been abroad
are better able, perhaps, to make the comparison of our enjoyments and
our comforts than those who have always stayed at home. [Applause.] It
has been the fortune, I presume, of the majority here to compare the
life and the circumstances of the average people abroad with ours here.
We have here a country that affords room for all and room for every
enterprise. We have institutions which encourage every man who has
industry and ability to rise from the position in which he may find
himself to any position in the land. [Applause.] It is hardly worth my
while to dwell upon the subject, but there is one point which I notice
in the toast, that I would like to say a word about--"May those who
seek the blessings of its free institutions and the protection of its
flag remember the obligations they impose." I think there is a text that
my friend Mr. Beecher,[4] on the left, or my friend Dr. Newman,[5] on
the right, might well preach a long sermon upon. I shall say only a few
words.

We offer an asylum to every man of foreign birth who chooses to come
here and settle upon our soil; we make of him, after a few years'
residence only, a citizen endowed with all the rights that any of us
have, except perhaps the single one of being elected to the Presidency
of the United States. There is no other privilege that a native, no
matter what he has done for the country, has that the adopted citizen of
five years' standing has not got. [Applause.] I contend that that places
upon him an obligation which, I am sorry to say, many of them do not
seem to feel. [Applause,]

We have witnessed on many occasions here the foreign, the adopted,
citizen claiming many rights and privileges because he was an adopted
citizen. That is all wrong. Let him come here and enjoy all the
privileges that we enjoy, but let him fulfil all the obligations that we
are expected to fulfil. [Loud applause.] After he has adopted it, let
this be his country--a country that he will fight for, and die for, if
necessary. I am glad to say that the great majority of them do it, but
some of them who mingle in politics seem to bank largely on the fact
that they are adopted citizens; and that class I am opposed to as much
as I am opposed to many other things that I see are popular now.
[Applause.]

I know that other speakers will come forward, and when Mr. Beecher and
Dr. Newman speak, I hope they will say a few words on the text which I
read. [Applause.]