Does the gentleman say that this is just? Does he claim it is right? Our immigrants of old had a higher. a better. conception of the value and solemnity of naturalization. Mr. Speaker. a short time ago I came across some old volumes of Pennsylvania Colonial Records dealing with the early history of that sturdy race to which we are indebted for some of the best men which the country producedthe Germans of Pennsylvania. From time to time these records would show a number of men as having gone to the county seat to "take the sacrament." and I ascertained that this term in the quaint language of that people meant taking the oath of allegiance. So sacred was to them this function. that it formed a part and parcel of their religion. and thus acquired the very name of a religious exercise. Let me assure you that the spirit which made a sacrament of the ceremony of naturalization is as strong today among the foreignborn population as it ever was. No danger will ever come to the institutions of Americafrom her foreignborn citizens. Speaking as one of them. and as one who knows them.
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immigrants naturalization