The issue which most disturbs the Sag-Nicht Foreign Catholic Locofoco Dry-rot patriots, of the present day, in connection with the principles of the American party, is their proscription of foreign-born citizens. If the reader will turn back to the Philadelphia Platform, and consult the 3d, 4th, 5th, and 9th sections of that instrument, it will be seen that the American party really proscribe only those who are proscribed by the Constitution of the United States, and the laws defining the rights of foreign-born citizens. The American party demand the enactment of laws upon this subject more definite, and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
The only positive work which the Constitution does, in regard to foreigners, is to proscribe. It contains but five clauses touching the subject: four of these are prohibitory, and the other is simply permissive. There is no guaranteeing clause whatever. We must be pardoned for recalling the very language of the Constitution—for in this progressive age, our "Young American" generation is fast losing sight of the plainest features of that document: which, with Fillibustering, Fire-eating agitators, is Old Fogyism! Let the Constitution speak for itself:
Section 5, Article II. of the Constitution says: "No person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President." That is proscription.
Section 3, Article XII., says: "No person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to the office of Vice-President of the United States." That is proscription.
Section 8, Article I., says: "No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of these United States." That is proscription.
Section 2, Article I., says: "No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen." This is proscription.
These are the disabilities imposed upon Foreigners after they have been made citizens. But, more than this, the Constitution leaves it discretionary whether to make them citizens at all. It simply confers the power—simply permits. Here is the remaining clause, to which we have alluded:
Section 8, Article I., says: "Congress shall have power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States."
But let us notice the matter of foreign emigration to this country. In that fragment of a nation, composed of three and a quarter millions, which accomplished the American Revolution, there were in the United Colonies, in the year 1775, just 20,000 more foreigners than now come into this country in six months!
The progress of emigration into this country, as shown from the State Department at Washington, is after this fashion: