Speech #510190059

They are pulling up and leaving the South. They are going off into the Northern States. and the people of those Northern States begin to find that it is necessary to purify the methods of their own elections and to control them with a closer hand than they have done heretofore. in order to control that class of population. Another reason is that immigration to this country has changed very much of late and at least 90 per cent.. if not 95 per cent.. of the States of the American Union admit men to vote who are twentyone years of age and come to the United States from foreign countries. not upon being naturalized and made citizens. but merely upon the filing of a declaration of an intention to become citizens. 95 per cnt. of the constitutions of the States of the American Union have got that provision in them. So that the right to cast the ballot in all these States. except four or five. does not depend upon naturalization or citizenship in the United States. but depends upon State constitutions and the mere option of the man who comes from abroad. which he may never carry out at -all so as to become naturalized. if he chooses not to do it. to go into a court or a clerks office and there file. under oath. a declaration of his intention to become a citizen of the United States. Of late. the Irish immigration. which formerly afflicted the Republican party so deeply. has ceased to a great extent. I do not know exactly why. The German population is ceasing. doubtless for the reason tht our vast domain of arable land in the Northwest has been largely taken up. and AustroHungarian immigration and Italian immigration is taking its place and coming in. the surface coming first. with all the accumulations Of trash and vice that are always found on the surface of things. Thatis coming first and going out into theStates. spreading itself. with all its vicious and villainous attributes and characteristies. into the body of the people of the United States. And. having a right under the State constitutions to make a declaration merely of their intention to become citizens and thereupon to be admitted into the suffrage equally with us who were born and raised here. the States are compelled to guard the ballot box with systems of laws suited to the peculiar condition of each State.