When in the course of human events
2 the
wheels of fortune directed by a superintending providence shall have cast us
among strangers, our situation is peculiarly disagreeable until acquaintances
are formed and friendships contracted which will serve to cheer and support us
in the many vicissitudes of life. The unfortunate exile who is driven from the
bosom of his country and compelled to seek a refuge in the recesses of a
foreign land has many difficulties to encounter, many prejudices to curb and
often to complete the bitter draught with the last ingredient of misery, to
take up his residence where the withering hand of despotism has assumed its
diabolical sway. But we are happy in saying for our country that not only the
exile but the persecuted and oppressed of every clime can find in it an asylum
of peace, liberty and protection. It is however to be feared that the
American
government in its unbounded liberality, not only to the unfortunate but to
foreigners in every situation will endanger its long continuance in its present
happy form. Although I commend the lenity of our government towards strangers
who may have been wafted to our shore by the wind of adversity, and even to
those who have come voluntarily, yet that the benevolent arms of our country
should be intended for the indiscriminate admission of foreigners into her
council and offices of distinction and trust cannot be
Page 2
reconciled to the maxim which tells us that self-preservation is the
first law of nature. Long experience has shown that emigrants from a foreign
soil, are apt to carry implanted in their bosoms the principles of that
government from whose fostering hands they have been accustomed from their
infancy to recieve protection. Perhaps born and nurtured in a monarchy and
taught from their earliest understanding to revere that form of government as
preferable to any other, they disseminate these early imbibed principles when
they become citizens under another form of government. The pangs of discord are
ushered in to sever the union of a people who are perhaps enjoying the sweets
of social life unadulterated by factious demagogues or aspiring minds that
would sacrifice the good of the community for their own private emolument or
individual aggrandizement. Foreign influence is not however so much to be
dreaded in any country so long as it is confined to the humble walks of private
life. But in a popular government like ours, where the avenues to every
department save the chief magistracy are accessible to all, so soon as it can
insinuate itself into the favor of a credulous populace and assume a voice in
our national council, party is established and faction is founded, yes faction
that des
troytroyer [of] social happiness
and good order in society, that monster that has sunk nations in the vortex of
destruction. Faction I say will be founded, because the views of the native
born
American
as regards the science of government
Page 3
are
essentially different from the ideas of those who have been accustomed to
cringe to the despots of
Europe, who
hold to the principle of passive obedience and nonresistence to created
superiors. Among numerous examples of native and deep rooted prejudices, we
might mention the name of
Alexander Hamilton a man naturally and scientifically
great, but unfortunately cut off from existence just as the bud of life had
begun to expand into a flower whose comeliness no doubt would have stood
conspicuous amidst those around it. But from the early principles of his youth
imbibed in a foreign government, he was a friend to aristocracy. Had he
succeeded in his views in the formation of our much admired constitution, it
would have been a paralizing stroke to the genius of our country. It would have
been taking from the community a great portion of that sovereign power which
they should always exercise. Liberty that was purchased at the inestimable
price of blood would have sickened at the scene and left us to abandon the
glorious prize we had won, with the poor, the pitiless consolation that masters
were changed but situations the same. If foreigners be indiscriminately
eligible to a seat in our council, we have reason to fear that the holy
sanctuary of religion will be polluted by incorporating an inclusive creed
among the institutions of government, that the part of our excellent
constitution which guards against the establishment of a national
Page 4
religion will be perverted and certain tenets
introduced which all must support though in direct opposition to the dictates
of conscience. Notwithstanding all the formalities of naturalization, it must
be remembered that natural allegiance is a debt of gratitude which every
individual owes to the country of his birth, that cannot be forfeited,
cancelled or altered by any change of time, place or circumstance. There is
something so endearing in that spot in which we first had existence that none
but it can please. Its manners, customs, the institutions of its protecting
