Poking through the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln yesterday, I came across this entry from 1844. There had been riots in Philadelphia against immigrants, apparently directed particularly against Catholics so one assumes Germans and Irishmen were particular targets. At a Whig meeting in Springfield, IL Lincoln joined his fellow Whigs in voting for the following resolutions:
Resolved, That in admitting the foreigner to the rights of citizenship, he should be put to some reasonable test of his fidelity to our country and its institutions; and that he should first dwell among us a reasonable time to become generally acquainted with the nature of those institutions; and that, consistent with these requisites, naturalization laws, should be so framed, as to render admission to citizenship under them, as convenient, cheap, and expeditious as possible.
Resolved, That we will now, and at all times, oppose as best we may, all attempts to either destroy the naturalization laws or to so alter them, as to render admission under them, less convenient, less cheap, or less expeditious than it now is.
Resolved, That the guarantee of the rights of conscience, as found in our Constitution, is most sacred and inviolable, and one that belongs no less to the Catholic, than to the Protestant; and that all attempts to abridge or interfere with these rights, either of Catholic or Protestant, directly or indirectly, have our decided disapprobation, and shall ever have our most effective opposition.
Does this not sound like a fine approach to immigration? We welcome all comers, but we want to make sure you accept certain basic tenets of our regime. Naturalization should make certain demands of those seeking to become citizens, but those demands should be reasonable and naturalization should be expeditious.
Whigs had to go out of their way to show their concern for immigrants as to the extent there was anti-immigrant feelings in the population in the 1840s, it was housed in the Whig party. Desiring immigrant votes, Whigs had to soften their image as anti-immigrant. Republicans today have a similar problem. Although the party is split on immigration (libertarian conservatives tend to be positively giddy about immigration while other conservatives worry about illegal immigration and assimilation even of legals), to the extent there is a nativism alive in America today, it largely exists in the Republican party. These Whig resolutions from Illinois seem like a sound policy that Republicans should advocate as it sets up definite standards for naturalization while recognizing the rights of the immigrant.
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