Grover Cleveland: “I fail to appreciate the equities which entitle this claimant to further hearing.”

I transmit herewith, in reply to the resolution of the Senate of January 23, 1897, a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by copies of the correspondence therein requested, relating to the Nicaraguan Canal or the Maritime Canal…

It is not claimed, I believe, that the time has come for the further restriction of immigration on the ground that an excess of population overcrowds our land.

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.

The time is quite within recent memory when the same thing was said of immigrants who, with their descendants, are now numbered among our best citizens.