Our existing
laws have been in their administration an unimpressive and often
an unintelligible form. We accept the man as a citizen without any
knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship
without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of
American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we
may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for
citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. We
should not cease to be hospitable to immigration, but we should
cease to be careless as to the character of it. There are men of
all races, even the best, whose coming is necessarily a burden
upon our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should
be identified and excluded.
We have happily maintained a policy of avoiding all interference
with European affairs. We have been only interested spectators of
their contentions in diplomacy and in war, ready to use our
friendly offices to promote peace, but never obtruding our advice
and never attempting unfairly to coin the distresses of other
powers into commercial advantage to ourselves. We have a just
right to expect that our European policy will be the American
policy of European courts.
It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for our
peace and safety which all the great powers habitually observe and
enforce in matters affecting them that a shorter waterway between
our eastern and western seaboards should be dominated by any
European Government that we may confidently expect that such a
purpose will not be entertained by any friendly power.
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