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“But in giving the right of suffrage to all free male citizens twenty-one years of age, it is not given to every man, because all men of that age are not citizens. Persons born in foreign countries and residing here are aliens, and are not entitled to the political rights of persons born in this country. They are presumed to have too little knowledge of our government, and to feel too little interest in public affairs on their first coming hither, to be duly qualified for the exercise of political power. Laws, however, have been enacted for naturalizing aliens after they shall have resided here long enough to become acquainted with and attached to our government.“—The Government Class Book, Andrew Yong, Chapter VI, Sec. 5 (PDF File)
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“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
“This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rankness and is truly their worst enemy.
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.“—George Washington, Farewell Address*
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