The Struggle for Inclusion in the Civil War Era
A local letter to the editor challenges the anti-immigrant prejudice of the day, arguing that foreign-born citizens are just as essential to the Republic as native-born ones.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Through the P. S. Herald we learn that Victor Smith, Esq., has appointed a 'Scotchman' to a clerkship in the Custom-House. Some find in this act fresh motives to 'recup' the five bleeding wounds of the Northwest and threaten to appeal to the 'last argument to which kings resort.' Each and every foreigner, from whatever country he may come, does so under untold difficulties, which are readily and fully appreciated by the majority of your readers who have experienced the pangs attendant on leaving behind the pleasant associations of home. The equality of man before the law, as exemplified by the President, marks an era in our national affairs. Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans are such no longer, for on each and all falls the sublime mantle of the American citizen. The federal patronage in this Territory is excessive, yet we have to learn the name of even a subaltern of foreign birth in the civil service of the U. S. Government in our broad territory. In view of these facts, we think that this morbid antipathy against the 'Scotchman' aforesaid is small business on very small capital.
“Englishmen, Irishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans are such no longer, for on each and all falls the sublime mantle of the American citizen.”
This letter, signed by a Dr. 'Joe Lane,' reflects the complex immigrant experience of the mid-19th century, where ethnic identities were often weaponized by local politicians. Even then, the promise of the American dream was weighed against the reality of xenophobic gatekeeping in public office—a tension that persists in our modern political discourse around who truly 'belongs' in our civic institutions.
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