FALLACY OF SUPPOSING THAT AMERICAN INSTITU

TIONS NEED NO SAFEGUARDS.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

Ir appears to be an almost universal truth, that those who are in possession of the full desire of their hearts, betray extreme carelessness in securing for that possession an adequate protection. A severe experience seems needed to discipline men into habits of prudence, self-control, and precautionary foresight. Any advantage, if not acquired by personal sacrifice, generally fails to carry with it those impressive lessons of discreetness which are the surest securities against either its invasion or decay.

Americans of the present generation have been peculiarly liberal in relation to their political privileges. Holding them in a measure cheap, because so easily attained, they have hitherto failed to see the need of dispensing them to others with a prudent hand, or of hedging them about with such restrictions as would place them out of reach of questionable influences. Liberty has a tendency to make men's heart's large and generous, and to give the utmost latitude to thought. With a practical knowledge of the manifold blessings of freedom ingrained in their very natures, it is hardly possible for them to desire less ample endowments for those whom they find deprived of them altogether.

The actual aim of our free institutions is universal brotherhood. Whether acknowledged or not as the purpose of our political organization, this, nevertheless, is the vital spirit that imparts all power and energy. And yet it is not to be argued as a consequence of this

truth, that so grand an attainment will be reached any the sooner, or that its blessings will be secured in any greater degree, by laxity in the care of these institutions, and a mistaken generosity in extending the power of directing their operation. By indifference of this sort, their character must suffer degradation; and when that result is reached, the true end of their existence is perverted, if not entirely destroyed. Free gifts are assuredly evidences of large possessions; and multiplied acts of generosity are proofs of deep sympathy with those who are so unfortunate as to be destitute. But there are always limits to such deeds, beyond which they cease to be beneficial, and become means of injury or mischief.

If absolutism feels the necessity of protecting itself against the inroads of men who deny the lawfulness of its claims, how much more sensibly must that necessity be felt by the friends and supporters of constitutional freedom. The former fears conspiracies, machinations, and the outbursts of rebellion. The latter have to guard continually against indifference to privileges,—an indifference which soon is followed by licentiousness and riot,-eventually leading to a tyranny far more fearful than that of any one-man power. Liberty is apt to be careless, from its very inclination to generosity. Unsparing in favors to all, it dreams not of ingratitude from its recipients. The law seems to be entirely in its own favor, removing all those sources of anxiety in which absolutism is so prolific; and yet other causes of fear are known to spring up plentifully under a certain complication of circumstances, which nothing but the utmost prudence and firmness can hope to remove.

There is nothing that Americans should guard with so watchful an eye as their country's liberty. They cannot be too jealous in its care. They cannot hope to enjoy freedom and slothfulness together. Liberty has its own unchangeable price, which is vigilance unceasing. It is good to dilate on the blessings of freedom, but the reflections are idle and the words are empty harangues, when freedom has no sentinels on its farthest outposts, and careless defenders in its citadel. If they who hold priceless possessions are indifferent to their preser

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vation, where shall men be found to volunteer protection for that which they set, as yet, no value? If the free are not watchful, how can we hope to find a guardian for liberty among the oppressed?

None ought to be so capable of understanding what freedom is worth, as those to whom its riches have fallen by inheritance. A proper estimate of its value is not to be expected from others. To them it is still an unreal speculation-a dim and far-off vision. They have heard, perhaps, of its reality, and come to settle their calm convictions upon its truth. Still, it is practically unknown to them, and from it they have never been able to derive any personal advantage. But Americans have no excuse to plead for their ignorance. Under the protection of free and constitutional laws they are secured in the possession of both life and liberty. Themselves the original power in the State, they impart character and direction to all the operations of government. Holding certain inalienable rights, they are free to attain happiness after their own desires. All pursuits, of a proper character, lie wide open to their ambition in every direction; and they may boast that theirs is the noblest country and the freest nation on the face of the earth.

