ADDRESS,
The General Executive Committed of the American Republican Party of
the city of New York, desirous that the people (both native and
adopted), not only of our own city, but also of this mighty Empire
State, should be fully and truly acquainted with the principles
which this party entertain, have herewith published a brief
exposition of our political Faith and Creed — sofas- as seems
at present to be demanded. And this manner of giving a greater and
more reliable publicity to so much of out policy and purpose as is
herein contained, has been resorted to for the reason that the
partisan papers and political demagogues of both the great adverse
parties of the day, have resorted to almost every means by
which to falsify our measures and impugn our motives ; and the
object and end of their false and unwarrantable opposition, is to
anticipate and prejudice the reception of our principles by those of
our fellow-citizens who have never yet been correctly advised of
what our measures are, and in what manner and respect we
differ from the two other political bodies of the time. ~*
To those whose knowledge of the principles of the American
Republican Party is such only as has been obtained from our
political foes, this paper is respectfully dedicated : and if, after
reading it, it is judged that our principles are not in consonance
with the good of our common country, and do not comport and accord
with the character of our people, and the genius of our
institutions, no support is desired ; while, on the contrary, if
they commend themselves to the true friends of our religious, civil,
and political institutions, as better worthy their approval and
entertainment than the cant professions of either the other
political parties, a support of our cause is earnestly solicited.
The first, and probably most ostensible principle of the American
Republican party is, that the Naturalization Laws shall be so
altered as to make it necessary for all persons of foreign birth to
reside TWENTY-ONE YEARS in the United States, before they shall be
entitled to the privilege of the elective franchise: and for this
opinion, and the avowed purpose of using every honorable means to
resolve it into a law, we are charged by the political demagogues of
both the adverse parties, not only with distant, unkind, and hostile
feelings toward foreigners, but also with an effort to wrest from
them their religious, civil, and political rights ; every charge of
which is as certainly false, as it is that a majority of those who
make them are, for selfish ends, foes to the true interest of this
Government, or that they are hypocrites in their loud professions of
regard for the foreigner's rights
The members of the American Republican Party profess to be, and are
full as ready (and with an honester purpose), to extend the hand of
hearty welcome to the foreigners who come among us, as the most
ultra Whig or Democratic partisan croaker, who, for party purposes,
professes to be so regardful of die foreigners claims to political
privileges. We are not the enemies of foreigners, nor
unwilling to see them come to our country and live among us. We have
no disposition whatever to proscribe them from the full and free
exercise of all the privileges and advantages of our common country
which we ourselves enjoy ; nor do we hold any desire to do violence
to any of the civil or religious rights " which the laws of nature
and nature's God entitle them to;" on the contrary, we are willing
and anxious that all the blessings of our institutions, the full
protection of our laws, and the favors of our political compact,
shall be as fully, fairly, and freely extended to those of foreign
birth, as to the native born. We are desirous and content that all
the avenues to wealth, prosperity, and happiness, shall be as widely
and clearly opened to them as to us ; and that the individual
rights, relations, and obligations of our social community
shall be as kindly and scrupulously observed between foreigner and
native, as between natives themselves. In a word, that we shall
be one people — possessing and enjoying the same privileges,
interests, and rights, ALONE excepting the privilege of the elective
franchise; which it is proposed to withhold from the foreigner until
he has resided among us the term of TWENTY-ONE YEARS. And this
exception is made upon the conviction that the nature and character
of our institutions absolutely forbid that they should be too soon
(even in part) entrusted to the care and control of a class of
persons who, (though never so honest and well-disposed), are of
foreign birth, allegiance, prejudice , and political education.
We do not contend but that the foreign as well as the native-born
citizen has a right to participate in the legislation and
administration of the laws that govern him, but we do
contend that the peculiar form and nature of our government require
that that right should not be extended to the foreigner until he has
resided among us, not only long enough to learn the letter of our
Constitution and spirit of our laws, but until he shall have had
sufficient time completely and entirely to divest himself
of all prejudice for the government and country of his birth and
education, and to have become so incorporated with the genius of our
institutions, so imbued with a love for our country, and so
identified with the welfare and perpetuity of our government, as to
be in spirit and in fact as truly an American as
though to the " manor born." Then and not till then, should
the foreigner be privileged to take a part in making our laws,
maintaining our government, and conducting the great interests of
our nation.
