10 A. M. on Sunday. Some of them declared they had not means to obtain one day's storage for a chest. Our streets are filled with the wandering crowds of these passengers-clustering in our city-unacquainted with our climate-without money-without employment-without friends --many not speaking our language-and without any dependence for food, or raiment, or fireside-certain of nothing but hardship and a grave; and to be viewed, of course, with no very ardent sympathy by those native citizens whose immediate ancestors were the saviours of the country in its greatest peril. Besides, many of them scorn to hold opinions in harmony with the true spirit of our government. They drive our native workmen into exile, where they must war again with the savage of the wilderness-encounter again the tomahawk and scalping knife-and meet death beyond the regions of civilization and of home. It is apprehended they will bring disease among us; and if they have it not with them on arrival, they may generate a plague by collecting in crowds within small tenements and foul hovels. What is to become of them? is a question of serious import. Our whole almshouse department is so full that no more can be received there without manifest hazard to the health of every inmate. Petitions signed by hundreds, asking for work, are presented in vain. Private associations for relief are almost wholly without funds. Thousands must therefore wander to and fro on the face of the earth filling every part of our once happy land with squalid poverty and with profligacy."-" By chapter 56, section 16, of the laws and ordinances of the city of New York, it is enacted, that in all cases where the Mayor shall deem it expedient to commute for alien passengers arriving at this port, instead of requiring indemnity bonds, he is authorized to receive such sum, in lieu of such bonds, as he shall deem adequate, not less than one dollar and not more than ten dollars, for each passenger. I deem it my duty to inform the common council, that it is my intention, hereafter, in all cases where it would not be unreasonable, to require and demand ten dollars for such commutation, from each alien passenger. And on advising with the commissioners of the almshouse as to this intention, I am authorized to say that they approve and unite with me in it; and I am bound to believe that it will receive the sanction of the public. Our city should not, whenever it can be avoided, receive more persons likely to become chargeable. It will be a herculean task to employ and take care of those who are already within our jurisdiction. Our funds appropriated for charitable purposes promise no overplus. Provisions, fuel, and clothing for the almshouse, are still very expensive. Laborers are not sought after, and while we pity the griefs and sorrows of all our fellow-creatures, we cannot deny that a preference, in the distribution of charities, as well as place and employment, is due to the descendants of the soldiers of the revolution, and to the heroes and sufferers of the second war of independence. It was asked by the fathers of American liberty. It has been promised to their sons, it cannot be conceded to aliens without great indignity to our native and adopted citizens; and if foreign paupers and vagrants come here for political purposes, it is proof irresist ible that our naturalization laws ought to be immediately revised, and the terin of residence greatly extended to qualify them to vote or hold office. Many are, I admit, orderly, well-disposed men, but many of them are of the opposite character. It is believed the action of the common council in the premises is particularly desirable. Our citizens had no serious turn-outs, no riotous parades, no conspiracies against the business and families of quiet, industrious and honest American operatives, until after officious interference by mischievous strangers, and it is melancholy to observe, that in the mad career of some of

these foreigners to destroy our happy system, they have lately recommended to a large meeting of our citizens that they should carry with them deadly weapons of various kinds, to all our future public assemblages. These wild strangers should learn that to do so, is not peaceably to assemble, as provided by the Constitution. Indeed a reason for taking the proper measures to diminish the number of arrivals, is drawn from the fact, that, in addition to the great and grievous expense they would add to the city, should they continue to be numerously thrown upon us, the Common Council will be called upon to provide an armed and a mounted police for both day and night time. Peace cannot be otherwise expected. them come from places where nothing less secures tranquillity.

Many of "AARON CLARK."