government, and every
thing that appertains to
it, we view with prejudice and partiality, and are ever disposed to render it
the most essential services in our power even at the expense of justice. Had
French
influence been in the national council of our infant republic, when that people
solicited the
United
States to sympathize with them in their struggle for liberty and to
cross the line of a neutral nation, we might have been involved in an
unnecessary and destructive war, and thus wrought out for ourselves the
manacles of oppression more binding than those from which we had recently freed
ourselves. But the purity of our government was fortunately influenced by no
attachment foreign from the
American
soil. Though willing to acknowledge the tribute of gratitude due to the
French for
their kind though interested assistance in our struggle to shake off the
shackles of colonial vassilage, it was our
Page 5
policy
as a neutral nation, unwarped by party prejudice to avoid the involvements and
calamities of war. Foreigners of almost every country on the globe are
practically unacquainted with that equality which exists in republican
governments, and are therefore unsuitable persons to participate in their
administration. The soldier who would be victorious must exercise himself in
his profession. So the statesman who would make wholesome laws for the
government of a republic must study the caprices of the human heart and not how
to devise means by which a pompous Nobility would be benefited and the great
mass of the people harassed by the approach of the exciseman and the call of
the Tithes. Is it not sufficient that this western hemisphere which claims a
government after its own model different from the despotisms and monarchies of
Europe
should furnish a place of retreat to the dissatisfied and unfortunate without
elevating them to supreme power? Shall the haughty potentate of
Europe
mantled in the ermine of injustice viewing the government which wisdom has
erected in the wilds of
America, be
permitted by our torpid indifference to insert a wedge that shall sever our
union? But inclusive of all other reasons which have been urged against foreign
legislation, the pride of the
United
States which does not consist in a tedious enumeration of noble
ancestors, but in the justice and unequalled equilibrium of their government
should more than preponderate every other consideration. The literary character
of this infant country has shown conspicuous among the nations of the earth.
Page 6
Shall it be said that
America
whose history is dignified by the names of
Washington,
Franklin,
Jefferson &
Marshall is under the necessity of having foreign council
in the administration of her government? No! That noble pride which when not
suffered to degenerate into arrogance and vanity is the germ of the greatest
elevation of mind revolts at the idea.
America has
produced a
Ramsay
, the
Tacitus of
the western hemisphere to transmit to posterity in the unpolished language of
truth, the spirit of liberty which actuated the first founders of our republic.
She has produced statesmen that could govern a free people in peace and war
without oppression. She has furnished men drawn as if by some magic impulse
from the recesses of the western forest that could abash the veterans of
Wellington
.
3 She
has also furnished the men that could direct our little bark triumphant on the
element of
European
despotism and teach the pirates of the ocean that a magnanimous people will not
be insulted. Can it then be said with any colour of truth that a people
powerful as this in all the branches of intellectual energy and political
policy shall through necessity receive foreign aid and yield submission to
transatlantic principles? Facts contradict such an assertion. And it is to be
hoped that the virtuous
American
viewing the indiscriminate generosity of his government will ever inspect the
conduct of the public servant with a scrutinizing eye, for this is the only
means by which he can secure to himself that inestimable boon, that glorious
inheritance bequeathed by the exertions of his forefathers and sealed by the
blood of
Page 7
independence. So long as virtue is the
prominent feature of
American
jurisprudence, the Eagle of liberty will have full scope for his wings. If our
republic like unsuspecting innorence has opened the portals of humanity and
rendered itself vulnerable to the poisoned darts of a vicious world, it is a
more lovely trait in its character than all the splendid equip[p]age of a
tyrant's throne or the boasted energy of
European
legislation. But the poison is not without an antidote. Let the virtuous and
patriotic people of this fair portion of the globe [be ware of] of committing
their sacred rights to factious disorganizing that would turn the current of
disaffection into the stream of self-interest, or to ambition's withering touch
that would rear for itself a monument of foreign structure upon the ruins of
liberty.