Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
The report of the Attorney-General is under the law submitted directly to
Congress, but as the Department of Justice is one of the Executive
Departments some reference to the work done is appropriate here.
A vigorous and in the main an effective effort has been made to bring to
trial and punishment all violators of the law, but at the same time care
has been taken that frivolous and technical offenses should not be used to
swell the fees of officers or to harass well-disposed citizens. Especial
attention is called to the facts connected with the prosecution of
violations of the election laws and of offenses against United States
officers. The number of convictions secured, very many of them upon pleas
of guilty, will, it is hoped, have a salutary restraining influence. There
have been several cases where postmasters appointed by me have been
subjected to violent interference in the discharge of their official duties
and to persecutions and personal violence of the most extreme character.
Some of these cases have been dealt with through the Department of Justice,
and in some cases the post-offices have been abolished or suspended. I have
directed the Postmaster-General to pursue this course in all cases where
other efforts failed to secure for any postmaster not himself in fault an
opportunity peacefully to exercise the duties of his office. But such
action will not supplant the efforts of the Department of Justice to bring
the particular offenders to punishment.
The vacation by judicial decrees of fraudulent certificates of
naturalization, upon bills in equity filed by the Attorney-General in the
circuit court of the United States, is a new application of a familiar
equity jurisdiction. Nearly one hundred such decrees have been taken during
the year, the evidence disclosing that a very large number of fraudulent
certificates of naturalization have been issued. And in this connection I
beg to renew my recommendation that the laws be so amended as to require a
more full and searching inquiry into all the facts necessary to
naturalization before any certificates are granted. It certainly is not too
much to require that an application for American citizenship shall be heard
with as much care and recorded with as much formality as are given to cases
involving the pettiest property right.
At the last session I returned without my approval a bill entitled "An act
to prohibit bookmaking and pool selling in the District of Columbia," and
stated my objection to be that it did not prohibit but in fact licensed
what it purported to prohibit. An effort will be made under existing laws
to suppress this evil, though it is not certain that they will be found
adequate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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