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 these “nativists” when they robbed the old Britons of their homes and of those liberties which they were hired to defend.  What models of honesty, justice, and truth you are, most distinguished “nativists”!  The foreigner built your house, after having first procured the site or the lot; they furnish the house with all useful, and necessary, and ornamental furniture; and these very emigrants are yet necessary to keep the house in order; and you come and threaten to turn them out, telling them you can now dispense with their services, and that they are “furriners”!  And, what is more inconsistent and unjust still, by