190 NATIVISM. [CHAP. XIII. 



sons of Erin, or the noble sons of Germany, they are the dupes 

 and tools of our demagogues.&quot; He then told me that in the last 

 presidential election he had been an inspector, and had rejected 

 many fraudulent votes of newly arrived emigrants, brought to the 

 poll without letters of naturalization, and he had no doubt that 

 some other inspectors had been less scrupulous when the voters 

 were of their own political party. &quot; But for the foreign vote,&quot; 

 he affirmed, &quot; Clay would have been elected.&quot; &quot; Have you then 

 joined the native American party ?&quot; &quot; No ; because, by sepa 

 rating from the Whigs, they have weakened the good cause, and 

 nativism being chiefly anti-Irish, too often degenerates into relig 

 ious bigotry , or into a mere anti-popery faction.&quot; 



