and influence of the then administration, was too powerful to be resisted. Mr. Clay had been too ardent a democrat to suit the times and he declined to allow his name to be used in opposition to the Congressional caucus, which had decided, by a small majority, in favor of Mr. Monroe. Mr. Clay and Mr. Gallatin were both sterling democrats of the Jefferson school, although they subsequently became estranged from the party, the cause of which is too well known to require comment. When the nation was agitated with the Cuba question and the question of neutral rights, growing out of the coalition between France and England, pretending an extension of neutral rights and hostility to privateering, Mr. Barker made the following publication in a New Orleans paper: "PRIVATEERING. "When a boy, my uncle told me not to go fishing where I could not get a glorious nibble, much less a bite. Queen Victoria seems to have profited by the same admonition; hence the significant words in her declaration of war against Russia: "It is not the present intention of her majesty to issue letters of marque for the commissioning of privateers.' "A useless expense it would be to send out privateers against Russia, when she has no foreign commerce, and when the allied powers proclaim the blockade of the Baltic and Black sea; consequently, when the ice disappears, the blockade will not allow bait enough to escape to attract a glorious nibble, much less an electrifying bite. Hence this contrivance to induce all sailors to enter on board national ships. Well may the English and French say for the present privateering will not be allowed, in the hope of cajoling the United States into such an arrangement. "The only arrangement the United States will make is that private property shall be respected, at sea and on shore, during war the same as during peace. Anything short of this would go to allowing the large fleets of the enemy to annihilate our commerce, without a corresponding effect from our privateers on their commerce. What we insist on is the right of firing our pistols so long as they fire their big guns. "In case we should be drawn into war, selfpreservation will force on us the necessity of exerting all the power which God and the arts have conferred on us to do mischief to the matter. She is at peace with all the world; knows her duties to the different belligerents; and, while she scrupulously performs those duties, she will not degrade herself by an agreement not to sin. "Those good souls are now prating about the immorality of privateering'; they should remember that their national ships of war stole flour from the quakers at Alexandria, after having applied fire and fagot to the legislative hall and literary institutions, and to the President's house at Washington-the unfortified city. "In the battle of trying which can do the other the most harm, our main reliance will be on the enterprize, intrepidity, and powers of our brave tars, in which traits of character they excel those of all other nations. Well may the British and their allies wish us to abandon the use of that, the most powerful engine we have, to make the war tell. "But the friends of good morals preach as much as they please against war in all its forms; without any of this hypocritical whining about any particular branch or form of war, we admit that it is all wrong, and should be avoided whenever it can be done consistently with national honor. "Our alleged appetite for Cuba seems to attract much attention in Britain. Although fond of sweet things, we do not want Cuba; we have already more sugar land than we can make profitable. What we do want is to see the oppressed creoles of that beautiful island rise in their might and break the chains imposed on them by their despotic rulers. All that is required to enable them to effect so holy a purpose is the repeal, on our part, of what are called the neutral laws-not an increase of our navy. Relieve the people of all apprehension of government interference, and remove all penalties, and they will at once do the needful towards aiding the Cubans to establish and maintain their independence. "NESTOR." ADOPTED CITIZENS. Great efforts had always been made by the party in opposition to the democratic administration of the general government to induce adopted citizens to vote their ticket; one of the means resorted to by a few thoughtless electioneers was, to induce a judge at Lafayette, of their own party, to issue naturalization papers to persons not duly qualified; the opposing party discovering this, some of their electioneers, equally thoughtless, used this judge in the same way in favor of their party. This thing becoming public produced a great excitement, and became the subject of legislative investigation. At this time Mr. Barker had been appointed one of the inspectors of the pending election. The selection of inspectors was vested in the opposition party, consequently two-thirds were of their political faith. They held a caucus and resolved to reject, without investigation, the votes of all who had been naturalized by the said judge; he had been many years in office, and issued a large number of legitimate certificates of naturalization. Mr. Barker considering such indiscriminate rejection would be a violation of his oath, an invasion of the vested rights of many citizens, notified the court from whom he received his appointment that he could not be a party to the carrying out of this manifest injustice, and asked the appointment of another in his place; the request was not granted. The election came on in the rotunda of the St. Charles Hotel. It was filled to overflowing. On the presentation of naturalization papers from the judge in question, it was proposed to reject them without investigation. This was resisted by Mr. Barker, who insisted that the case should