Article V Blog ^ | February 1st 2017 | Rodney Dodsworth
Amidst the manufactured angst over President Trump’s enforcement of immigration law, I recalled a few passages from
Locke in America, by Jerome Huyler. As opposed to today’s social justice nonsense, which demands the acceptance of any and all foreigners, including barbarians intent on our destruction, immigrants to our shores in the latter-18th century had different aspirations. From Huyler:
No sooner does a European arrive, no matter of what condition, than his eyes are opened upon the fair prospects . . . Has he any particular talent or industry? He exerts it in order to procure a livelihood, and it succeeds. Is he a merchant? The avenues of trade are infinite. Is he eminent in any respect? He will be employed and respected. Does he love a country life? Pleasant farms present themselves. Is he a laborer, sober and industrious? He need not go many miles, nor receive many informations before he will be hired, (and) well fed at the table of his employer . . . Does he want uncultivated land? Thousands of acres present themselves . . . Whatever be his talents or inclinations, if they are moderate, he may satisfy them.
He no sooner breathes our air than he forms schemes and embarks in designs he never would have thought of in his own country . . . He begins to feel the effects of a sort of resurrection. Hitherto he had not lived, simply vegetated. He now feels himself a man because he is treated as such . . . Judge what an alteration there must arise in the mind and thought of this man. He begins to forget his former servitude and dependence. His heart involuntarily swells and glows. If he is a good man, . . .
