Speech #670004562

But production can be effected only by labor. How can any man come into this country and live except by his labor? Why. some gentlemen here spoke as though these immigrants were coming here for no other purpose than to blow up the Constitution. if they could get their hands on it. Conceive for one moment the character of such a statement. That a man will come 5.000 or 6.000 miles. suffering the utmost hardships of a transatlantic voyage. parting with the last penny he owns in order to obtain passage. and all the time he is moved not by a desire to benefit himself but by a desire to blow up our Constitution! Now. think of that for a serious argument addressed to sensible men! Can there be a higher proof of devotion to our Constitution conceivable than that a man to come under its blessings will take all the risk. the discomforts of a long journey to a country of whose language he is Ignorant. to whose customs he is a stranger. leaving his home and his fireside. the associations of all the generations that preceded him? One gentleman read a statement here as though it. were an objection to that class of immigrants that they wanted an easier time. In tihe nanme of common sense. does anyone believe they cane here for a harder time? How now is lie to get the easier time? He is not likely to be received at the port where lie lands with bouquets offered him by strangers. with presents from the bystanders to make his pathway easy. There is but one way lie can keep himself from starving. and that is by labor. I think the record of immigration to this country shows that the immigrant takes to labor imniediately on lanid ing. if not from choice certainly from necessity. I think I may