, preserving the language, manners, and traditions of the Old World, as to root out the native population speaking the English tongue, and that we may come to be a Confederacy of States as foreign in origin, in language, customs, institutions, and religion, as are the several nations combined by force under the sway of the Emperor of Austria, or the Czar of Russia. Nothing can tend to accomplish this more speedily than proscription. If the foreigner finds himself one of a degraded caste while living among the native population, he will naturally seek those regions in which his own countrymen are numerous, and a little more concentration of the foreign population in some of the north western States will give them an absolute numerical majority, and insure the control there. In such an event, they would, of course, retaliate the proscription under which they had suffered; they would, per

who are sunk in vice and ignorance. As the pop-
ulation becomes denser, there will be accessions
constantly to the number, and in due time there
will exist a class in this country, as in the Old
World, in which vice, and crime, and destitution
will be the hereditary condition. It is from this
class, and those who approach its condition, that
the material for fraudulent voting is drawn. In
agricultural regions, where the means of living
are cheap and abundant, it is almost unknown;
but, as a rule, I believe the evil will be found to
increase in exact proportion with the density of
the population. So far as this class exists in our
midst, a large share of it, I believe, will be found
among the foreign population; because they con-
gregate about the cities, where the vice of proleta-
rianism mainly flourishes, and because the native
population, from its superior intelligence and
familiarity with the mode of life here, has retained
the more lucrative occupations, leaving to the for-
eigner the humbler and cheaper ones, and those
which are first to suffer from revulsions in trade
and commerce. Population and production march
on closely together; there will not, for any great
length of time, be a wide disparity between the
supply of food and the number of people to con-
sume it. And when the amount produced and
that requisite for consumption are about equal, a
slight decrease of the former, or of the supply of
labor by which it is to be produced, results in pov-haps, become even as intolerant as the Know-
erty and starvation. Such is the state of things
in the greater part of Europe. Such, in a mitigated
form, is getting to be the condition of our larger
cities. The accounts of the destitution now pre-
vailing in some of them, among the honest and
industrious, and the gloomy anticipations of the
coming winter, are heart-rending. Yet Government
has not caused it; the tariff has not caused it; for-
eigners have not caused it; nor even the present
war, though that event may have precipitated it.
It is the effect of those mutations which are the
inevitable condition of existence, and which are
brought about by the whole variety of those per-
plexed causes which have produced that result
which we call the "present state of things." Our
very prosperity has been as effective in bringing
it about, as any other cause. High excitements
in the commercial world are always followed by
periods of languor and depression, and the sugges-
tions of quacks, and their still more dangerous
remedies, are alike to be discarded. Republican
institutions can protect us against unjust legisla-years, and the Know-Nothing remedy of exclusion
tion, oppresive taxes, and guilty wars, but they
cannot secure us against the inexorable laws of
trade, commerce, and manufactures. It is, then,
unjust to ascribe to transient causes evils which
appear inseparable from the structure of civilized
society.

But, sir, if all these evils were the result of fraudulent voting, how would the mischief be remedied by extending the period of probation from five to twenty-one years? If five years' delay is so irksome that the foreigner will risk the penalties of fraudulent voting and perjury to escape it, it seems to me the temptation would be multiplied fourfold by increasing the delay to twenty-one years.

So far as the extension of the period to twentyone years is a sentiment, a mere gratification of a feeling, or a prejudice, it is either above or beneath reason, but as a statesman's remedy for an existing abuse, it seems entirely incompetent and unsatisfactory.

The laws of naturalization I regard as I do any other laws-justly open to revision and amendment. If defects of any importance exist, they ought to be remedied promptly; and I am ready to vote for all such changes as may be found expedient. I am satisfied, after listening to all that I can hear upon the subject, to let the period of five years remain in the statute; yet, I am not so wedded to that time that I would consider any change of it by Congress an outrage upon the rights of foreigners, or upon the Constitution. I am very ready to hear all argument upon the subject; but, so far as I have comprehended the evils under which we are said to labor, I find no adaptation in the remedy to the disease. The great evil of a foreign population is hardly noticed in the discussion, and the changes of the law proposed, and the persecuting creed of the Know-Nothings, are alike trivial when compared with it. The magnitude of the evil these midnight reformers see,

