“In the recommendation to admit indiscriminately foreign emigrants of every description to the privileges of American citizens on their first entrance into our country, there is an attempt to break down every pale which has been erected for the preservation of a national spirit and a national character; and to let in the most powerful means of perverting and corrupting both the one and the other.”

I'm not quite sure how to rate this comment. What is the "national spirit" and National "character" that is referenced? Immigrants bring with them a certain level of their culture when going to a new land which is a powerful means of change — an obvious dah Is that a good thing or a bad thing? If it means perverting and corrupting an existing system that promotes and protects love of your fellow man, charity towards all, nobility of the specie, individual sovereignty, inalienable rights, liberty, the laws of nature and of nature's God (gravity, physics, geometry, life, property, freedom of religion) it is a bad thing and should be treated as criminal when the rights or liberty of others are infringed upon.