A committee of the Common Council made the following report: "The committee on laws, to whom was referred the message of his honor the Mayor, relative to the quarantine laws and alien passengers beg leave to report in part-That its members have felt a deep interest in the very important matters which the Mayor has so promptly, in the discharge of his official functions, brought before the notice of this board; that upon a proper and discreet settlement of the interesting questions submitted in the communication, depend the peace, prosperity, and good order of this city. The immense numbers of persons arriving at this port, fleeing from the poverty, starvation and oppression of Europe, are calculated, certainly, not only to excite our sympathy for these unfortunate beings, but to create a well founded alarm, as to the results upon our municipal_prosperity, as well as the character and morality of our population. The greater number of these immigrants (for there are those who, devoted to agricultural pursuits, and bringing with them some little property and a good reputation, are calculated to add to the resources of the commonwealth), are absolutely penniless and despairing with the accumulated filth, which long confinement on shipboard and an habitual want of cleanliness produce; they almost immediately on their arrival, roam the streets, a band of houseless mendicants, or apply to your alms-houses for succor. Crime succeeds destitution. Your prisons are filled-your hospitals are crowded with them, and your public treasure is spent upon those who never contributed a cent to the general welfare. It is just-it is in accordance with the best feelings of the human heart to commiserate the sufferings of humanity however degraded; but in the opinion of your committee, this city owes a paramount duty to itself and the country of which it is the general emporium. She is bound by wise and efficient laws to prevent the jails and work-houses of Europe, from pouring out on our shores their felons and paupers; to prohibit her from introducing here those whom she is bound by every consideration of justice to support; to prohibit her from disgorging on our people, a population with principles calculated to lower the tone of morals and disorganize the fame of our republican institutions. During the last year 60,541 passengers arrived at this port. The number has greatly increased this season, the average being very nearly 2,000 a week. The alms-house is full, containing, at this moment 3,074, of which three-fourths are foreigners. In fact, our public charities are principally for the benefit of these foreigners; for of 1.209 persons admitted into the hospital at Bellevue, 982 were aliens. The expense of the alms-house establishment and its dependencies, last year, amounted to $205,506. 63. Your committee, therefore, recommend the passage of the following resolutions:

"Resolved-That it is the opinion of this board, that the Mayor may be requested to enter into a correspondence with Executives of the States of

New York and New Jersey, and such other persons as to him may seem proper, touching the enforcement of the health laws and passenger act.

"Resolved--That this board approve the decision of his honor the Mayor, in raising the amount of commutation money hereafter paid by foreign passengers.

“M. C. PATTERSON, Chairman. . "D. RANDELL."

So much for native Americans. New York and Massachusetts passed laws to discourage emigration by imposing a tax upon passengers. In 1798, during Adams' administration, the Federal party amended the laws on naturalization which required a residence of fourteen years as a condition to be admitted to citizenship. So much for the "blue lights.”—Thomas Jefferson, in his message to Congress, December, 1801, recommended a change in the naturalization laws:-"I cannot omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years, is a denial to a great proportion of those who ask it, and controls a policy pursued from their first settlement, by many of those states and still believed of consequence to their prosperity. And shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress, that hospitality which the savages of the wildernes extended to our fathers on arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe?" So much for Jefferson, the father of democracy, in America! Annals of Congress, 1801-2, p. 16. An act of congress was passed at the session of 1801-2, admitting to citizenship for-eigners after a residence of five years, which is still the law. Annals of Congress of 1801-2, pages 464, 986-88-93, 1132-33-55-57. In 1844, a number of petitions and memorials were presented in both houses of Congress, praying for a change in the naturalization laws requiring that all foreigners should reside twenty-one years in the country before they could be admitted to citizenship. Thomas H. Benton and the democratic party opposed this measure. On the 7th of June, 1844, William S. Archer, of Virginia, spoke on the subject, thus:

mass of

"This was a subject which he was sorry to say, had not yet sufficiently attracted the attention of the people of the United States. There was, he thought, a growing combination of circumstances, which furnished ample ground for the conclusion, that the great uneducated foreigners, wholly ignorant of the nature and value of our institutions, annually pouring into our country, could not, within the short period of five years, fixed by the present law, become fit to exercise, with a due sense of their value and responsibility, the rights and privileges of native born citizens." For a debate on this subject by Archer, Buchanan, Berrien, and Allen-see Congressional Globe 1843-44, p. 658. On the 31st day of May, 1844, John Quincy Adams presented petitions praying that the "naturalization laws may be changed so as to require a residence of twenty-one years for citizenship.'