remain under consideration the whole day and no other vote received until it was decided, providing the other inspectors adhered to the objectionable caucus resolution; this produced very great excitement among those attending the polls. Violent speeches were made threatening personal violence. Mr. Barker remained calm and firm in his purpose. The matter was compromised by the adoption of a separate box in which to deposit ballots of all persons who had been naturalized by the said judge, that they might be subsequently investigated by competent authority, after which the election was conducted with great harmony. The majority being greater than could be controlled by these votes, no investigation took place. Mr. Barker never has taken part in sectarianism of any kind; he has been admonished by the history of the persecution of the quakers and other sects to be aware of how he en couraged the feeling that seems to be growing up against the Roman Catholics; there are good and bad in all societies; they should be allowed to work out their own salvation in their own way and not pin their faith to the sleeve of another. In the affairs of every individual religion is his republic, which he should be allowed to govern in his own way; it is a secret converse between him and his creator, and the most acceptable worship we can perform is in our closets, in secret devotion, removed from human observation. All we have to do is to keep our hearts clean and continually in a state of prayer; observe this every one according to the forms of his own religion without inquisitorial interference. Those who inconsiderately embark in the present crusade against foreigners and Catholics ought to remember that it may be their turn next to fall under the influence of fanaticism or party spirit. Nothing is more uncertain or unstable than political or public favor; and Mr. Barker would suggest to those who are crying out loudly against foreigners to consider how far we, as a nation, are indebted to them for our prosperity and present condition. Those from every clime have been eminently useful; the Irish were particularly so in the revolutionary war. An account of the services of some of those from the Emerald Isle will be found in the history of the Irish settlers of North America, from which the following is taken: [From the History of the Irish Settlers in North America.] "The first blow struck for American independence was by an Irishman. News having reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that the export of gunpowder into America was 'proclaimed,' Major John Sullivan and John Langdon, Irishmen, with a company of the townsmen, surprised the fort of Newcastle, took the captain and five men, carried off one hundred barrels of gunpowder, fifteen light cannon, and the entire of the small arms, all of which afterwards did effectual service at Bunker Hill. For this act Sullivan and Langdon were elected to the Continental Congress, which met in May 1775, and Sullivan was the same year appointed by that body one of the eight brigadiers general of the American army. "The following Irishmen commanded at the battle of Bunker Hill: Stark and Reed, both Hampshire militia, led on by Brigadier Genof Londonderry, Ireland, commanded the New eral Sullivan, Major Andrew McClary, whose great size and desperate valor made him peculiarly conspicuous, fell while crossing 'the Neck; eighteen others of Stark and Reed's command were killed, and 89 were wounded in the same eventful field. The contribution of the Irish settlement in New Hampshire, to the revolutionary forces, may be judged from the share of the small town of Bedford. "Colonel Daniel Moore, Major John Coffe. Captain Thomas McLaughlin, Lieutenant J, Patten and five sons, and 63 others, in all 72, many of whom lost their lives in the glorious "In Pennsylvania, where the Irish were more which enabled General Washington, by the beginning of September, to put his plans for the siege of Boston into execution. "The first commodore in the American navy was John Barry, a native of county Wexford, Ireland. He has been called by naval writers the father of the American navy.' The personal character of Commodore Barry was made of noble stuff. When Lord Howe tempted him by a vast bribe and an offer of a British ship of the line, he replied: 'He had devoted himself to the cause of his country, and not the value or command of the whole British fleet could seduce him from it." He never was ashamed of his native land, and, after the peace of Paris, paid a visit to the place of his birth, which fact is still remembered with gratitude in his native parish. When hailed by the British frigates in the West Indies, and asked the usual questions as to the ship and captain, he answered: "The United States ship Alliance, saucy Jack Barry, half Irishman, half Yankee-who are you?' "In 1778, Captain James McGee, (Irish,) while commanding 'in the service of the commonwealth,' was shipwrecked in Massachu setts bay, and seventy-two of his men lost. Two of the earliest prizes carried into the United States were captured by five brothers of Machias, named O'Brien, natives of Cork, two of whom, Jeremiah and John, afterwards held naval commissions. "On board the other ships of the new navy were several Irish officers of minor grades, some of whom afterwards rose to independent commands. Every one knows that Porter was of Irish descent, and McDonough of Irish birth. Under Commodore Barry, the most brilliant ornaments of the American navy were trained-such as Murray, Dale, Decatur, and Stewart-all of whom became conquerors and commanders. In the war of 1812, all Barry's pupils rose to eminent distinction. Colonel Fitzgerald, another Irish officer, was aid-decamp to General Washington. Of the ninetythree Philadelphia merchants who, in June, 1780, pledged their