The foreign element, especially the Irish, admired him be-
cause, when a United States senator, he had urged and se-
cured a reduction of the period of naturalisation from four-
teen years to five; and because he relieved the political and
financial distress of their countrymen, by aiding the repeal
of the alien and sedition laws. For a score of years, America
had invited to its shores every fugitive from British persecu-
tion. But the heroes of 'Ninety-eight, who had escaped the
gibbet, and successfully made their way to this country
through the cordon of English frigates, were welcomed with
laws even more offensive than the coercion acts which they
had left behind. The last rebellious uprising to occur in Ire-
land under the Georges, had sent Thomas Addis Emmet,
brother of the famous and unfortunate Irish patriot, a
fugitive to the land of larger liberty. To receive this brother
with laws that might send him back to death, was to despise
the national sentiment of Irishmen; and the men, Clin-
ton declared, who had been indisposed or unable to
take account of the force of a national sentiment,



184 DeWITT CLINTON AND TAMMANY [Chap. xn.
were not and never could be fit to carry on the great work
of government.
