PROSCRIPTION-WHAT IS IT?—It is quite time that this term was defined. We wish to know

whether Webster and Walker are to be our authorities, or whether we are to regard the word "proscription" as having been manufactured expressly for the use of political demagogues, to be applied only according to the dictates of their oblique fancy. With this interesting class of men, custom has stereotyped the phrase, and used it to fling into the teeth of every American who demurs at the nomination of a foreigner to office, and we desire to know whether or not the same rule may be permitted to work both ways. During the late political canvass, it so happened that several members of the Order of United Americans were honored, by their fellowcitizens, with nominations for certain public offices, and presented by their several parties for the suffrages of the people. This was no sooner done, than they were denounced through the public prints by foreigners, who called upon the adopted citizens, one and all, to cast their votes against them. Now, what we wish to learn, is this: Can we, with a due regard to the true meaning of the word, apply the epithet "proscription" to the action of these foreigners, in the present case? If so, we intend to administer it in its broadest, longest, and most absolute sense.

No sooner was General Henry Storms, a member of Washington Chapter, nominated for State's Prison Inspector, than, without the slightest provocation, the foreigners of his own party presented, through their spokesman, a Mr. Wheeler, resolutions in Tammany Hall, denouncing him as a member of the persecuting Native American Order of United Americans." The meeting at which this resolution was presented, laid it upon the table, whereupon Mr. Wheeler, and some of his foreign allies, left the Hall in high dudgeon. Next we find an advertisement in the public prints, denouncing every

thing American, and the Order of United Americans in particular, from Dan to Beersheba. Here

is an extract:

"To the Democratic Republican Adopted Citizens of the City of New-York.-The hour has arrived when

a blow must be struck back on the men who have as

sailed the adopted citizen. Look at the election in Pennsylvania. The Democratic party have elected their Governor by nearly 8 or 10,000 majority, and yet

has defeated basely the Democratic Judge, Campbell, by several thousand majority. Why? Because he

is a Catholic. The Democratic party in this State soliciting their votes for avowed members of the Naand City, have dared to insult adopted citizens, by tive American faction, and hundreds of Irish and Germans have been dragged up to our courts, by interested politicians, to become citizens-to prepare them to vote for men who would degrade them. On the State, City and County nominations of the Democratic party, will be found names of men who are members of the Order of United Americans. The Grand Marshal of their Parade (Storms,) is on the State Ticket. The candidate for Register (Dyckman.) One of the candidates for the State Senate (Shaw,) was the candidate of the Native American party in Massachusetts, for Lieutenant Governor. One or two of the Police Justices, and several of the Aldermen, belong to the Native American faction, and yet the great mass of Irish and Germans are expected to sustain such a ticket. They are not slaves to submit to the lash.

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"We have a large foreign population-Irish, German, French, English, native-born subjects of kings, by whose oppression they have been driven to seek an asylum amongst us. These exiles have voluntarily, in the presence of Omnipotence, sworn to become citizens of this Union. They and their children are part and parcel of us; and yet the spirit of this ORDER Would ostracize and degrade them. The power to rebuke this wrath is in their own hands. Let them teach the political party which nominates memtheir support. bers of that faction, that no such party can obtain

"If any man should be asked to vote for such a ticket, let him deem it an outrage on his feelings. Let him spurn with contempt the wretch which bears such names as the Chief of the Grand Parade of the Order."

This was again followed by others of like character; and the infamous spirits who dictated and put forth this attempt to proscribe Americans on their own soil, have the consolation of

knowing that almost every man whom they denounced, has been elected by overwhelming majorities. It is no part of the American character to yield to unjust dictation from any source, or to submit to be brow-beaten by those who have no right to lay on the cudgel; and the result of this unbottling of European wrath was to excite the indignation of every American who read the assault, and cause him to vote precisely against the foreign advice.