property to raise funds to supply the troops who were in a state of mutiny-and only for the extraordinary efforts of patriotism on the part of these merchants the army would have utterly fallen to piecestwenty of those merchants were of Irish origin, and subscribed nearly half a million of dollars. Charles Thompson, an Irishman, in 1774, was chosen secretary to the first Congress, and continued in that onerous office until 1789, when the formal adoption of the Constitution closed his functions. He wrote the Declaration of Independence from Jefferson's draft, and was the medium through which Franklin received his instructions, and Washington was informed of his election for the first President of the Union. He died on the 16th of August, 1824, within ten miles of Philadelphia. Mr. John Dunlap, a native of Strabane, Ireland, Would it be who, in 1771, issued the 'Pennsylvania our railroads; they fill the ranks of our army, Packet,' (the first daily paper published in and have greatly aided, by their labor, in enAmerica,) was printer to the convention in 1774, and to the first Congress, and was the riching our country. Are these boons to be first who printed the Declaration of Independ- considered as nothing worth? ence. That august document, copied by fair or just to deny to them the fulfillment of Charles Thompson, was also first read to the the conditions on which they left their homes people, from the centre window of the hall in and became willing to inhabit a foreign land which Congress first met by Colonel John Nixon, an Irishman. In 1815, Alderman John among strangers, and to encounter the hazards Binns, of Philadelphia, another Irishman, pub- of our climate? Would it be wise to have lished the document for the first time, with a hundreds of thousands of hardy, industrious, fac simile of the signers' signatures. enterprising men scattered over the whole nation in a state of proscription, who could be brought into action by one common principle, without any arrangement or co-operation, and who, to free themselves from these invidious marks of distinction, would be ready on the sounding of a single word, to give effect to a principle adverse to the common good? Far better will it be to consider all of the same family and all laboring for the same object. "The Declaration of Independence was signed by fifty-six names, of whom nine were of Irish origin. Mathew Thornton, born in Ireland, 1714, signed for New Hampshire; James Smith, born in Ireland, 1713, signed for Pennsylvania; George Taylor, for same State, born in Ireland, 1716; George Reade, signed for Delaware, he was born of Irish parents. It was he who answered the British tempter-'I am a poor man, but, poor as I am, the King of England is not able to buy me.' Charles Carroll, of Carrolton, was of Irish descent, and very wealthy; Thomas Lynch, for South Carolina, of Irish descent, as was also Thomas McKean, who signed for Pennsylvania, and Edward Rutledge, for South Carolina." General Lafayette, of France, De Kalb, of Germany, Kosciusko, of Poland, Pulaski and others, also fought valiantly in the war of our independence. The reader should think of this, and allow justice to triumph over all other considerations. Adopted citizens are generally fired with democracy, and vote the republican ticket. This is their great offence. Should they embrace the opposite party, and support their candidates with half the zeal they do the other, we should not hear a word of this opposition, except where it might be fostered by the antirepublican spirit of sectarian bigotry. As to their participating in office with natives after they become citizens, there does not seem any good reason for denying to men who have to fight for the country, to pay taxes, to serve as jurors and as firemen equally with the natives, a participation in this boon. It is unfortunate that a love of office too generally pervades the human breast, although it damages all those who take office. Foreigners flying from European oppression are, by our Constitution, wisely framed by the founders of our liberty, invited to this happy land. Their children intermarry with ours, their bones are to bleach the same fields with ours. They have dug our canals, constructed POLITICAL PARTIES. The New York Herald suggests that a brief sketch of the various political parties of the United States may not be uninteresting, particularly to those whose recollections do not extend beyond the formation of the present national parties, which have divided the people of the United States for the last twenty years. "During the American revolution the only political parties known were those of whigs and tories-the former, comprising the great mass of the people, being favorable to the revolution; and the latter, few in number, calling themselves loyalists, were opposed to throwing off the yoke of the British government. After the war the tories mingled with the parties that were afterwards formed, some of them joining the federalists, and others becoming part of the republican or democratic party. The federal party arose on the formation of the Constitution of the United States by a convention of delegates at Philadelphia, in 1787. The adoption of the Constitution by the several States, in conventions of delegates called for that purpose, was carried, after severe contests, in some of the States, and nearly unanimously in others. The friends of the Constitution assumed the name of federalists, while its opponents were called anti-federalists; and that was the state of parties when the Constitution went into operation, in 1789. The national government, although one of deliberate consent, encountered from its formation a powerHamilton were at the head of the friends of ful opposition. Washington, John Adams, and the Constitution when the first administration was formed. In the