built slowly but surely. But when there was thrown upon us a mass of
material wholly unfit for any political structure, and we were compelled
to pile it in hap-hazard, it was not long before the goodly edifice began
to show ugly seams, and the despotisms of Europe pointed to them with
scorn, and asked tauntingly how the doctrine of self-government worked.
They emptied their prisons and poor-houses on our shores, to be rid of a
dangerous element at home, and we, with a readiness that bordered on
insanity, not only took them into our bosoms, but invited them to aid us
in making our laws and electing our rulers. To ask men, the greater part
of whom could neither read nor write, who were ignorant of the first
principles of true civil liberty, who could be bought and sold like sheep
in the shambles, to assist us in founding a model republic, was a folly
without a parallel in the history of the world, and one of which we have
not yet begun to pay the full penalty. It was a cruel wrong, not only to
ourselves, but to the oppressed masses of Europe, who turned their longing
eyes on us for encouragement and the moral aid which our success would
give them in their struggles against despotism.

If the reason given for endowing this floating population--and dangerous
element under any circumstances--with the full rights of citizens had been
the true one, namely: to be just to them, and consistent with the great
doctrine of equality on which our Government rested, there might be some
little comfort in reflecting on the mistake we made. But this was false.
The right of suffrage was given them by a party in order to secure their
votes, and secure them, too, by appealing to those very passions that made
them dangerous to the republic, and which the interest of all alike
required should be removed instead of strengthened.

All the good the Democratic party has ever done this country will hardly
compensate for the evil of this one act.