Speech #440056258

There cannot be one measure of protection for one and another for another. I regard the principle of these treaties as a pernicions innovation. which should never receive the sanction of the American people. but which. on the contrary. should be marked with their indignant disapprobation to prevent it from growing into a precedent. In the early days of the Republic. under democratic statesmanship. which nursed anti developed the Constitution in harinoniens coordination of all its powers and functions. the American people did not hesitate to declare war against the British government to vindicate the principle that the naturalized citizen possessed all the rights of the nativeborn. and that his return within British jurisdiction did not subject him to any service or allegiance which lie originally owed to it as the country of his birth. Such wastheheroic spirit of the Republic while only in its infancy. And now. when largely aided by emigration it has grown up to be the foremost power of the earth and the great reserved sanctuary of human freedom. bright all over with the glories of the past amid flushed and throbbing with the gorgeous visions of the still more glorious future. how abject must that spirit be. how false to the history and traditions of its brief but splendid career. which would consent to surrender in the noonday of its power one jot or tittle of those American liberties which crown its citizenship above that of all other nations. and for the firm establishment of which it ceerfully offered the blood of its children while yet in the weakness of its early youth. Where is the great American spirit of Jackson. who immortalized not his own name only but tshat of his country by the victory of New Orleans which established upon the mortifying defeat or the British government. and should have consecrated forever in American law. the principle that the naturalized citizen of the United States will be protected at all cost and h~zard against the claims of the country of his birth whenever liegoes there lawfully and peaceably 7 This principle. sanctified by the blood of heroes. has been abandoned in the case of naturalized German citizens. The spirit of Jackson and his compatriots sleeps. The times are degenerate.