first Congress there was a considerable number of members who had opposed the adoption of the Constitution by their respective States. In addition to these there were some members who had supported the Constitution in the national and State conventions, but now, from various causes-principally, however, from a desire to sustain themselves in their own States or districts, where the Constitution was deemed unpopularjoined the opposition to the administration of Washington. Among these may be mentioned Mr. Madison, of Virginia; Mr. Langdon, of New Hampshire; Doctor Williamson, of North Carolina; Mr. Baldwin, of Georgia, and others. Thus was formed what was afterwards called the republican party, the name of anti-federalists being disavowed by those who declared themselves friendly to the Constitution. It should be noticed that this republican party was formed before Mr. Jefferson returned from France. The first session of the first Congress, which was held at New York, occupied nearly six months-from the early part of April to the 29th of September, 1789. Mr. Jefferson returned from a mission to France in November, 1789, and assumed the duties of Secretary of State in March, 1790, while the first Congress was holding its second session at New York, parties having been already formed at the previous session, and the opposition called republican, acting under the leadership of Mr. Madison. With this opposition party Mr. Jefferson immediately sympathized, from his dis like to the strong measures, tending to consolidation, recommended by Washington, Hamilton, and other leaders of the federal party. Mr. Jefferson did not hesitate to call the federal leaders monarchists, and hence acknowledged the propriety of denominating his own political friends the opponents of Washington's administration-republicans. "In the first Congress parties were nearly equally divided. The opposition elected John Langdon, of New Hampshire, President pro tempore of the Senate, and Frederick A. Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, Speaker of the House of Representatives; but they were chosen in the first part of the first session, when party lines were not strictly drawn. The Washing ton administration were enabled to carry all the important measures which they brought forward through both Houses of Congress. "The federalists continued to call the opponents anti-federalists, by which they meant enemies to the Constitution, until the year 1793, when citizen Genet arrived in this country, as the ambassador from the French republic. The opposition to the administration of Washington warmly sympathized with the French republicans, and received Genet with open arms, although he sought to involve the United States in a war with Great Britain, and issued commissions to vessels of war to sail from American ports and cruise against the enemies of France. It appears to have been expected in France that the United States would engage on its side from treaty stipulations or inclination, against England. Washington and his cabinet were of opinion that this country was not bound to take part in a war begun by France; and in April, 1793, the celebrated proclamation of neutrality by President Washington was issued, which has been the guide of the nation ever since in affairs with foreign nations. The "M. Genet was said to have introduced into this country the idea of 'democratic societies,' which were first formed in the United States about this time, in imitation of the Jacobin clubs in Paris. After the fall of Robespierre, these clubs or secret societies fell into disrepute both in France and America. From this time the federalists stigmatized their political opponents as 'Democrats,' but they always refused to acknowledge the name, and called themselves 'Republicans,' and their opponents 'Tories,' 'Monarchists,' or 'Aristocrats,' according to circumstances. Some of the violent federalists called their opponents 'Jacobins,' but the name never grew into general use. It is to be observed that Mr. Jefferson, in his writings, never used the name of 'democrat' as applied to his political friends, but uniformly calls them 'Republicans.' federalists, however, always called them, in derision or otherwise, 'Democrats,' and these terms of 'Federalists,' 'Republicans,' and 'Democrats' continued in use until after the close of the war with Great Britain in 1815, and the election of Mr. Monroe to the presi dency in 1816, when a revolution of the old parties generally took place, and what was called 'the era of good feelings' took place, and continued until the presidential election in 1824. We must here allude to the formation of various personal parties connected with the politics in several of the States after the election of Jefferson to the presidency in 1801. Parties arose in various States where the republican or democratic party were in the majority, but did not assume much importance anywhere except in the State of New York. In this State, Colonel Aaron Burr was the acknowledged leader of the republican party. In consequence of an equal vote between him and Jefferson, it became the duty of the House of Representatives in Congress, as the Constitution then stood, to decide which of the two republican candidates should be President. The federalists supported Burr, and the republicans voted for Jefferson; and, after a protracted contest, Jefferson was chosen President, and Burr, of course, was declared Vice President. This affair caused a division in the republican party of New York. George Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Judge Spencer, Morgan Lewis, the Liv ingstons, and other leading republicans entering the lists against the Vice President (Burr) and his friends. Parties were then called Clintonians' and 'Burrites;' and Burr, attempting to run for governor against Morgan |