Mr. Adams moved that the petition be referred to the judiciary committee. Mr. Hammett moved that it be laid upon the table. Mr. Murphy ordered the yeas and nays which resulted as follows:

Yeas-Messrs. Anderson, Arrington, Ashe, Atkinson, Barringer, Benton, Bidlack, Boyd, Brengle, Brinkerhoff, Brodhead, Milton Brown, William J. Brown, Jeremiah Brown, Burke, Caldwell, Sheperd Cary, Carroll Reuben Chapman, Augustus A. Chapman, Clinch Clinton, Coles, Cross, Cullom, Dana, Daniel, Garrett Davis, Richard D. Davis, John W. Davis, Deal, Delet, Dickey, Dillingham, Dromgoole, Dunlap, Ellis, Farlce, Ficklin, Foot,

Foster, French, Goggin, Willis Green, Byram Green, Grider, Hale, Hamlin, Hammett, Hardin, Harper, Henly, Herrick, Hopkins, Houston, Hubard, Hubbell, Hughes, Hungerford, Washington Hunt, James B. Hunt, Charles J. Ingerson, Irvin, Jenks, Cave Johnson, Perly B. Johnson, George W. Jones, Andrew Kennedy, John P. Kennedy, Kirkpatrick, Labrance, Leonard, Lucas, Lumpkin, Maclay, McClelland, McClernand, McConnell, Mc Dowell, McKay, Mosley, Murphy, Ness, Newton, Norris, Owen, Parmenter, Payne, Petit, Peyton, Purdy, Rathbun, Charles M. Reed, David S. Reid, Reding, Relge, Rhett, Ritter, Russell, St. John, Sample, Saunders, Schenck, Senter, Thomas H. Seymour, David L. Seymour, Simons, Slidell, Albert Smith, Thomas Smith, Robert Smith, Steenrod, John Stewart, Stone, Strong, Summer, Sykes, Thomason, Thompson, Tibbetts, Tilden, Tyler, Weller, Wentworth, Wetherard, White, Williams, Woodward, Joseph A. Wright, and Yost128. Nays-Messrs. Abbot, Adams, Causin, Clingman, Collamer, Cranston, Deberry, Giddings, Grinnel, Hudson, Jos. R. Ingersoll, Daniel P. King, McIlvane, Marsh, Morse, Pevnit, Elisha R. Potter, Pratt, Rodney, Rogers, Caleb B. Smith, Spence, Vance, Vinton, Winthrop-26. See further on the subject from the Congressional Globe, 1844-45, pp. 64, 150, and the Appendix Congressional Globe, 1844-45, p. 130. And Smith v. Turner and Norris v. City Boston. In the case of the Norris v. city of Boston, held by the court that: "there is nothing repugnant to the Constitution or law, of the United States in the third section of statute 1837, c. 238, which prohibits the landing of alien passengers who arrive in any vessel at any port or harbor in this state, until the master, owner, consignee or agent of the vessel, shall pay to the regularly appointed boarding officer the sum of two dollars for each passenger, to be appropriated for the support of foreign paupers." 4 Metcalf, p. 282. At the session of Congress 1837-38, the following was offered as an amendment to the pre emption law of May 29, 1830, with the object of prohibiting aliens from enjoying the benefit of the pre-emption law:

"That the right of pre-emption granted by this act, or the act hereby revised, shall not accrue to any other person than those who were, on the first day of December, 1837, citizens of the United States; and such citizenship shall in all cases be established by legal and competent testimony, to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the land district in which the lands may lie, prior to any entry thereof, by virtue of the provisions of this act."