Not only do all the thoughtful and jealous native-born friends of
our free institutions concur in this view of a foreigner's rights
and privileges as they stand connected with our government)
but also (and to their honor) do a majority of the intelligent and
well disposed of our foreign-born citizens.
The members of the Convention who framed and signed the Constitution
of these United States long and earnestly discussed the question
relative to the time necessary for naturalization— many believing
that the time should be specified in the Constitution, and among
those there were none 'who contended for a less
term than fourteen years, nor any for a greater than
twenty-one; while there were another part of the members,
who held that the whole matter should be left to Congress,
they arguing that it was THEN desirable, to people this country as
fast as possible ; and as a greater means to to that end, it would
be the POLICY of Congress, for the first few ensuing years,
to make the term as brief as possible — leaving it in the power of
that body, at all future time, to extend the term as prudence and a
jealous regard for the safety and perpetuity of of the Republic
demanded.
Such, and such only, were the views and opinions held and expressed by the sage authors of that mighty base upon which rests the whole fabric of our government.
If violence be done the political rights of the foreigner by denying him the privilege of voting until after a residence in this country of twenty-one years, then also is the same violence (in principle) done him by a refusal of that right for five years ; and if it be proscription to deny him eligibility to office under twenty-one years, how greater is the wrong done him by a refusal altogether of an election to the Chief Magistracy of the Union, as also to the Gubernatorial Chair of seven of the States of our confederation, including the State of New- York.
But we affirm that in neither case, is there any just
rights or entitled privileges withheld from the foreigner ; and
for the reason that the true science of politics (with us at
least) is based upon the great question from which the term is
derived, viz : the best POLICY of maintaining and perpetuating
our glorious republican form of government; and the elective
franchise is the "Inalienable Right" of THOSE ONLY, who, by
birth, education, and love of liberty are prepared and disposed to
exercise it to that end.
A distinguished historian (Mach. Disc. 1. cap. vi.) in assigning a
reason for the great duration of the Venetian Republic, says that "
When they thought they were in sufficient numbers to maintain the
commonwealth, they prevented all others who came anew to inhabit
there, from taking part in the Government. This measure
could be adopted and maintained without disturbance ; because, when
it was adopted, whoever then inhabited the state had a share in the
administration, of which no one could complain; those who came
afterward to dwell there finding the state firmly established and
the Government settled, had neither cause nor opportunity for making
disturbance. The cause did not exist, because nothing had been
taken from them: opportunity there was none, because the
Government kept them in check, and did not employ them in any matter
from which they could derive authority. Not receiving foreigners in
their republic they had no opportunity of becoming corrupt. "
There is one subject composing a part of the principles of this
Party, on account of which they are most anxious to extend the time
of naturalization. We allude to the subject of Papacy. While this
party disclaims holding any more hostile feelings toward that system
of Christian Faith as such, than toward Protestantism, still we are
frank to confess, that, judging from the past history of that Church
in all ages of the European world, and from the evidences of its
character and purpose already exhibited in the United States,
(not the least of which was an Act by the Legislature of this State
— passed by the order and under the dictation of the Catholics
of this city — to expel the Bible from our Common Schools,)
that we are distrustful of the baneful influence it may yet exert
over the politics of this country. It is not to be
denied that the Roman Catholic system of religion is inimical
to Political liberty, and it must also be admitted, that in all the
nations of Europe, where Papacy has been the predominant religion of
the State, the Church has always assumed the whole direction and
control of the government. It has ever claimed and exercised
the right of being, at one and the same time, the religious, civil
and political government of the people.
