sion of the term
of residence required for naturalization. Some say make the term
twenty-one years. What is the term now? Five years. I read from
"Revised Statutes," section 2165 and 2174, that a person applying for
citizenship must be a resident of the United States at least five
years, and one year within the State or Territory wherein the
application is made, and that during that term (I wish I had all the
judges here to-day) and that during that term he is to give
satisfactory assurance to the court that he has behaved as a man of
good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution
of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and
happiness of the same. "A man of good moral character!" what a sublime
utterance, and how infinite. I would be glad to know what judge takes
the pains, when a hundred of these foreigners apply just on the eve of
the election, that they may qualify themselves to vote, what judge
inquires whether they are men of good moral character? Yet such is the
provision of the law of the land. We have assumed the authority to
limit suffrage. We say that women shall not vote, which is a great
mistake. [Sensation.] You are not up to that. [Laughter.] My wife is
as competent to vote as I. On all moral questions, especially the
temperance question, I would trust the women ten times before I would
the men. It is an abuse of the very genius of our Government to
proscribe the Chinese. We say the negro may vote because his skin is
black. We say the Dutchman, the Irishman, the Italian may vote,
because his skin ought to be white, but the Chinese can not vote
because his skin is yellow. The word "white" is used in the statute of
limitation. We say to the young American who graduates with the
highest honors at eighteen, you must wait three years longer before
you can stand with the Irishman with his brogans and the Teuton with
his lager and vote for the rulers of your native land. I would have
the term of naturalization extended, some say till the foreigner has
been here twenty-one years. Extend the term to ten years, fifteen
years. Say to all persons who come to this country from foreign lands,
that after 1890 they shall remain here fifteen years to become
indoctrinated in our free institutions, learn the seven attributes of
the American citizen, and then be prepared to love America for
America's sake. [Applause.]

Thus protected we can look forward to a glorious future, and the eye