This was a Whig measure. The following is from Thomas H. Benton, on the subject:

"No law had yet excluded aliens from the acquisition of a pre-emption right, and he was entirely opposed to commencing a system of legislation which was to affect the property rights of the aliens who came to our country, to make it their home. Political rights rested on different basis." Mr. Merrick said:

"I desire, Mr. President, to make a single remark in reply to the honorable senator from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Buchanan.) That Senator, in announcing briefly his opposition to the amendment before the senate, remarked that there seemed to be an extraordinary spirit of opposition to foreigners, manifesting itself in the country. I think on the contrary, there is a morbid affection manifested here and elsewhere for foreigners and aliens."

Henry Clay spoke as follows:

"He wished the senate would go for the interest of the whole Union, as a people, and not so exclusively for the New States. This domain was

the public property the property of the whole people of the United States; and he thanked the senator from Maryland for introducing a proposition for conferring the bounty of the government to our own race, instead of holding out a general invitation to all the paupers of all the European governments to come here, and compete with our own honest poor.”

Mr. Clay spoke in reply to Mr. Buchanan thus:

"The honorable senator from Pennsylvania has alluded eulogistically to foreigners. Does he mean to compare the De Kalbs, the Steubens, the La Fayettes, the Pulaskis, with the hordes of foreign paupers that are constantly flooding our shores. There were other foreigners who mingled in our revolutionary struggle, but on the other side, the Hessians.”—Mr. Buchanan in reply to Clay, said, "He had observed with regret, that attempts were now extensively making throughout the country, to excite what was called a native American feeling against those who had come from a foreign land to participate in the blessings of our free constitution. Such a feeling was unjust-it was ungrateful. In the darkest days of the revolution, who had assisted us in fighting our battles, and achieving our independence? Foreigners, yes, sir, foreigners. Was it not a fact known to the world, that the immigrants from the Emerald Isle-the land of brave hearts and strong arms had shed their blood freely in the cause of our liberty and independence. Any foreigner from any country under the sun, who, after landing with his family on our Atlantic coast, will make his long and weary way into the forests and prairies of the Mississippi, and there, by patient toil, establish a settlement upon the public lands, whilst he thus manifests his attachment to our institutions, shows that he is worthy of becoming an American citizen. He furnishes us by his conduct, the surest pledge that he will become a citizen the moment that the laws of the country permit. In the meantime, so far as my vote is concerned, he shall continue to stand upon the same footing with citizens, and have his quarter section of land at a minimum price." Mr. Clay subsequently spoke on the subject, thus: "What, he asked, had they seen? A proposition was made by an honorable senator from Maryland, (Mr. Merrick,) to limit the preemptions to citizens of the United States, native and naturalized; rejected. And could any body say, after that naked vote of the senate, that it had not become the permanent policy of the country to go on inviting all the hordes of Europe to come over and partake of this bounty, derived from our ancestors, and which we should preserve for our posterity?"-Appendix Cong. Globe 1837-38, pp. 128 to 139. The following political creed is from the Boston American Crusader (Native American): 1. Repeal of all naturalization laws. 2. None but Americans for office. 3. A pure American common school system. 4. War to the hilt on Romanism. 5. Opposition, first and last, to the formation of military companies composed of foreigners. 6. The advocacy of a sound, healthy, and safe nationality. 7. Hostility to all papal influences, in whatever form, and whatever name. 8. American institutions and American sentiment. 9. More stringent and effective immigration laws. 10. The amplest protection to Protestant interests. 11. The doctrines of the revered Washington and his compatriots. 12. The sending back of all foreign paupers landed on our shores. 13. The formation of societies to protect all American interests. 14. Eternal enmity to all who attempt to carry out the principles of a foreign or state church. 15. Our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. 16. And finally, American laws and American legislation; and death to all foreign influences, whether in high places or low!" In consequence of the immense immigration to the United States the following appeared in the public prints and in pamphlets. It went the rounds