There are, therefore, no reasons why such large privileges should ever suffer from diminution. If they unfortunately do, the fault lies at the door of those who should have been their most ardent champions. They must rehearse their misfortunes to none but their own ears, and brood in silence over the loss that might have been turned to their immeasurable gain.

Facts are imposing authorities in the disposition of theories and suppositions. Nothing is better calculated to open the eyes of the blind, or to unstop the ears of the deaf, than these most stubborn and irresistible things. Upon them, all reasoning is based; and from them logical conclusions are unerringly deduced. From them alone we are able to understand the real position, both of our free institutions and the dangers by which these are surrounded. They will tell us the plainest truths of our national welfare, and enable us, better than all else, to comprehend the chart by which our national course is guided.

In dealing with this subject, we do not propose to enter very deeply into statistics, yet it may be well to illustrate the points to which we wish to call general attention. We desire to establish three distinct statements; and from their tenor may be inferred the particular dangers to which our free institutions are at this day most threateningly exposed:

I. The foreign voters, who are proved to be ignorant and in every way incompetent, are admitted to the enjoyment of the electoral franchise.

We, who never knew what a blind and passive obedience to law is, can form no adequate idea of the recklessness and delirium which seize hold of so many foreign immigrants the moment they put foot upon our shores. We admit that some of them are men of intellectual culture, while it will not be denied that too many are persons of the most degraded character, and destitute even of the most meager attainments. The ignorance, however, from which Americans experience the greatest cause for distrust, is that which relates to the nature and spirit of republican institutions. These they do not seem either able or inclined to comprehend. They scout all ideas of obedience, because they claim that here they are free. Liberty and lawlessness are with them one and the same thing. Hitherto, they have never borne any intelligent relation to the existence or execution of law, but have occupied the places of unreflecting persons, accustomed, in passive silence, to bear the burdens with which they were weighed down. Coming to a country like America, and hearing the most exaggerated and extravagant stories of its ample freedom for all men, without a thought of their responsibility to the nation sustaining the fabric of this glorious freedom, they conclude that here the field of license lies open, and that any sort of restraint is powerless and illegal against unbounded indulgence.

Heretofore, all their feelings have been marshalled against government; for it was established upon their oppression, and never exercised its functions for their interests or welfare. They have lost that high and self-reliant sense of manhood, under its operation, which gives to

men the clearest ideas of true freedom, and enables them to understand their relation to freedom. The result naturally follows, that these same feelings of antagonism to government and law are brought with them to the land which they have chosen as their future home. They breathe the same spirit of hostility as before, to whatever has a tendency to impose upon their careless action a healthy restraint. Not comprehending the meaning of self-government, they know nothing of the spirit of conservatism by which our free system is upheld, and are ready to enter with recklessness upon any changes which demagogues hold out as beneficial.

Lacking religious sentiment of any description, they become the easiest dupes, as they are the most dangerous fanatics. They are ever ready for change, nay, for revolution, rather than continue in peaceful quiet, obedient to law, and evenly pursuing their own highest interests. As are their sympathies in the lands of their birth, so are they here as are their hatreds there, so do they betray themselves here. All ideas of law are confounded with mere physical force, and they have no definite conception whatever of the true aim of legal enactments.

Such are the people flocking to our shores by tens of thousands, and admitted, even welcomed, to the privileges of citizenship. The direct tendency of such an addition to our roll of voters, is the unmistakable degradation of the electoral franchise. Such gross ignorance could produce no other result. We have a large proportion of such voters in the country, answerable for the operation of our political institutions, and directly concerned in the character of their influence, both at home and abroad.

In 1832, at the time of the Presidential election, there were supposed to be fifteen thousand foreign voters in America; in 1840, they were computed at fifty-four thousand, comprising one forty-sixth of the whole number of electors; while in 1852, the foreign vote was known with accuracy to be one hundred and eighty-eight thousand, or had risen to one-seventeenth of the electoral body. In other words, the foreign vote had nearly multiplied itself by twelve, since 1840,