Teddy Roosevelt: “I authorized and directed Secretary Metcalf to state that if there was failure to protect persons and property, then the…”

“I authorized and directed Secretary Metcalf to state that if there was failure to protect persons and property, then the entire power of the Federal Government within the limits of the Constitution would be used promptly and vigorously to enforce the observance of our treaty, the supreme law of the land, which treaty guaranteed to Japanese residents everywhere in the Union full and perfect protection for their persons and property; and to this end everything in my power would be done, and all the forces of the United States, both civil and military, which I could lawfully employ, would be employed.”