I question the efficacy of this restriction. It would seem to me that it would have been the wiser policy. acknowledging the sovereign right of every nation to admit or exclude that class of population which would benefit or injure it. that in the treatymaking power there should be ample means of limiting or enlarging the admission of people of different countries into our country. We may say that we will not admit immigrants. persons coming here for a permanent residence. We may say that we will exclude them from coming into the country at all We will let every man who can read and write come for a temporary sojourn. but we will not allow him. if he cannot read and write. even to touch our soil. In the treatymaking power we have the means of suspending all intercourse with foreign countries. or of opening or continuing immigration or prohibiting it. It seems to me that this is a serious defect. and that it will be wiser to establish some system of treaty stipulation by which we can exclude objectionable people from our shores. rather than by an act of Congress. which provides a restriction including all the sturdy laborers who may come from other countries. however good their character may be. The question of suffrage or how far aliens should be admitted to the rights of suffrage and citizenship is an entirely different question.
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immigrants immigration