Grover Cleveland: “the return of these flags is not authorized by existing law nor justified as an executive act”

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, covering the report of the joint commission on behalf of the United States and Great Britain, dated December 31, 1896, relative to the preservation of the fisheries in waters…

This requirement proceeds upon the assumption that the foreign relatives coming here are in every case, by reason of poverty, liable to become a public charge unless the immigrant is capable of their support.

A departure from this rule, even in aid of cases of hardship, can not fail to establish precedents inviting the abandonment of reasonable and justifiable pension theories.

In my opinion, it is infinitely more safe to admit a hundred thousand immigrants who, though unable to read and write, seek among us only a home and opportunity to work than to admit one of those unruly agitators and enemies of…