Nothings, and permit no native-born citizen, nor the son of a native, to vote or hold office; they would send naturalized foreigners to represent them here in both Houses, as they would have the constitutional right to do; they would have their relative weight in presidential elections, and the "foreign vote" would then be something distinct and palpable for politicians to intrigue after. No state of things could be more deplorable than the war of races, of which this order is the beginning, and if it be not crushed at once by the honesty and common sense of the people, it may give to our history a chapter as dark and bloody as that of the English revolutions, or of the religious wars of the Hugenots and Catholics in France. You know, sir, that this is the evil to be dreaded in the future, compared to which all German antiSabbath societies, Irish riots, illegal voting, and foreign military companies sink into utter insignificance, and before which, as remedies, the extension of the term of naturalization to twenty-one

from office, are but as bands of tow to devouring flames. Neither of these would diminish perceptibly the number of immigrants; and, while the annual supply continues, or increases, any law which tends to perpetuate the distinction of races will only make the ultimate danger more formidable.

The duty of excluding paupers, vagrants, convicts, and felons, is imperative; and if the evil be as great as is charged, the only surprise is, that we have allowed a public mischief of such gravity to exist so long. Laws, rigorous and effective, should be enacted, if such are not now on the statute-book; and every citizen who regards the public weal, should unite, heartily, in their enforce

ment.

The third remedy proposed is the repeal of the naturalization laws. Before the adoption of the Constitution, each State passed its own laws upon this subject, and, of course, there was great diversity. To obviate this, the power was given the Federal Government "to pass uniform naturalization laws." As the States were exercising the power to naturalize foreigners when they gave it up, that the law might be made "uniform," a failure to employ it by Congress would induce them to exercise all the rights they yet have, and which are very considerable, on that subject.

Under the Constitution, the foreign, inhabitants, whether naturalized or not, are enumerated as a part of the basis of representation, and give additional power to the States where they reside.

The effect of naturalization is, to give all the rights of citizenship at once, with the three exceptions enumerated in the Constitution, and which I have already quoted.

Though the rights conferred are thus ample, it is competent for the States to bestow nearly all of them upon the unnaturalized foreigner, by virtue of their State sovereignty. He may be allowed to

33D CONG....2D SESS.

vote in State and Federal elections, may be allowed to hold and to transmit real estate, and may be made eligible to any State office. But these rights would not be recognized in other States except by special action In every State where similar laws had not been enacted, he would be in the position of an alien. A law of Congress is required to entitle him to the benefit of that provision of the Constitution contained in the first paragraph of article fourth, section second:

"The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." Such a man would not be "a citizen" of the United States, though he might be enjoying nearly all the rights of citizenship in a particular State. The right to vote, which appears to be considered one of the privileges bestowed by naturalization, is derived from another source. Each State can fix the qualification of its own voters, can enlarge or contract that franchise at its pleasure; and if a State should deny the electoral franchise to all persons not natives of it, the right to do so, I presume, would be unquestioned.

Civil and Religious Toleration—Mr. Barry.

but the poorer classes suffer more. Any course of
action giving an artificial stimulus to the causes
which will bring this state of things, is to be
shunned. There are no new worlds on which the
excess of population here can be poured. Europe
and Asia will alike present barriers in their own
crowded nations to any addition from these shores.
The evil, when it comes to exist here, must find its
solution at home. Highly colored pictures are often
shown us of the myriad population that is to be
poured upon us, and the measures I have been
discussing are pointed to as remedies for that state
of things. These 1 esteem utterly worthless for
the purpose.