If this be so, — and if, too, it is the proud boast of this
Church that her principles, policy, and purpose have, are
and will be EVER BE THE SAME, and, if, also,
the most superficial observer can look back among the nations of the
old World and see ignorance, vice, and superstition the peculiar
characteristics of those people who have been crushed by the
iron heel of her despotism, and who are still bending under the
heavy hand of her Religious Oppression, is it not our bounden duty
to use every possible means that shall tend to protect our own happy
country from the withering embrace of her baneful influence?
It is because a large majority of the emigrants to our shores (from
Catholic countries,) are the ignorant superstitious excrescent
population of those nations, all of whom acknowledge their highest
obligations to the Pope and their Church, and all obedient to the
mandate of a corrupt and designing priesthood, that we are desirous
of so extending the Naturalization Laws as shall, in some
degree, at least, protect our Institutions from the direful
influence of the Romish Church, and our Elections from the control
of Catholic Bishops.
We again emphatically declare — and hope to be so understood by both
FRIEND and FOE — that we, as a political party, entertained no
unfriendly feelings whatever towards the Catholic Church, as a
religious institution disconnected with the politics of our country;
nor, indeed, against any other Church which does not seek an
alliance with matters of State; while at the same time, we are at
open hostility with ANY and ALL Religious Churches,
Sects, and Denominations, of whatever name or
character, that shall in any manner and far any purpose, interfere
with the political institutions of our land.
If it be said that our acts accord not with our words, — for we have
only (as yet) "assaulted the Catholic Church," — our reply simply
and briefly is, that, it is that Church only, which has, as
yet, given evidence of a serious interference with our civil
polity/and of a design, ultimately, to control our political
institutions. And we add, with the same regard for our country's
good, that, if any other sect or denomination of Christians shall so
clearly evince the same design o£ incorporating ecclesiastical
tyranny with the government of this country, as we think the
Catholics have, we shall as earnestly and uncompromisingly
oppose the one as we do the other.
Our "hostility" "proscription," "opposition," and " intoleration,"— (for-such are the heresies with which we are charged, withal,)— extends alike to any and ALL Churches and Sects, and that too, just so far as they or any of them, interfere with the civil or political matters of our City, State, or General Government, but no further — NO FURTHER. Are we right or are we wrong?
One among the many other objects of this party, is to REFORM all the
numerous orders of mis-administration and political mal-practices
which exists in almost every department of our State Government, and
of which the people have so long and loudly complained. It will be
our certain care to abolish altogether throughout the State all
those unnecessary offices whose first cause of creation and
only reason of existence was and is that they
serve as a means by which the political aspirants when elected to
power take money from the Public Purse to pay those who have most
zealously pandered to his elevation.
It is the avowed attention of the A R Party to appoint honest
and capable Americas Citizens only to the truly necessary
offices of Government and to administer the affairs of State with so
strictly just and severely prudent a hand as greatly to reduce the
public expenditures.
Wherever this party shall obtain dominion, whether in Federal State or Local Government, especial care will be taken so to control and correct the sure and impartial administration of Justice as not to suffer the guilty to escape, nor, in any case, to wink at those crimes and frauds committed in " velvet and fine cloth, upon high places ;" but, on the contrary, to inflict the same relative degree of punishment and with equal certainty, — upon the million monied robber, who, whether under cover of Incorporate Privileges, or by what other means, swindles the community, robs the credulous, or beggars the widow and orphan, as that which is now so severely imposed upon the unfortunate and destitute, who, but too often are forced to the commission of the smallest crimes by extremist penury and want.
Upon this great subject the true fearless and impartial legislation
and administration of just and rightful laws — which indeed is the
truest basis of all good Governments and the surest conservation of
all well ordered society — this party promises to bestow in both the
State and Legislatures a most thoughtful and earnest attention
and to revise and adjust all such Bills, Statutes, Codes and
Rights of Law as do not comport and accord with the present state
and condition of the American people and to re-construct all such
Courts of both Civil and Criminal jurisprudence as do not now
afford speedy and even handed justice alike to the poor man
and the rich. It is a most monstrous fault with many of our courts
of both Equity and Law that Justice by legalized intricate and
complex orders and forms of Law (all of which must be waded through
at a heavy expense) is so far removed from the poor man as to render
it Impossible for him to ever to obtain his rights. This is a
serious evil and the, more especially so for the reason that
it is an evil affecting the worth and virtue of one of the most
sacred and important Institutions of our government— the high and
holy umpire of human Right and Wrong.
