History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present TimeWiernik, Peter
History
History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present Time
Wiernik, Peter
Jews -- America -- History; Jews -- United States -- History
“The foregoing considerations, whilst pertinent to the
examination of the purpose and scope of a naturalization treaty,
have a larger aim. It behooves the State to scrutinize most
jealously the character of the immigration from a foreign land,
and, if it be obnoxious to objection, to examine the causes
which render it so. Should those causes originate in the act of
another sovereign State, to the detriment of its neighbors, it
is the prerogative of an injured State to point out the evil and
to make remonstrance; for with nations, as with individuals, the
social law holds good that the right of each is bounded by the
right of the neighbor.
“The condition of a large class of the inhabitants of Roumania
has for many years been a source of grave concern to the United
States. I refer to the Roumanian Jews, numbering some 400,000.
Long ago, while the Danubian principalities labored under
oppressive conditions which only war and a general action of
the European powers sufficed to end, the persecution of the
indigenous Jews under Turkish rule called forth in 1872 the
strong remonstrance of the United States. The Treaty of Berlin
was hailed as a cure for the wrong, in view of the express
provisions of its forty-fourth article, prescribing that in
Roumania the difference of religious creed and confessions shall
not be alleged against any person as a ground for exclusion or
incapacity in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil and
political rights, admission to public employments, functions,
and honors, or the exercise of the various professions and
industries in any locality whatsoever, and stipulating freedom
in the exercise of all forms of worship to Roumanian dependents
and foreigners alike, as well as guaranteeing that all
foreigners in Roumania shall be treated without distinction of
creed, on a footing of perfect equality.
“With the lapse of time these just prescriptions have been
rendered nugatory in great part, as regards the native Jews, by
the legislation and municipal regulations of Roumania. Starting
from the arbitrary and controvertible premises that the native
Jews of Roumania domiciled there for centuries are ‘aliens not
subject to foreign protection,’ the ability of the Jew to earn
even the scanty means of existence that suffice for a frugal
race has been constricted by degrees, until every opportunity
to win a livelihood is denied; and until the helpless poverty
of the Jew has constrained an exodus of such proportions as to
cause general concern.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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