I do not deny, on the contrary I affirm, the
right of a nation to impose such terms on the
influx of foreigners as a due regard to her own
interest and safety require. She is the sole judge
of the evil and the remedy. If there were just
reason to apprehend such an immigration from
Europe or Asia, as would unduly crowd our
people, impoverish our labor, or exhaust our soil,
I should advocate a policy more prompt, and
adapted to the emergency, than the ritual of the
Know-Nothings, or their clumsy imitation of the
secrecy and persecution of the Jesuits. We have
the right, and I should favor its exercise in that
extremity, to deny all foreigners admission, and
I would, in that case, have our coast present an
iron front to the tide of immigration as it does to
the waves of the ocean, so long as the danger
existed. But I would appeal to the manly, com
mon sense of the people, and have our action, if
any were taken, wear all the dignity of national
justice and self-defence, and not the sinister aspect
of a revengeful intrigue and midnight cabal. I
do not believe the time for such action has come;
and if it were now thick upon us, the remedies of
Know-Nothingism are poor, flimsy-wholly in-
adequate.

HO. OF REPS.

tuted, the difficulties which exist now would be as great then, and substantially the same. It matters not where the population is born, if there is not work for them to do, and they have no accumulations in store, there will be want, misery, and destitution. It results from the density of population, and not from its nativity. If the population of New York city were to-day wholly native, would the cessation of business, the partial suspension of manufactures, trade, and commerce, afflict them less sorely than it does the present mixed population? But yesterday, and there was labor for all, and, with labor, food and contentment; to-day there is a deficient supply, and at the same time a greater scarcity and dearness of the necessaries of life. If there be any way to prevent these fluctuations in business, and the suff-ring consequent upon them, it has never yet been made known.

I have alluded to these things, sir, not in the spirit of crimination-God forbid, sir-for the whole country lies too near my heart for me to feel anything but the warmest sympathy for any section whose happiness is impaired, but for the purpose of pointing out what seems to me the very root of the disorder complained of. And, I think, both of the great sections of the Union might find a practical argument for mutual charity in the fact, that the social condition of each has in it the gerns of consequence which will give home occupation to their wisdom and philanthropy without either intermeddling in the affairs of the other. As soon as the population of the South becomes so dense that labor is not remunerated, and there are no new regions for it to occupy, its period of trouble will have arrived; and the same is true, equally true, of the North. So far as immigration may help to bring this state of things prematurely, so far the troubles consequent upon it are attributable to foreign population; but I It cannot be denied that the policy of our Gov-repeat that it is a question of numbers, not of race or ernment has been to encourage immigration. The vast amount of fertile unoccupied territory, the number of canals to be dug, of railroads to be built, and all the variety of labor required in a new country, induced our ancestors to solicit foreign aid. The surplus labor and capital of Europe found employment here. Most of the immigrants settled in the northern and north western States, and it is owing to this addition to their native population that their numbers have increased faster than the southern States. The natural growth of population at the South, is as rapid as in any part of the world. These foreigners not only

Thus we discover that even the repeal of the naturalization laws would not protect us from the influx of foreigners, nor from the ill effects of their voting, in case any of the States see fit to bestow that right upon them; and if the naturalization laws should be repealed, or the term extended to twenty one years, under the influence of a temporary excitement, the natural reaction of popular feeling would demand a restoration of the old law; or the right of voting, and other privileges of citizenship, would be conferred by the States upon their alien inhabitants. The power of each State, then, is ample over its own ballot-box, and it can be approached only by those on whom she confers the right. There is not a voter of the Union who derives his power from the Federal Government; he may be naturalized under a law of Congress, and possess all that such laws can bestow, yet never be permitted to cast a vote or hold a State office in the Union. This is fortunate, as the necessities of States are different. In some, the foreign population is so numerous as to require, perhaps, some State legislation; in others, there is so little that it is merged in the mass of the nativeborn people. The proportion of natives to foreigners in some States, is as one to eight or ten; in others-Mississippi for instance-as one to sixty of the native white population. It seems natural that States of such dissimilar conditions should have laws adapted to their peculiar necessities, and if abuses have arisen where the foreign population is dense, which require laws for their eradi-brought their strength to increase our productive cation, it is useless, not to say foolish, for States, where those abuses are unknown, to enact laws for their suppression.

The foreign population of Mississippi is reported in the census at five thousand; the entire white population three hundred thousand. These foreigners, for the most part, are peaceable, industrious, useful citizens. They keep up no separate schools, publish no papers in their native tongue, affect no interests distinct from those of the rest of the community, and are steadily being absorbed into the mass of the people. Nor have they, sir, done that which seems the unpardonable offenseobtained more than a share of public office.

