Grover Cleveland: “I should consider myself, in favor of his widow, bound by the act of the Pension Bureau in allowing him a pension.”

A careful examination of this bill has convinced me that for the reasons given and others not specifically stated its provisions are unnecessarily harsh and oppressive.

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…

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.

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.