Upon the great political questions of the day — the Tariff,
Currency, Public Lands, extension of Territory, etc, etc, it may be
only necessary at present to state, in relation to the first, that
while we are regardful of our Civil, Religious, and Political
Rights, we are not forgetful of our Commercial, Manufactural and
Agricultural Interests; to the second, that the Public Domain should
be made a revenue for Common School Education; to the third, that we
are in favor of a sound reliable currency, which shall fully
answer the requirements of commercial intercourse, without doing
violence to the letter or spirit of the Constitution; to the fourth,
that we are disposed to enlarge our Territory whenever a press of
population renders it necessary.
The full sense of these, and questions of like character, however,
have not yet (at this stage of our party's existence) been fully
resolved upon.
With the next ensuing Presidential question (Clay and Polk), we have
nothing to do : though we are frank to confess that we shall ever
hereafter make that question as much a matter of political and party
interest as the election of any other officer who is dependent upon
our suffrage.
One word in relation to the true means of correcting the evil
complained of relative to the franchisemeut of foreigners. An
opinion is entertained by many that it is not necessary for Congress
to extend the term of Naturalization; whereby to prevent
foreigners from voting until after a residence here of twenty-one
years, as our State Legislatures have sufficient power to remedy the
evil. This is a serious mistake. Our State
Legislatures have nothing whatever to do in the matter. Congress and
Congress alone has the power "to establish a uniform RULE of
naturalization throughout the United States;" and when once a
foreigner becomes naturalized) he is in every sense as much a
citizen as though born in this country, and has all the rights (the
Elective Franchise included) of the native born: and while the State
Legislatures cannot confer the rights of citizenship and of
franchise, so also they cannot take them away- It is true that a
State has a RIGHT TO DETERMINE the time which CITIZENS born
without her borders, native as well as naturalized,
shall reside within them before they shall be entitled to a
vote; but this State power cannot be substituted for the power to
Naturalize alone held by Congress and for the plain reason
that- it has the same bearing upon the native as well as the foreign
born citizen.
The State of New York (nor any other State) cannot confer upon a
foreigner the right of franchise, though he may have resided within
her borders twice twenty-one years, nor can she by any law prevent
foreign born persons who have been naturalized under the law of
Congress from voting at her polls unless by that same law the native
born citizens of other States are in like manner prevented.
Space alone prevents a full and true exposition of this subject : It
is hoped, however, that enough has been said (even so briefly) to
satisfy all that our remedy, against an undue interference with our
institutions, by the almost innumerable mass of foreigners who are
yearly brought to our country, is alone with Congress.
The American Republican Party was first formed in this city, a little over one year since. We now hold the city government. We shall nominate, (and elect, we trust,) a Congressional Legislature, and Slate Senatorial Ticket this Fall. To those of our political faith and creed throughout the State, we say Organize immediately. Call the people together: explain to them the principles of the American Republican Party. Form association, and wherever it is prudent, nominate a Legislative Ticket. A State convention will be held at Utica on the 10th of September. Let delegates from all parts of the Stale attend. The General Ex-Committee of the American Republican Party of the city of New York, will be most happy, at all times, to afford all such information, documents and assistance, to either individuals or associations, as shall be in their power. Our object, at present, is to disseminate our principles as much as possible, so that the great public mind may be prepared to decide upon their worth and virtue immediately after the coming Presidential Election shall have passed. Our principles are already upon the winds, extending themselves throughout the broad expanse of our common country. The people far and near have caught the electric fire, and are only waiting for the pending Presidential question to be decided, when they will rise, and by one general concentration of principle and action, form one of the mightiest parties — truly Americas — that has ever ruled the destinies of this Republic.
New- York City, August 20th, Ig44.
ALEXANDER COPELAND, President
ALFRED H. DAVIES, Secretary.
SIDNEY H. STUART, Chairman of Committee on Address.