Why, then, does Mississippi need to join in any persecution, open or covert, of her foreign population? Why should Congress enact any general law applicable to her, which she does not need, for the convenience of those States whose situation may, indeed, require it, but who have full power, in their State rights, to enact any law their exigencies demand? Our foreign population does us no injury which the laws of Congress can redress. The evil is local, so should the remedy be.

I am influenced by considerations of this kind, when I say that I am not fired with the prospect of a splendid Government, nor anxious to see our population swelled with a mighty influx of foreigners. In due season the time will arrive when the natural increase of our native people will spread over our territory, and at a more distant period the condition of a crowded and redundant population will be reached. As this condition is approached, there is less of happiness proportionably; at least there is a far more visible crying misery. The fortunate classes may enjoy more,

industry, but the aggregate of money they have
introduced into the country, has been very large;
many of them being inferior in education and so-
cial advantages to our native population, turned
to those occupations which are almost solely
physical, requiring vigor of muscle, and strength
of consutution, leaving to the native popula
tion almost a monoply of the more scientific and
remunerative branches of industry. This pop-
ulation has furnished to the North a large increase
of capital. It has supplied capital with a cheaper
labor, by increasing the amount of it. It has
given greater activity to manufacturers, by adding
several millions to the number of consumers. It
has strengthened the shipping interest, by an
amount of passage money equal, it is said, to
the whole export freights of the country. The
North could not have completed one tenth of her
improvements, and kept up her other interests to
their present extent, without this foreign labor.
Most of these improvements at the South have
been made by the native labor, and without ma-
terially diminishing the annual supply of the staple
productions of the country. As a section, the
North has reaped the benefits of this immigration,
and it will have to meet the consequences which
flow from it. The question of the organization
of labor, its rights and duties, is perhaps the most
vexed one of all that disturb the body politic.
By immigration we are perhaps fifty years in ad-
vance of what we should have been, had increase
in numbers been natural only. The difficulties
that attend our condition are not mainly attributa-
ble to the foreign origin of a part of the popula-
tion, but to the number of the population. If
every foreigner were this day removed from the
country, and natives in equal numbers substi-

nativity

The last purpose to be achieved by the KnowNothings, is the exclusion of all Catholics from office. That this is one object to be accomplished by the order, is evident from the oath taken by the members upon admission, and which I have already quoted. It is not to be denied that there is deversity of opinion among the brethren of different sections. The order seems already to have fallen into the most corrupt practice attributed to the old parties, and to the most corrupt class of the old politicians, that of varying its creed with every change of latitude. In the infancy of its existence, it is already mature in its vices, and with a most surprising harmony between the end and the means, it aims at political and religious intolerance by seizing on every prejudice and adopting every creed. The foreign Protestant is told that the order strikes only at Catholicism, and the native Catholic is assured that it interferes with no man's religion, but attempts to limit the influence of foreigners.

In Louisiana, Catholics are allowed to join the order, we are told-and why? because that denomination is too numerous there to be assailed openly. If the order throughout the Union is sincere in its hostility to Catholicism, then the Catholics of Louisiana and elsewhere, who are persuaded that their faith is not to be harmed, are deceived and betrayed; but if they are not thus deceived, all others who have joined with the hope of crushing the influence of that church, are imposed upon, and have sworn their oaths in vain. In either event there is deception, which compele us to distrust, and should teach us to shun, the order of the Know-Nothings.

It is something that will, I dare say, excite surprise through the civilized world, when it becomes known, that the people of this country, who have been first to practice, in its fullest extent, the great Christian doctrine of toleration, are engaged in discussing whether or not the Government is safe while it continues. England which, three centuries ago, disfranchised the Catholics, and has since, under the influence of our example, gradually relaxed the stringency of her laws, may well distrust her course, if our experiment demonstrates that even a Republic is endangered by religious freedom among its citizens. With what show of justice or consistency can we plead to the Catholic sovereigns of Europe for the toleration

Civil and Religious Toleration-Mr. Barry.