Judge Campbell, of Pennsylvania, was defeated, not because he was a Catholic, but because he sought to bring the influence of his church to the ballot-box, and thus mingle Church and State in a conflict on American ground. General Storms, we have every reason to believe, has been elected by a greater majority than any other man of his party. Major Dyckman has also been elected by a large majority over his popular opponent, who, at a former election,

polled a larger vote than General Taylor himself; and the two Police Justices spoken of in the foregoing extracts, have also been triumphantly elected, the foreign proclamation to the contrary, notwithstanding.

patriots of both parties-the friends of our glorious Union and its blessed Free Government-the lovers of national peace and prosperity-will one and all hail it as the harbinger of good, the destroyer of anarchy, and the means of restoring the Home Sentiment--American Nationality-firmly and forever.

In the election just past, the old parties have

THE ELECTION.-Perhaps the most interesting feature of the recent election in this State, is the success of the Union Ticket in this city, and its probable success throughout the State. If the candidates selected by the Union Committee have indeed been so far supported in the middle counties, the stronghold of Sewardism, as to secure their election, we may congratulate our fellow-countrymen on the speedy verification of our statement, made in the March number of The Republic. In that number we wrote an article to show that the old parties, having exhausted the materiel which brought them into existence, are now rapidly falling into decay, and, like the drowning man who catches at a straw, they are grasping at new issues-local, instead of national, in their character, and dangerous in their theories. In this connection we spoke of the Union party in the following

words :

"Thus we see a conservative party taking its cue from the doctrines set forth by the Order of United Americans, and, sensible of the danger to which our Union is exposed, establishing itself throughout the land, and drawing into its circle the noblest and most patriotic minds of the nation. This party, casting aside, as it does, all local issues, looking solely to the interests of the country at large, with an object national and patriotic, winning alike the sympathies of the masses at the North and the South, the East and the West, and recognizing no line of demarkation between the people of the country, must and will become the party of the nation-the great American party, whose labors are to rule the destinies of the country until the issues that have endangered the safety of its institutions are known no more."

This is the party that we desire and expect to see triumphant in the Union; the Southern States have all endorsed its principles by a popular vote, and we are sure that it will command the approval of all men of all parties, everywhere, who are not politicians and partisans by trade. The Free Soilers, Disunionists, Foreign Interventionists, and Church and State advocates, will all frown upon it, and leave no stone unturned to drive it into oblivion; but the true

tered to the winds. Democrats and Whigs have been elected simultaneously, in the same districts, and men who have been found faithless to the interests of their country in former official acts, have been defeated, while their partisan associates in the same locality have been elected. This feature is strikingly illustrated in the case of Mr. Fisk, the Whig nominee for State Senator in King's County. This gentleman is beaten by his Democratic opponent, by a majority of over 2,000 votes, while at the same time the rest of the Whig county ticket was elected. The reatative of his district, in the Legislature, moved son of this is, that Mr. Fisk, when a represenan appropriation of $5,000 to the Catholic Orphan Asylum at Brooklyn, and the bill containing this appropriation was adopted. By this act Mr. Fisk has incurred the risk of being charged as a demagogue, who panders to a religious sect for his own personal aggrandizement, and attempts to draw into the political vortex the dangerous elements of the church. In consequence of this, his constituents deem him an unsafe man for a lawgiver and so con

cluded to keep him at home.

Other cases in point might be cited, but this is sufficient to satisfy the politicians that the people are gradually becoming more national and less partisan in their views. Hereafter, those who are honored with the confidence of the people, must be careful that they do not betray it.

WORDS OF WISDOM.-The following extract, on "The Spirit of our Government as it relates to Foreigners," is taken from "Whelpley's Compend of History," published some fifty years ago. We commend it to the American people of the present day, alike for the soundness of its deductions and the good temper in which it is conceived :

"The people of the United States, in their favor to foreigners, were prompted by purer motives than those of a selfish nature.

It

is not unlikely, however, that the future historian will be compelled to say, that our government, in relation to foreigners, erred through excess of benevolence and urbanity. The rapid increase of any nation, by means of an influx of foreigners, is dangerous to the repose of that nation, especially if the number of emigrants bears any considerable proportion to the old inhabitants. Even if that proportion is very

small, the tendency of the thing is injurious, unless the new comers are more civilized, and more virtuous, and have, at the same time, the same ideas and feelings about government. But if they are more vicious, they will corrupt; if less industrious, they will promote idleness; if they have different ideas of government, they will contend; if the same, they will intrigue and interfere.

