is
antecedent life. Do not, therefore, become jealous of his purer and more
ardent love for this republic, the inheritance of the oppressed; but,
instead of envying his growing influence in this country of his choice
and adoption, receive him with open arms, and make him a participator
with yourselves in the good things which you and your fathers have
enjoyed for ages, and your claims to which are grounded on no better
title than that of the emigrant; and which title is founded on the
adventitious discovery of this continent by a Catholic and a foreigner,
and on oppressions undergone by your fathers in their native lands.
Wonder not, then, that the Irish Catholic is the best lover of this
country, and that he feels himself at home here; for his sufferings in
the cause of liberty and of conscience have been such as to give him the
strongest title deed to the liberties and privileges, if not to the
enjoyments and comforts, of this favored land. Every prejudice is
unreasonable, but none more irrational than that which would throw
obstacles in the way of the gallant emigrant towards procuring a home
and a sanctuary in this land of refuge and freedom.

The land is wild and uncultivated, with its womb groaning under the
burden of plenty and fertility that have been dormant for ages upon
ages, and that must remain so for ages to come, unless the thrifty hand
of husbandry assist them into birth; and where are we to find, or when
will the "nativists" be able to procure, as busy hands and stalwart
arms, sufficiently numerous to bring into cultivation the millions of
acres within the extent of our country, if the emigrant and foreigner
are to be discouraged, and the mad clamor of the "nativists" is to
prevail? It was not all native blood that was spilled in the
establishment of the republic. It was not native genius alone that
created the constitution, laws, and institutions of our country. It was
not "natives," of course, that first discovered, settled, or established
the several states that form the grand Union. It was by emigrants, by
"furriners," that all these things were done. What, therefore, can be
more ungrateful, if not more unjust, in the "nativists," than to attempt
to rob the poor emigrant of the rewards of his labor and merit, in order
that they may enjoy all the fruit of the latter's toil? This is the
height of ingratitude and injustice; a far more glaring instance of both
than that of the _reputed_ forefathers of t