Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
"I now renew this recommendation, as the importance of the subject has
steadily grown since it was first submitted to you, and no time should
be lost in studying for ourselves the resources of this great field for
American trade and enterprise."
The importance of securing proper information and data with a view to
the enlargement of our trade with Asia is undiminished. Our consular
representatives in China have strongly urged a place for permanent
display of American products in some prominent trade center of that
Empire, under Government control and management, as an effective means
of advancing our export trade therein. I call the attention of the
Congress to the desirability of carrying out these suggestions.
In dealing with the questions of immigration and naturalization it is
indispensable to keep certain facts ever before the minds of those who
share in enacting the laws. First and foremost, let us remember that
the question of being a good American has nothing whatever to do with a
man's birthplace any more than it has to do with his creed. In every
generation from the time this Government was founded men of foreign
birth have stood in the very foremost rank of good citizenship, and
that not merely in one but in every field of American activity; while
to try to draw a distinction between the man whose parents came to this
country and the man whose ancestors came to it several generations back
is a mere absurdity. Good Americanism is a matter of heart, of
conscience, of lofty aspiration, of sound common sense, but not of
birthplace or of creed. The medal of honor, the highest prize to be won
by those who serve in the Army and the Navy of the United States
decorates men born here, and it also decorates men born in Great
Britain and Ireland, in Germany, in Scandinavia, in France, and
doubtless in other countries also. In the field of statesmanship, in
the field of business, in the field of philanthropic endeavor, it is
equally true that among the men of whom we are most proud as Americans
no distinction whatever can be drawn between those who themselves or
whose parents came over in sailing ship or steamer from across the
water and those whose ancestors stepped ashore into the wooded
wilderness at Plymouth or at the mouth of the Hudson, the Delaware, or
the James nearly three centuries ago. No fellow-citizen of ours is
entitled to any peculiar regard because of the way in which he worships
his Maker, or because of the birthplace of himself or his parents, nor
should he be in any way discriminated against therefor. Each must stand
on his worth as a man and each is entitled to be judged solely thereby.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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