"The history of Rome furnishes a striking instance of the deplorable effects of an influx of strangers into a country. After the Romans had conquered Carthage, Greece, Asia, and Saul, Italy presently filled with immigrants from all quarters Though they came, as it were, singly, and as humble suppliants, yet they in effect conquered the conquerors. They inundated all Italy. The majesty of the ancient Romans was obscured, overwhelmed, and utterly lost in an innumerable swarm of foreigners. This evil came on by slow and imperceptible degrees; but was AT LAST IRRESISTIBLE AND FATAL. These were the persons generally employed in the civil wars. A multitude made up of such people IS ALWAYS FICKLE, INFLAMMATORY, OUTRAGEOUS, UNGRATEFUL, VINDICTIVE, and burning with ambition to level all distinctions.

Though

"It is not a common case that the most valuable members of society emigrate. many worthy characters are found in so great an emigration as has been to this country, yet, for the most part, they are the poor, distressed, overwhelmed with calamities, discontented, oppressed by the tyranny of their governments sometimes, but more commonly by their own VICES OR IMPRUDENCE.

"THE PEOPLE OF EVERY COUNTRY ARE THE MOST SUITABLE TO GOVERN

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THEIR OWN COUNTRY. Could Pitt and Fox be restored to life, they would not make good legislators for America. The frame of our government is probably as faultless as can be expected in this world. Its ultimate success, then, must depend upon its being wisely administered. Relative to that article, our security lies in our elections. As in our form of govern: ment, the right of suffrage is among the most important of civil rights, it should not only be preserved inviolate, but it should be guarded with the severest caution. Foreigners who arrive in this country, seldom come with an expectation of becoming legislators here. Their confidence in our government probably brought them hither, where they ought not to hope for more than complete security of life, liberty, and property. More than such security would

in the end work injury to themselves.

"The republic of Athens guarded all the avenues to citizenship with great strictness. With them foreigners could only become citizens in their great grand-children. Their policy in this respect seemed not only safe, but necessary Their State and population were so small, that could foreigners have obtained admittance, they would soon have outnumbered them. It is as dangerous to be outwitted as outnumbered, and it would be the true policy of the United States to ADMIT NO FOREIGNERS EVER TO THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. No person should hereafter become a citizen, but by being BORN WITHIN THE UNITED STATES.

"Let foreigners find in this country an asylum

of rest, an escape from oppression. Here let them buy, and build, and plant; let them spread and flourish, pursuing happiness in every mode of life which enterprise can suggest, or reason justify; but let them be exonerated from the toils of government. We do not need their hands to steady the Ark. If we make good laws, they will share the benefit; if bad ones, the blame will not be theirs. Let their children, born among us, become CITIZENS BY BIRTHRIGHT."

Making a grand total of 267,829 !

During the same period, upwards of 16,000 arrived at the port of Philadelphia; and we may safely estimate that at least half a million will reach our shores at the various ports of the Union, from Europe, during the current year.

The great majority of these immigrants are persons of crude intellect, and many of them are not only ignorant, but so bound in the superstitious chains of priestcraft, as to be utterly incapable of forming or entertaining a single idea beyond the pale of those mysterious and anti-republican instructions which were imbibed under European customs, and which will cling to their darkened minds for the remainder of their lives. Is it creditable to the intelligence of American lawgivers and the American people, that the right of suffrage is given to these imbecile creatures? Is not the exercise of the suffrage an act of intelligence in its very nature? And if so, can they exercise it who possess no intelligence? Is it not worse than folly; is it not criminal, thus to tamper with the rights of enlightened freemen, by neutralizing their political power through such degraded instruments? In a word, is it not a mockery thus to place the instrument of intellectuality in the hands of obtuse ignorance?

These men, so far as they are regarded in their individuality, as men, should be welcomed as refugees from want and oppression; and in that light they command our sympathies; but is it not possible to perform towards them all that humanity dictates, can we not feed them, clothe them, employ them and warm them with

THE BRIDE FROM THE GRAVE. SEE PAGE 230.