But I speak of that very large class still left in the business world who can not get the idea of the serf or the slave out of their system. We owe it to the workingmen of this country. we owe it to the dignity and strength of American citizenship. we owe it to the good order and peace of society and to the safety and stability of the Republic itselffor its citizenship is its lifeto close down the gates against those who are both unfit and unwilling to become American citizens in the full and wholesome meaning of that term. Whatever may be our obligations toward immigrants from the less prosperous countries. whatever may be our sentiments toward the oppressed. nevertheless our first duty is to keep this country and this Government a home for the honest. the industrious. the patriotic people whose only allegiance is here and who know the worth of the asylum to which they have fled. I would not discriminate against beliefs or religions. I would simply say here is a home for all who truly intend to make it a home.
Identified stereotypes
Immigrants are described as potentially unfit and unwilling to become American citizens.